Newbie question - "Off Topic" on niche blog?

[PanthersFan76]

Hello!

New to the forums here and to affiliate marketing in general - I'm looking at starting a blog (my own domain name, hosting, etc.) - aimed at a pretty popular niche, but am also wanting to put other content in the blog as well, as I'm a pop culture nut and the blog's niche product is pop-cultureish. In other words, should every post relate in some way to the niche product, or do you think it's OK to be "diverse" in my posts to hopefully attract a larger audience?

Your thoughts?

Thanks much for the info in advance,

Eddie S.

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Eddie,

One thing to realize is that for the most part the way people will find you is through search engines. If the site is about pop culture and you write a post about golf it's not likely it would get ranked high enough that anyone would find it. Therefore it's not going to help widen your audience at all.

Plus it could be a turn off to your visitors who are looking for info about pop culture. Now if it's off topic a little but related and/or especially if it's something that your visitors would most likely be interested in, then it's probably OK.

But search engines LOVE consistency. If your domain name is about pop culture and the site is about pop culture and the posts are related to pop culture then you'll get ranked higher for your main keywords and related keywords.

Example I can pretty easily get ranked in the top 5 for all but the most competitive affiliate related KW. Even for SEO and blogging KW I get pretty high, because it's related and I write a lot about those topics too.

If I wrote an article about golf it would be on page 2,385 in Google, therefore no one would ever see it.

Does that make sense?

[Anomaly]

Hi Eddie,

I totally agree with what Linda has said ...

May I suggest, why not setup two blogs, one for your affiliate stuff and one for your other content (if it can all be grouped into some sort of group). Maybe set it up for adsense or something ...

the reason i suggest this is because along with my affiliate blogs i setup a blog on a topic i was interested in, not really for profit. And i learnt a lot of my blogging skills through that, because sometimes i think it's great to learn through having a fun element, you know, not always having to think "will it make me money?".

my 2c anyway

[genuwine4532]

I think if it's a sub topic closely related to the main topic then it is okay, imagine you were the reader of this blog, would this interest you in respect to the rest of the blog focus?

Also, on my blog, I have written a couple of times about unrelated things, the blog has nothing to do with politics but I wrote about the last election, because it touched on a real personal issue for me and it was something I was passionate about and my readers were so touched that it started a long discussion in comments so sometimes it is okay to diverse, just NOT all the time.

I think sometimes posting about things that are important to you, even if a bit off topic sets up a personal touch with your readers and this, in my experience gets a big reaction, people want to get to know you the blogger and things you love, like being a pop culture nut, is one aspect of you. Make sense?