Blogging has grown immensely in popularity in recent years and, while many people start a blog because they want to share their knowledge and write about a subject they have a great interest in, others start a blog with the primary motivation to make money. In other cases, some people just want to have something to share with the world or to build up a presence online. If one of your primary reasons to start a blog is to make money from it in the future, then you should choose your niche carefully. The following three tips will help you to decide on the best compromise between blogging about what you know and what you want to blog about and making something that is profitable.
1 – Blog About What You Know
This should seem obvious, but many bloggers who start their websites with the primary purpose of making money don’t seem to realize this. Choosing a niche solely because it’s profitable, even if you have little or no interest in the subject, might work for some, but it is generally not a good idea. If you cannot create content with passion, your readers are not likely to feel very inspired either.
Even if you do not plan to write any of the content for your blog yourself, you should still be familiar with your subject. Blogging to establish a powerful online presence and to earn some extra cash is not only about writing posts on a regular basis. It is also about social media and interacting with your audience and in order to get involved in your audience, you are going to need to know your field at least reasonably well.
This is not to say that you need to be some unrivalled expert in your field. Blogging is also a learning experience in itself. As you build your blog and create content for it, you will be spending plenty of time researching and communicating with your visitors via post comments, email, forums and social networking sites. Starting a blog with an interest in the subject you are blogging about and one which you have a reasonable overall knowledge of is a suitable start. With a little perseverance and ambition, you will eventually become an expert in the field.
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2 – Choose A Profitable Niche
This one can be tricky. You can find blogs on any just about any conceivable subject on the Internet, but there are some which are more profitable than others. Profitability of certain niches is not invariable either. The Internet is very much a living, dynamic world created entirely by the billions of people who use it. This means that it follows certain trends. Popular niches come and go while others have a great deal of stamina and are likely to remain popular.
Once you have narrowed down your list of possible subjects to blog about using the tips from the previous section, it is time to learn more about the potential profitability of those subjects. At this point, there are some important questions which you should be asking yourself, such as:
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- How great is the competition? If there are thousands of other blogs covering much the same subject, you will generally have to work a lot harder and spend a lot more time drawing enough traffic to your blog to make money.
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- How obscure is the subject? The more obscure your niche is, the less competition you will have. On the other hand, you may find yourself in a situation where your chosen subject is just too specific that it will never really be able to attract enough visitors.
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- Are there enough relevant products and services that you can advertise on your blog? Affiliate marketing is one of the major aspects of making money from a blog. You will need to be able to advertise products and services as part of affiliate programs and these need to be things that your visitors are most likely to be interested in.
- Is your subject underrepresented on the Web? Some subjects are popular, yet there isn’t enough content to satisfy the market. Such subjects can turn out to be highly profitable.
Check out this great article for tips on how to choose a topic you already know and love.
3 – Don’t Be Afraid Of Expanding
As previously stated, sticking with a very specific subject, even if it is a fairly popular one, is generally not the way to success. You need to be prepared to branch out and cover related subjects which your visitors are also likely to be interested in. For example, if you are passionate about astronomy and wish to start a blog covering various news updates on the subject, why not have another section of your blog covering things like telescope reviews? This way, even if is not the primary subject of your blog, you will be providing something else of interest to many of your visitors and, selling telescopes through affiliate programs, you will have the potential to make a fortune once your blog receives a decent amount of traffic.
It is also a good idea to maintain multiple blogs on related subjects which are all linked to each other so that you can share more with your readers. Going back to the example subject of astronomy, this is just one of many niches of the hugely expansive world of science. You could have another blog on natural history, another on technological advances and many more on other subjects which the readers of your primary blog might be interested in. Branching out and not being afraid of going a little outside your comfort zone is both an important part of learning and a great way to expand your income.
