Introduction
Choosing a niche for your blog is one of the most important steps you will take in building your website. It can also be one of the hardest! To help you through this process, we’ve put together a list of guidelines that should help you find the right niche for your blog. From there, it’s just about making the business decision to go with it.
Niche down.
When you get to the point where you’ve narrowed down your blog’s topic and audience, it can be tempting to try to hone in even further. It’s easy to say, “Well, I could write about this one thing for 100 years.” But what if your blog doesn’t make money? Or what if it does make money, but ultimately isn’t something that people will want from you?
The truth is that most niches are too broad or too narrow. If you focus on a niche that’s too broad (say, “digital marketing”), there are other bloggers doing an already good job covering all of the bases in that area—and they’ve been doing so for years. You won’t be able to compete with them unless your writing is significantly better than theirs—which means that instead of building a successful business off of digital marketing content, which is what we’re here for today (remember?), we’d rather look at something else!
Get honest about yourself and your business long-term goals.
The next step is to get honest about yourself and your business long-term goals. You need to know what you are not good at, and be willing to delegate those tasks to someone else who can do them better than you.
You also need to be able to articulate your long term plans for the business, as well as how blogging fits into that vision. If blogging doesn’t fit into your long-term plans or if it is only a hobby of yours, then don’t start a blog!
After all this introspection, what should be clear by now is whether or not blogging will help grow your business in any meaningful way. If it doesn’t seem like it will be helpful for growing revenue or customer base (and if you’re already doing other things that work better), then consider leaving this idea behind.
Figure out what you want to be known for.
Before you begin, you need to figure out what you want to be known for. Your brand is important, as it will help determine the type and style of content that resonates best with your audience.
If you’re still trying to figure out exactly what niche fits your blog, here are some questions to ask yourself:
- What am I good at?
- What do I like doing?
- How can I make money from my passion?
Once you have an idea of where this journey will take you.
Ask yourself if your niche is too crowded.
Before you pick a niche, ask yourself if your niche is too crowded. This can be tough to determine, but it’s important. If everyone else in your industry knows everything about it and there are hundreds of other blogs offering the same content, then chances are that the market is saturated. On the other hand, if few people know about your industry or there isn’t much competition, then you may have found yourself a gold mine!
Here are some questions to help guide you through this process:
- How many people already know about this topic?
- Are there already many blogs in my niche?
- Can I stand out from my competitors by offering something unique?
Think about whether or not blogging will help you stand out in your niche.
Does blogging help you stand out in your niche?
When it comes to finding the right blog niche, you want to make sure that not only is the market large enough for you to make money, but also that there aren’t already hundreds of other bloggers in the same space. If there are thousands of other blogs out there about your topic, it’s going to be very difficult for yours to get noticed. However, if there are only a handful of other blogs on the same subject as yours (or no other blogs at all!), then this could be an indicator that this is a great opportunity for you!
As always though: do some research before making any decisions! It’s important that whatever niche(s) you choose have enough demand and traffic potential so that it will actually be worth starting up a blog about them.
Don’t get stuck in analysis paralysis.
There are two important things to keep in mind here. First, don’t spend too much time on the decision.
Second, don’t overthink it.
Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. It’s easy to get stuck in analysis paralysis when choosing a niche for your blog, but that’s no reason not to start today!
You’re probably already aware of this next tip: don’t let fear hold you back from doing something valuable with your life and instead allow it to paralyze you from making any progress whatsoever.
Think like a reader, not like a blogger.
One of the most important things you need to do when starting your blog is think like a reader. Think about what you would want to read.
As a blogger, it’s easy to get caught up in all of the details that come with choosing a niche: should I choose fashion or food? Should I focus on wellness or interior design? These are important questions and topics that need to be considered, but they’re also ones that can be endlessly debated. And while debating your niche might sound like fun at first, there’s no point in arguing if none of it makes sense for your business goals (or personal goals).
Instead of getting caught up in the details of choosing a niche and worrying about what other people are doing, focus on what will make sense for YOUR business—and YOUR readership—from day one!
Conclusion
You can be a successful blogger even if your niche is crowded. The key is to pick out the parts of the market that don’t have enough representation, find ways to make it unique and different from what already exists, and then get started focusing on creating content for those readers!
