How to Choose the Right Blog Niche for Your Goals

When deciding what blog niche is right for you, there are a lot of things to consider. 

Maybe you started out with a ‘lifestyle blog’ and have learned that it’s not very easy to grow and monetize. Or maybe you haven’t even started a blog yet and you need direction to do things right.

If you want to figure out how to choose the best and most profitable blog niche for you, then you’re in the right place!

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WHAT IS A BLOG NICHE?

A blog niche is just content focused on a well-defined segment of the online market that is specifically interested in what you write and offer.

That’s it.

A blog niche isn’t necessarily something that exists online already. It can also be a concept that is formed into a reality based on the needs of your own target audience that are not currently being fulfilled.

If you want to ‘break into’ an existing blog niche, that’s fine. But if you want to CREATE YOUR OWN, that’s okay too!

We’ll cover all of your options in this article.

HOW TO FIND THE RIGHT BLOG NICHE FOR YOU

Finding (or creating) a blogging niche will depend entirely on YOU and your goals.

Is your blog a passion project that just needs to pay for itself and nothing more? Is your blog the beginning of a six-figure business that you’re working to build? Or is it something else entirely?

You’ll first need to define your goals so that you can determine what kind of blog niche is right for you.

I think it’s safe to say though, that most bloggers want their websites to be profitable. At the very least, to cover the cost of running the site.

So, let’s talk about how to choose a blog niche that serves you and your goals, but also brings in some profit/income.

There are five main areas that we’re going to address (and they’re all important, so hang in there with me)!

1. WHAT DO YOU ENJOY TALKING ABOUT?

Now, the truth is, a profitable blog niche is more about our readers than it is about us. 

Recall the definition of a blog niche is quite literally focusing on the TARGETED PEOPLE that want and need to read your very specific content.

Taking that into consideration, we also have to acknowledge that our blog niche is going to lead to lots and lots of writing. 

We’re going to write about this stuff A LOT, and we’re going to write about it for a long time.

So, it’s beneficial to write about something that you actually enjoy writing about.

– What could you talk about all day?
– What do people think of when they hear your name?
– What topics fire up your energy and what topics drain you?

While we DO need to choose a blog niche that people want to read about and learn from, we also want to have some level of interest in the topics that we’re writing about.

If you don’t enjoy what you’re writing about, it’s going to be really hard to push through the ups and downs of growing a blog.

And trust me, there will be ups and downs!

Exception: if you plan on outsourcing all of your content creation, then having passion for the topic itself is not important. Simply disregard this step and move on to step two of choosing the right blogging niche. 

2. WHO DO YOU WANT TO IMPACT WITH YOUR BLOG?

In life and in business, some people will love us and some people won’t.

It’s the same with your blog: some people will be positively impacted by what you do, and some will just look the other way.

So, if you have a choice, WHO do you want to impact in your blogging career? 

Helpful, problem-solving blogs make money, so whose problems do you want to help solve?

Answering these questions will help you to choose a blog niche that works for you.

3. WHAT IS YOUR AREA OF EXPERTISE?

When we talk about expertise as a blogger, we aren’t necessarily talking about fancy degrees and years of experience (although that can help in certain niche markets).

We’re really just talking about the topics –  the focus of content – that we are confident and comfortable writing about. 

We know about it, we enjoy talking about it, we have value to share, and we’re willing to learn more if/when things change.

Positioning yourself as an expert will help you to grow and monetize your blog faster, which is all we can hope for when we start a new blog!

It will also help search engines to recognize the kind of content you write about, so that you rank for more keywords and get more blog traffic.

And since we want search engines to see us as an expert in our blog niche sooner than later, we NEED to choose a focus that we can actually write about in a comprehensive way.

4. WHAT DO PEOPLE WANT TO READ ABOUT?

Choosing topics you know about and enjoy writing about is only a piece of the puzzle. 

We have a little more work to do in choosing our blog niche. And it involves figuring out what our target market actually wants to read about.

If you ever saw the hilariously classic comedy Joe Dirt, there’s a hilarious scene in that movie where David Spade (Joe Dirt) is trying to help some guy who’s selling fireworks out in the desert. 

The guy only sells ‘snakes and sparklers’ and when Joe Dirt asked him why, the guy said ‘snakes and sparklers are the only ones I like.’

Joe Dirt’s response is the principle of this entire article, so don’t forget this sentence.

He said, ‘well that’s a problem. It’s not about YOU, it’s about the consumer.’

That’s right. 

Writing what we want is not going to help us build a profitable blog that impacts other people’s lives.

We have to figure out what our target audience is interested in, because at the end of the day, it’s allllll about them! It’s all about what they want to read, consume, follow, try, and buy!

Brainstorming a blog focus that you enjoy writing about but that also interests your target audience will help you to narrow down to the right niche.

How do we figure out what our people want to read about?

DO MARKET RESEARCH

You can use a free tool like Google Trends to do research and figure out what topics people are searching for online.

You can basically go back to the beginning of search engine’s existence to see what topics people are interested in overtime.

Ideally, you’ll choose a focus that has either steady search results or increasing search results over time.

Example:

I searched for ‘clean beauty’ from 2004 to Present and these were the results. 

An obvious and steady increase over a long period of time. Yes, this is a topic that people SEARCH FOR and want to learn about.

***Just an example, of course. It doesn’t necessarily mean that YOU should choose this blog niche. But it’s a good way to gauge interest in potential topics!***

Here’s another example:

I searched for ‘homeschooling’ over the past 5 years and these were the results.

The keyword topic ‘homeschooling’ gets pretty consistent searches, with massive drops in December and summer time. Ths search term also saw a massive increase in early 2020 due to world events and school closures.

This is also obviously a topic that people search for and want to read about, especially during specific seasons of the year.

After doing some Google Trends research on the main topics for your blogging niche, you can head on over to Google or Keysearch to do some additional keyword search.

Are people searching for keyword phrases around these topics?

If the topics are getting regular searches and the keywords have some competition, then you might be onto something here. But let’s talk about one last important aspect of choosing a blog niche.

And follow this video tutorial to learn how to use Google Trends!

5. WHAT MAKES MONEY

Whether your blog is just a fun hobby, a passion project, or a side hustle that you’re hoping will replace your day job, you probably want to earn some money from your hard work.

We all do!

So, when deciding on a blogging niche, we need to determine if there is any possibility that we can make money from writing in this niche.

Otherwise, all that time spent trying to write great content and grow our blogs will be time simply wasted.

Is this niche profitable?

To answer this question, we have to figure out how bloggers make their money.

Every blogger makes money from one (or both) of these things: creating and selling their own stuff, or promoting and selling other people’s stuff.

So, ask yourself: is there anything that I can promote or sell in this niche that people will want to buy?

– Check Amazon.
– Check the competition.
– Do research in Facebook groups.

Bottom line: if you’re solving problems for consumers,  and you’re the expert in your niche, you’ll be able to earn from your blog.

After working through the 5 aspects of choosing a blog niche, you probably have some idea of what you want to focus on for your blog.

Now it’s time to narrow it down so that you can position yourself as the expert and make money even faster!

WHY YOU SHOULD NARROW YOUR BLOG NICHE

Broad-niche blogs are difficult to grow and monetize. Not impossible, but difficult.

And why work harder than you have to?

When you try to ‘break into’ a popular broad-niche blog, you’re essentially going up against players that have a lot more content, experience, and domain authority than you… 

It’s like stepping into the boxing ring with a pro-Boxer when you’ve never even thrown a punch.

Yeah, let’s NOT do that.

Broad niche blogs are very competitive. Think about the personal finance niche, the fitness niche, or the parenting niche.

Yes, they are “niche-specific” in that they each cater to a specific market of people, but it’s still a very broad and competitive market.

It’s hard to grow your domain authority, rank on page one of search results, and grow your blog traffic in a competitive niche. 

It’s much better (and EASIER) to stack the odds in your favor and choose a niche that is a little less competitive, but still interesting and useful to your target audience.

HOW TO NARROW YOUR BLOG NICHE

After a bit of research, let’s say that you decide on a mommy blog. 

Moms read blogs, moms buy stuff online, and you have plenty of valuable knowledge to share in this space.

How can you narrow this blogging niche to give yourself a unique edge in this space?

First, think about WHO you want to help. Not just ‘moms’. Get more specific.

FIRST: IDENTIFY EXACTLY WHO YOU’RE HELPING

A great blog niche will solve very specific problems for a very specific group of people, right?

We can’t help alllll moms, but we can help a certain kind of mom.

Do you want to help single moms balance work life and home life? Do you want to help homeschooling moms get their kids through school? Do you want to help twin moms find products that will make those first 5 years easier?

These are all narrow blog niches that solve very specific problems. 

It will be much easier to gain favor from search engines and readers, because you will quickly be seen as the expert in a very specific field.

Of course, these are just examples. You’ll need to get laser-focused on the specific person you’re trying to serve based on your own goals and research.

SECOND: CHECK THE COMPETITORS

Once you determine who your person is (some call it an avatar), you need to scope out the competition.

Yes, building a profitable blog IS A COMPETITION, just like any other business.

It’s a friendly competition, but it’s still a competition, and it’s our job to stay ahead of the game.

Figure out how you can serve this target audience better than anyone else out there.

Maybe you have unique experiences, unique education, or a better sense of humor. 

What are your competitors doing and how can you do it better?

You can use Google or Pinterest to dig into competing content and see what’s working, what’s not, and what is lacking (so that you can fill that gap).

THIRD: GET THAT BLOG NAVIGATION ON POINT

The third step in narrowing your niche is cleaning up your website to draw in the right people.

Your target audience needs to know within two seconds of landing on your site that this is the place for them.

The beauty of a narrow niche:

You can usually show your audience that this site is the place for them quite easily. Make sure your homepage has images, a menu bar, and language that speaks to them.

We want to attract our niche audience and repel anyone that doesn’t belong here.

This will also help Google to determine where your blog should rank in search results.

Now, let’s take a quick minute to address some concerns that many bloggers have about finding their niche.

WHAT IF YOU HAVE A BROAD LIFESTYLE BLOG?

Think about your goals and what you must do to reach them. Growing and monetizing a lifestyle blog is not easy, but it’s not impossible either.

Is it a focused niche that you can prove yourself an expert in relatively easily?

Not really.

You do have the option of narrowing your focus moving forward, and then de-indexing any blog posts that don’t match your narrow niche.

This is what I would personally do if I had a lifestyle blog that wasn’t niche-specific.

WHAT IF YOUR NICHE IS TOO NARROW?

It’s pretty difficult to choose a blog niche that is too narrow, but not impossible. 

There is usually something for everyone online, and the more narrow you go, the quicker you’ll gain authority in that niche.

With that said, make sure you do the market research and competitor research to confirm that people are looking for this information (Google trends and keywords) and willing to spend money in this niche.

HOW TO FIND THE PERFECT BLOG NICHE

As a quick recap, choosing the right blog niche requires you to think about your own blogging goals and what you’re willing to do to accomplish them.

If you want to build a profitable blog, than you need to consider these 5 aspects of the perfect blog niche:

1.What you enjoy writing about.
2.Who you want to impact with your blog.
3.Choosing something you know a lot about (or can learn).
4.Choosing something people actually want to read.
5.Choosing something that has profitable potential.

Take the time to do market research and competitor research to help you narrow down your niche. When you think you’re narrow enough, try to narrow down a little more.

Remember that a narrow blog niche can help you to reach expert status faster and easier. It can help you to serve your audience better than anyone else can. And it can help you to make more income and impact than you ever imagined. 

After choosing your blog niche, it’s time to choose a domain name for your blog so that you can start the setup process!

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Follow PART 3 in our BECOMING A BLOGGER guide for help choosing the best domain name for your blog >>>

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