Niche-blogging is the art of finding some particular topic or subject-matter on which you’ll produce helpful content for the community that gathers around that topic. There are a lot of stereotypes surrounding the issue of niche-blogging and many people begin their quest for the right niche with all the wrong questions.
I’d like to offer some guidance toward what I feel would be the very best niche in which you could possibly blog. So what’s the best niche of all for you to blog in?
Blog About a Niche You Love
I love leadership, ministry, and theology. So I blog about them. It’s a difficult niche to monetize, but I don’t care – it’s my calling, my love, and what I’m passionate about. I don’t blog about the travel industry, which is one of the easier ones to monetize, because that’s no where my love lies. What do you love? What turns your crank?
Blog About a Niche With a Community You Love
I love fellow ministers and pastors, so I write a lot of my posts on my pastoral blog to them. I love the community I’m in. I also love bloggers. I like interacting with other bloggers and writers, so I blog about the blogging niche. It’s fully saturated with other great blogs about blogging, but I don’t care. I love the community of bloggers.
Blog About a Niche About Which You Know Something
Sometimes the opportunistic entrepreneur in us wants to blog about what’s hot, so we jump in. Two months later, our blog is either laying in the rubble or we’re scrambling to get rid of it for a decent price. Why? We ran out of steam. You don’t have to have two months worth of posts written to begin a niche blog, but I think it’s a good idea to have at least two months worth of ideas swimming around in your head before launching.
If you blog within a niche you love, where you feel you’re a part of the community, and about which you can share out of a flow of creative thoughts then you’re going to last. And lasting is the key to success in blogging. If you want to grow your influence and authority on any subject, these three principles are essential. If you want to monetize an idea, this is an important strategy.
What’s the best niche for you? How in the world should I know? You tell me!
About Brandon Cox
I hope I am not being Rude. But let me put my views out for you to decide on that.
A Niche is a GAP in the market that is not yet explored or there is not much information about.
If you are blogging about a niche, then it should fall under this category. If not its not a NICHE.
Very sound advice Brandon. Cannot agree with you more. You have to love what you do, and you have to have some knowledge of what you write about.
If blogging becomes a burden and a struggle, why do it. If you write about something you have little knowledge about then you will fail.
My blog is in a tough niche. It is technical. It’s about Blogging, Programming and web design. Loads of competition. But that’s what I love, that where my knowledge is. That’s what I do every day. So it works. I just have to work a lot harder.
.-= Robert Bravery´s last blog ..Happy New Year 2010 =-.
You’re right Robert – tough niche, but remember that your goal is to become indidspensable to one blogger at a time.
Brandon, I just saw your .info site. I like how you set that up. Do you have a post that you’ve written or another site you could point to that talks about good uses for a personal branding type of page?
What type of traffic do you try and direct to your .info page? How are you using it, etc…
Thanks.
Bill, thanks for noticing. I primarily use my .info site as a sort of hub to link out to everything else. I had designed my own, but really fell in love with the great service of Magntize and highly recommend them.
And I do plan on doing a post soon on various options for a personally branded hub site – Magntize being near the top of the list.
Thanks for the tip on Magntize. very nice service. Love how easy it is. i just setup a site that I’m working on: http://billwolfe.magntize.com. still need to point a domain to it, but I’m really liking the service so far.
I agree. One can only be good in something if it interests him. So much about me and sports ^_^;
My niche is the aniblogosphere, and as with you and above commenters it’s also hardly monetisable.
That brings me on the idea that any niche-blogging is hardly monetisable. But the blogging itself and the communication to fellow bloggers (animebloggers in my case) is much more interesting.
.-= Eugen R.´s last blog ..The appereance of Nagahara Aiko and our meido syndrome =-.
That’s a good way to look at it. I think sometimes with niche-blogging, you have to seek out advertisers and convince them of the value.
The 2nd one is important. Even if we don’t know, we should have the tendency and interest to learn and then only can go ahead with blogging. Simply started writing without knowing anything will leave us to the dead end..
.-= BlogrPro´s last blog ..Subscribing to / Unsubscribing from Newsletters? Then you are in Danger! =-.
Very true, and thanks for commenting!
Brandon,
My blog is “targeted” to the Christian small business owner. I used quotes because it seems to be at the intersection of two topics that Google just doesn’t seem to think belongs together. It’s also, as you suggested, hard to monetize.
It seems to be a strange niche that bloggers have either over-spiritualized or pay lip service to Christianity. I am trying to strike a balance between the two – only time will tell if I am successful.
If this was not an area that I had a deep interest and expertise in then I would never had chose the niche.
Brad
.-= Brad Harmon´s last blog ..5 Ways to Tell if Your Small Business is a Social Media Lemming? =-.
Brad, I think it’s a good niche, personally, and a greatly needed one. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for writing this post Brandon, I completely agree with you, and Eren. There are so many people getting stuck into their topic of interest, and their passion and knowledge on their subject really comes across to their consumers! There’s no point trying to enter a market that is only of interest to you because you believe it’s a money maker – for this reason alone it will be more competitive, harder to sell and you are much more likely to loose interest, and in-turn, it will be just like a bad, unsuccessful job!!
Blogging on your topic of interest will never get boring and you’ll meet lots of like minded people. Make your mark on a topic you’re proud of – I enjoy blogging about small business development and marketing because it’s a subject close to my heart, and there’s always lots to share!!
Thanks again for your post – all the best
Marie
MySmallBusinessBible.com
.-= Marie´s last undefined ..If you register your site for free at =-.
Why you’re welcome, Marie, and thank you!
What you know (you professional expertise, etc.), what you do (your work,etc.), what you like (your hobbies and interests), and the things you would have fun by learning (for me photoshop). They would all make very good topics for blogging.
.-= InternetHow Blog´s last blog ..What did you learn from blogging? =-.
That’s an excellent summary – good way to put it.
Twitter: erenmckay
says:
Your timing is amazing, Brandon. I was just talking to one of my best friends about this. I told her that my life already consists of so many things that I do not enjoy that if I have to write about something it has to be about what I’m passionate about.
If it were any other way I’d just ahve to go out and get a job. I can’t separate myself from what I write- totally impossible. Love what you wrote.
All the best,
Eren
.-= Eren Mckay´s last blog ..Ways to meet and make friends online =-.
Eren, I’m glad it was meaningful to you!!
Great post! I would dread to blog about something that I didn’t enjoy.
.-= Design Informer´s last blog ..Why I Can’t Stop Blogging About Design =-.
I don’t think we last long when we dread what we do.
agreed.
glad.