I think my domain name is very misleading. People might come here actually expecting to read about coffee. And for that I’m sorry. I love coffee. I love it so much I think I’m addicted. In fact, I think I might’ve experienced caffeine withdrawal a couple of days back, which was something… new. But anyway back to what I was saying.
So, graphic novels and anything related to them are my niche. It’s the stuff that I’ll be discussing in my blog. I think it’s important to focus on a particular topic when blogging, especially now that we’re in the era of “the long tail”. In Chris Anderson’s words, “The theory of the Long Tail is that our culture and economy is increasingly shifting away from a focus on a relatively small number of “hits” at the head of the demand curve and toward a huge number of niches in the tail.” (The Long Tail) So even if only a few people are interested in a product, chances are, their needs will be met due to the growing number of unlimited suppliers made possible by the Internet.
Anybody can blog and everybody can have the freedom to talk about whatever they want. So I think the key here is to have a focus. Without it, I imagine it would be hard to satisfy a visitor who wants to read about that particular thing s/he is interested in, that brought him/her there in the first place. Yeah? Imagine if I started talking about cupcakes even though this is clearly not a food blog.
What I’m trying to say is, we see more niche blogs arising as a result of the many niches in the market today, so more people and their once narrow interests can now be satisfied. These blogs which cater to specific niches allow us to connect with other people who share the same interests as us. And we can only connect successfully if a blog’s content is relevant to what we’re interested in, because only then can we really get involved (by commenting, linking etc.). This is crucial in maintaining an audience.
Anyway back to my blog. As mentioned, my niche is graphic novels, or comic books if you like. Basically I’ll just be reviewing some of the stuff that I’ve read and maybe divulge some of my personal feelings from having read them.
Comicsgirl is a blog that is similar to my niche. Besides reviewing current comic books, she also talks about older comics and movies that have struck a chord with her. This is one of the reasons I like her blog. As I mentioned, I only started reading comic books a few years ago. So I would really love to get recommendations on some of the older stuff that’s out there, because let’s face it. Sometimes, the older the better. I want my blog to be similar in that sense. Because I want my blog to be able to inform other girls (or guys), who are just beginning to read comic books, about comics that are good, even if they’re not current.
Has Boobs, Reads Comics has also been a real inspiration for me. Her blog deals with more current stuff related to comics. She provides readers with news about what’s going on in the comics world, which I find really informational and it’s a quality that I will try incorporating into my blog too. And I like that even when writing news, she still applies very conversational tones to her posts, which I feel engages the reader and makes it easier to follow. It gives her blog a more personal quality. Writing with a casual voice like she does is something I aim to do with my blog.
I really enjoy reading these two blogs. Why? Because they’re both written by girls who love comic books! Like me. There are a couple of other blogs, but even so let’s face it, comics are still thought of as “boys only” territory in mainstream society. Well I mean, I have gotten so much shit crap from my friends for it anyway.
As I was saying…
I like how their target audience is, in my opinion, girls who are fans of comic books. I find that strangely empowering. They sorta fulfill that niche for us girls who read comics. But the one thing great is that they don’t try to exclude boys. So this makes them accessible to fans regardless of their gender.
I noticed that the two blogs designs’ are pretty minimal too. Which is the style that I’m going with. I mentioned this in my previous post. It’s clean and allows for easier viewing by visitors. Another thing I’d like to perhaps emulate is including pictures in my posts, like what they do. I mean, who doesn’t love pictures? They grab attention better than words. They’d perhaps breathe more life into my blog and make it more entertaining. More importantly, they would add colour.
And they post regularly which is good for maintaining an audience. I think I might struggle a little bit in this area, but I promise to update as frequently as I can!
I think I’ll end this post by saying, I’m gonna try to be part of that niche by sharing with girls like me – Girls who enjoy reading comics, girls who embrace their um… inner-nerd maybe, with stuff that I might know about comics.
Girl power. Yeah…
Hmm I did say I’ll try to include pictures… And after that long post, I think we need one. Or two.
So…… Here’s a photo of some of the graphic novels that I’ve collected so far.
And this one’s a shout-out to the beverage that keeps me going.
Next: Sandman
