How To Start A Niche Blog (And Why You Should)

How To Start A Niche Blog (And Why You Should) You can divide all blogs into two categories: lifestyle blogs and niche blogs. These categories represent two conscious decisions that bloggers can make: Im going to write about everything, or Im going to write about one thing.   Bloggers have 2 choices: Write about everything, or write about one thing. #NicheBloggingNiche blogs are when you write about one thing, and one thing only. They are a blog with a one-track mind, having one purpose, one goal. Why in the world would you ever consider something as unfun as a niche blog?  Because niche blogging is where real traction and traffic happen for a blog. Why You Should Start A Niche Blog As a blog reader I like variety, but when it comes time to save a blogs RSS feed in Feedly for reading and sharing later, I much prefer niche blogs. Niche blogs save me time.  They fit into a specific category and I know that when I want to read on a certain topic, the posts will stay true to the category. I will find content on the topic Im looking for and nothing else. For lifestyle blogs, I end up dumping them into a category I call Random Interesting (yes, I really call it that) and I only venture in there when I have time to kill. Its not that I dont enjoy reading those blogs (I actually do), but when I am pressed for time I dont always have the option to sift through content to find something that might be useful in the moment. I turn to categories that I know will give me what Im looking for. In other words, when it comes time to share content, niche blogs are the workhorse readers turn to. Variety, within boundaries, works. Variety, without boundaries, can be a mess. #NicheBloggingThats great that niche blogs give me, the content curator, an easier day. But what benefits do you, the blogger, get from a niche blog? 1. Niche Blogs Keep You On Track Focus is hard enough when you blog. This is especially true on days when you dont have ideas and are tempted to write about your favorite sports team just this one time. When you have a defined niche, its pretty easy to say no, the NFL doesnt have anything to do with my pastry blog. By knowing the specific topic you are writing about, you actually have more tools available to help get you out of an idea rut. Techniques to break writers block, like brainstorming or a headline storm, are easier when you have boundaries that define where you should operate. Lets consider an example of how the two compare. I have a lifestyle blog and I cant think of anything to write about. Has anything interesting happened to me lately? Have I observed anything interesting about life in general I think people might like to hear about? Have I read anything lately that caught my attention that I could write about for my readers? I have a niche blog about shoes, and I cant think of anything to write about. I can go to my RSS reader and get ideas on my niche topic that are trending right now. I can see which of my old posts are most popular and repurpose them. I can do Google keyword research on shoe-related phrases. I can set up a Google Alert on different shoe-related topics. Neither the lifestyle blog or niche blog is better, but a niche blog has more concrete methods of finding ideas because the topic is restricted. Narrow boundaries keep you from weaving all over the place. Niche blogs make idea and headline generation easier. Boundaries are good.2. Niche Blogs Give You A Reliable Audience I have several personal blogs; a few are niche and a few are without boundaries whatsoever. My main blog is mainly personal, and Ill write on any topic that strikes my fancy. My core readers are those who connect with my personality and as an individual, and not with a specific topic. While that is valid, it isnt a reliable audience that you can build a huge email list or serious traffic on (unless youre already famous). The average blogger isnt generally going to be a mini-star with a huge following that clings to them no matter what they write. A great example is a viral blog post I had recently. The topic of the post was on food and health, and I picked up a lot of email subscribers who were interested in that topic. The next weeks email came out and most of those subscribers went away. Why? Because they thought I was a food blog, and thats what they wanted. A niche blog will give you an audience that you understand, and that understands you. They are less prone to churn. Niche blogs give you an audience that you understand, and that understands you.3. Niche Blogs Make It Easier To Monetize Your Blog Perhaps youve decided youll use advertising on your blog to earn income. Once again, niche blogs for the win. If youre blog is about everything, what ads will you sell? Itll be hit and miss to guess what ads will actually be the most successful. You dont know which topic makes your audience show up and read and therefore, you dont know which ads will interest them. Its also a hard sell to advertisers. They want to know what your blog is about. How do you sell an ad when your blog is about me? The same can be said for ebooks, training, and other items that people use to make money through a blog. How will you choose a topic for an ebook, or training, and know that your readers will buy it, if youre not writing a niche blog? You have no idea what theyd spend money on or like to learn. All you know is that they are willing to come to your blog to hear your random thoughts on all kinds of topics for free. 4. Niche Blogs Expand Your Own Knowledge Blogs that arent niche blogs dont generally do in-depth coverage on a particular topic. Their lifeblood is the variety, and sometimes topic coverage is a bit like skipping stones. Each post glances at the surface of the topic and then moves on to the next topic. Niche blogs, however, encourage in-depth coverage of topics. They have to. Youre only writing about one specific topic and youll naturally dig in deeper and cover details as much as you can because there isnt another topic to bounce on to. For example, if you have a food blog, you wouldnt write just one blog post about whether you should use cold or room temp butter for making a cake and call it done, never to revisit butter temperature again. Instead, you might do a series on how to properly use butter, and that might lead you to do features on more individual ingredients and how they affect your baking. With niche blogs, you dont have to come up with 1000 new ideas. You can start with three and approach them from every angle possible before moving on. A niche blog allows you to do that, but on a general lifestyle blog, youre just going to be seen as strangely obsessive about butter. You dont need 1000 new ideas on a #NicheBlog. A few, from all angles, will do.How To Start A Niche Blog The difference between starting a niche blog and any other blog isnt particularly magical or unusual. It involves research and planning before you jump in and start writing. It involves more than just the decision to start a blog. It requires you to decide to start a blog about ___.  If youre looking for your niche blog to bring in money, youll want to be even more conscientious in your selection of a niche topic. 1. Know Your Passion If you hate vegetables, deciding to write a niche blog about vegetables is a terrible idea. Even if you like vegetables well enough, it still might not be enough. Remember, you are going to be writing heavily about a very focused topic. Thats going to be difficult enough. At least make it easy on yourself and have a serious passionate and interest in your niche. Otherwise, its going to be a very short-lived blog. 2. Decide On Short Or Long Term Trend niche blogs wont last, but they can be profitable for a while. For example, your niche blog might capitalize on a TV show or movie. Once the show is no longer on the air, or the movie buzz has faded, your blog wont be the traffic horse it once was. But that doesnt mean you shouldnt do it. As long as you know, going in, that youre going to be in a bit of a pressure cooker to build traffic quickly, and are ready to capitalize on absolutely every last drop of it before it fades, go ahead. Its the way your entire blog exists by capitalizing on a trend. 3. Decide If And How Youll Monetize Your Site Perhaps youre writing your niche blog for the absolute love of the topic and dont care about bringing in money. Fair enough.  Most people create a niche blog in the hopes of bringing in money, because niche blogs are uniquely able to handle advertising and affiliate marketing very well. Lets say you do want to use affiliate marketing. You will need to pick a niche topic where good affiliate marketing programs and products are available, and youll get paid a decent commission. Youll need to research available affiliate programs and find a reputable one that fits what you need best. Or maybe you want to use advertising. Again, youll need a blog whose topic attracts a specific audience that has advertisers eager to market to them. And, youll need to build up traffic to a certain level before some advertising programs will even consider your blog. Remember to comply with the FTC and disclose on your blog if you decide to use affiliate marketing or paid reviews. Niche blogs are uniquely set up to bring in advertising and affiliate marketing money.4. Find Your Keyword Niche Youve decided youll write about coffee for your niche blog. But coffee is still pretty broad–are you talking about growing coffee? roasting coffee? brewing coffee? fair trade coffee? coffee culture? buying coffee? cooking with coffee? You need to find specific keywords if you want your niche blog to bring in money and traffic. Googles Keyword Planner is the most popular tool, and even though there is no shortage of blog posts telling you how to find the best keywords, you might consider Googles own instructions  on using Keyword Planner, too. Which site will be easier to target with affiliate marketing, advertising, and keywords: A niche blog about photography, or a niche blog about Nikon cameras? Sometimes the extreme niche blog is the way to go when you are looking to monetize your site and find precise keywords that do the heavy lifting. When it comes to traffic and monetizing your blog, the more focused your audience is, the better. 5. Tighten Up Your Current Blog Maybe your current blog went off track and became a blog about everything. How do you turn your blog into a niche blog? Look at your categories. Youll notice that a blog off track often has category and tag bloat. Which category do you seem to write in the most? Thats a good hint at where your passion and interest for blogging lies. Look at your stats. Which of your posts tend to get the most traffic? This is an indicator of why people come to your blog, and it is also an indicator of a post that has done well in search. Dissect the post. Whats the topic? How did you write it? What brings the search engines? Make more posts like this on the most popular topic. Do some pruning. You might consider removing posts that are completely off-topic. If you absolutely must write on more than one topic, why not start a personal blog elsewhere and rehab your current blog into a niche blog? If your blog has been around a while, build on that traffic and following while you regain focus as a niche. Resist that spontaneous post. If you catch yourself feeling like you just have to post a photo and story about your dog and the cute thing he did today, stop. Dont put it on your blog. That is more appropriate for social media, or your personal lifestyle blog. Again, if you must have this outlet, create a personal blog to do it on. Keep your niche blog purely on topic, always. Dont give up on a wayward blog. Even if you havent stayed on topic over the years, its not too late to start. Decide today that you will have a niche blog, and get that mindset in place.