Is going 'niche' sometimes wrong?

[Makaveli2007]

Normally, on the web you're always given the advice to pick a niche, which is tight enough so you can compete and conquer it, but not too small so that there's enough traffic in it. Makes a lot of sense, of course.

However, now I've been wondering something:

If you're in a field that has a lot of long-tail traffic, could it make sense to not go niche at all, but create a site with the general topic as your site's theme (without going niche, at all)...and then try to target every possible long-tail keyword in the field?

Is targeting the long-tail of a (general) field sometimes just as good of an approach as trying to occupy a niche?

The only downside I can see is that I have no idea how the internet will look in 10 years from now..maybe all long-tail traffic will be send to a few major players (who are getting the big traffic, too), etc...

PS: of course you wont get every long-tail keyword, but you guys probably get my idea.

[Receptional Andy]

I don't think this is an either/or situation. My best advice would be to go with whatever you think is the approach that suits you best.

Niche traffic to me is t he slow and careful approach. You can relatively easily take more and more of the niche, with a bit of persistent work, but you'll hit a ceiling quicker

Going for a more general area is more all-or-nothing. You need a lot more instant impact to get to where you want to be, but you have higher potential overall.

Of course, you can start with with either and build up or down. What you want to avoid is building something that does not give your abilities room to grow. Too niche means you can end-up a bit pigeon-holed and find it hard to break out of that without significant change.

[pat583]

I read a lot and lot of topics talking about "niche". And people following blindly this pattern of going niche. What I think is, it is overly hyped now. You just have to think outside the box, however stupid the idea seems. Think of facebook, twitter.com, promatching.com These all did not become popular because of the niche thingy, these were the passions of the founders. These are just different from others and are doing extremely well. The idea must click with the general users. Choosing a niche may or may not help.

[tangor]

People are not "niche"... a TOPIC is a niche. A TV station is not niche, even if seems to promote one ideology or another... just like radio stations. A broad approach can work (see Wikipedia) or a more narrow approach (your local entertainment sites) to see that something more than RED WIDGETS can work. Only problem is having enough content to fill that broader approach to nail marketing.

How wide can one cast that loop?

[Makaveli2007]

Using facebook and twitter as an example.....umm..I think it would be interesting to see how many failures of generic (not-focussed-on a niche) sites there are for every facebook and twitter.....and if the numbers are worse for sites that are focussed on capturing a niche (would be my guess, but really just a ugess).