I purchased an awesome ebook last night about blogging, motivation, and “making it big”, called Beyond Blogging. It is rather inspirational. You can check it out here. This book has got my head spinning.

Anyways, I was thinking about the state of blogging and tech blogging in general and thought about what I like about becoming a tech blogger, what is challenging, and what I completely dislike about it. Tech blogging and the tech media industry is extremely saturated with sub-par writing and a bunch of copykats (really a lot of blogging is this way). One of the things that have stood out after reading some of this ebook is the idea of what tech bloggers are going to have to do to stand out this year and in the future. Just blogging isn’t enough anymore.

What will us tech bloggers have to do? Here are some things that I think are needed to stand out in this crowded niche:

Find a “sub-niche” of tech. “Gadgets” is even too broad.

This is something that I am trying to figure out right now. “Tech” is way too broad, especially for one person to cover. Just take a look at a site like CNET for instance. They have about 20 different podcasts and a ton of different editors. They cover “tech” well because they have the resources to do it. A one man blog like mine and many other tech bloggers can’t cover the entire industry. That is why we need to find a niche in tech and stick to it.

Podcasting and screencasts are almost necessity

Almost any decent tech blogging outfit has some sort of screencast or podcast. It seems anymore that simple writing is really not enough. People need information, yes, but they also need to be entertained a little. This will definitely keep them coming back.

One of the best tech empires I can think of is TWIT (Leo Laporte and friends). Leo has really figured it out with ways to inform and entertain at the same time. If you haven’t listened to any of his podcasts or watched any screencasts I highly suggest them, especially if you want a model for the best way to approach it. Leo has been online forever and has been doing video and podcasting for a long time. Nowadays, these platforms are pretty much necessary to stick out at all. Everyone just writes.

Creating excellent content that is different

Sounds easy, huh? Not in the slightest.

Tech blogging is an extremely snarky industry, just read anything on Gizmodo or Engadget to see what I mean, and because of this you really can’t be a dry writer. It is important to write well about important things to you and others and somehow put your own spin on it. I can’t tell you how to do it really, just that it needs to be done. Without having your own voice in tech blogging you will be seriously buried.

Also, tech bloggers seem to have a little ADD. They take one thing, analyze it, comment on it, and then never come back to it. If you want to really stick out keep a theme going for as long as you can and make sure to adapt and add to your content all the time.

Hopefully 2010 is Tech-Hacker’s year to make some headway. If you can think of any other tricks to stand out in this saturated niche, please let me know. Unless you want to hog it all to yourself.