Congratulations on starting a new blog! Now it is time to pick the best topic that informs readers, follows your passion and has a rich variety of material to discuss. In general, blogs with a deep focus and expertise have the most success in finding readership, so it’s important to choose your topic carefully.
Web surfers won’t read your blog just because they like or appreciate you. They need a good reason to come back day after day. They may want to solve a problem, satisfy a curiosity or keep up with the latest info on a certain subject. That is why it is so important to consider differ blog topics.
Niche blogs are able to stay focused on a small subject with passionate followers and a community of like-minded individuals. Marginal Revolution is a hyper-focused blog primarily about free market economics. Perez Hilton is focused only on celebrity gossip. Similarly, you should choose a blog with a certain niche.
Tips to Find a Niche
So, how do you decide on the right niche? Firstly, focus on something that you are passionate about and have deep knowledge of. While this may seem obvious, it is crucial to keep producing content all the time.
Use something that you have spent years of time and energy working on to make the focus of your blog. This will provide more fodder, stories, connections and ideas about what to fill in your blog. When you choose such a topic, you are less likely to abandon the blog, more likely to create a community and come up with interesting ideas.
If you choose a blog just because you think it will help your career without having a sufficient background on the topic, it could backfire and you will run out of content or interest to keep it going. You also do not want to broadcast your ignorance if it is not a topic you are totally proficient in.
Picking a Passion
Maybe you have many passions that you spend time working on. Conversely, there may be no once topic that you are expert and passionate enough to blog about. However, there are a few ways to figure it out. First of all, do you have any hobbies? How do you occupy the majority of your free time? What were your best subjects in school? What is your job?
After answering these questions, try writing a list of blog entries under each topic. Time yourself to see which topic you can create the most topics in the shortest amount of time. Also, consider whether these are good topics that could generate a lot of words and supporting material or just fluff pieces. Are you excited about writing these pieces or do they seem like a chore? After considering these questions, you will probably have an idea of your passion.
Growing a Network
If you do want to focus on a career based blog, you will inevitably grow your professional network. As you shore your blog across different online platforms and your audience grows, more people will send in questions and start discussions with you about different topics. This could be another good reason to get your blog started.
Market Segment and Popularizing Your Site
Unfortunately, due to the vastness of the Internet, there is probably already a blog with your exact topic. What does not exist is a blog with your exact voice and perspective. At the same time, you do not want too much content overlap with popular blogs. Give your readers a reason to come back to your site over and over again as opposed to a different one.
Survey the most popular blogs in your space and try to come up with some differentiation. One way is to become much more narrowly focused. If you want to focus on celebrity gossip like Perez Hilton, maybe you just focus on sports celebrities. If you want to focus on economics like Marginal Revolution, perhaps you just focus on monetary policy. In either case, try to bring a unique perspective.
Attempt to focus on under-served niches without much of a current following. Despite the millions of blogs out there already, there are always new topics and issues to explore. Furthermore, you need to bring a unique perspective to your topic. With this in mind, you can slowly build you traffic and begin to dominate your segment. Before long, you will be able to take on the larger blogs and grow your area of coverage.
In any case, there are many, many blog topics to choose from. Consider all of the options mentioned above and take the option that is right for you.
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