How to Choose a Niche Topic
By: Gayla Baer
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he last couple of weeks, I’ve been gradually working at helping a relative dip their toes in blogging.
I’m not sure why it didn’t occur to me sooner, to journal the progress from beginning to end — but better late then never, right?
The topic we are up to at this point is choosing a topic for her blog(s).
I’ve asked her to list 5 topics that she feels passionate enough about that she could write or speak on them at great length every single day.
If there’s a topic that she may not be quite so versed in, but would like to become more educated in and perhaps share the lessons along the way, this might be a great direction to take a niche as well.
Once the list has been established, there are ways to determine which topics will likely be the most profitable – the heavy traffic generators, etc. We’ll discuss that a bit later –
In addition, I threw a few ideas out there of things one might consider writing about.
I’ve not done any in depth research into the topics, but rather, I’m just pulling them out of thin air just to give an idea of how to go about widdling down a niche – so if you do choose one of the topics, don’t hold me to it being a profitable one. You’ll have to do your homework or just hope and pray it turns a profit.
One of the first places I would check is Amazon.com for the top selling products. If one of the categories grabs you, it might be a good topic to focus on.
Check out WebMD Conditions Center to see if one of the health conditions might be one you are familiar with and could write about in a knowledgeable way. If nothing else, pick a condition that you’d like to learn about. It could even be general in something like Men’s or Women’s Health – but keep in mind that the more general the topic, the more sites you’re likely to have to compete with.
Check out Yahoo Buzz for topics or people that are being discussed most often. Whichever one you choose, be sure you want to become an expert on them – because it’s establishing yourself as en “expert” that’s going to secure your position as a professional blogger.
Perhaps you have a hobby or happen to be the one that everyone runs to with a “how to†do something such as garage sales, auctions, managing finances or household tips.
Whatever you consider yourself to be good at therein lays your niche. And everyone is good at at least one thing! Right?
To all you existing bloggers — Do you have a recommendation on how a beginner could select a niche?
Submitted Comments:
Linda of Making a Happy Life:  My interests are my niches. I have several things I like to do so I started my blogs, it started with cooking and then went to happiness and wahm business’ and fitness. You have to look at what you like to do and how well you can write about it, what your goal is etc.
Ponn of Empower Women Now: Offers up several directories for researching niche topics.
Tags: blogging, weblog, professional blogger, niche, work at home, wahm
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April 15, 2007 Filed under MomGadget
Another way to pick a niche is by choosing something YOU are always looking for information on. Chances are, if you are looking for it, someone else is. Also, if you have a topic you have done extensive research on – share it. You’ll make it easier for others.
For example, one of my family members has kids with a chronic condition. She has spent years trying to figure out what it was, then how to deal with it on a daily basis. She has all the makings of a great blog. Now if I could just get her going.
Other places for research are top article directories, like
http://www.goarticles.com/
They have the Top 30 downloaded articles for the month, giving you an idea what topics people are searching
http://ezinearticles.com/ look at the different topics, each one has Top Authors (according to # of articles submitted. Each author, also shares page views of each article, for example:
http://ezinearticles.com/?expert_bio=Ponn_Sabra
My favorite free keyword suggestion tool is:
http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword/
Google has froogle for product sales, books for book sales, and local and national searches too.
I just love all the research that can be found there.
These are all starting places for research. Once the whole passion + skill set (professional experiences, talents, etc.) are weighed accordingly in the brainstorming session that you began.
All the best,
Ponn
If you are a new blogger, you want to write about what you know best. Who knows more about yourself than you? If you are a mom or dad, write about that. If you work construction or are a housecleaner, write about that. This will help get your feet wet. Once you have some good content written, look for new niches you feel you can passionately write about the same way you write your first blog. If you find out you love blogging, next think you know, you will be creeping up in “Gayla territory” in the amount of blogs you write for.
I definitely suggest considering what subjects would hold interest over a long period of time, a good question might be, can I think of something to say regarding this subject on a daily basis for at least a year? This would limit the niche to something you’re passionate about, which I think is the key for a succcessful blog. I think the blogs where you can tell the blogger is really passionate about the subject are more fun to read.
Passion is KEY. You know, the topic that floats you to the top of a soapbox? The one you have to resist going on and on and on about at that dinner party? The thing you search for and keep current on when you sit at the computer…
My ‘niche’ is a noisy one, there are a lot of food bloggers. So I tweaked my niche for my second blog, addressing brown bag boredom and providing all sorts of ideas for parents packing lunches for their munchkins…
Hi Gayla,
I just read you won a site re-design for SEO, through eMoms. Well done! Does this mean you’ll be changing the look? Or just the back end?
Hope all’s well.
David ~ I was shocked to see I’d won anything really.
Not sure what I’m going to do about that. I’ve been thinking about using the re-design on one of my other projects, but certainly not here on MomGadget.
It would have come in handy a few months back for here but I’ve put too much of that OCD energy into this one.
If you are not sure which direction to take but you know that you love to write then it’s probably a good idea to secure your name as your domain name and go from there.
Everytime you blog about something that interests you there is a category that you can create if you are using a wordpress blog. That way you can have several categories as your niche without really having to put too much thought into it.
Char ~ Back in the day, that’s actually how I started my own niche. I became very frustrated at the lack of good information and started my own.
I think the best education and information on most topics come from those who are passionate about finding info and results.
Steve ~Everyone knows how parents love to talk about their kids. I think blogging is a great way to be a bragging parent and to share with friends and family.
It’s also a great way to brag up those products that You just can’t make one trip to the store without. If you believe in a product, you’ve probably got a nice little blog topic just waiting to be written.
Webomatica ~ You bring up an interesting point. Thanks! I’ll be blogging about that in the near future.
Janelle ~I love your brown bag blog. Very nice little niche you have going. Just goes to show that even from within a niche, there may be a finer niche just waiting to be tweaked.
Angela ~Great tip! There’s another blog topic! Gosh, my list is growing with every comment
Nice Article. Now I want to expand my blog but Until now, I don’t have any idea what niche I want to choose. I like to make blog about my hobby (Nintendo DS and other console games) But it seems there are too many web in the world in this niche.
PS My web is also disable nofollow,so you can comment there
Any comment as long as not spam is apreciated