Are you thinking about starting a blog? Great! You have the first step down.
Now you need to decide what you want your blog to be about. Of course, you can always start a blog where you talk about anything and everything. However, these types of blogs are often not that successful.
That’s because people browse the Internet for one reason only: to solve a problem. This problem may be finding entertainment or answering a question. There could be any number of problems imaginable. But if readers are looking for a solution to a problem and your blog is just ramblings about random topics, how is your blog supposed to solve their problem?
This is why niche blogs are popular. For example, if you want to stay up to date on fashion trends, follow fashion blogs because you trust them to continually solve your problem. If you want to stave off boredom, you could go for it Buzzfeed or any number of entertainment blogs that constantly provide a solution to your boredom.
A niche blog narrows down your target audience but also keeps them coming back.
How exactly do you “find your niche”? Check out the tips below.
Choose something you know and love
Experts will constantly recommend that you blog about your passion. It might sound cliche and a bit unrealistic on the surface, but there’s a reason for it.
Stacey Roberts continued ProBlogger says, “Something that seems to be present and shines through in the blogs I read and love is passion.”
When you blog about your passion, several things happen:
- You’re more likely to invest time and effort into your blog to make it shine.
- You are less likely to abandon your blog in the future.
- You’re less likely to run out of ideas.
- It shows in your writing, and your readers can feel it. This in turn will lead to a larger fan base.
If you go the other way and choose a niche just because you think it’s profitable, you’re bound to end up in burnout and dissatisfaction. Another disadvantage of the profitability strategy is that you probably don’t have as much knowledge in these areas as in what you care about. If you don’t know what you’re talking about, why should anyone read your blog?
This is how you find your passion
Okay, it would be okay to follow your passion if you had some idea what your passion is. The first questions to get you started include:
- What are your hobbies?
- How do you spend your free time?
- What topic could you talk about for hours if your friends or family allowed you to?
- What type of classes did you enjoy in high school or college?
- What do you enjoy reading and learning about?
- If you could do one thing for the rest of your life, regardless of salary, what would you do?
Still not sure? Try this exercise: Start with your first instinct. Make a list of 10 separate headlines/blog post ideas. If you can’t think of 10, this probably isn’t the right niche for you. If you have 10 but aren’t excited about actually writing the blog posts, then it’s worth considering another industry.
If these 10 ideas sound good to you, you should consider writing these blog posts on your computer before you start developing your website. If you’re having a hard time completing the first ten posts and are already dreading the topic, then it’s probably not for you. The good news is that you didn’t waste time and money setting up a blog that you would later abandon.
Do you find yourself coming up with more ideas after writing the first 10 posts? Then you could be on the right track! The good news? Once you have your blog set up, you can now publish content to your website.
Find a gap in the market
The truth is that no matter what topic you want to write about, there are already one or a million blogs in this niche. However, not everyone has explored every nook and cranny of every niche. This is where profitability can come into play.
For example, Blogging Basics 101 was created because there were many blogs about blogging, but there was no place for beginners to find their answers.
You can narrow your niche in the same way by targeting your audience to those who rarely get attention, such as: B. Newbies or advanced users in your industry. Another option is to focus on a specific geographical area.
However, remember that there must be one need in this end of the market.
Remember that you don’t do this have Stick with your first blog and its niche if you feel burned out. However, taking the time to figure out what niche you want to start in can save you a lot of time and money in the future instead of jumping from niche to niche.
The most important thing that will help you choose the right niche is to really think about it instead of jumping in headfirst and without a clue.
Still not sure? Tell us where you get stuck in your decision making.
Find your niche
What if you have many passions and no focus? What if you’re not sure how to find your niche? In Find your niche online and be successful in it Amandalyn recommends making a list:
If you’re having a hard time finding your niche, ask yourself a few questions and write down all the answers to make a list.
- What are your hobbies?
- What things do you like and enjoy doing?
- How do you spend your free time?
- What topics do you most enjoy talking about?
- What did you enjoy as a child?
- What topics do you know more about than most?
- Are there any particular courses that you have taken extensively?
Finding your niche can be daunting at first because there are actually blogs in every niche. You won’t be the first. However, if you look, you will see that there are holes that need to be filled. Find a need and fulfill that need. I started with Blogging Basics 101 because there are a lot of intermediate and advanced tech websites for bloggers, but no place for beginners. Blogging about blogging wasn’t my first niche either; It evolved from my first blog (a personal blog where I certainly hadn’t even considered a niche as part of my blogging plan) when I started getting a lot of questions about how to do certain things with a blog (e.g.: B. Crossing out words, etc.). Adding things to a sidebar).
Let this last part be a lesson too: you can start with one thing and then move on to another. Sometimes the best laid plans are just a stepping stone.
Dominate your niche
Now you have your niche, but you want to do more. What’s the next step? In How to dominate your nichesuggests Brian Clark
What you want to do is strengthen the niche by doing something more or different (or maybe even better) than the existing players. You can do this by first evaluating and understanding where the niche currently stands and positioning your content to set new standards.
You can evaluate your niche simply by being part of that niche’s community. (Is it me, or is it me? always Do you come back to the community in my articles?) As you read and comment on other blogs in your niche, you will get a feel for what is covered and what is not. You can start by filling the gaps in the niche or taking a new approach to an old problem.
I believe this is where you will start making some money from your passion. As I wrote in my article “Advice on Making Money from Your Blog,” if you have a product (through your blog) or represent a business niche, it is easier to sell that product or a specific niche to advertisers. Advertisers know who they want to reach, and if your product or company complements each other, they will more easily see the value of advertising with you than if you were just a blogger with no focus.
Your niche and your network
How does belonging to a particular niche mean being part of a network (which many bloggers do these days)? Deb Ng urges you to be careful. In Making money as a blogger: Are you too annoying for your network? Deb writes
Sometimes being niche in a network isn’t always the best career move. . .If you want to target a niche, I recommend that it is probably just as profitable, if not more profitable, to start your own niche blog. This allows you to post on your own schedule and keep all the profits for yourself. Yes, it’s slower in the beginning, but if you rock the commercials and know what you’re doing, you’ll do well.