The Secrets of Picking A Niche
written by Jane May
I want to follow up my Start A Blog: Just Jump In! post I wrote for John about 2 weeks back. In that post I mentioned how you should create a website or blog that you are passionate about. After realizing how many readers are here that are interested in starting a blog but just don’t know where to begin, I thought letting you all in on the secrets of picking a niche might be a good idea. Well, these aren’t really secrets; it’s just my approach to picking a niche or topic to blog about. Since I’ve had a little bit of success, I thought I would share 
The first thing you have to do is research. By reading helpful blogs like John Chow dot com, you are on your way. The next thing you want to do is pick a niche (a topic to blog about) that you are interested in and are willing to write about day in and day out. I am taking the online money making approach here, so if you are a recreational blogger, the day in and day out approach won’t be as strict for you.
Let me outline the process of picking a niche to make money online for you all:
- Time to reflect. In order to choose what your blog is about, you first need to think about what you are about. A way to identify what makes you YOU, spend some time thinking about what you value, what your interests are, your goals and aspirations, your passion and drive. If you can identify what keeps you going day in and day out, you can blog about it, and I bet it’ll be pretty easy for you too
- Is your niche on the rise? You will need to do a little homework here. Blogging about your passion isn’t enough to make your blog a hit; like any other business, you’ll have to do a market analysis on the area you are interested in. You might be interested in your topic but unless others are too, you will be fighting to build a highly read blog the whole time.
- How’s the competition? I know there is a craze going on about the making money online topic, I think I’ve jumped on that craze myself with Jane May Blogs, but you have to be realistic. If you write about a popular topic, think about what is the competition leaving out? If you can figure that out, then you’ve got yourself a niche, and I bet it will be a popular one too.
- Will you be able to write enough? Again, you will have to reflect on your experiences and yourself to be able to answer this. But I will say this, the internet is full of helpful resources, learn to tap into those resources to help you succeed online.
- How can you monetize this topic? If you are trying to make money online, you should always be asking yourself this. Will you be using affiliate sales, adsense, both, etc.? What ever your methods are, use the resources you have to help you.
- Finally, choose the darn topic! OK, you’ve done the hard part, now it’s time to choose your topic. Some of you might already have a blog and are still struggling to find a topic. Do these steps and I bet it will help you narrow down your scope.
This post was guest blogged by Jane May. She teaches readers how to create and monetize blogs on DailyWebIdeas.com.
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(10 votes, average: 3.2 out of 5)
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Great tips, they are going to help me
Nice ideas, Jane. I have my niche, and it’s one filled with competition. I guess now my goal is to see how I can offer something the others don’t.
Thanks again,
Foodette
I agree with you in most of the points but i like to play when there is competition. This is more challenging and lets not forget it’s obviously profitable.
Making money online or making money from any internet marketing (including domain business, SPAM, online survey, affiliate marketing) will never become a dull topic. These were always hot subjects and they will be always hot subjects.
Good tips
I’m more than passionate about my topic…I’m freakin’ obsessed. It’s really what my life is about, and I love writing, so it’s perfect…except it’s not worth money.
Alas!
I know exactly what you’re talking about, passion does come first for me, too.
I agree, those are good tips, but only if someone is wanting to profit from their blogging endeavor.
If someone is not concerned with making money from their blog then only Tips 1 and 6 are relevant.
Thoughts?
hey,JohnChow blog = $$$$$
it also = evil
7. How much will be the ugggg!!! when John open your eyes
nice avatar
i just plan to launch a new project about css,
and are waiting to custom a wordpress theme.
I have chosen and it’s kicking my butt!
congrats!
You are right about it… As I started working on my first blog, I suddenly thought I am missing out a niche in my blog… I will keep on refining it till it’s right on track.. Thanks Jane May..
Great tips Jane, always welcome your articles.
Thanks for the support…as long as it’s there, I’ll keep writing
Excellent tips. I’m sure we can all use these tips to help us promote our blog and pick the right niche
Nice tips by joh now its easy to choose the niche
john rocks very nice tips
Yeah, he does; except Jane May wrote this post, not John.
Great tips John! I am a big fan of yours!
Great tips john! I am a big fan of yours.
Thank You for tips
Yet niche marketing is a great source of traffic and if you pick the right niche, your visitors will start to flow in, chosen your topic right and get targeted traffics
met with financial analyst… analysist/sp??? for warner brothers. i’m very tired now.
In my opinion, the key for a successful blog is the content. Any other consideration is only secondary…
Hi John, want to recommend you a new header image, created in photoshop:
http://translategadget.googlepages.com/alexvorn_ferrari2.jpg
You can change you old imageheader with this one!!
Nice tips!
I cant help reflecting on how many comments are here…usually when john writes a post, the comments start at 50+ in an hour or so…But I am 100% percent the guest bloggers are adding real value to the blog here….and john is minting away all the money! a win-lose situation?
Not really. There are ways this works for commenters…!
nice.. i recently made a similar post on my blog about picking an offer for affiliate marketing.
Yea, nice tip.
I’m still wondering how to find my niche!
John,
Have you noticed that you are on page 5 on google for make money online….
What did you do?
I noticed that aswell
Nice ideas, definitely key points. thanks!
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5 out of 6 isn’t that bad, is it?
where-i-went-wrong
Thanks for the great article
You are welcome
It’s always tough to stay in the Niche. Great post Jane. I see you sold your other site. Congrats.
Stay tuned to my blog for latest…