How to Choose a Blogging Niche

If you’ve been thinking of starting a blog, one of the first things you’ll need to do is choose a blogging niche. It can seem like a stressful decision, but try not to worry about it too much because nothing is ever set in stone. A lot of people let this decision hold them back from starting, but the truth is, you can change your mind at any point. Choosing a topic now is just a stepping stone to get in the blogging door. Once you’re in, you can practice writing a few posts to see what you enjoy and if you need to make a change, you’ll have a better idea of what works for you.

If you’ve never owned a blog before, how can you expect to know what topics you’ll enjoy? Or what topics you’ll be passionate about? These things take time to figure out, and I can almost guarantee that the topics you choose now will change as your blog grows. Here are some tips to help you narrow down your choices.

Choosing a Blogging Niche

When I first started blogging, I thought One Little Project was going to be a home decor and DIY blog. We had just moved into our house, and I was super pumped to renovate everything and blog my way through it. It was going to be our journey of fixing up our house, “One Little Project at a time”. But money was tight, and my husband was less than willing to paint the kitchen, let alone drywall anything. So even though I had already chosen the name and started writing my blog, the DIY niche just didn’t happen for me.

But luckily, the name “One Little Project” is really flexible. I realized that I really enjoy posting about crafts, and making things for my kids, and even posting recipes. And all of those things fall under the definition of a “project” so it still worked out in the end!

If you can’t decide, or you want to keep it open, don’t feel like you need to lock yourself into one topic! I like to blog about anything that can be considered a “project”. The down side is that since I post about everything, it’s really difficult to earn money from affiliate sales. My readers are all over the map, so there isn’t one specific product that I can guarantee they’ll all like. You can read more about my blog income here.

Write about something you love

Are you an expert in anything? Do people come to you for advice about any particular topic? Do you constantly get compliments for things you create? Great! Can you blog about it?

Whatever you choose as your topic, you have to enjoy it. Don’t choose a niche just because it’s the “in thing” or it has more of a chance to be profitable. Write about something you love or at least something you enjoy. You’re potentially going to be writing about this for a long time, and it gets very boring writing about something you don’t care about.

You don’t have to be an expert

Depending on what you choose as your blog niche, you are essentially going to become a teacher. But don’t be fooled into thinking you need to be an expert when you start. The funny thing about teaching is that as long as you’re one step ahead of your students, they will be a captive audience and have no idea that you’re learning as you go!

You can even blog about your learning experience. Have you always wanted to learn how to make jewelry? Blog about the journey! Share what you’ve learned and what you’ve found helpful. You’d be surprised how many others are in the same boat!

It’s okay to write about more than one thing

Having troubles narrowing it down? Yeah. Me too. Don’t stress about it. If you want to write about Cooking, Kids Crafts, and Holiday Treats then go for it! (*ahem* That’s what I blog about… it sounds a little more random when you list it like that, but I think it works…). If you want to write about your favourite kids snacks, sewing tips and cake decorating ideas with a few parenting tips thrown in, do what makes you happy. As long as you can find a way to tie everything together, you can combine as many topics as you like.

Blog Niche Ideas

Here’s a list of blog niches. It’s by no means complete, but hopefully it will help inspire you. If you can choose one of these topics GREAT! If not, try to narrow it down to three or four topics that work well together:

• Sewing


• Travel


• Cooking


• Desserts


• Cake Making


• Cookie Decorating


• Crafts


• Kids Crafts


• Home Decor


• DIY


• Lifestyle


• Parenthood


• Scrap Booking


• Card Making


• Carpentry


• Organizing


• Cleaning


• Fashion


• Jewelry


• Babies


• Pregnancy


• Home Schooling


• Relationships


• Gardening


• Healthy Living


• Dieting


• Losing Weight


• Exercising


• Faith


• Woodworking


• Furniture design


• Architecture


• Green Living


• Party Planning


• Homemaking


• Holidays

The benefits of choosing a niche

I can’t say for sure, but I’m pretty confident that if I had chosen a specific, narrowed down and focused niche I could have earned money a whole lot faster. There’s no way to know for sure, but I’m going to tell you a little story from my blogging past.

There’s another girl who started blogging around the same time as me. She had a sewing blog and WOW, she really rocked it! It took me over three years to earn what she made in her first year. (You can read more about my blog income here).

I don’t regret it, because to be honest, I think I would have gotten bored writing a life time of sewing posts. But if you’re passionate about sewing, it would be perfect! But don’t start a sewing blog just because I’m using it as an example. There are a lot of other factors to think about and it’s not a guarantee that you’ll be successful. (How’s that for a disclaimer?).

She found a niche that worked really well – sewing – and she was able to earn an excellent affiliate income by selling sewing courses through Craftsy. You can sign up for their affiliate program through Share a Sale. (Those are affiliate links. If you sign up for Share a Sale I will get $1 for referring you).

When you have a blog about a specific topic, especially one that involves learning, your readers are more likely to stick around to keep learning from you. So continuing with the sewing example (which would easily work for many other niches), you can earn affiliate sales from selling fabric, sewing patterns, sewing courses, and sewing machines. You can eventually write your own sewing courses and you can sell your own sewing patterns. You could even start an Etsy shop and sell the things you sew. If you can narrow it down, it’s a lot easier to monetize a blog that has a specific topic.

It’s okay to change your mind

Don’t feel like you have to stick with a topic just because you started with it. It’s okay to change your mind. No one is perfect. And over time, I can pretty much guarantee that your content will change from what you originally thought it would be. Just go with the flow, and don’t stress yourself out if you realize the topic you choose isn’t going to work for you.

In the end, YOU own your blog. You can blog about whatever you want to. You can add new topics to your blog or take them away at any time. The most important thing is to genuinely enjoy the things you’re posting about.

 

Return to our How to Start a Blog page.

 

Source : onelittleproject.com
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