Are you aware of the term ‘Bronies’? A portmanteau of the word ‘bro’ and ‘ponies’, Bronies refer to a community of adult fans of the children’s show My Little Pony. Originally, the term was used to refer to the adult male fans of the show, which are mainly aimed at young girls but it has since included all gender. Are you also aware that in Finland there’s a devoted following for hobbyhorse, which is now considered a national sport so much so that there’s even a national championship held every summer?

What I’m trying to illustrate from these examples is that pretty much everything in this world has a dedicated following, no matter how obscure, it is. This simple fact is important for both SEO services and content marketers alike as that means that even the most niche of content would have a built-in audience; all you have to do is find them and get the content in front of their collective eyes. You shouldn’t write something with the hope that the right person will notice it at some point, you should first write with the right audience in mind to make sure your writing hits them in all the right places.

Finding your niche or narrowing your focus

When you’re trying to appeal to a specific niche like to fans of hobbyhorse, the challenge would lie in reaching out to them and finding out what they think of hobbyhorse. For example, I read about how they don’t consider hobbyhorse as playing, about how they take hobbyhorse as seriously as I take writing seriously. With this in mind, the tone you’re using when writing about hobbyhorse should be of respect, you should treat them not as simple playthings for girls but as something worthy of serious consideration.

However, what if you’re trying to write about something that is considerably more popular such as say, Fortnite, one of the most popular video games at the moment? There’s absolutely no question whatsoever that there is indeed an audience for this type of content, some would probably say too many, but the downside in writing about something popular is that there would be dozens of content creators out there writing about the same things you do. Unless you’re writing for a highly popular publication with a built-in audience, you’re going to have some trouble slumming it with the big guys.

The solution when faced with this kind of problem is to narrow your focus and find a specific angle that you could find in writing about Fortnite. For example, Fortnite made headlines in the music industry this year for being the platform where American rock band Weezer premiered their latest album. This was also after Fortnite made headlines for holding a virtual concert featuring the EDM musician Marshmello. This intersection between video games and two different facets of popular music was pretty unprecedented and certainly could make for an interesting angle to write about as it’s not just about Fortnite.

Using your unique point of view

Other than finding a unique angle on a popular topic, one way of making that very same topic your own is by including a personal take on the topic. Let’s take a look at another video game for this example, the online game Final Fantasy XIV. In 2017, a television series revolving around the game was released on Netflix, titled Final Fantasy XIV: Dad of Light. While the game is prominently featured in the series, it’s not actually about the game. The game simply functions as a platform that connects the two main protagonists, Aiko Inaba and his father, Hirotaro.

In the series, Inaba and Hirotaro had grown apart and in an attempt to reconnect with his father, Inaba bought him a PS4 and a copy of the game so that he can meet his father in the game as when Inaba was a kid, they bonded over the third game in the series on the NES. What’s amazing about this series is that it is actually based on a true story from Japan where a player blogging about his plan (and the ensuing experience) to reconnect with his dad went viral and was then adapted into a television series.

Anyone can write about their experience in playing a video game but by including a personal story in your experience, you could essentially make that content your own as it relates to your own, unique background. At the same time however, you could reach an entirely new audience by including what is essentially a human interest story wrapped up in a video game. As it stands, this adds both value and uniqueness to a topic that was somewhat generic to begin with.

Include original research and data

The final way of making your content stand out involves the use of data. Original research and data adds additional value to a piece of content, especially when they’re combined with insights that you’ve gleaned from the data you’ve gathered. This, however, might involve considerably more work and resource than just simply including personal details but they do hold considerably more value. I would also add that to gleam insight from a collection of statistics requires in-depth knowledge of the subject so this isn’t something you could decide to do on a whim.