How to choose a niche for your blog
Blogging has taken off over the last 10 years, which has inspired many of us to share our passion with the world. Having the desire to blog is the first step in a great journey, but choosing your niche is the next big decision to make. You probably already have an idea of what you want your blog to be about, but trying to really hone in on your niche.
Niche blogs become much more successful than random information blogs, because when people search for something online, it's always very specific. Which means, you need to be on the ball and very direct about what you want to share on your blog.
Take some time to narrow down your key topics, just think about it like this; if people who love baking want to find new recipes, they will follow a food blog that shares baking recipes. How do you find your niche? Let's get into it.
Blog about something you love
You've probably heard this a million times, but although very cliché, it holds a lot of truth. When you choose to blog about something you're passionate about you will never run out of ideas, you won't get tired of your blog and abandon it, your content will be frequent and your readers will be able to sense the genuine love you have for your blog. Which will result in repeat readers and a following that supports your blog and growth.
If you decided to choose a topic based on popularity, you will very quickly run out of steam and your readers will become dissatisfied with your content. Another issue would be the knowledge and experience you have for your niche. It will be 10 times harder to write about something you know nothing about.
What are you passionate about?
Finding your passion can seem a little confusing, I know for me, it would be pretty hard to pinpoint just one thing, but if I had to choose, over everything I would choose writing about my experience as a mother. Now let's get to yours.
Ask yourself these questions:
What are my favourite hobbies?
What do I spend most of my free time doing?
What could I talk about for hours on end if I had the chance?
If I could do one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
If you're still stuck trying to figure out what you could write about without having to do any work prior, then give this a go. Jot down your top 5 hobbies, the ones you know you'll do if you had a few free hours today. Now, under each hobby, write 5 post ideas, after you've done this, think about the hobby that was the easiest to find blog post titles for. The one you found it easiest to write about, may be the perfect niche for you.
This means you don't have to cringe at the thought of writing a blog post, you'll end up jumping right in and sharing awesome content.
Is there a niche within your niche?
The blogging world has grown substantially and odds are there is a blog or two out there, sharing what you have chosen as your niche. This doesn't mean you'll need to go head-to-head with these blogs, what you'll need to do is find out what they are not blogging about. Every niche has various topics within them, so you can focus on one particular area, that no one has tapped into just yet.
Wait....remember that this niche needs to have some form of market traction, so you need to do some research to find out whether people are actually searching for this information online. Do some Google searches yourself and see what the results are. Get on Twitter and Instagram and check out various hashtags relating to your niche. If you can see that there is a market for your niche and the potential to be the number one blog for this gap in the market, then you're all ready to go.
Although you have chosen a niche, remember that you can change this as time goes on. This will save you from going into a hole when you're feeling a little stuck for content and ideas. Pivoting is fine, but it just helps from the very beginning to choose a niche and then as both yourself and your blog develops, you can go down a new route.
Don't feel daunted by changing focus, sometimes this is a massive part of growing and evolving.
Get infront of your ideal reader
Every niche has their own tribe/community. Finding yours can be the start of connecting with readers who value the kind of content you have planned and ready to share. I strongly believe in building a community, even more so for bloggers.
Find out where your niche hangs out online and connect, then you can start sharing your content with them, by being the person who answers the questions they have been searching for online.
Blogging isn't just about writing content and choosing the niche that's popular because it brings traction. It's much more than that; you need passion and a lot of it to make it work. No one wants to write about something they have no love or interest in, you'll naturally lose interest much quicker than you think. Once you have your niche you will be in a great position to share value and connect with brands whose target market is in line with your niche. This makes it a lot easier to work together, because you both share similar interests.
Thinking about branding for your blog? Get started here.
