You’ve likely heard it said before that “The riches are in the niches.”
In order to start and grow your blog, you’ll need to have a niche for your blog. As you can imagine, not all niches are created equal. Some niches are more popular than others and some niches are profitable, while others are not as much.
In this post, I’ll walk you through everything you need to know in order to choose a profitable blogging niche and focus for your blog.
What Is A Blogging Niche?
In simple terms, a niche is a way to explain what your blog is about.
It is a description of your positioning in the market and should explain exactly what the purpose of your blog is. When you have a niche, you should be able to define who your ideal audience is and how you intend to help with your content.
You may be tempted to think that if you have settled on being a mom blogger or a fitness blogger that you have found your niche.
Sure those terms explain your positioning in the market, but in this saturated space, you are going to need to go deeper in order to get people’s attention.
In fact, the examples that I gave above would be described as categories as opposed to your niche.
Bad Niche Example
Fitness blogger
Good Niche Example
Fitness blogger for moms
Great Niche Example
Weight loss for new moms who want to lose weight post childbirth.
The Problem With Finding A Niche For Your Blog
Finding a niche is NOT easy.
When I started blogging, I knew that I wanted a platform to share advice gained from different aspects of my life. You might feel the same way, starting your blog because you want to help people. You may also have the desire to monetize your blog.
Choosing a niche can feel like you are limiting your reach, impact, and ability to monetize. However, a clearly defined blogging niche will help you with all of the above.
A well defined niche and clear focus is what you’ll need to stand out as an authority in the already saturated online space.
Benefits Of Having A Clearly Defined Blogging Niche
A few home truths about having a niche:
- At the core, every blogger and content creator needs to solve a problem for someone
- You cannot stand out as a leader without a specific niche
- It helps you create content that your audience LOVES
- It is harder to sell products or monetize your blog without a niche
1. Your Niche Allows You To Stand Out As A Leader
The benefit of having a niche and focus for your blog is simple- it allows you to stand out in an already saturated market.
Using the previous example of the fitness blogger. Think of all the people who would identify as fitness bloggers. (A lot)
Now think of the number of blogs out there that talk about post partum fitness and weight loss. (Not as many)
2. You Create Content Your Audience Will Love
You may be tempted to think that by narrowing down or ‘niching down’, you would be losing some of your audience. But remember that you cannot be everything for everyone. If you are trying to do so, you lose the impact that you intended to have.
“When you speak to everyone, you speak to no one.”
– Meredith Hill Seth
This is the truth in business and in blogging.
If you want to grow your blog and build trust with your audience, you need to be the blogger who knows exactly who they are speaking to.
3. You Can Focus On Problem Solving Content
When you know your audience, you can start to understand their pain points, and only then can you create content that truly solves problems and answers their questions.
Imagine being a mom who has just had a baby and is looking for a blog with weight loss tips. I don’t know about you, but if I was that mom, I would much rather follow the blogger who is talking specifically to me than to the blogger who gives general fitness and weight loss tips.
This type of personalized content is what we crave more and more these days.
Also, imagine being a pregnant woman trying to choose the doctor who would deliver your baby. Would you go to a general family doctor for advice? Or would you go to a specialist- the OB/GYN?
The same holds true when it comes to building relationships in blogging. People are looking for experts and not generalists. I’d much rather take fitness advice from someone who specializes in body type than a general fitness coach or blogger.
4. You Can Easily Monetize Your Blog
I want to be clear about this. You can monetize your blog without a clear niche. It just wont be easy.
If you would like to improve the chances of making money blogging, you should have a niche and focus for your blog.
Having a clear niche and focus makes the customer buying pathway much cleared and straightforward.
Let’s stick with the fitness example.
Say you are a new mom looking to shed postpartum weight and you land on a blog specifically catered to your needs. The blogger has taken their time to understand you as the reader.
They have laid out TONS of free content that has been helpful to you. Then you see that they have a group coaching program and accountability group where you can meet with other customers and share the fitness journey together.
You’d me more inclined to join if you knew that the other customers would be similar to you- right? New moms who get the struggle.
Can you see how having a niche makes a general fitness program more enticing?
This is just one way that you can make money from your blog.
The Old Way Of Blogging Is Dead!!!
Now you might be reading this thinking “But Amara, none of my favourite bloggers have super specific niches. How is it that they are still able to be so successful?”
My question to you is:
- When did they start blogging?
Chances are that they were able to get away with being a generalist because they started blogging at a time when there was less competition, so it was easier to stand out as a blogger.
- What are other social media platforms are they on?
Sometimes, you’ll see someone who has a large following on one platform blow up on their blog or youtube. It may seem like they had an overnight success, but the truth is that it may have been the momentum of their other platforms that helped tip the scale for them.
- What are their goals?
In truth, not every blogger monetizes their blog in the same way. Not every blogger even has the desire to get monetized. It’s important to look at their blogging goals to see if they align with your vision for your blog.
To summarize, the old ways of personal blogging is dead. Having a niche will help you in the long run if you are trying to get more readers to your blog and monetize your blog.
How To Find Your Profitable Blogging Niche
Now I hope I’ve convinced you of the need for a Blogging Niche. In order to choose your niche, you’ll need to ask yourself a few questions.
1- What Do You WANT To Write About?
This may seem pretty obvious, but your blog should be about something that you are interested in writing about.
Make a list of all your different interests. Theres no need to rank them or categorize them at this point. Simply brainstorm all the different ideas that you have.
2- What are you passionate about?
Once you have a list of topic ideas, you can narrow them down by highlighting the ones you are most passionate about.
It goes without saying that when there’s passion behind your blog, you’ll be more motivated to show up on a consistent basis- even when things don’t seem to be working out.
3- What are you knowledgeable about?
Your niche should be something that you are knowledgeable about. It makes no sense guiding people and trying to help when you have no experience in that area. It should also be an area that you are skilled in.
4- Can my idea be monetized?
Ie. is this something that other people are interested in?
Are people searching for topics related to your niche and are they willing to pay? The truth is that as long as you have people interested in the topics you discuss, you can monetize your blog. Even though many blogging niches can be monetized, some are more profitable than others.
You can validate your blog idea by doing some market research. Spend time reviewing what others are already doing and what monetization model they are using.
Search forums and facebook groups to see if there are people asking questions pertaining to your niche.
Here are some places that you can start:
- Quora
- Niche Forums and Groups
Are there other people currently making money in this niche?
There is no need to re-invent the wheel. If there are other people making money doing this, it gives you an indication of what is possible. This is called competitor research and is a crucial part of any business venture.
You may also search sites like Skillshare and Udemy to see if there are courses on the topic that you are considering. This gives you an indication that people are willing to pay to learn about that topic.
This research will also be crucial because it can also give you an indication of what gaps there are in the market. If you notice that a lot of people are still asking certain questions when you do your research, you can position yourself as the expert that fills that gap in the market.
Still Can’t Decide On One Idea? Do This Instead!
Finding a niche for your blog is often difficult. Even after you go through the idea and validation phase, you may still be struggling to pinpoint what the winner is.
What if you are multi passionate and cannot settle on ONE thing that you want to talk about on your blog?
You need to understand the difference between Niche, Ideal audience and Target audience
Niche– A specific solution that you provide to a specific person
It is not an industry or a category. Sometimes we tend to confuse them. Fitness
Ideal Client
This is someone who is ultra specific. You can name the problems that they are facing and all the objections that they may have. You may even choose to give them a name.
This is the person that you are dreaming about
Target audience is less specific. This is a group of people that share similar psychographics and demographics.
When you start out, you may want to cater your content to a target audience instead of a specific niche. You can start out broad and then slowly narrow your niche.
This allows you to be creative and test different types of content.
As you experiment, you will be able to find your sweet spot. Once you notice what people are interested in and what is taking off, you can niche down and double down on the things that are working.
Remember: Your niche is the specific solution that you can offer to that specific person.
You may not know exactly what your solution is, but if you know who your target audience is, it makes it easier to create content that is helpful and valuable to them.
Final Thoughts
When it comes down to it, finding a niche for your blog is often quite difficult. But the effort is worth it to build a successful blog that stands out in the crowded online space.
Once you have an idea of your niche, start creating content around it. This is a great way to test and see if you truly love that niche. If it’s not the right niche for you, you’ll know right away. It’s completely ok to change your niche. Make note of what worked and what didn’t. Having the right mindset is key to your success as a blogger. Just don’t give up and you’ll be fine.
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