It’s 2018 and blogging is no longer an obscure idea. There are a lot of people who make their living from blogging and do quite well at it. At the same time, there are many more people who don’t do well at it. One of the biggest things that set successful bloggers apart from the ones who are unsuccessful is the niche they choose.
Choosing a niche is more important than ever before since competition is so high. If you don’t choose the right niche, one of two major things can happen.
First, you might choose something where there’s too much competition, and you stand no chance of differentiating yourself. Your topic might be so broad that you feel like you’re trying to target everyone, and in reality getting no one to come to your site.
The other problem is when you choose something so specific that no one is even looking for what you’re blogging on.
You have to get somewhere in the middle in most cases, and the following are some specific tips that can help you choose a profitable niche for your blog.
Start Doing Some General Searches
A lot of experts will tell you to base your blog on your passion, and that’s good advice because it’s much easier to dedicate time to something you love. At the same time, you have to make sure passion lines up with what other people are interested in as well. You also have to make sure that there is a demand for what you’re passionate about. If you’re passionate about finances and making money, you might want to do some searches and see what more specific questions people are asking about in these areas.
For example, you might see a lot of questions like “what are penny stocks” or “how should I invest $1,000.” These are great search questions that can really give you a strong direction to head in when you’re choosing a blogging niche.
Rethink Finding a Niche
When you think about finding a niche in the traditional sense, it can limit your blogging, and you may not end up coming up with a strong concept.
Sometimes, it can be better to reframe your entire niche search as looking for ways to solve a problem. Ultimately you’re identifying a problem that you think enough readers will have to help you build a successful blog.
Your blog solves their problem and fills a need. It can grow from that problem over time, but this gives you a good starting point. A lot of blogs start out being based on an extremely specific topic. Over time, they grow and evolve, and their audience expands, so they’re not stuck on just that topic, but it gave them a place to start.
Think About Creating Your Audience First
If you’re feeling stuck or like you have nowhere to start with your niche search, think about an audience first. Create a very specific audience you’d like to connect with and cater your content toward. Create a persona for that audience.
Who are they, what do they like to do, what are their interests, their jobs, their ages, and so on.
Consider Profitability
If you’re building a blog as a business, profitability has to be a top priority. If you choose a niche that you’re super passionate about, but it’s not likely to be profitable, you’re building a hobby and not a business.
Think about how easy it will be to attract advertisers, and do affiliate marketing through the niche you’re considering.
Look around and see if other people blogging in your niche are making money. Is the competition too high or too low? Those are good indicators of profitability as well. There should be some level of competition present. Otherwise, there’s probably a reason for that. However, if there’s too much saturation, you’re probably not going to be able to be profitable because it’ll feel like you’re lost in a sea of other people blogging on the same topic.
Finally, you’re going to have to think about how much content can be created based on the niche you’re going with. You need to be able to solve a problem in a way that’s unique to you, but it also needs to be able to serve as a foundation to drive tons of content. Without quality content, your blog is worthless.
If you’re choosing something so narrowly focused that there’s no way to build the content out beyond the specific concept, you may have to go back to the drawing board.
