WHAT NICHE ARE YOU ANYWAY?

It's really easy in the blogosphere to lose sight of your worth as a blogger. I certainly did, I took quite a big knock a few months back when an email landed in my inbox and told me something that I'm sure had they known the power behind the words, probably wouldn't have said it. 'You're not really part of any niche, maybe you should work on that'. It felt stabby and a little back handed, even though I know deep down the words were meant as constructive criticism, I just saw criticism, which if I'm totally honest isn't something I've had to deal with too many times as a blogger. I know that I'm in a minority and I should take it on the chin, but I let it affect me, I let myself feel completely defined by these words, words that were essentially just the opinion of a stranger.

I know Babies and Beauty isn't geared at one angle of life, I'm not constantly discussing parenting nor do I focus solely on travel. But I think you can quite safely assume that I'm not going to be writing recipe posts or reviewing a new phone. That isn't me, and while I think the comment had validity, I now see the much bigger picture. I don't fit into a common niche, I'm not all of one and nothing of any other - something I think many bloggers will fit into. Would I class myself as a parent blogger? It's ambiguous. If I constantly streamed out post after post on the boys it would be boring, not only for you to read but for me to write, while the boys are my life and a huge part of it, I am someone without them, someone with interests of my own that sometimes, I enjoy to discuss. Travel has recently become a big topic for me, but I wouldn't really categorise myself as a travel blogger either. When winter arrives our travels are a bit more limited to our county and I can't afford to churn out holidays and trips away for the purpose of content, it would be forced and I'd be bankrupt before I knew it. So where do I fit in?

I tried to see the comment as advice and something I had to address immediately, I even put together a couple of posts about motherhood and how I was finding everything but the words fell flat after the first few sentences. If a post is saved as a draft for me, it means I didn't have enough to say and if I don't have enough to say then I don't want to put the content out there, it's contrived and I can see right through it, even if my readers can't. Then I contemplated taking a week away from blogging, to really assess what direction I needed to head in, I needed to fit into a niche after all, right? Wrong. Does it come across self absorbed to say my niche is me? My blog isn't in a set category and I'm finally really happy with that, I like to have my hand in every honey pot and I've spoke too often about my fickle ways. If I tried to restrain myself to only one topic I'd soon lose interest in blogging, as I found out when trying to force posts that my heart wasn't in. I often describe Babies and Beauty as my digital diary, because it is, I document the moments that if they weren't here I'd definitely forget. I took myself back and flicked through my posts from a year ago, I had completely let it slip my mind of those fake laughs and smiles Patrick did and how he would get upset if he ever heard anyone else cry, it's moments like that, when all those memories come flooding back, that I'm so thankful I made Babies and Beauty my own.

So, my advice if you're finding yourself un-niche-worthy (totally not a word but it's happening today) just roll with it, you can dip into whatever niche you like. There seems to be this obsession with putting a label on everything, and unless you're flitting from complete opposite ends of the blogosphere I truly don't think it matters what content you talk about, more so that the content is real and relatable to you. I couldn't sit here and discuss the best shampoo and conditioners, because I just grab whatever smells nice and isn't too pricey, heck I don't even wash my hair more than twice a week. It pays to be honest to yourself, and over the past few months I've learned that my integrity is far more important than trying to fit a niche I don't fit into. Even if it irks a few PRs in the process.