Aim: Helping you find the right subject or niche to blog about
In my opinion, choosing the right subject or niche is one of the hardest decisions you will ever make in your blogging career. The thing is, there is no definitive right or wrong answer as far as I know! When I talk to new bloggers, I always get the idea that many of them are making the process of choosing a subject too complicated. Don't get me wrong, I have been in similar situations where I've talked myself out of making a blog mainly because I'm asking myself too many questions; Is it worth it? Will I see any return? Will people like and follow my blog? Do I know enough about 'x' subject? Will I ever get to the top of Google with 'x' subject? It's good (in a way) that such questions are being asked. It's also good when we have reassurance off successors in the field that our plan (which in this case is choosing a subject) has the potential of paying off; either in the form of money, traffic or both.
Think of this... What's the point of making a blog about pharmaceuticals? If you do not know, this is a very very competitive and saturated subject on the internet. It's raking in £1,000,000's a year for online businesses that have authority in this subject. Unless you are able to hit this subject from a different angle (target a certain drug within the fitness niche for example) or is an expert in the field that can create unique and never-seen-before content, I'm 110% sure you will never see yourself ranked by Google. On the opposite end of the scale, what's the point of making a blog on a subject nobody has ever heard about or has interest in?
Before you go about wasting your time and money buying a domain and creating content, have a quick look through this article to see whether your chosen blogging subject fits the bill...
Are you interested in your chosen subject?
This is very important! I have first-hand experience on what it's like blogging about something completely against my interests and what I do. It's tempting to start a blog on a subject that seems to be more commercially viable compared to something based on your interests. Essentially, you could be blogging for months before seeing any sort of traffic or income. If you can seriously see yourself still being able to regularly add content 12 months down the line and be motivated and passionate about what you say, I definitely think you are on your way in finding the perfect blogging subject.
When I have gone against this point, I have found it really difficult to continually add new content after the first month of opening. This is when I would recommend outsourcing your articles and blog content to someone else. You can find very cheap outsourcing deals on websites such as Fiverr, oDesk and Warrior Forum.
Is the subject popular?
This point is a no-brainer. It's not enough for just you as a blogger to have an interest in a particular subject. Unless other internet users are also interested in your blog subject or want (possibly crave) information on the subject your writing articles about, you're never going to have any visitors. This is a sad prospect that will see you eventually stop writing new content for your blog.
A great way to find out whether a particular subject is popular or not is by using the Google Keyword tool. Type in your particular subject and see how many local and global monthly searches there are for that particular phrase. If there are over 1,000 local monthly searches, you could be on for a winning subject!
What is the online competition like for your chosen subject?
If you used the Google Keyword tool to check the popularity of your chosen subject, you might have also seen the competition level. I would personally advise you to start low-medium competition phrase; anything of high competition might be too hard for you to rank in. As Darren Rowse rightly said on his blog (ProBlogger)...
"One of the traps that some bloggers get sucked into when choosing a topic is to go for the most popular topics with no regard for the competition that they might face in those markets. The chances are if you have identified a niche that you think is ‘hot’ at the moment that someone else will have also. It’s demand and supply coming into play again – for any level of demand for information on a topic there will only be a certain number of sources of that information that will be needed on that topic."
Can you beat the competition for your chosen subject?
Why not search the subject in Google and see what the top 10 results bring you... Put yourself in a typical internet users shoes and think about all the good and bad points about each website. Is there anything it's lacking? Is the accessibility and navigation good? Would you buy from them? Is their on-page SEO good? How many backlinks do they have? By analysing and evaluating the top 10 results, you should be able to see whether you can fit into the subject or not to gain the visibility and traffic you deserve.
Do you have enough knowledge about the subject to post on a regular basis?
This is mainly down to whether you are interested in the subject or not. If you haven't got 20 or so potential article ideas in your head, you might struggle in the long run by finding it difficult to add new content. Again, I would recommend outsourcing your articles and blog content to someone else if this is the case.
What type of internet user is your subject for?
Consider this alongside your blogging aims to see whether they match. If you are considering an Amazon affiliates blog for example, you are after buyers rather than information seekers. If your blog subject is tornadoes, you are more likely to get information seekers than buyers. Essentially, without going into too much detail, your conversion rates and online profit from affiliation is going to suck big time! On the other-hand, you could have a blog reviewing the best (and dearest) lawn mowers available on the market. As there are more buyers coming to your website interested in buying a new lawn mower, your conversion rates and online profit (compared to the tornadoes blog) will improve tenfold.
It would be amazing to find a subject that agrees with all these points, unfortunately it just never happens. Overall, what you need to think about are the positives and weaknesses of your chosen subject and work them to your advantage. Get blogging today!
If you have any questions or problems please post them in the comments area and I will get back to as soon as possible! Please subscribe to Blogspot SEO via our feed and receive a free eBook '20 SEO Secrets' that will definitely help increase your blog ranking.
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6 comments:
Wow, I'm going to have to start pinging more often. Would you say once per day?
@ GeGe Hey. Pinging is great for notifying search engines of new content on your blog or website. With regards to your question; I would say only ping when you have new content that you want the search engines to see. Pinging existing content (that has been indexed already), is not recommended. I hope this helps.
Your article about subject of niche is well written and meaningful. Thanks so much for this info, extremely useful for a noob like me. Finding your blog very interesting reading too.
@ Andru Thanks, it's really good knowing my article guides are helping people out!
Yes, your post is really helpful to everyone who wants to have a blog, especially newbies.
@ Lenny Thanks! I've made quite a few mistakes where I started a blog solely on something I thought would make me an online income. I didn't have a clue about the niche, and by 3 months stopped posting and started to outsource all my work. Just blog about something you love!
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