Over on the My Telegraph site, one of the questions they ask you when you sign up is whether you buy the Telgraph or not. Your answering options are not "Yes" or "No". Nothing so brash and impolite.
They are "Yes, I do" or "No, I do not".
It's the small things that make me happy. I wonder if they pared it down from "Yes, I do, and thank you for asking, sir" and "No, I do not, but I probably jolly well should!"
Anyway. Online journalism. Yes.
Rick Waghorn, from myfootballwriter.com, was the man doing the speaking last week - and pretty interesting it was too. His project targets extreme niche audiences - big fans of Norwich City, Ipswich Town or Colchester City football clubs - and offers them highly specialised and minute-by-minute coverage by people like them (but, crucially, big fans who can scribble competently).
Consumers are driven to Mayfield's site because it provides a level of focus on their great passion unavailable anywhere else.
This is what is key to securing an an internet audience. Niche targeting.
So. Over Christmas I intend to make this blog THE place to go for The Littlejohn Game (rules coming soon) and THE place to go for the Turnaround Clarkson project (photographic example to come shortly). But that's not all. Oh, no. I have more ideas. And they are:
WOMEN'S MAGAZINE HEADLINE OF THE WEEK AWARD
Fairly simple, but endlessly amusing. I shall also include a runner up - and a short review of why the headline won.
REALLY OBSCURE AND TERRIFIC AND SPECIAL WORD OF THE WEEK
Like "grimalkin" - which is an elderly female cat, but can also be used to describe an older human lady who has a tendency towards grumpiness. As in, "Geez, Jimmy, I sure wish that grimalkin next door would give us our football back so we could stop beating up on your sister for kicks instead"
It is a fact that knowing weird words makes you win at life.
VERBATIM REACTIONS OF CLIPBOARD MAFIA ON THE STREET WHEN I TELL THEM THAT, "I DO NOT CARE ABOUT ANYONE OTHER THAN MYSELF"
If I manage to summon up the guts to do it. And I really should. I should also ask them how the system works. Because I'm genuinely confused about how people being paid £7 an hour to stand on the street and accost a certain demographic can make any money for charity. Kudos to them for doing so. But how?
And so you see, internet, I am finding all of the niches and I am claiming them, like some crazy niche-collecting nichemeister.
Niche.
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
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2 comments:
Think it was Rick Waghorn, not James Mayfield, from My Football Writer.
An entry for women's mag headline of the week: "Barry Chuckle ruined my life". Surely it's a winner - and what prize do I get?
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