Niche blogs cater to a niche market. Both blogging and niche are pretty old terms, but niche blogging is a pretty new phenomenon.
What is Niche Blogging?
Blog created with the aim of marketing it to a niche market is a niche blog. Niche marketing means targeting a specific group of customers. The word ‘niche’ is used for products or services that appeal to a specific, often small and specialized, group of people. A niche market would be the one that you have found to have special characteristics and you think they are worth marketing to. For instance, cooking channels target people who like to cook. Niche blogs may target a special industry like the car industry, a particular area like the Middle East, a particular sport like cricket, or any other segment.
Niche blogs often contain ads or affiliate links of some sort. For instance, a car company is more likely to advertise on a car website because they know that’s where a lot of car enthusiast will be.
How Do I Find My Niche?
It is very important to know what you are going to blog about. A lot of people create blogs daily and there is a tough competition. You must do a thorough research before creating your blog to explore what you should blog about. A lot of blogs fail because they are very ambiguous and don’t know their niche. Instead of starting your blog in a rush, it is a good idea to take some time do research.
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Here are some tips for finding your niche:
Find Your Interest
Probe yourself. What is it that interests you? What are your hobbies? And then probe some more. Start exploring that interest more. If you create a blog based on your interest rather than creating the one you have no interest in, chances are you will be more passionate about it.
Blog On Something You Know About
Merely having an interest is unfortunately not enough. For instance, you may have an interest in cars, but do you know anything other than their names? Do you keep yourself updated on the latest happenings in the auto industry?
Nothing is more frustrating than starting a blog on a presumed interest and finding out you do not know much. If you have a passion to dig deeper and find interesting information, well and good. But if you think that a general knowledge about the niche you want to select will last you a long time, you are wrong. Blogging is more than a fairy tale. Do not expect to go on the internet, write a few words, and earn money. Blogging takes hard work, passion, and determination.
List Down Your Hobbies
Make a list of things you like, even the seemingly trivial ones. Think hard and deep about all the things you have liked doing since childhood. Do not rule out any hobby as childish or stupid. Think about the subjects that spiked your interest. Think about the topics you like to speak about. Think about the stories, novels, and magazines you have ever read. What was it that spiked your curiosity? What is it that gives you joy? What is that one thing you will enjoy doing regardless of the monetary incentive? If you are struggling to think about your passion, ask your friends and family. Ask them what they think makes you happy. Once you have a list of things, rate them according to your interest level. Once you have determined what interests you the most, think of some topics in that niche. For instance, you may like cars. Think of a topic, like fuel-efficient cars or hybrid cars, for instance. Write a 1000 words post on it. If you find it boring to write, drop this niche idea and repeat this exercise with the other hobbies in your list.
Find Things That Have Not Been Catered To
You may come up with a niche that you think has been addressed in detail. For instance, there are so many beauty and technology blogs. Does that mean that niche has been properly covered? Have all the questions been answered? Try to find a goal. There must be something that has been left out. Create a niche out of that niche.
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Just make sure that there is demand for the topic you have identified. No point in writing about payphones because no one uses them now.
Take Inspiration From Your Competitors To Be
Once you have selected a niche, watch out for competitors. Explore their blog. Looks for popular posts. This will tell you what readers are looking for and what they enjoy. The top posts and trending posts will enlighten you about the trending topics.
What Can You Contribute to the Niche?
No doubt there is a ton of information available on the internet to take inspiration from. But can you contribute to that pool of knowledge? Can you introduce something unique in the niche? This will increase the popularity of your blog. This is not a prerequisite. If you have nothing additional to contribute, do not worry about it.
Why Haven’t You Started Blogging yet?
Think about the things or thoughts or circumstances that are holding you back. Make a list of things that are preventing you from starting a blog. Maybe you are not sure if your niche is profitable enough. Maybe you do not know if your writing skills are good enough. maybe you fear that you are not tech savvy and you will not be able to get traffic.
Also Read: FAQ every New Blogger must have in their mind
Once you have identified the thing that is stopping you, look for a solution. You aren’t tech savvy? No problem. Websites like WordPress means that even a person with limited technical knowledge can easily start a blog. If that is not enough to satisfy you, search for tutorials. Invest time in learning. Explore successful blogs run by founders who don’t know anything about building websites. Take inspiration. Rule out your fears and get started!
What Do People Need
People search on Google or Bing when they need something. They are looking for solutions. If you make it so provide solutions to people in your niche, blogging will become a lot easier. Pick topics you think people need help with. Provide clear, easy, and practical solutions. Have the aim of satisfying people. This will give life to your blog posts and attract people to it.
Niche Research Tools
Buzz Sumo
Find out the top authoritative bloggers in your niche. Copy their address and paste it on BuzzSumo. See the posts that were shared the most times on social networking websites. This will tell you what’s trending in the market.
SEMrush
Use it to learn more about competitors, what they are ranking for, and which keywords are people searching for.
LongTailPro
Input seed keywords and filter out the best ones.
Google Keyword Planner
It is free, and a part of Google Adwords.
Google Trends
See historic trends for different keywords. This will help you asses the popularity of your niche. This tool is also free.
I Have Started My Blog, What Next?
Congratulations. You have taken the first, and the most important step. Now that your blog is up and running, what can you do to move ahead in your niche? Here are some ideas
Use Niche Specific Keywords
Use the right keywords. Know what your audience searches for. Do not be ambiguous while writing your blog posts. Do not be generic. Optimizing keywords means you will be using more specific ones. This way you will be ahead in the competition. Your keywords will rank well. THhis will bring traffic to your website.
Write Authoritative Content
Write authoritative blog posts that are relevant to your niche. This will show that you are a thought leader in that segment. It will also be a resource for customers and make them come back to your blog. It will also give google more quality content to index. This will impact your ranking positively.
Use social Media Websites To Promote Your Blog
Create active and engaging social media profiles. Share your blog posts on them. Be active on all popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Make Sure Your Blog Is Mobile Friendly
It can be a bummer to have an impressive desktop website but a disastrous mobile one. Do not forget this is the age of smartphones. Make sure your website is mobile-friendly. If a visitor is unable to access your website on his or her device, they will probably not return again.
Be active
If you are planning to write only a couple of blogs every month, think again. You need to post good quality content regularly to make your visitors come back. A blogger who rarely posts create a negative impression. It will show that you do not care about what is happening in your blog and you do not stay updated. Be consistence. Don’t expect to start earning overnight. Most blogs take up to a year to start earning. Be in love with your niche. Don’t write for money. In time money will come itself.
Blogging is a very interesting hobby. It is a hobby that can help you earn too. Simply starting a blog with the intention to earn alone is not enough. There is no point in choosing a niche just because you think it’s lucrative. You will struggle to write posts for such a blog. The struggle and lack of interest will reflect in your writing. This impression won’t be lost on your readers. People do not like to read unengaging content.
So select a niche that interests you. Do a lots of research. Aim to dominate your niche, do not just be another blogger in that niche. This thinking will help you go a long way.
Thinking about starting a blog? What are your interests? What will your niche be? Share it all with us in the comments section below!
Happy Blogging!
