I’m about to say something that might be shunned upon in the blogging world, but I actually think it’s A-OK to compare your blog to others.

Hear me out.

If you’ve ever read anything about marketing/advertising, branding or business start-up tips, one of the first things they will tell you to do is a SWOT analysis. A SWOT Analysis is a planning method that allows you to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats on any given project. While typically used for business ventures, you can perform a SWOT analysis for your blog to help you carve out your niche and further develop content that your readers might like. If you’re trying to grow your readership (whether just for hobby or to become a full-time blogger), at some point you will have to do a comparison to those in your niche.

Comparison doesn’t have to be a negative.

Your blog’s strengths (your voice, writing style, expertise, location, etc) are already unique, so looking at other blogs that cater to a readership similar to yours can help you with creating content that they may like, get better with your photography, and just become a better blogger overall. In essence, you will be using your blog’s weaknesses + threats to find (content) opportunities.

For example, I constantly work on my photography so that I can have more original images for my posts because over time, I found that those sites that *I* relate to typically have that unless it’s a roundup or an image used w/a graphic. Watching others grow in their photography w/beautiful images helped push me to grow in mine.

Comparing also helped me realize early on that I didn’t want to focus on celebrity culture. There’s so much other stuff to blog about and so many other cool people to write about in the world, so while I may do a magazine cover or editorial post every once in a while, I try really hard to limit them on here. There are bigger blogs that can cover that much better than me, so I try to save my space for designer interviews, fun local outings and things like that.

Doing a blog comparison can be especially helpful if you decide to expand your blog’s overall content and aren’t sure how to approach it. If you decide that you want to incorporate decor into your content, do you want to just show inspirational images from Pinterest, or do you want to actually find people near you that have amazing homes? What about travel plans? Seeing how other bloggers cover these topics can help you decide what will be the best fit for YOUR site, but still be interesting for your shared readers.

Building a great blog takes time, so if you ever feel like you’re  stuck in a blogging rut, instead of angrily reading other blogs going “I wish I had ____ or could do xyz”, really look at the overarching themes on their site for a new perspective that may help you with creating stellar content.

 How has reading other blogs helped you you?

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