Your blog niche could make or break the success of your site. If you don’t have a niche, your blog could do well.
But it will be much easier if you focus on one specific topic. Read on to learn more about choosing a niche.
What Is a Blog Niche?
A blog niche is the topic that your blog focuses on. You may write about different topics within that, but you’ll cover the main subject throughout most (if not all) of your posts.
Your niche can be anything from health to money to music. It’s best to choose something that interests you or that you have experience in or know about. That way, you can write the posts more easily.
Blog Niche Examples
Consider the following niches as examples for your blog:
- Art
- Business
- Crafts
- Decor
- Food
- Health
- Money
- Music
- Technology
You can choose a smaller niche, such as digital marketing, or a broader niche, such as business. A smaller niche will usually help your blog stand out early on.
However, it can also limit the topics you can cover. But you can also expand your niche as your blog grows.
How to Choose a Blog Niche
Before you start your blog, you should have an idea of the blog niche you want to focus on. No niche is right for everyone, and that’s okay.
Here are some things to keep in mind as you name your blog and select a topic for it.
Start With Your Education
First, you should think about your education. If you’ve gone to college or are in college, think about your major. I studied music in college, so that’s what my first blog is all about.
But maybe you studied creative writing, so you start a blog about that. You probably had to take a lot of courses on your chosen major. That means you’ll have a lot of expertise to use to write the content.
When you know the subject, you won’t have to spend as much time researching the topic. You can sit down and write a post much more quickly, which can help you create more content.
Think About Your Interests
Another thing to do is figure out what interests you. Maybe you love cooking healthy recipes for yourself. Or perhaps you enjoy painting or doing ceramics.
All of those things could lead to a great blog niche. Sure, you may not have a degree in the subject. But you probably have expertise and knowledge that you’ve gained from doing the hobby.
Consider how you spend your free time. Then, write down the activities you do. You could end up with a huge list of niche ideas for your new blog.
Consider Current and Past Jobs
Another thing to keep in mind is your work history. Maybe you’ve worked at McDonald’s and know a lot about the restaurant. You could start a blog where you share tips to save money there.
Or perhaps you’ve worked as a travel agent. You can use that experience to start a travel blog.
Not every job will naturally lead to a blog niche. However, you never know what could help you come up with a topic. If you worked a job for a while, you’ll probably have a ton of ideas for blog posts.
Research Profitability
At this point, you should have a list of niches to cover. Before you choose one, do some research to validate the profit potential. You can use Google, Amazon, and other websites.
Search for your niche and see what comes up. You can also search for specific questions people usually have about the topic. If there aren’t a ton of blogs ranking highly, you could fill that need.
On the other hand, if there are tons of big blogs, the niche might not be the best. You can still choose that topic, but you may need to work a bit harder or longer before you see results in the form of traffic and income.
Choose a Specific Niche
As I mentioned earlier, some niches can be very broad. Health is a good example of this. If you want your blog to do well, consider niching down a little more.
Using the health example, you could blog about healthy recipes for vegans. Then, you’ll still be able to write about health stuff, but you won’t have to compete with massive blogs and publications.
You can also position yourself as the authority on that smaller topic. Eventually, you could expand and cover related topics. However, you could stick to a small niche if it works for you.
Be Mindful of Certifications
As you choose your niche, consider if it’s in an area that usually requires some sort of certification or degree. For example, you may not want to start a finance blog if you don’t have any finance education.
On the other hand, if you do have a certification, consider making your blog related to that. You can use the degree or experience to set yourself apart from the competition.
But you don’t want to try and write about something that requires credentials you don’t have. You could mislead your audience, which could cause you to lose their trust.
Check Out the Competition
As you get close to choosing a blog niche, look at some existing blogs in that area. See what kind of content they post, the topics they cover, and how frequently they publish new articles.
Of course, you don’t want to copy other blogs. But you can get an idea of what content does well. That will help you figure out what topics to cover first on your blog.
You can also figure out how you can create better content so that your articles will rank ahead of your competitors. If other blogs don’t use videos, you can use them to stand out, for example.
Make a List of Post Ideas
When you narrow your list to a few niches, start making lists of post ideas for each blog niche. You can find ideas from your competition, or you can think about what you’ve learned in your industry.
Do this for three to five niches that you think could be good for you to cover. If you find generating ideas is much easier for one niche than the others, go with that niche.
You’ll need to post a lot of content to grow your blog. So if you can only come up with a few topics, you probably shouldn’t start a blog on that subject, at least not right now.
Why You Need a Blog Niche
You can find quite a few lifestyle blogs that do well. These are blogs that cover everything from fashion to food to work.
However, it will be much easier to grow your blog if you have a blog niche. Consider a few specific benefits of choosing a more narrow topic.
Stand Out From Other Blogs
If you don’t choose a niche, you’ll struggle to show potential readers why they should follow you and your blog. They won’t know what to expect from you.
On the other hand, having one niche tells visitors exactly what they’re going to get. If you niche down a bit more than a competitor, you can show readers why they should come to you first.
This is especially useful when you start your blog. No one knows who you are, so you can focus on building a reputation around one thing. You can always expand with more niche blogs later.
Target One Reader
Selecting a blog niche can also help you identify your ideal reader. This person is who you’ll think about when coming up with post ideas and writing the content.
Without a niche, it can be hard to write for your readers. You may feel like you have to appeal to everyone (you don’t). Use your niche to help figure out who would read your articles.
Then, you can come up with the right tone of voice for your posts. That will help you write more quickly and efficiently. And you won’t have to worry about confusing your readers.
Generate Topic Ideas
It may sound counterintuitive, but having a blog niche can help you come up with more post ideas. You can go deeper into your one subject, so you don’t have to stick to the basics.
Once I started a very niche blog about the piccolo, I was able to come up with dozens of articles to write. The smaller parameters helped me decide what to cover.
Of course, this will be easier if you choose a blog niche you’re an expert in. Since I studied the flute and piccolo in college, I know enough about it to start a blog on the subject.
What Blog Niche Will You Choose?
Selecting a blog niche is crucial if you want your blog to grow. But don’t let this process keep you from starting a blog in the first place.
Think about what you like and are good at. Research where you could make money, and choose a topic based off passion and profit.