Focus Local: Finding Your Blogging Niche

One of the main areas that I help train in for American Majority is New Media…which loosely translates into: Blogs, Wikis, Twitter, Facebook, FourSquare…etc. I believe that if we’re going to make a tangible impact on this country that we are going to take the fight to where not only the liberals are but where we can touch a large number of individuals who are engaged. In today’s online world it’s very clear that those mediums are the modern political battlefields.

One of the first questions that comes up when I’m talking to people about starting a blog is, “What should I write about?” That’s when I reach back into my college economics vocabulary and pull out: Comparative Advantage. Basically, comparative advantage is someone’s ability to create something or do a task with greater efficiency or at a higher quality than another person. So, when I’m asked that question about writing topics I ask people what they can do that others can’t or arn’t: Where is your comparative advantage?

My point is this, if you are going to write a blog you need to be able to give a compelling reason why people should read yours instead of the 100 million + other blogs that are out there. I don’t recommend that people dedicate their blog to writing mainly about national issues because millions of other folks already do. Pick something that you are familiar with and become an expert!

I’m convinced that the best way for new bloggers to have a significant impact for liberty is to focus on local politics: county, city and school government. These are facets of government which are covered less and less by traditional media and where an appalling amount of our dollars get wasted.

You’d be surprised how few cities have any kind of blog, let alone a conservative one, dedicated to keeping an eye on what local officials are doing. We need those kinds of local watchdogs in order to hold our elected officials accountable.

Starting a blog dedicated to local politics doesn’t take much time or resources: Find some friends that are also concerned about local politics and begin taking turns attending city council and school board meetings. Let the officials know that you are there to write about what they are doing and be congenial. Get hooked up with Twitter (read our Guide to Twitter Activism here) and tweet live during the meeting. Then, when you get home, write up a summary of what happened and your opinion to post on the blog.

Over time you will become an indispensable resource for your locality and conservatives in your area that want to hold their government accountable. By keeping your focus local you can find your blog’s niche and capitalize on your comparative advantage.