Choosing the Right Niche

Choosing the right niche for your blog can mean the difference between success and failure. Since it is so important, how do choose a niche? For some people the answer is easy. However, others have no idea what to choose.

In most articles you read about building successful blogs, they will give you several pieces of advice.

• Write about what you are interested in and passionate about.


• Write about what you know.


• Try to find a niche that isn’t oversaturated.

Writing what you‘re interested in and passionate about is important from two standpoints. Without an interest in the subject, more than likely, you will not continue blogging about it. Furthermore, usually your readers will be able to sense whether you are passionate about your topic.

If you write about what you know, it will be easier to develop content and authority. Even in investing, Warren Buffet, an infamous investor and the richest man in the world, will tell you to invest in companies you understand. However, this is not always easy. Some people are interested in many different subjects but a master in none.

Unless you're writing a personal blog for family and friends, it is easier to attract a readership if the niche isn‘t oversaturated. However, at the same time, you need to ensure there is a big enough audience to get traffic. Otherwise, if there isn‘t a very big audience, your blog will lack traffic. No traffic means no money.

By using Google’s Adwords Free Keyword Search tool, you can get an idea of how many searches a day are done on your blog topic of interest. This tool will show you the approximate search volume per month and the approximate average volume.

If you plan to make money on your blog, since Google Adsense is popular from of contextual advertising, you may want to get an idea of how much a topic will pay. Although Adsense does not tell you how much you will make by placing contextual advertising on your blog, you can make an educated guess by finding out how much the advertisers are paying per click advertise. Advertisers bid on keywords for an ad. If the adword has more competition and demand, they have to pay more money for it. Consequently, this leads to higher payout for Adsense users.

In addition to using Google’s Adword tool for the number of searches, it will also give you an estimate of the competition for the Adword. Although the use of this tool is free, you will have to create an Adwords account with Google.

Choosing the right niche is one of the most important decisions you’ll make. When considering what niche is right for you, look for an unsaturated niche which has potential for traffic and earnings that you write about with passion. If you succeed at this, you are on the right road to building a successful blog.

Every choice you make has an end result. - Zig Ziglar

Definitions

Niche: A narrowly focused topic.

Traffic: The amount of visitors your website recieves in a given time.

Contextual advertising: Advertisements that are relevant to a website's content.

Adsense: An advertising program by Google where advertisements are placed on a website relevant to the website's content. For each ad clicked on, the website owner recieves money.

Adwords: An advertising program by Google where advertisers bid on topical keywords for their ads. Each time an internet user clicks on the ad, the advertiser pays a certain amount based on they keyword bid.