When you set out blogging did you know your niche or did it find you? Have you and your blog lost your way? If so this post will help get the both of you back on track.
With so many “make money online” schemes and “make money blogging” schemes it can be hard to see if you are blogging in the niche you found, or the niche that found you.
There is a world of difference between the two, it’s the difference between blogging success and blogging failure. Here’s how you work it out…
Get organised
If you are struggling with your niche, it could be because you are not organised. Go and open a new Google Doc and keep it open in a tab. On this document note your ideas, your thoughts. Add links that catch your eye and note why. In being organised you can start to see patterns and identify who you are blogging for (it’s either yourself or your audience )
Getting organised can also take place in the form of note taking (did you know we have only a small amount of memory space in our brains?), mind maps and even spreadsheets.
To keep track of all of your blog’s information it really doesn’t matter what system you set up as long you set one up and it supports you. A system for being organised works best when you use it.
Get creative
This is a step that you may come back to several times on your documents. Begin by creating four columns:
Things you’re crazy, insanely and utterly mad about – maybe you absolutely love knitting cat cuddlies.
Things you’re interested in learning about – maybe you want to learn more about parenting.
Things you’re good at – maybe you’re good at budgeting.
Things you know a lot about - you may know a lot about optimising blog posts
Don’t restrict yourself. Fill the columns up with as much information as possible, never mind how crazy or outlandish it might seem – only you are going to read it. Run riot, go nuts – just fill the columns up with your ideas.
The chances are that your initial brainstorming session was just about the basics. Let’s take painting as our example.
Painting is not a niche, it’s too general, it’s too wide and it can mean anything from paining a watercolour to painting your house. Painting animals is a niche or reproducing the works of Van Gogh is niche. Drilling down a section is how you get to the niche for your blog and now it’s time brainstorm each idea a little more.
Get researching
Once you have your huge list of possibilities it’s time to start the research phase. You’ll need to use a keyword tool here like Google AdWords or Market Samurai.
Research each idea on supply, demand and profitability. Simple, I know but how many of us have done it? Add the results to your spreadsheet / document / notepad. You will also find that looking through the results triggers new niche ideas.
If you search knitting cat cuddlies you might get a list of keyword possibilities like knitting cat cuddlies for beginners or books for knitting cat cuddlies. Make a note and check them out too – this is where you find the hidden niche blogging gems
When you hit upon the idea that has traffic and is of interest to you, add it to a new list (yeah, I am list crazy at the moment. You should see my office). As you you whittle down the brainstormed ideas into practical results you may see a niche for your blog that you never expected. You might see that you have veered off track with your blog and the brainstorming will bring you back to reality.
