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A blogging niche is an important part of your blog. It’s the structure that will hold your blog together, so you need to make sure you pick the perfect blogging niche!
If you haven’t already, before you read this post head on over to my post about what a blogging niche is to get all the details on what it is and why you need it!
After that, head back here and we’ll go over how to pick the perfect niche for you!
Ask yourself these questions to narrow it down!
Table of Contents
1. WHAT TOPIC DO YOU LOVE AND KNOW REALLY WELL?
A blog is by no means a get-rich-quick scheme, so when you start blogging you have to be in it for the long haul. Which means, whatever topic you choose should be one you can’t stop talking about. For me, my topic was blogging.
I honestly had to start a blog about blogging because I needed an outlet to talk about it! My husband was probably getting pretty sick and tired of hearing me talk about it all day long! (Although, I still talk about it all the time!)
This isn’t the first blog I’ve ever had. I actually had 2 more before this one. The first one didn’t even make it through the first month, and the second one made it to just under a year.
The first blog failed for many reasons. With this blog, I have been writing for many years on it, and still have tons of ideas to post about!
Why?
It’s a topic I know well and love to write it.
A few things happen when you blog about your passion;
1. You’ll (Almost!) never run out of ideas
2. You’ll be more willing to work on it and turn it into a business
3. You’ll be less likely to abandon a blog you’re passionate about
4. Readers will see that you love your topic through your writing, and connect better with you and your blog!
If you just choose a topic you could care less about solely because you think you can make a profit from it, chances are, when the money doesn’t start coming in right away, you’ll lose interest in it. Because, as I said, blogging isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme.
Blogging is a long process of planning, hard work and determination. If you don’t pick the perfect blogging niche for you, the passion won’t be there. And in turn, neither will the profit.
2. CAN YOU MAKE MONEY FROM THIS NICHE?
Of course, an important step to make sure you pick the perfect blogging niche would be to figure out if you can actually make money from your niche!
There are going to be some niches that are more profitable than others, that’s just the facts.
But, if you market yourself right you can make money in just about any blogging niche that has a buying audience!
WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO MAKE MONEY BLOGGING IN ANY NICHE?
One of the aspects of picking the perfect blogging niche would be to make sure you can actually make an income from writing about it!
The first thing I always recommend to new bloggers looking to make an income is affiliate marketing. It’s the very first way I monetized my blog!
There are other ways you can monetize your blog, like ads, sponsored posts and creating your own products but one of them is slow and unreliable (ads) and the others are harder to do when you’re first starting out (Sponsored posts and creating your own product)
Of course, you could broaden your monetization methods as you grow, but affiliate marketing is almost for sure the first method you should try.
If you want to get on the fast track to making money with this method, check out this course! I always recommend it to learn everything you need to know to get started!
HOW DO YOU FIGURE OUT IF YOUR NICHE IS PROFITABLE?
You don’t want to start working on a blog, only to find out later that it is impossible to monetize! So here’s how you can research before you start to make sure you have a chance at making money!
LOOK AT OTHER BLOGS IN YOUR NICHE
The best way to learn is to take it from the experts! In this case, the “experts” are other bloggers in your niche who are making money already!
Do other bloggers in your niche,
- Have ads on their site?
- Market affiliate products? (And, if so, what ones do they market and sell?)
- Sell their own product/service?
What monetization methods are they using, and can you replicate it into your own blog?
3. CAN YOU SEE YOURSELF BLOGGING ABOUT THIS TOPIC A YEAR FROM NOW?
This kind of goes hand-in-hand with the last point, but it’s also a little different. Again with the fact that blogging is a long-term thing, so you have to think about a year from now.
Will you still love your topic:
- After the excitement of your blog launch is gone?
- After you’ve been blogging for a year?
- Once you’ve run out of ideas, after posting 50+ times on your topic?
If you can picture yourself writing endlessly on this topic, you’ll know you’ve picked the perfect niche!
HOW BIG IS YOUR NICHE?
You also have to consider how much you can write on your topic, based on how broad or narrow your niche is.
You don’t want too broad of a niche, because there will be too many topics to write about, but you also don’t want to shoot yourself in the foot and make your topic too narrow.
So for example, my blogging niche is huge! There are hundreds of different angles I could attack this topic at. So, in an effort to not get overwhelmed, I’ve narrowed my niche down to just beginner blogging tips.
Once I’ve written everything there is about starting a blog, I can always expand my topic to or making money blogging, how to create courses in blogging ect…
My niche starts out small but has room to grow as I (and my audience) learn and grow. Since I also know a lot on this topic, I know I’ve made to right pick for the perfect blogging niche!
But if I had chosen a topic such as “caring for a hamster” or something crazy like that, after only a few posts I’d be struggling to think of something to write.
So when you choose your niche, make sure you’re able to come up with a decent list of ideas for it! Of course, it’s okay to start out with 10-20 ideas but make sure you know you can come up with more after that!
4. DO OTHER PEOPLE WANT TO READ ON THIS TOPIC?
Now that you’ve got a niche you know you love, and can write a lot about comes the question…. Do other people want to read about your topic?
To pick the perfect niche, not only do you need to be interested in your topic but you have to make sure that you’ll have readers other than yourself.
With blogging, you’re not blogging for you… you’re blogging for your readers. What do they want to read about?
Here’s a harsh reality check for new bloggers. When someone lands on your blog for the first time, they are there to solve a problem they have –they do not care who you are. People turn to the internet to solve some sort of problem they are having.
Once your audience gets to know you a little more, they may start to care who you are. But until they learn more about you, the majority of people are only going to care about what you can do for them.
Let’s say you want to share your experiences and expertise, but you’re not sure people will be interested to read. Here’s a solution.
Don’t know who your audience is just yet? Create a reader profile to find out!
5. BLOG ABOUT WHAT YOU LIKE- BUT MAKE IT USEFUL
So, let’s say you’ve finally picked the perfect blogging niche. You want to start a blog about family life (mom blogging is huge!). But, if all you talk about is your family’s latest vacation or progress reports on how your baby sleeps through the night… chances are you won’t get many clicks.
BUT…
If you spun your focus to “How to get through an airplane ride with an infant.” or “How to get your newborn to sleep through the night.” Well, you might just have yourself a winner there!
New moms would love to get their kids to sleep through the night, and if you’ve managed to somehow get your baby to sleep for hours, new moms will flock to your site!
6. IS YOUR TOPIC SEARCHED FOR?
On top of that, you also want to make sure the topic you are blogging about is something people are searching for in the first place. Think back to the “caring for a hamster” blog idea.
How many people are actually searching for something like that? I can’t imagine there are too many hamster owners out there! (At least, not enough to make a sustainable blog income from!)
So, you can write about something you love, as long as you spin it to help other people out and make sure it’s a popular topic.
HOW DO YOU KNOW IF PEOPLE ARE SEARCHING FOR YOUR TOPIC?
You can find out if people are searching for your topic just by doing a bit of research
You can do this in a number of ways;
- Research your topic on Google
- Research your topic on Pinterest
Researching on Google and Pinterest could be a good way to scope out the market. (And maybe even get some extra blog post ideas!) But that method can only get you so far.
Were you able to pick the perfect blogging niche? What have you chosen? Let me know in the comments below!
Check out these other monetization posts if you’re interested!
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