Simple tips for choosing your blog niche
Choosing your blog niche doesn’t have to be complicated.
In the simplest of definitions a niche is a subject area you will create content for.
The reason I recommend settling on a niche from the beginning is that your niche serves as a helpful guide in creating your content and building your brand.
Making this decision early on will give structure to your following decisions for your new blog.
Simple tips for choosing your blog niche
The very first thing to identify is what your subject matter will be and who your audience is.
If you plan to cover a specific topic area that is your niche. It’s as simple as that.
If you have a variety of topics you will fall into the broad category of lifestyle blogger.
My blog started as lifestyle blog. Over the years I’ve focused on blogging how to’s, design tips and productivity posts, but I still write on other related topics.
Perhaps you have one specific area you are passionate about and can’t wait to share with others! This passion is your niche.
Examples of niches are crafting, DIY projects, home decor and improvement, beauty, fashion, fitness, health, cooking and baking, business insights, travel, personal growth, parenting, and book reviews, just to name a few areas of inspiration.
You have a desire to provide your valuable knowledge, skills, advice, know how to others and yes, even your opinions.
As you start your blogging journey know what it is you will be writing about.
This will impact how you set your blog up, from choosing a name, to picking out a theme (the layout and design of your website) to the images you use and the voice of your blog.
Choosing your blog niche will give you direction as you move forward.
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Know what you will write about
The first step in choosing your blog niche is to decide on the topic of your blog.
If you have no idea what your blog is going to be about, then you’re going to struggle with creating content for it and drawing people to it.
Before you get overwhelmed with the idea of a niche let’s talk about why having a niche matters.
Creating content for a clearly defined niche benefits you in several ways.
The biggest benefit is that it positions you as an expert.
When your audience discovers you have covered a topic well and have tons of related posts that serve them they will want to come back and read more.
Let’s say you were looking for healthy recipes and found only one recipe post on a blog would you think that blogger was an expert on healthy eating? I highly doubt it.
If you discovered a blog full of amazing healthy recipes you could make for months to come you would believe that blogger’s expertises in the subject.
The second benefit a niche serves is that it draws return traffic and builds a loyal audience. The advantage to a well developed niche is building trust with your readers so they come back to your blog again and again.
However if a reader discovers only one post on a topic and there is nothing else related to it on your blog they will be a one time visitor that does not return.
Don’t worry about being boxed in or limited. While a clearly defined niche will give you direction, creating content pillars and expanding into niche related subtopics will give your plenty of content to cover.
How to discover your niche and stand out from the crowd:
ASK THESE QUESTIONS TO HELP YOU IDENTIFY TOPICS:
- What could I speak about for hours off the top of my head?
- How can I teach and provide value to others?
- What do people come to me with questions about?
- What am I the go to for on advice?
- What am I most passionate about?
- Am I currently educated or have experience in a subject area?
With these questions in mind make a list of topics that you are passionate about and can speak to well.
Once you have created a list of topics look for common threads between them. Are they related? Do they fall under a similar subject area?
Focus on 2-3 of your favorite related topics from this list. Which one speaks to you the most? You’ve just found your niche.
Take each of these topic areas and write as many subtopics under each of them as you can think of. You now have a huge content bank to pull from!
Grab my Blog Niche Planner to walk you through choosing your blog niche.
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STANDING OUT FROM THE CROWD:
As you choose your blog niche think about what will help your blog stand out.
- Write about something that is unique and different from other blogs – what perspective can you share that someone else hasn’t? Draw from life experiences and tell your unique story.
- Know what other people are writing about so that you can create content that stands out from the crowd – take your content one step further so that you are providing a piece of value no one else is.
If you absolutely cannot niche down you can create a lifestyle blog. With a lifestyle blog you can have a broader range of topics but you will still want to have a theme to your blog.
Lots of bloggers have successful lifestyle blogs. Identifying pillar content for your lifestyle blog will help you narrow down to key subject matter to write about.
Even as a lifestyle blogger you will still want to stick to 3-5 key categories.
If your goal is to provide value and gain a loyal reader following a niche will provide clarity for you and your audience.
Figure out your unique perspective
The next step in choosing your blog niche is to figure out your unique perspective.
Before you begin writing a blog, it is helpful to you figure out what will make your blog stand out from all of the other blogs in its genre?
If you can’t find an immediate answer to that question, don’t worry—this process takes time.
To help guide you along this journey here are some questions to ask:
- How can I bring value to others from my unique perspective?
- How do these particular topics affect me personally?
- What are my own personal experiences with these topics?
It’s important to note that every single person has their own unique perspective on every topic imaginable. It just takes practice identifying yours before sharing it with others through writing a blog post or series of posts!
Action Step: Take the time to decide what key topics your blog will be about and who your audience is. As I stated at the beginning this will give guidance to your following decisions for your new blog.
Choosing your blog niche
What I want you to take away from choosing your blog niche is that it serves as a helpful guide. When you are first getting established a niche will provide structure.
As you grow your new blog and get established in your niche there will be room to branch off into niche related topics because you have positioned yourself well in your niche from the beginning.
xoxo Naomi
