Summary: We can learn a lot from successful blogs like Mashable and TechCrunch. In this post we look into the importance of choosing a narrow niche and staying focused.
TechCrunch and Mashable are among the top 10 blogs in the world. They are also (supposedly) among the most profitable websites in the world. These two sites are not competing directly, but they do have similar demographics, so it makes sense to look at these two sites together..
Little bit of background
In May 2009, (according to Compete.com stats) Pete Cashmore's Mashable.com went past Michael Arrington's TechCrunch.com in number of unique visitors (At that point, and until this day, TC still prevailed in total number of visits, which goes on to show they have more loyal readership than Mashable to begin with).
I just read enewsz.com story on how Mashable.com is losing their visitors after the 2010 January redesign. Naturally, I had to dig in to see what really happened. This isn't as much as a news story as this is case study of two giant blogs, out of pure interest to see if there is something to learn here (hint: there is).
I have personally stopped following both these sites actively, and rely on my friends sharing the most important news via Twitter or Buzz. Both sites, while posting awesome content, post way too much for me to keep up with it (with all I've written about increasing productivity and fighting information overflow, I'm sure you know what I mean). But there is no denying that these two sites are among the top dogs when it comes to delivering tech news.
It has been brought to my attention that the traffic stats for Mashable are off for March 2010. Pete Cashmore, the founder of Mashable, pointed out in the blog comments that the Compete stats are off for March 2010 (e.g. FriendFeed). Thus, I have updated this post, keeping the focus on choosing a blog topic, editing all the parts affected by speculation that Mashable traffic had dropped on March.
Mashable vs. TechCrunch statistics
Before we go into statistics, tiny disclaimer here, because these stats from the various services are estimates and not based on real stats (which only the owners and admins of the sites see).
Compete.com has been proven relatively accurate to show odd spikes and fluctuations, especially for March 2010, Alexa has its limitations too and Technorati isn't exactly the top jewel when it comes to quality of service. But I go with what I got, and here are the stats from Compete.com, Alexa and Technorati for both Mashable.com and TechCrunch.com:
See how the compete.com stats look now:
See the Alexa stats yourself:
Technorati Top 100 blogs list:
Putting the statistics together, we see that:
- Compete.com shows that TechCrunch has leaped in Unique Visits, Mashable is going down
- Technorati shows Mashable going down in ranking, supporting the Compete.com stats
- Alexa shows the two going head to head
Even that Alexa is a joke (TM), we can be relatively sure that Mashable traffic is indeed going down and Compete stats are off for March 2010 (as Pete Cashmore pointed out in the comments), we can see that the two sites are very close to each other when it comes to traffic.
Mashable, still going strong?
Enewsz.com speculated that Mashable is taking a dive in traffic because they
- redesigned the blog, and
- started adding more "Internet culture stuff", instead of pure "tech news"
Enewsz.com thinks that Mashable is no longer pure "tech news" site, if it ever was. It seems that them starting to feature more "hot celebrity" and trendy stories, in addition to their more popular tech news, and enewsz.com figured that was alienating a part of their core audience.
Update: Since there has not been actual "traffic dip" for Mashable, we can't say whether or not their traffic has either decreased, stayed the same or increased because of the slight changes on their site.
TC, you old chap, how are you doing?
- TechCrunch is going strong.
- Their traffic is going up, no matter how much some people don't seem to like Michael Arrington (the founder).
- TC has continued their proven path as "Tech News and VC business chatter".
With TC sticking to their topic, it's leading the battle of these two giants, especially on number of visits.
If it's working, don't fix it?
Is Mashable actually adding more stuff? I don't know, I haven't actively followed the site this year... For a moment, I thought I was part of the traffic dip! I could see the headlines already: "Antti stops tweeting for Mashable, Mashable traffic goes down"...
*snap* back to the topic...
Unlike Enewsz.com claimed in their post, Mashable *does* offer categorized feeds to their readers, so people can get the news they want instead of all the stories.
But is it really necessary to add more and more topics to the site in the first place? I've had hard time following these two sites already, since they just post too much for me, which just gets worse if there are "offtopic" posts in between.
Lessons learned
In a recent (guest) post at Daily Blog Tips, blogging lessons from TechCrunch and Masbable, Adesoji Adegbulu (@adesojiadegbulu on Twitter), covered 8 lessons that all bloggers can learn from these two very successful blogs.
In addition to lessons like simplify things, fill a vacuum with your blog and lots of content, the post also highlighted the importance of transparency, building a community around the blog and being persistent. Mashable and TechCrunch really were built on those principles, and they've done it really well.
Interestingly the first two lessons in the DBT post are
- Narrow your niche but make sure it is not too small.
- Stay focused on your niche no matter what.
I agree with these lessons 100%, and I think that these lessons are among the most important guidelines for blogs.
TechCrunch and Mashable always had the single purpose of bringing you tech news and served visitors who had common interest. But is Mashable now drifting away from it now? Is this why we're seeing Mashable traffic taking a dive?
Is there a thin line between "focused enough" and "too broad"? Or can a site keep adding more and more related topics?
Choose a narrow niche and stay (laser-) focused on it.
All top blogs have relatively narrow niche and/or target audience. A focused site will CRUSH site that goes far and wide.
- Focused niche site is the ONLY way to go.
- This is particularly important when you have something to sell.
People coming to a site expect to find posts from certain topic from the site. Visitors interested in that specific topic are more likely to buy related products. With the information overflow we are all facing every day, seeing "offtopic" posts will make us leave.
There is a growing need for more focused sources of information, so we don't have to filter the content ourselves.
We as individuals can be Jack of All Trades and do very well, but when it comes to websites, choosing a narrow niche seems to work the best.
Your turn
- Do you read TechCrunch and/or Mashable?
- Has Mashable noticiably changed since January?
- Do you think a website is better when it's tightly focused to a specific topic?
