OK, let’s get down to business here.  I’ve told you why Niche Blogging, now it’s time to start on the HOW of Niche Blogging.

By now you’ve probably got all kinds of blog ideas running through your mind.  And that’s good!  Every idea is a good idea.  Don’t let anyone tell you any differently.  Even if there are already thousands of blogs out there on “Staying Sane While Your Kid Learns To Play The Tuba”,  if your blog is well written, full of lots of good information and you market it right, it could be the one at the top of the list when someone Googles “Tuba Trouble”!

Here are some things to consider when choosing your topic for your niche blog:

• Is it a topic you’re interested in?
  • Something to think about – while your blog may start producing a small amount of income in a month or so, most successful blogs take a year or two to start producing regularly.  Is this a topic that you could write a lot about, for a long time?

• Is the topic popular?
  • While you may be interested in Tuba Playing Children, how many others out there are?  If no one is interested in the topic you choose, you won’t get a lot of visitors.  No visitors = No sales.  Think about the topics that you search for on the web.  Or look at the TV news or the newspapers to see what people are discussing right now.

• Is there a lot of competition?
  • If you think you’ve found a hot topic or niche, then chances are someone else has had the exact same idea.  If there’s too much competition, you may never be seen.  If you have the time and energy to devote to making your blog stand out from the crowd, then go for it.
  • And don’t let someone talk you out of this one, girls!  If you want to do a blog about knitting, then do it!  There are ways to successfully market your blog and shoot it to the top.  And even though there may be thousands of blogs on knitting, there are BILLIONS of people in the world looking for knitting advice.  You only need SOME of them to find you.  And if it’s something you feel passionate about, then knitting it is!

• Can you provide something that your competition is NOT?
  • Look at some of those other knitting blogs out there and see what they’re missing.  YOU knit.  So you know what to look for.  Maybe they don’t show enough pictures of stitches.  Maybe their patterns are always missing a step.  Maybe they’re just plain boring and you think you could make yours a lot more attractive or entertaining.
  • Do you create your own patterns?  You could offer them to your visitors.  Do you have a sense of humor?  You could include daily “Purls of Wisdom”.

• Can you make money with this topic?
  • Look at those other knitting blogs.  Do they have ads on them anywhere?  Is there a related product that you could sell?  Maybe you could sell those patterns you’ve created.
  • We’ll get into this later because it’s a whole category by itself, but there are Affiliate programs out there that want you to place ads on your blog.  Some of them sell eBooks on knitting!  (I haven’t looked to see if there are any eBooks on Teaching Your Child To Play The Tuba.)

To help you narrow your final choice down even further, think about what types of sites you go looking for.  What are you usually searching for on the web?  Is there one particular topic that you get excited about, that you just can’t stop talking about?  Is there one topic that your family and friends come to you for advice about?

In my next post, I’ll give you a couple of tools to help you make that final decision.