Let’s paint a picture. You’ve been blogging for a few months or even a few years. You’ve got a consistent publishing schedule and you’re being active on social media, You’re essentially doing all the things you’re pretty sure you should be doing in order to grow your online presence. But your audience isn’t growing as fast as you like.

You watch all these other bloggers whirl past you, running straight into a crowd of their devoted and excited followers and you’re thinking, what? My content is great. Why am I not seeing those results?

Believe me - I’ve been there. I know how frustrating it is. But I also know the problem - you’re not honing in on your blog topics.

What does honing in on your blog topics mean?

First of all, you need to keep in mind the goals for your blog (so where you’re heading), and your why. So why you’re even running this blog in the first place. Once you understand the purpose for why you’re creating content, it will start to make it easier to define the topics you actually want to write about.

But before you start thinking about surveys and reaching out to your audience - stop. This isn’t about them. It’s about you. It’s all about you. Why do you dedicate so much time to your blog? What’s your dream? What do you want to get out of it?

Are you hoping to earn some money through brand partnerships? Do you use your blog as your creative outlet? Are you trying to start your own business and using your blog to support this? Does getting likes, comments and interacting with your community make you feel like your work is meaningful? Are you creating products to sell alongside?

There ain’t no point in going any further until you figure this step out.

Making your decisions

So, now you’re clear about why you’re blogging, you need to start honing in. Here’s what I mean - you need to pick a small number of topics that help relate to your ONE overall purpose. My overall purpose on this blog to is help you get a breakthrough in your life, blog or career so my blog topics (motivation, blogging, social media, career and productivity) all help you move forward towards your goals.

This means you’ll never see a post about what delicious healthy meal I’m making for tea (although if you follow me on Snapchat you’ll know I love cooking!) Or my skincare routine or tips for looking after two cheeky bunnies. Why? Well, I’m guessing you turned up here to learn about building your online presence, for career tips or to be inspired and motivated, right?

Having too many topics to choose from confuses your audience. It keeps them from visiting your website on a regular basis and surprisingly, from sharing your content too. People don’t want to share beauty tips from someone who also posts about gardening and the ins and outs of cars (apologies if this sounds familiar, but it’s the truth!) They want beauty tips from someone who is thinking and writing about beauty (and things related to beauty), 24/7. They want someone covering all aspects of the topic and an expert on the basics.

If you really, really, really need to write about something outside of your main topics, try and incorporate it into your overall purpose. Some bloggers create content about blogging, style and beauty all in one - but their main goal allows all of this to flow together. Otherwise, use your social platforms (Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat are perfect) or, think about starting another blog - something I’ve been considering, so I can document my life with you.

How does this help to grow your blog and online presence?

When you hone in on your topics and blog with a purpose, people will start to recognise you for something specific. Instead of being just another beauty blogger, food blogger, fashion blogger or business blogger, you’re THE blogger to follow to kick-start your career, fit exercise and healthy eating in around your busy life, fighting through your anxiety or learning the ins and outs of all the social media platforms. Even if you feel like you blog about the same things as other people, soon enough, your unique purpose will help you stand out.

It also makes it easier for you to come up with content ideas and create a regular publishing schedule. You might think that narrowing the focus on your blog would make it harder to find things to write about or make you feel less creative, but it’s the opposite. Since I honed in on my blog topics and purpose, I’ve come up with so many BETTER post ideas. You don’t have to force yourself as much. You don’t have to dig as deep. Usually, your most simple ideas are the most effective, and the ones your audience relate to the most.

Plus, if you’re publishing content three times a week and two of those posts are completely unrelated to your overall purpose and topics, you might as well just publish a long list of random funny GIFS, because let me tell you - this will not be effective in getting you towards where you want to be.

So, how do you hone in on your topics?

If you want my step-by-step process for narrowing down your blog topics and finding your overall purpose (plus 26 other lessons on building your online presence), I highly suggest joining the free Breakthrough Bloggers community.

Finding your purpose is one of the FIRST things you’ll learn, because without laying this foundation, you can end up going in the wrong direction for a seriously long amount of time, and not seeing the results that you were hoping for.

You’ll also learn how to…

Create an effective and simple editorial calendar for your blog that will save you time and help you be more productive
Keep your blog files organised so you can find everything you need at the touch of the button
Find your own unique image style
Tidy up your blog’s menu and sidebar to reflect your newly found focus
Find your optimal times to post your content to social media so it’s being seen by the biggest amount of people as possible
Create an effective social media plan to grow your followers, increase engagement and direct traffic back to your blog
Kickstart your mailing list
Grow the confidence to come up with your best ideas, try new things and promote yourself

Join now and you’ll get instant access to this eBook challenge, which means you can jump into day 1 of the challenge TODAY (or tomorrow, or next week, or basically whenever you like, because once you join, you’ve got access FOREVER). Plus, you’ll get the latest issue of the #BloggingBreakthrough magazine.