Or why blogs really are a big deal.

The other day while looking through BizNicheMedia’s portfolio of sites, something struck me, this is why blogs are really important. You might ask, why BizNiche? Well its simple, they are doing something that is really more widespread than we realize, they are creating mini-niche verticals in underserved markets. With the cost of setting up a magazine being too high for most niches, and their reach being too limited, the blog becomes the perfect vehicle. Now when I use the term blog I am leaning more towards the software that powers the weblog, not the fact that a blog is usually written by an amateur writer or two. What blogging does is lowers the cost of entry into the market substantially.

Take this for an example: in the airplane parts repair industry there is one major trade magazine (ground support), an annual subscription runs over $1000 a year for 12 issues, each less than a hundred pages. Why is the cost so high? Well it’s a small market, but one with lots of big money floating around, and it costs alot of money to pay a staff of writers and editors and graphic designers. On top of the payroll costs, there are the distribution and production costs that quickly escalate (especially when not printing super high volumes). This is where the blogging aspect comes in.
Using off the shelf software like wordpress, a cheap webhost (can be had for $60/year), freelance webdesigners, and freelance writers (pay them per article), you can publish a mini-vertical that is able to compete with established industry players. With such a low barrier of entry, this becomes the perfect side job for anyone in a niche industry to tackle in their spare time.