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Are you thinking of starting a blog or a website?
I know it can be an overwhelming process but don’t worry, you have come to the right place.
You may come across popular blogs and think of building something similar.
You may end up choosing a niche for your blog because it is tempting to follow the footsteps of successful people. But before you do, it’s best to leap back. Ask the right questions, and get the correct answers to lay the foundation for your blog. Trust me, that’s how they did it, that’s how you should too.
Have you thought about whether it’s the right step for you and your business? Will you be able to deliver value and content year after year? Does the blog idea align with your interests and passion? Is it going to be profitable?
The content and ideas on the internet are overwhelming. Only if we could learn to navigate through it, we’ll be able to deliver value to our readers and book profits.
I followed my passion which started as a side hustle and later turned it into online business. My advice for you is to find out one thing you’re passionate about you’d like to share with the world.
I’ll be sharing the unknown strategies in finding your profitable blogging niche. But before we start, let’s go over some basics.
Page Contents
What is a Niche? Why is it important to choose early?
In simple terms, a niche is a specific topic around which a blog or website revolves. For instance, if you like to stay fit and follow a balanced lifestyle then why not share it with the whole world?
Some people could make use of what you know. They can learn from your experiences and setbacks if you share them via your website.
The ultimate purpose of a blog is to share what you know that could help others. If that is so, then why do I need a specific niche for a new blog? Why can’t I write about anything I like?
A reader may not like to learn about food recipes on a sports blog or vice versa. You wouldn’t like buying jewelry from a hardware shop. The point is to have a specific blog niche to build an audience and gain loyalty. And if it’s too generic, a blog with different topics will have a hard time ranking in the Search Engine Result Pages. It is our job to make it easy for Google to rank our website.
How to find your Blog Niche?
A well-defined blog niche is crucial to engage the audience the way you like them to. Here is the list of top 5 trending/profitable niches in 2020 –
- Food and Health
- Fashion
- Lifestyle and Travel
- Personal Finance
- Blogging
Your blog niche could be one of the above or not. But it’s crucial to choose a topic you know well. It doesn’t have to be perfect. But you should be able to share your experiences, should be able to relate with the audience.
Define the scope
It is always important to be clear about your plans. Are you trying to build an authority blog and a brand around it? or is it more like a micro-niche blog?
Your scope should include the process to achieve what you’ve set to achieve. It may include content strategies, website promotion, Search Engine Optimization, Collaboration with others. A well-defined scope could make or break a website.
Make a list of Blog Niche Ideas
It’s time to brainstorm. Come up with as big a list of blog niches and ideas as you could. What are your interests, what kind of blogs/magazines do you read, what kind of products you buy? Take a look around, take a look at your own life. Take a good look at your house. Observe and find a niche you wish to write and tell the world about. I like to write down the ideas on a piece of paper and find my way through the scribbled notes.
Your idea should be a blend of three factors that will help you in finding a blog niche.
- How passionate are you about the topic?
- Is your blogging topic popular among people?
- Is it a profitable blogging niche?
Having a list of blog topics helps in decision-making. Along with the list of topics, jot down 3-4 subcategories to grow your website further.
Evaluate your options
Many people start strong with the first idea that comes to their mind. They publish posts often. The frequency of posts decreases as they run out of new niche ideas or topics to cover.
It’s crucial to evaluate your niche choices for a smooth start. You’ll learn its importance in the long run. Here’s how to evaluate your choice.
- Would you be able to write about it year after year?
- Level of keyword competition on Google?
After writing 50 blog posts on the same blog topic, would you be able to write 20 more? 50 here, is just a number, but I hope you get the idea. Having a content strategy in place helps. We’ll talk about it later.
Select a niche that interests readers. Reader’s interest is of paramount importance. If it’s taken care of, a lot of it is just a cakewalk.
To find what readers are reading and what interests them, some tools can give you the basic idea to get started. Google Trends and Google Keyword Planner should be your go-to tools to gauge the interests of readers. The two tools determine two important things.
- If people are searching for your niche, and;
- The rise and fall in their interest.
Using these tools, you can measure the popularity of your niche. And how competitive it is. You can also use them to further narrow or expand your blog niche.
Keyword research determines the number of readers who could visit your website. It tells you the exact number of people who are searching for the chosen keyword in your niche.
Without proper keyword research and content strategy, you’d run out of gas sooner or later. Make sure you devote yourself wholly to carrying out the two tasks.
Always keep the Google Search Algorithm in mind
To be a successful webmaster, Google should be our go-to choice to look out for new ideas. Google offers a whole suite of tools — the only idea generation machine you’ll ever need.
Our goal is to bring in visitors, provide value, and monetize the website to make money. How many readers you could expect, how much money you could make, ask these questions to get the idea.
- How many people are searching for your topic on a search engine? Looking at the keyword volume is one way to find it.
- Is there a paying audience? Checking how much the audience is willing to pay for the keywords in your niche.
- How competitive is your chosen topic? If Google’s first search page reeks of authority websites, look for some low-medium competition keywords to work on.
Choose a niche that will make you side money
If you know what you’re doing, know your niche well enough, you could grow your website to generate some side money. Of course, you need to have an audience to make money. To monetize your website, check similar blogs in your niche and see if;
- They show ads and banners on their website, or;
- Provide information about relevant products to get an idea about the monetization options.
You can also opt for affiliate marketing programs – where you refer people to certain products for a small fee. For instance, a food recipe website could promote kitchenware to its visitors.
Pick a topic that you will love to write about
It’s easy for visitors to trust you if you know what you’re doing. Pick a niche you know so well you could talk and write endlessly about.
Selecting a niche is easy because you already knew what you’re going to blog about. Ask yourself these to validate your idea.
- Do you have enough knowledge about your niche? If not, would you be willing to learn more?
- What is your greater accomplishment?
- Unique selling point (USP) and interests?
Bonus
My three go-to websites to get Niche Ideas:
- Flippa
A very popular marketplace for buying and selling websites, domain names, apps, etc. I often use it to filter out recently sold websites with revenue meeting the minimum threshold, age, category, and price range. - Wikipedia
One of my favorite websites to get niche ideas. I usually scan through niche-specific wiki pages and pick sub-topics for content research. - Amazon
A popular choice among marketers to find profitable niche topics. You can explore its categories and sub-categories, product reviews, best-sellers products for ideas.
These are some methods that I’ve used for selecting the best blogging niche for myself and my clients.
Take a pen and paper. Write down the ideas and validate them to avoid any pitfalls you may encounter on your journey.
If you have any queries or something that I missed out, feel free to share it in the comments below.
