I Can't Niche Myself

The number one advice I read about bloggiing or YouTube channels or podcasts is to "pick a niche". For those unfamiliar with that word, a niche is defined as a specialized segment of the market for a particular kind of product or service. The more specific the niche the better. For instance, sports is too vague, hockey is more particular and Women's Olympic Hockey is much more specific and the kind of niche they are talking about. If you can get even more specific that is better. Take my brother's (Josh Boulton's) YouTube channel for instance. It is called Tough Call and was originally going to review some of the most controversial sports calls or moments in sports. One of calls he was going to review was going to be a call I will never get over and that I will be writing about on Orange Bonobo. This was a call made during the semi final of women's soccer in the 2012 London Olympics. Damn you Abby Wambach! It's been 10 years and time has not healed the injustice.

I still love Abby and especially enjoy listening to her on the We Can Do Hard Things podcast with her wife, Glennon Doyle and Glennon's sister, Amanda Doyle, known mostly as Sister, but thanks to Abby Wambach, every time I see a goalie holding a soccer ball I always count how long they have it in their possession and guess what...it is always longer than 6 seconds and it is NEVER called. Anyway, back to Tough Call's niche.

Tough Call ended up being very specifically about what Josh would do if he was the Head of the Department of Player Safety of the National Hockey League. He reviews controversial hits and other penalties (or missed calls) and breaks each incident down into what he sees and has his own suspension/disciplinary system, including supplemental discipline for repeat offenders.

My intention for Orange Bonobo was always to have one place to discuss all of my favourite things. However, I tried to force myself to follow the niche rule and decided Orange Bonobo would be my creative writing site only. I started a few other sites for my other interests, trying to keep one site per niche but it just does not work for me. I feel forced to come up with specific posts for each site on a regular basis. Sometimes all I want to focus on is sports which is great for the sports site but not so good for the others. Other times I want to talk true crime, or how to teach phonics, or how we could improve the education system, etc. That is a lot of sites to maintain!

So my niche for Orange Bonobo is ME! That means that Orange Bonobo will have something for everyone and for me, it means there will be one place to passionately discuss my favourite topics!

According to this post by Green Geeks, the top 14 profitable blogging niches (see, there is that word again) are:

1. Making Money (when I figure out how to do that, I will definitely be writing some posts on Orange Bonobo to share with you. Right now I am hoping to win a huge 50/50 draw or like many of you, the lottery. Someone has to win, right!)

2. Diet & Fitness (not in the Orange Bonobo plan right now)

3. Movie & TV Reviews (most definitely one of the niches I want to cover)

4. Fashion (Stay tuned for a feature called Sweatpants and Granny Panties)

5. Politics (everything becomes a little political doesn't it? So there will be "politics" on Orange Bonobo, just not straight up boring talk about government systems and elections)

6. Social Media (Orange Bonobo has a Facebook page you can like and follow. You can follow me on Twitter and my Instagram posts show up on this site automatically but right now I do not plan for Orange Bonobo to be the place you come for advice on how to grow your followers count or post on a regular basis. As you will see, consistency on social media is not my forte)

7. Gaming News (I do enjoy playing PacMan and some sports games like FIFA 2023 but there will not be too much in the Gaming News niche on Orange Bonobo)

8. Cooking (cooking leads to eating - I hate cooking but I like eating - there could be some food talk on Orange Bonobo but no true cooking niche)

9. Weddings (nope - one of my least favourite shows is Say Yes to the Dress)

10. Education (100% happening on Orange Bonobo)

11. Sports (100% - women and men's hockey and soccer and ringette coverage. If you have never heard of ringette then ringette will fall into two niches - sports and education)

12. Do It Yourself (DIY) (not part of the plan)

13. How-to Guides/Tutorials (not part of the plan)

14. Product Reviews (for sure! - especially about pens. I love pens!)

Other niches to be covered on Orange Bonobo that were not listed in the Top 14 most profitable niches are True Crime, Tarot readings, astrology, writing and posts about my life.