What topic should I blog about?
There’s a short preface coming up next; you can choose to skip it and dive right into the steps.
What Is a Blogging Niche and Why Do You Need it?
1. Things that Interest You and that Readers are Looking For
2. Sustainability
3. Monetization potential
4. Future Development
Sometimes I wonder, if we want to create a blog that showcases our voice, why do we have to generate topics through research?
What I mean here is not just a simple life diary as dull as a shopping list; the articles still have the nature of comments, experiences, sharing, etc.
For example, if you enjoy watching movies or TV shows and want to share your thoughts, you could write a review or an article sharing your experience after watching a film.
If you’re passionate about makeup and fashion, you might want to share a list of your favorite items and offer tips on choosing the best ones.
Or perhaps you love cooking and creating recipes, and you’d like to share the recipes you’ve developed.
Starting from your interests and hobbies, you can naturally come up with topics: the ones you excel at, the things you want to share, and the content you’re best at writing about.
And when you combine them all, it might be seen as a category: lifestyle, which encompasses everything.
If you’re not concerned about monetizing your blog, you might consider starting this way.
You don’t have to stress about writing an article after a busy day and worry about whether it will bring in money for your blog. There’s less pressure when there’s no income expectation.
Could a blog like this make money down the line?
Once I read a post on a blog. Her blog covers food (restaurant and snack reviews), beauty, travel, personal finance, and more. One day, she got the chance to promote products and earn commissions online. When she wrote a post about the products and shared it, the number of people purchasing through her link exceeded her expectations.
But I have to be honest, she isn’t very diligent about updating her blog regularly, and currently only sees her blogging income as a small side gig (it hasn’t reached full-time income yet). Her profile still says she’s just a regular 9-to-5er.
If your goal is to monetize your blog as much as possible, pick a niche.
Before start... What Is a Blogging Niche and Why Do You Need it?
Niche: It’s the overarching theme of your blog, the topic covered by blog posts, and the foundation of your content. It’s all about satisfying the specific focus of certain readers.
A niche enables a blog to…
- A well-defined and stable niche can be more appealing to the right audience. You might find it easier to attract loyal followers who will sign up for your content, follow you, and even purchase the products you recommend.
- Helps cultivate your online community. When your followers share common interests, it’s easier for them to connect and engage with each other on topics. For example, if you have a Facebook group, they might start chatting under a certain post! This boosts reader interaction and participation, building a stronger community bond.
- If you focus on a clearly targeted niche, you can become an expert over time. If you consistently provide helpful and reliable content, people will seek you out for that reason and recommend your blog to their friends. Google Search Central also mentions in the SEO Starter Guide the connection between reader and professionalism. When Google sees that your website can better meet the needs of readers, it also helps with SEO.”
You might even get invited to write guest postings or talk on podcasts, and some publishers might approach you, hoping to compile your blog content into a book! This could have a positive impact and drive traffic to your blog.
Here are 4 steps to help you find your blogging niche.
Let’s get started and brainstorm!
1. Things that Interest You and that Readers are Looking For
What are readers looking for?
If there’s doubt, someone out there might be “in need”.
You’re here because you’ve got questions about choosing a blog theme, so you clicked on this article!
There are always questions in life, ranging from small ones like how to use drawer storage boxes, to bigger ones like how to choose a house and what to pay attention to when decorating it, and so on. Anything that causes doubt in life is worth writing an article about with your unique insights.(Data shows that “Before buying something, 61% of readers look for recommendations from bloggers”.)
So how to know what readers are “looking for”? Don’t panic, there is a wider range of topics to choose from than you think.
From food to fashion, to finance, according to the survey, food blogs can earn a median income of $9,169 and have the most traffic. Next come personal finance blogs with $9,100, lifestyle or mom blogs with $5,174, and travel blogs in fourth place with $5,000. Most of these top four topics are part of daily life. It’s not that difficult to find content to write about from everyday experiences, right?
Why focus on things that interest you?
Well, aside from preventing writing from becoming boring, it also ensures that you can produce more meaningful articles since you’re genuinely interested in the topic.
At this step, you can:
- Choose a topic that interests you, aligns with your areas of expertise, or something you want to explore.
- Write down who you think the target audience will be for the topic. (Each topic corresponds to one target audience.)
- Use Google Trends to search for keywords related to the content you want to write about. This can help you identify the categories you can develop under the theme. Also, use Google or Pinterest to see if the audience you want to reach matches the content of the topic. This can help you ensure that you’re not just stuck in your own bubble.
At this stage, you might consider keeping a few options for the next step of screening.
Example.
I suggest there needs to be connectivity.
- List the possible target audiences of all topics (inquiry).
- Confirm whether the audience of the topics overlaps? (It is recommended that there be overlap)
- Can you describe it in a short sentence without feeling awkward? For example: I want to write about fashion & music: “This is a fashion blog for musicians. You can find music and fashion content here.” Okay! This sentence is really basic, but I think you know what I mean!
If you want to include a variety of themes (food, travel, handicrafts, etc.), you can consider creating a theme as “lifestyle”. The key difference in theme coverage is the target audience groups (those who love food and travel, travel and handicrafts, or all of them).
Generally speaking, topics shouldn’t be too different, like offering fitness advice for young people and discussing how to choose a nursing home. This can confuse incoming readers.
2.Sustainability
Can I write out a cornerstone article? How many new articles can continue to generate?
A high-quality cornerstone article is the core of the blog. It helps boost traffic and aims for a higher rank in the search engines. Usually, it’s rich, comprehensive, and evergreen content.
The purpose of considering in advance whether you can keep producing new articles is to prevent you from getting carried away by temporary passion and then getting stuck after writing only a few articles!
At this step, you can:
- Write down possible concepts for cornerstone articles on the topic.
- List the “categories” that the topic can be divided into, and come up with at least 5-10 article ideas for each category. If you have too few categories, try to generate a total of 10-15 article ideas.
Writing these will help you organize your thoughts, understand your own perspectives on the topic, and determine if you’re adept at writing articles about this topic.
If you’re completely stuck at this step, it suggests that you might not be very skilled at writing about the selected topics.
In that case, you may need to revisit the previous step and reconsider your options. This is also why I suggest keeping two or three options in the previous step.
3. Monetization Potential
The first idea is usually advertising, which is almost ubiquitous on the Internet, followed by affiliate marketing, and then the increasingly popular e-books and online courses.
When it comes to blog income, the main sources are indeed affiliate programs (42%) and advertising (33%). However, Food blog breaks the rules by relying mainly on advertising for its income.
The channels for making money are almost the same, but the proportion of income sources will vary depending on the blog theme. If you don’t want to spend too much time searching for affiliate products and promoting them, then you might consider starting a food blog!
At this step, you can:
- Check the niches you have considered. What are the common ways to monetize?
- Try to figure out what the most common way to monetize is.
Make sure you can accept these two points, then move on to the next step.
Alternatively, if you decide on the niche at this step, start thinking of a blog name and domain.
4. Future Development
Can you sell your own products or services (existing or future)?
Consider selling the products you create as part of your blog’s future development because you don’t have to go through someone else.
Advertising, affiliate marketing, etc., all involve selling other people’s products (or services) and sharing the profits. You may worry about changes in profit sharing and various passive accidents.
But when selling your own products, you have most of the control, from planning content and setting selling prices to putting items on shelves and even providing after-sales services.
Can you create a marketable product based on your chosen niche? This could include ebooks, courses, digital planners, printable digital products, and more.
If your initial plan involves selling products or offering services through your blog, your posts or pages should reflect this. When writing blog posts, ensure they are designed to pique readers’ interest in your products or showcase your services, making them eager to purchase or hire you.
This is also a strategy for many traffic-driven blogs to open up and gain more autonomy, giving them a more professional appearance.
If you haven’t launched a product yet, don’t worry. You’re just starting now. From an entrepreneurial perspective, it would be great to eventually be able to sell more than just your own products or services, as it can also diversify risks.
“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”
I believe that after many rounds of screening, you’ve decided on a blog niche. Now, it’s time to start building and owning your own blog!
Well, the general direction can’t be changed, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have some diverse content.
Your blog’s topic sets the main direction for your writing and information sharing. While it’s important to stay on topic, you don’t have to stick to it rigidly.
Although it’s not recommended to stray too far from your niche, don’t let your topic dictate everything.
But… have you ever experienced the following situation?
When I was searching for instructions on how to create a blog, I once stumbled upon a food blog. It had a category for starting a blog, with articles on how to create one and how to make money from it.
But when I explored other parts of the blog, it was still primarily focused on food.The category wasn’t enough content in that category. However, she used those articles to attract visitors and increase traffic.
And what happened next? Well, I never returned to that blog, and I can’t even recall its name!
It’s not necessary to embark on the blogging journey unprepared, but don’t overthink it. Pick ones you’re passionate about and can talk about.
Then, learn by doing.
You can PIN this article and come back anytime to find the Niche.
