This is a question I get all the time from my students, so I will do my best to answer it in a way that will help most people “get it”. You can learn how to make money with a blog or you can learn how to generate great content for your blog. They are pretty much one in the same. Your blog is your website. What you put on the site distinguishes it from the many other millions of sites that are on the Internet. You want your blog to be special.
You want it to appeal to a specific subset of the Internet population. The better you get a appealing to a select segment of the Internet, the higher the probability you have of making some money from your blogging. The is where you niche selection comes in. You want to pick a topic for your blog that has appeal and people are willing to spend money in it. That is the beginning. I will cover some top tips on picking the right topic to write about on your niche blog. This should help get you pointed in the right direction as you try to build your own “make money blog”. Here are my thoughts:
1. Pick A Niche You Know Something About — This may seem like common sense to you, but is often overlooked by new blog owners. If you select your niche only because you see “big bucks” being spent there, you are probably wrong. I won’t say absolutely wrong. You may be a great researcher. You may be able to pick up on new topics with ease. If you are not one of these types of people, you want to pick a topic you have some good experience with. If not, the research required to get your blog rolling is going to kill you.
2. Pick A Niche Where People Are Spending Money For Information — This is a key one. You want to make certain that there is money being spend “for information” in your niche. You need to do your homework online and off line. You want to make sure there are magazines printed for your niche. You also want to make sure people are advertising on Google for your top key words. These are good indicators that money is being spend in your chosen niche “for information”. If you want to make money blogging, you need to make sure you are selling things that people are willing to buy. You do not want to be “trail blazing” in your niche. You can not afford to take this kind of risk with your time and work. Pick a niche where money is being spent…period.
3. Select A Topic That It Doesn’t Make You Sick Thinking About Writing About It — This is an interesting one. I have used this statement with a number of my students and clients. If writing about this topic for many hours over the next few weeks and months is going to make you go nuts, you want a different niche. If you can see yourself writing hundreds of posts and articles about a niche, you are good to go. You may eventually outsource a lot of your writing, but you are still going to have to give written instructions to get your content done. You do not want to select a “borderline” niche for your personality just because there is a lot of money on the table. That is not a good enough reason.
4. Go After A Topic That You Can Generate Solutions To Problems — If you know solutions to problems in a given niche, that is a great one for you to select. People will pay money to get solutions to nagging problems they have. If you are a solution provider, you will do great in your blogging. You will make money from your blogging, and you will have a great “fan base” that will visit your blog on a regular basis. Think long and hard and try to find a niche that you have this ability in. It will help your content generation and income dramatically.
5. Pick A Niche You Will Be Proud To Be An Expert In — If you do not like the sounds of your name as an expert in your niche, you may want to keep digging to find a better one. If you have a passion for this topic, you probably will love to hear your name thought of as an expert. You are working on becoming an “expert advice giver” in your chosen niche. That is where you are heading. You want to make sure you are OK with that distinction. It is a very good “final sort” to see if a niche is really for you.
6. Pick A Topic You Can See Yourself Working On A Year From Now — You are not going to make a lot of money blogging if you are not going to be working on it a year from now. You will be doing different work on your blog a year from now, but you will still be actively working on it. How does that sound to you? If it sounds exciting and attractive, you are probably in the right niche. You are not going to be tied to this niche forever, but you will spend a lot of hours of your time on it. You want to make sure you have the required “staying power” in this particular niche.
7. Pick A Topic You Can Write A Steady Stream Of 500 Word Articles About — I saved the best for last. If you can knock out a series of 500 word articles and posts about this topic, you have the right niche. You are going to have to generate content for your blog. It is just a fact of life. When you can easily see yourself generating an ongoing stream of articles in your niche… you have found the right one. Do not stress about all the article writing. Over time, you will be able to pay someone else to do a lot of your writing for you. For now, you are going to be on the hook for this work. You just want to make sure you are going to be able to get the work done without a huge drain on your time or your sanity.
I hope this has helped you get a better feel for what goes into a proper niche selection. You want to make sure you make the right choice now, so you don’t have any regrets down the road. Take the time to make a well thought out and informed decision on your niche, and you will be very happy you took the time to do it.
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