Last Updated on by Michael Brockbank
Ready to start blogging but don’t know what niche you should cover? Before you pay for web hosting, here are several things to consider before picking a blogging niche. Keep in mind just because something is popular doesn’t mean you’ll be successful.
In the end, it all really depends on what can hold your attention the longest.
How to Choose a Blogging Niche
Now, there are plenty of things you need to consider when developing a website. This is especially true if you haven’t sat down and thought about it much.
However, I’ve boiled down the entire experience in just eight important elements you need to think about. And if you can honestly address these, you should have no problem coming up with a winning website.
1. Use Google Trends
Using Google Trends is great for finding a blogging niche that has staying power. By widening the search term in Trends to include five years, you can see what topics are consistently interesting according to those who use Google search results.
This can be of great benefit if you plan on having a blog for longer than a year. Just be careful not to niche down too far when looking through Trends. Otherwise, you could narrow your blog to a very, very select audience.
You can always branch out if your niche is far too narrow. But it might be more difficult to gain momentum for visitor traffic.
2. Know the Target Audience
Who are the people you’re most interested in attracting? Are they gamers? Do you want health and fitness fanatics? Perhaps you’re marketing to bibliophiles.
The target audience you want to attract most will guide the niche you want for your blog. It will also guide the type of content you wind up creating most.
Go through Google’s Keyword Planner or even Trends to see what people are looking for the most. Now, you can go by search volume to pick a blogging niche. Just bear in mind that the niche may have some serious competition.
3. Be Aware of the Competition
Speaking of competition, what websites are out there closely related to what you want to build? Is the Internet already saturated with them?
Densely populated niches are more difficult to break into unless you come up with a completely unique way to deliver the content. It’s possible to compete with extremely popular websites as long as you have something new to offer.
Do something that will separate your blog from the others on the Internet.
4. How You Monetize Matters
Part of starting a blog to bring in money depends on how you monetize your content. Do you plan on selling digital products from your site? Perhaps you just want to survive off ad revenue.
The way you want to monetize will play a role in some of the most profitable blog niches. For one thing, some industries are worth more than others in terms of what businesses will spend in advertising.
For instance, health and fitness ads are often more valuable than gaming ads. That’s because of the volume of people online searching for specific topics. And right now, fitness stuff is a hot topic.
[adrotate banner=”8″]5. Pick Something Your Passionate About
I think the term “passionate” is overused when people talk about building a successful blog. But, it’s a great word to use to highlight a specific point.
If you choose a blogging niche that you’re not really interested in, there’s a good chance you’ll quit writing about it inside of six months. But when a niche really holds your attention, you’re more excited about writing the content.
Every day, you’ll wake up ready to crank out that next blog post. Otherwise, you could sit there for hours trying to come up with a topic for a mundane niche that you really don’t like.
6. It Takes More than Just SEO Best Practices
You can practice the best search engine optimization on the Internet. But it won’t matter much if you’re writing something that no one wants to read. The overall niche and topics you cover are vital to success.
And SEO content writing is driven by your interest in the niche of your blog.
If you can’t come up with something people want to read, not even Google can save you. Because it all comes down to who you’re writing for and what topics you cover.
7. Don’t Narrow the Focus too Much for Your Blogging Niche
There is such a thing as focusing a blogging niche too far. Sure, you can be seen as an expert on a specific topic. However, you also deprive yourself of expanding and gaining more attention.
For example, WriterSanctuary’s YouTube channel has a lot of Textbroker videos that perform well for the audience. But, I would like to reach freelance writers as a whole. Unfortunately, more people appreciate the Textbroker stuff.
As a result, the channel hasn’t really grown very fast. The upside, though, is the audience is far more engaged and interactive.
My point is that you can narrow the blogging niche down so far that it makes success far more difficult if you’re focusing on visitor numbers.
8. Add Your Own Personality and Style to Writing
One of the best ways to make your blog stand out is to add your own personality and style. Many people read a blog post and become fans because of how the author creates the content.
Case in point, I don’t frequent Neil Patel’s website because I can’t stand how he writes. But, I do like reading stuff on Backlinko.
How you come off in your writing matters. So when picking a niche, make sure it’s something that can highlight who you are and what makes you an expert.
Is a Blogging Niche Important?
For the best chance of making money from your site, picking a niche is important. This is because of the target audience.
People are already highly interested in the topic. This means they are also more likely to buy relevant goods or click on ads from your content.
For instance, do you think it would be easier to sell recipe books from a blog about ways to cook chicken or from a site centering around video games? Those people interested in chicken recipes you share in a blog post are more likely to buy that recipe book.
In a sense, you need to think of your blog as a type of business. Because it kind of is. In reality, you’re marketing yourself as an expert in the blogging niche. So, you need to focus as such.
Would Apple be the company it is known for if it decided to compete with Johnson and Johnson to produce baby powder? Probably not.
A focus niche for a blog is just as important as a specific product from a manufacturer. Yes, Apple makes more electronics than just phones. But that’s the company’s niche: electronics.
What Blogging Niche is Your Favorite?
So before you jump into the world of blogging with the purpose of making a living, think to yourself what can hold your attention over the long term. Because it’ll take a while before you can see any profit from the experience.
And that process is much easier to handle if your blogging niche is something you thoroughly enjoy.
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