The world of blogging is evolving. In the past decade it has grown from a common hobby to an ACTUAL CAREER! Undeniably lots of things have changed, but one thing has always been the same – most bloggers get started by choosing a niche first.
What is a niche?
Let’s take the definition of the word niche first. After all, sometimes you come across a word SO MANY times you sort of know what it means, but you don’t know the actual significance of it.
According to the Google dictionary, a niche means “a specialized segment of the market for a particular kind of product or service“. In our case, the “market” being the internet and the “product of service” being the topic you choose to focus on.
In other words, a niche is a sort of label you put on your blog. It tells the reader (and Google) what your blog is all about. It is the one topic you write content about and don’t stray away from.
For example, this blog you are reading right now is a ‘homebody lifestyle’ blog. I am a homebody myself and I write about things that interest other homebodies, such as working from home, being introverted, home decor and things you can do from the comforts of your home.
Other popular niches that people love to blog about include parenting, travel, food, fitness, fashion and beauty.
Though those are all pretty broad niches with lots of competition. That’s why I suggest you narrow down to a micro niche, to target a very specific audience.
General niche vs. micro niche
Why is a very specific niche – or micro niche – better?
Because even though millions of people might search for “fashion”, there’s SO MUCH competition for that keyword you will have an extremely difficult time ranking for it!
A more specific niche is “petite fashion”. This will have less searches, but also less competition, making it easier to rank for it.
Even better is something like “petite fashion for women in their 20s”. This is very specific, but you KNOW that the people who type in these keywords will find what they are looking for on your blog. Those are valuable readers who are likely to read multiple articles or even opt in for your mailing list!
Related: 93 Profitable Blog Niches That Make Money + Content Ideas
That’s why it’s far better to narrow down on your niche and make yourself easily discoverable for the RIGHT audience.
Another great benefit of having a smaller niche is the fact that doing keyword research is so much easier and less time consuming. As my own niche (homebody lifestyle) covers multiple topics (anything you can do from home, which includes blogging, working from home, home fitness, home decor, self care, you name it) I sometimes have trouble doing keyword research. There’s so many potential keywords to research, I just don’t know where to start. Whereas if my niche were vegan lifestyle for example, I could just research the words “vegan recipes”, “vegan food” and “vegan snacks” to name a few.
So in short, with a micro niche you are assured that:
- You have to deal with less competition.
- You are easier to find by the right audience.
- The people who find your blog are more likely to stay.
- You position yourself as an expert in your field.
- Google understands what your blog is about.
- You cut down time on quick keyword research.
But with that knowledge comes the next big question:
How to find a blog niche that is right for you?
Don’t underestimate the importance of choosing a niche that is right for YOU. It is essential that YOU have enough knowledge on the topic and ENJOY spending lots of time writing and researching all about it. Don’t worry about your readers. They will come. When choosing a niche, focus on YOUR interests.
Why am I putting so much emphasis on “YOU”? Because you are the person who will be working on this blog on a daily basis. You are the one who chooses to spend lots of hours on a particular subject, so you better make sure you enjoy your time!
No matter how profitable the parenting niche is – I don’t have kids and quite honestly I am not interested in having them either. So it would be super weird for me to have a mommy blog. I would not be enjoying my time working on it, probably resulting in me abandoning the blog – or even worse – creating negative feelings towards my job.
We live in such an amazing time! We have the internet, and it has evolved so much that we can literally create our own jobs and make money from home, creating content about what we love! So go ahead and pick a topic that’s close to your heart and make it your career! YOU HAVE THAT PRIVILAGE!!
What a time to be alive, right?!
Let’s find your niche
Whether you are blogging for a hobby, side hustle or full-time career, finding your niche is the first step towards your goals. So let’s sit back and think for a second. How do we find the perfect niche for you?
Let’s ask ourselves a few questions:
- What kinds of blogs do you enjoy reading?
- What is something that defines you?
- What are things that you are good at?
- What will you never grow tired of?
- What is your goal financially?
Now, we need to answer these questions in order, so we end up with a short list of potential interests – or rather niches!
So grab a pen and paper (as I like to do) or open a digital notepad.
1. What kinds of blogs do you enjoy reading?
First of all, let’s get inspired by the people who are already in the field. Are there any blogs you like to read? What niches are these blogs? Write down everything that comes to mind, no matter how broad or different they are!
Are you not really an avid blog reader? That’s okay! You can write down what kinds of things you tend to Google a lot. What are the things you search for?
Or maybe even take a dive into your personal social media platforms! Which influencers, bloggers or other creatives do you follow? What niches are they in? Jot it down, jot it down!
Do you have a list of topics and interests yet? Good! Moving on to the next step!
2. What is something that defines you?
Continue the list you just made by adding things that define you. Are you a collector of certain things? Do you go shopping a lot? Are you an expert on computers or do you thrive in the kitchen? Are you a social butterfly?
Maybe there’s certain good causes that really interest you. Do you want to raise awareness for the environment or are you an animal rights activist? Have you spent a potion of your time traveling or living abroad and have you learned life lessons you’d like to pass on?
If you find it difficult to come up with these things yourself, why not ask your close friends and family what they associate you with? Maybe this one friend looks to you for fashion inspiration. Or perhaps your mom thinks you have a natural talent for finding discount coupons?
Don’t forget – everything gets added to your list!
3. What are things that you are good at?
This might be similar to the last question, but the wording makes you think in a different direction. What are you really good at?
Are you good at solving games and puzzles? Are you an expert on trivia on a certain franchise or fandom? Or are you secretly a dog whisperer?
Are you a grammar king or queen and good at learning languages? Or do you excel at fixing and refurbishing old furniture?
Dig deep and find some things that you are surprisingly good at. Don’t forget – it’s okay if you are just good at it. You don’t have to excel. Because you will learn more and more as you go, making you an expert in the end. We NEVER stop learning in life.
4. What will you never grow tired of?
How is your list coming along? Should be pretty long by now, as I KNOW that you are good at lots of fun things! Now it’s time to add the things that make you happy and you feel like you will never grow bored of.
These things could be certain animals, shopping, fashion, gaming, fandoms, travel, certain countries and their cultures, food, a certain lifestyle, home decor, nature, holidays, crochet, sailing, horseback riding, fitness and SO much more!
Write down everything that pops up in your mind!
5. What is your goal financially?
This question is optional. If you want to blog as a hobby, you can skip this part! However if you are looking to make money blogging, this is an essential part of choosing your niche.
Some niches are more profitable than others. This depends on many factors, including (but not limited to) how many monthly Google searches are performed related to your topic, how popular your niche is on social media (especially Pinterest!) and how easy it is for you to make products, courses or freebies related to your targeted audience.
So to make sure your niche is profitable and has the potential to make money, we probably need to scrap some things from your list. The best way to tackle this is to just Google everything on your list and have a look around. Click the top 3 blogs that show up in every search and see if they are monetized (you can tell by the presence of advertisements, affiliate links, products and sometimes even a shop).
Scratch everything that doesn’t seem profitable from your list. Then repeat the same process with Pinterest: search everything that’s left on your list and look at how many relevant pins show up and how well they perform (how many repins or saves). Don’t forget to click the pins as well and have a look at the blogs they redirect you to.
And then.. Prioritize and scratch
Now that you have a list of all things that you enjoy, define you, or you are good at, it’s time to make some final adjustments and narrow it down to just a few options.
Start by looking at every single thing very critically. Can you create lots of content about this? Are you capable of creating enough visuals (pictures, screenshots, graphs, pins, etc.) relevant to the topic? Do you think you would still like to write about this topic in 5 years from now? And most importantly – does this TRULY make you happy or at least feel content?
Is your answer to any of these questions ‘no’? Then scratch that topic.
At the end of the line you should be left with just a handful of topics. And then comes the hardest part: making a final decision. Unfortunately I cannot help you with that, because it’s purely personal preference from this point. Together we have already made sure that the topic suits you, you are good at it, you enjoy it, you won’t get bored of it, you’ll be able to create lots of content about it, there’s an audience for it and it’s profitable (if wanted).
Now it’s up to you.
So what are you going to blog about? Please do let me know in the comments down below because I would love to hear what niche you ended up with!
I can also help you out if you are not sure how to start a blog. We go through the whole process of setting up a blog step by step, together.
Happy blogging!
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