As the concept of making money from blogging goes more mainstream, every Tom, Dick and Harry seems interested in launching a blog just because it is made to look an easy way to earn a couple hundred dollars every month. Generally, newbie or amateur bloggers tend to follow the trends and hardly bother to research and come up with a unique topic for blogging. Eventually their blog goes out of focus and fail to generate any kind of income that they were expecting. Blogging is a serious profession that requires extensive research and quite some work before you can expect to earn anything. Setting up a blog only when you feel you are professionally equipped and informed to give the audience accurate and expert information on the niche.

Here are five essential questions that you must ask yourself before choosing the niche that you will be blogging on.

1) What’s your expertise?

Are you an expert at the topic or choosing it just because you see some money-spinning potential? What valuable information can you give to public without having to copy/paste or re-write other’s articles? Remember, you can blog on just about anything that you are good at. Maybe you are a dog lover whose admiration of dogs and expertise in this regard can help you start a blog about dogs. When you write something that you love or know more about than the majority of people, the information provided would be unique and reliable. So unless you’re an expert in your field, spare the blogging space for those who are.

2) What Niche Categories Do You Want to Cover?

Every niche topic out there has a set of sub niches and keywords that you would like to cover. For this you have to do extensive keyword research and decide on the main areas that’d be making up the categories and the main focus for your blog. Without choosing the sub-niches, you’ll be completely lost at sea and not be able to give audience as well as the search engines what they are looking to have. For ranking purposes, it’s extremely important that you determine the categories of your niche and then stick to them.

3) What makes your blog unique from the rest of them?

If there are other blogs on the same topic, is there anything that differentiates your blog from the majority, something known as USP. If you can write content out of personal experience, and passion, it will have a dramatic effect on making your blog stand apart from the crowd. You will manage to cover the small details that make-shift bloggers leave out and this is what will make you unique from the rest of them. People will appreciate your realistic writings over the rewrites, which are sprawling all over the web.

4) For passion or for money?

Passion and money are interlinked because if you have the passion or interest in the topic, then you are bound to make it big. But one thing you should be keeping in mind that the sole reason for blogging shouldn’t be making money, because getting traffic and earning from your blog will need a lot of time and patience. If you’re not doing it out of interest, then you will find it hard to deal with the slow start and many different challenges in the start.

5) Earning potential?

Ironically, we’ve just discussed that blogging shouldn’t be starting solely for earning purpose. But still you need to have some monetary benefits sooner than later to keep yourself going. So, this should be a question that any blogger, be the newbie, amateur, or professional, must ask before starting a blog on a niche topic. Does it have the potential to be profitable for all the effort and time that you will spend on writing and marketing your blog? Is your niche market centric and would the audience want to spend time on your blog and read all the information you give? If you’re niche has no standing or demand in the market, it would be difficult to earn via blogging.

Misheal Rome is an Internet Marketing expert, writing mostly on topics related to link building and guest blogging. You can get free blogging ebook to know more about the nitty-gritty of guest blogging.

Misheal

Misheal is a guest contribute at this blog.

Misheal is a guest contribute at this blog.

11 Comments

  1. Jessica says:
    February 17, 2012 at 4:31 am

    Great post!

    I think your five tips are right on point. For sure something you need to seriously and sit down and consider. If you don’t lay a great foundation you may be blogging but no one will find it :(

    Most important part is the foundation!

    Jess
    Jessica recently posted..Network Marketing Success – Tips For Growing Your Business Quickly.My Profile

    Reply
  2. David Sharp says:
    February 17, 2012 at 4:58 am

    Misheal you posed some great questions in this post, I guess what makes my blog unique is me. I write most of my own posts and that gives the blog my voice, I also add video with me speaking and share bits from the place where we live, which is Crete in Greece.

    Dave
    David Sharp recently posted..Network Marketing Pro 3 Critical Things You Must Control To Ensure Your SuccessMy Profile

    Reply
  3. John Moussan says:
    February 17, 2012 at 11:38 am

    Great question that will definitely help. Identifying your target audience is so critical!
    John Moussan recently posted..Are You Using ‘Magnetic’ Story Telling When Someone Asks You What You Do?My Profile

    Reply
  4. Alan Turner says:
    February 18, 2012 at 9:52 am

    Hi Misheal, all too true with people and I would consider myself one of those who has tried the niche blog idea in the past with little or no forethought around topic or content.

    I find it hard enough producing content for my own blog let alone for a niche blog.

    And, I think at the end of the day, doing it for extra money will only get you so far!

    Keep moving forward.

    Alan
    Alan Turner recently posted..Mastering Time: How You Can Leverage Every Hour So That You Earn More and Have More Fun!My Profile

    Reply
  5. Kareem Maghrabi says:
    February 21, 2012 at 1:35 am

    Hi Misheal, I like the way you broke things down to 5 simple steps.
    Makes it very visual and achievable thank you.
    Kareem Maghrabi recently posted..Best Hints And Tips For Successful Article MarketingMy Profile

    Reply
  6. Lou Barba says:
    February 21, 2012 at 7:29 am

    Hi Easther,

    Considering I’m in the process of a makeover on my blog, this post asks some questions that I need to answer. Talk about perfect timing. :)

    Lou
    Lou Barba recently posted..Over the River and Through the WoodsMy Profile

    Reply
  7. Nathalie Villeneuve says:
    February 21, 2012 at 9:47 am

    Hi Misheal, These questions are all very much on target. I find that as we get set with our target market and we are so focused on bringing value through our blog to that specific niche…often the fact we have to continue to research keywords and stay on target with that niche…we tend to lose some of the spontaneity of creative writing. It’s just something I have noticed for myself but hey…it’s the artist in me I guess… There are so many amazing blogging opportunities and it is definitely worth the time spent to learn more about it. Great share!
    Nathalie Villeneuve recently posted..7 Tips To Grow Your Facebook Group To 1000 MembersMy Profile

    Reply
    • Misheal says:
      February 25, 2012 at 5:24 pm

      Yes @ Nathalie, it’s getting quite tough to stay on ball with so much happenings, at times you feel like writing on something and then a new development occurs and you have to write on it.

      Reply
  8. Sarah Reece says:
    February 28, 2012 at 3:04 am

    Hey,

    Very well written article – simple, crisp and spot on. Thanks for the great read!!

    Its very important to give some thoughts to the niche that one chooses to write on, before taking the plunge. If you cannot offer any insights or add any unique value to the visitors, its hard to have them keep coming back to your blog.
    Sarah Reece recently posted..Bluehost DiscountMy Profile

    Reply

Leave a Reply

CommentLuv badge