Making Money Blogging — How to Pick a Niche Idea That Actually Works
If you’re looking to start your own blog and make money blogging, you’ll want to choose an idea that you enjoy and that has enough of an audience to support your income needs.
There are many different ways to make money blogging, but first, you have to choose the right niche idea that will allow you to grow a sustainable business around your personal interests.
Here are some tips for choosing the right niche idea that will allow you to make money blogging in no time.
Choose a Topic You’re Passionate About
No matter what kind of content you’re creating, you need to be truly interested in it. If you’re not genuinely excited about it, your writing will suffer.
For example, if you’re blogging about running, then talk about how much you love running or how terrible you are at it (or both!). If writing isn’t your passion, consider getting an online business degree and focusing on marketing strategies for your clients instead.
Choose Your Passions Carefully
When it comes to making money blogging, one of your most important decisions is choosing your niche. The problem is that no matter how much you love cooking or decorating, people just aren’t interested in paying for it.
Instead, they want you to write about things like SEO tactics and how to sell on eBay. Choosing a passion should be easy, but too many bloggers (especially new ones) overcomplicate it by choosing topics they think will make them money instead of taking an honest look at what interests them.
If you’ve chosen a topic because you think it’ll make money, ask yourself: Can I see myself blogging about this for years? Do I even care about it?
Balance Passion with Profitability
Picking a niche you love is important, but so is picking one that’s profitable. There are plenty of blogs and websites dedicated to niches like weight loss, gardening, and books/authors, but it can be difficult to monetize these sites unless you have tens of thousands of visitors every month.
If you’re looking for ways to make money blogging, think about creating content that your readers will find useful enough to pay for. For example, if you’re into beauty or cooking and have developed expertise in those areas from years of reading recipes or writing product reviews, consider doing paid posts on an online forum or website.
Research the Market
Before you start creating content, it’s important to learn what your readers want. Look at some of your favorite blogs or blogs that are related to yours and see what they cover. Check out their About pages and make sure you understand who they are writing for. If you can’t tell from an About page, check out a few posts and read comments on them too.
Look for patterns in topics people respond well to, do lots of people comment about fitness? Cookbooks? Self-improvement? Do some of your favorite bloggers write about topics like these?
If so, try incorporating those themes into your posts as well, your audience will love you for it. Create more engaging content with templates like these.
Don’t Be Afraid to Experiment
Entrepreneurship is about experimentation and attempting new things. It’s perfectly acceptable and even encouraged, for you to try something once or twice and realize it just doesn’t work. Whether it was pricing or a feature set or your marketing efforts, you can learn from your experiments by looking at what worked and what didn’t.
For example, maybe you started an email newsletter but gave up after six months because subscribers weren’t converting into buyers. However, now that you know how many subscribers it takes before buyers start showing up in droves, you can use that data as part of your next experiment. In other words: failing faster allows you to succeed sooner.
Don’t Hesitate to Pivot
It’s always easier said than done, but don’t be afraid to change course if your initial idea doesn’t pan out. The name of your business might get changed, and you might even need to rethink aspects of how you do business. Your goals should remain constant and immovable, but there is plenty of room for experimentation.
While your website may have been intended as a passive income project to supplement your current earnings, it could end up being much more successful than that. If it looks like it won’t pan out in its original form or direction or if another opportunity presents itself, don’t be afraid to shift gears.
Final Thoughts
When you’re picking your niche, you should ask yourself:
Do I have something unique to say?
Does my passion for writing extend beyond my knowledge of and interest in (the subject) (the topic)?
Do I know people who are interested in reading about (this subject)?
If not, do I have friends who can introduce me? And if not, how do I find those people?
You don’t want a situation where it’s just you, beavering away in your basement at midnight. Chances are good that if you develop an audience, others will share your interests and will be happy that you took on such an ambitious project. You might even inspire someone else.
