Three Steps to Finding a Niche for Your Blog
Are you planning to start a new blog soon? If so, one of the most important things you need to determine is your niche. In other words, you have to decide what you will be writing about and who your target audience will be. By honing in on what you will write about and who you will writing it for, you can better determine your topics while also more effectively winning over and retaining readers.
Step #1: Examine Your Personal Interests
The first step you need to take in order to determine your niche is to examine your personal interests. After all, in order to create a successful blog, you will need to post to it on a regular basis. Ideally, you should post at least once per day while your blog is still in its early stages. Therefore, you certainly want to select a topic that will retain your interest and that you will enjoy writing about. So, sit down and create a list of all of the general topics you would be interested in writing about before you move on to the next step.
Step #2: Fine Tune Your Topics
Now that you have an idea of the topics you might be interested in writing about, it is time to start doing a bit of research. Obviously, you want to write about a topic that will be of interest to as many people as possible. That way, you can bring more traffic to your site and you will have a better chance of making money through your blog if that is your goal.
In order to get an idea of what topics are of interest to people searching the web, use a tool such as Google adwords. Here, you can get an idea of the phrases that people are researching on Google as well as the amount of competition there is for those particular words. While looking at Google adwords should not serve as your final determining factor, it can give you a better idea of how to fine tune your niche. For example, if you listed pets as one of your interests, you may find that there is a great deal of interest in organic pet food. In this case, you may want to focus your blog on eco-friendly pet products or on healthy eating options for pets.
By fine tuning your niche, you can really focus on the topic and delve deeply into it, which will help you establish yourself as an authority on the topic. Later, if you want to address more pet topics, you may add another specialized niche topic to your blog or you may create a sister blog to compliment the first one you developed.
Step #3: Do Your Research
Once you have determined some more specific potential niche areas to explore with your blog, you should do a bit of research regarding blogs that are addressing this topic. Do some searches with the major search engines to learn more about other blogs that fall within your niche. Ideally, you should choose the topic with the least number of blogs already in existence. That way, you can keep your competition down, which will increase your chances of enjoying a larger audience.
If there are already several blogs addressing the topic, see if there is a way you can offer a different angle. That way, you will still have a good chance of carving out your share of the market.
Filed under: Blogging, Content | Tagged: adwords, blog, Blogging, blogs, Google, marketing, money, product, products, tools, Traffic, writing
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Hi Larry,
Finding a profitable niche is fairly easy to do and you give some great advice. Just look into whats hot right now. What magazines are people buying? What products are selling like hot cakes? What kind of websites are most popular?
The answers to these questions can lead to a profitable blog. After you find your niche, it’s all about driving traffic and monetizing from that traffic.
Best,
Matt
Matt Helphreys last blog post..Develop a Link Building Strategy
Thanks Matt, I do research on Google Insights to see what is hot at times when I consider a niche also.
Way to go, Larry. Just the easy 1-2-3 steps, even the junior high students can do it as well (It’s a compliment to you here!)
wilhb81s last blog post..Glad That You’re Happy, Debbie!
I have a pretty good niche but don’t have any idea about this steps… now I think I can select more good niches.. Thanks for this article.. I found your blog in commentluv while browsing another blog..
Jun Valaseks last blog post..Lists of Webmaster Forums that allow Signature
My problem is never finding a niche that I want to blog about .. it’s narrowing down all the niches Im interested in and want to blog about. LOL Im constantly thinking .. Yeah !! I’m gonna start another blog about this or that. LOL
Blog Tipss last blog post..the Alexa Experiment
I really wish more people would put more thought into #3. There would be a lot less crap blogs that people give up on, and a lot less frustrated surfer running into said crap. LOL
Excellent post buddy.
Dennis Edells last blog post..It’s Contest Time! The *Best Blog Review Contest* Is In Full Effect!
@wilhb81 Thanks for the compliment!
@Jun Valasek Thanks for visiting!
@Blog Tips Then tip number 3 is for you, do the research before jumping In.
@Dennis Edell Research is the key, I try and do it in all my ventures, for example my ebay business, I do not sell anything unless it sells.
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I’ve always enjoyed doing the researching part.
You can actually find some hidden niches along the way, although small but can be quite profitable if everything is in place.
Erwin Tans last blog post..Unleashing The Niche Genius In You
Most bloggers mistake niches as the bread winner. In reality, it is the MARKETS. Once you can find a good market, then you have some legs to run on.
Leos last blog post..Why Internet Marketers and Make Money Bloggers Fail
Hi Larry,
That is a great write up on finding a niche. But actually there are people who see things on a different angle. When there are a lot of competition for a particular niche, more and more people jump into this niche before it shows that this niche is a profitable one since there are so much competition.
The fact is most of this bloggers don’t even make any money online especially those in the MMO niche. But it just gives others the wrong impression that MMO niche is very profitable due to the number of MMO blogs currently.
Wei Liang
Wei Liang | Earn Money Onlines last blog post..Lesson 21: Blog Carnival
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Thanks for this heads up!
It does help if you start with your interests. Helps you to come up with content for your niche blog, for starters. And can also be helpful through the rough patches, if you feel like giving up.
It may take some time finding the right niche since the blogosphere is so saturated so I think it’s important for people not to get discouraged and give up. Stick with it! Eventually you’ll find it.
Webmaster Radios last blog post..Arbitrage google traffic like Ask.com and how Ask managed to become the 72nd biggest site in germany due to Alexa
Thanks for this info. I found it very useful, and you can look forward to reading my blog soon!
I want to listen good music!