If you want to start a blog to make money, then choosing your niche is the most important thing you’ll do! (at least in stage ONE of Operation Awesome Blog!)

Welcome to the first tutorial in Starting Smart Online – how choose the the right niche for your blog!

This post is about getting your topic choice right – now! I’d hate for you to end up with a topic that’s going to take you nowhere fast.

I’ve been down this beaten old track and it’s not fun when you get to the end and there’s nothing other than the realisation that you’ve got to start all over again.

Sure, you’ll learn some valuable lessons along the way as I did. But the cost? Time and money.

So in the true spirit of embracing lessons learnt from others and approaching your blog with an entrepreneurial mindset, I believe a methodical approach to “discovering” and/or “validating” your niche idea is the best place to start.

It sure beats wondering around the house aimlessly waiting for inspiration or a divine revelation!

So grab a copy of the worksheet below. I guarantee pen on paper beats the screen when it comes to creative flow. 

Complete these four steps and hopefully you come up with a winning idea. Good luck!

STEP 1 – A Quick Brainstorming Session

This will sound extremely obvious. But it IS the starting point, so just “do it” (wink wink). Grab a pen and paper. Jot down as much as you can and don’t over analyse.  Write!

What are you interested in or passionate about?

Write down your passions, interests and hobbies.  You will be more inclined to invest your time in topics that genuinely excite you and you would actually ENJOY writing about.

Even if you don’t know a lot about something you can totally still become an expert – DON’T LET THIS STOP YOU. Except for the obvious exceptions like giving medical advice when you’re not a doctor or something like that.

Here are some popular categories to inspire you.

Gaming

Music

Home Décor

Public Speaking

Art

Architecture

Gardening

Automotive

Film & Photography

What areas do you specialize in or have a good knowledge of?

What are your career expertise? What experience have you gained from things you have done in the past? What can others learn from you?

I created Starting Smart Online because I love the topic and I learn so much myself as I go along. I previously had a blog about selling houses which is something I have done many times. I created a lot of content but ran out of steam. I wasn’t interest enough to keep going. I took the content from the blog and converted it into an eBook instead.

Think of something you know a lot about, that you enjoy enough to write about on a regular basis for a long time to come.

What points of pain do you experience in your everyday life?

Many successful blogs are designed to help people in some way. Think about the things in your life that frustrate you. Can you offer solutions to these problems? Can you find any information gaps? Solving a problem, sets you up with a great platform (your blog) to create products or promote other people’s products down the track.

Alternatively, you can go straight to a specific audience and discover what problems they are experiencing.

This method involves more work than the scope of this post provides but I’m including it here because I think it’s a concept you should know about. So how do I go about this? Glad you asked. I’ve written a detailed post covering this process How to Uncover Your Next Idea.

Excellent job. Now we have a list to work from and take to the next exercise. Off we go.

STEP 2 – Make Sure Your Topic is Specific

This part is super important. And is where most blogs go wrong.

People tend to read informative posts and frequent websites that are on a specific topic. Blogs with random posts and personal stories and are ambiguous about their purpose tend not to do so well. Taking a broad topic and finding a specific topic or niche within that, is called “niching down”.

For example: Someone clicks on your post that details “how to groom a poodle”. They read it, they love it and they start looking for more fabulous information on taking care of your poodle. But they don’t find anything. All your other posts about travel, food, your favourite coffee shops. They’re not going to stick around and they are unlikely to sign up to your offerings now or in the future. If on the other hand you had tons of great information about caring for poodles and dogs in general, they are very likely to come back to your blog. Over time as you build credibility with them, there’s a good chance they will become a customer.

Is your idea specific enough that you know exactly who you are talking to? This exercise will help you to focus on your target audience.

For example, let’s say one of the ideas you came up with in step 1 was you would like to help businesses use social media. This is a great starting point. So in this exercise, step 2, ask questions like, Help how? What businesses? What social media? Because you are now niching down your idea.

See how in each step below the topic becomes more specific.

1. How to promote your business using social media
2. How to promote your business using Linked In
3. How to promote your Consulting Business using Linked In

Now, take the topics from your list and “niche down”!

Be as specific as you can. The more specific you are, the more easily you will attract the right audience. Remember, you also need a topic you can write a lot about.

STEP 3 – Put Your Idea to the Test

Now take your list of targeted niche ideas and ask these questions.

• Does an audience exist?
• Do they buy things?

Ultimately you want to answer “yes” to both questions, assuming you a creating a blog with the intention of monetizing it at some point.

Don’t be nice to topics you love if they don’t meet these criteria. The last thing you want, is to have to “find” an audience. What if you never do? All that work for nothing. And starting a blog IS a lot of work.

The best way to answer these questions is to check out your competition. If there is no competition, then it’s safe to assume there is no audience so move on to the next topic.

To find out if your audience spend money in the niche, look at how your competition is making money. What are they selling? Do they advertise their own products, or advertise other people’s products?

Now you should have a list of targeted topics that have an audience that are willing to spend money. Great! Almost there.

STEP 4 – Solve a Problem

How you are going to help people? Helping people is the best way to build an audience and your business.

If you find a problem that needs a solution, you’ve found your topic!

Take each remaining topic and work out what problem you can solve for your audience and then answer these questions.

Who do I help? I help busy moms

What am I helping them with? put tasty and healthy meals on the table

How am I helping them? by creating practical and easy recipes for families

You’re done! How did you go, have you nailed your BEST EVER topic? I hope so!

Let’s Recap

With your short list of topics in hand, try answering the questions below.

What is the frustration or point of pain that your reader is experiencing?

How will you solve this problem with your blog?  

Do readers pay for this solution?

Are other people also blogging about this topic? (if so, this is a good sign!)

Can you offer any new information on the topic?

Do you visualise yourself becoming an authority in the niche?

Are you interested enough to blog regularly and for as long as you need to?

Still unsure about your topic? See How to Validate Your Business Idea for Success for more help on selecting the right niche.

I hope these exercises helped you figure out what to blog about. I would love to hear what you came up with! Let me know, share below.

Click on the red button below to make your way to the next tutorial.

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