Columnists and Bloggers

I realized something last night that may not seen like a huge revelation to you but was to me. Newspaper columnists are a lot like bloggers. This is probably why so many columnists now have a blog on their newspaper's website.

It makes sense, if you think about it. They both take something that happens in their own lives (or in the realm in which they focus, in the case of political and gossip columns) and turn it so it means something to the reader. The biggest difference I've found is that the columnist has a built in audience whereas a blogger has to go find one.

Finding an audience for a blog isn't always easy. For most newspapers, there isn't a lot of competition. Unless you live somewhere like New York City, there probably isn't a lot of competition. But in blogging there is quite a bit of competition. It's like trying to start a new newspaper column in New York City times one million. The stats about blogs are amazing. I have heard their are a billion blogs out there. I'm sure most of us follow at least 5 different blogs and they aren't all the same.

The question becomes, how does one stand out in the blogging world? With all this competition how does one carve out even a small niche?

I have a few ideas for myself but I'd love to hear from you, my readers. How do you get and retain readers?