As a blogger, you want your work read extensively, but you also likely have an eye on turning a profit. Your blog niche directly affects your blog’s monetization opportunities, the size of your audience, how beastly the competition is and other factors. The sky’s the limit when it comes to blog topics and sub-topics, so how can you decide what to focus on?
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How to Choose a Blog Niche
One of the most important factors to focus on when selecting a new blog niche is your expertise. What do you have to offer on this topic that others haven’t already said in their blogs? In addition, you need to be 100% passionate about your chosen topic. Remember, a blog takes years to develop and requires regular nurturing. You’ll need to write hundreds of posts (or hire ghostwriters to help out.) Don’t choose a topic that you’ll grow tired of after a year or two.
Top Blog Niches
While weighing your options, it’s helpful to identify the top blog niches. Why? Your competition in these popular topics will be fierce, which means you’ll face an uphill battle trying to build an audience and gain an edge in search engine results pages. On the other hand, these niches are popular for a reason. Their audience size is far more massive than a highly specialized niche. So, what are the top blog niches? (Notably, these are also some of the most profitable niches. This is one way to monetize your blog.)
Crafts and Do-It-Yourself
Lifestyle
Digital Marketing
Food and Cooking
Personal Finance and Investing
Making Money Online
Blogging (as in blogging about blogging)
Self-Care/ Personal Development
Now, you don’t have to focus on the full realm of food and cooking. In fact, you probably shouldn’t. Instead, consider refined sub-topics, such as a site dedicated entirely to dessert recipes.
An Evergreen Niche vs a Trending Niche
It takes years for a blog to gain popularity and substantial traffic. If you choose a trending niche, your site may become irrelevant long before it takes off. On the other hand, an evergreen topic, such as personal finance, self-care or others listed above, maintain relevance for decades. Keep in mind that your blog posts may not all remain relevant, but the traffic to your website can grow as you continue updating and creating content.
Do Your Research
Research popular websites and their posts for the niche you’re interested in. Make a list of popular keywords in your niche. Then, use platforms like Keyhole, SocialPilot or Hootsuite to research related social media data. This is because one of the best ways to market your posts and draw traffic to your blog website is social media marketing.
In addition, take advantage of site analytics for your competition and keyword analytics to determine how many searches the keywords generate. If your niche is over-saturated, you may have a tough time gaining traction. Some of the resources to use for market research are:
SemRush
SERanking
SerpStat
SEP PowerSuite
Sitechecker Pro
SimilarWeb
WebCEO
UberSuggest
Ahrefs
Your Blog’s Unique Selling Proposition
Spend time analyzing who your audience is for a specific niche that interests you. So, think about what your audience is interested in, what they’re concerned about, what their goals are and what they need to learn about.
Your unique selling proposition describes how your site is differentiated from the others. So, what perspective can you offer? How can you provide a better experience for the target audience? This affects your website’s branding as well as its content, so the USP should be defined before building your site.