When I created my blog – Thrifty Hustler I had a clear purpose in mind. And that is to build a platform where I can connect with like-minded individuals whose goals are aligned with mine. And since that group of people that I want to connect with are from the Personal Finance world, I know that I have to be in the Personal Finance blog niche as well.
Back then, it was an easy thing for me to find what my blog niche is because my purpose was clear.
However, now that I’m thinking of creating another blog to use as my guinea pig for my online monetization experiments, it’s a bit of a struggle finding and deciding which blog niche to pursue because there are tons of options.
If you are thinking of creating a blog to earn a side income from then read on. However, if you are thinking of creating a blog/writing a blog just as a hobby then you don’t have to worry about this.
Photo by Marten Newhall on Unsplash
What is a Blog Niche?
A blog niche is basically the topic that you want to specialize in writing about. In my case, I want to specialize in Personal Finance that’s why all of the articles that I have written are about Earning Money and Saving Money, and of course everything else in between.
Now, it doesn’t mean that you can’t write about anything else, it’s your blog after all.
But, it’s preferable of course, to stick with your blog niche or overall topic in order not to potentially lose your valuable readership.
In my case, I also write about motivational articles as well, which at first glance, might seem to be out of topic. But if you think about it, our money issues (how we earn and how we spend) are all connected to our behaviors.
Blogging about blogging may also seem out of topic but if you think about it, blogging is also a great way to earn a side-income, that’s why I will continue to write about blogging.
There are certain situations when writing out of topic may cause a loss in readership so be careful in writing out-of-topic articles.
An example of this is if your blog is about frugal living. It may not be the best idea to write about your newly purchased Chanel or Bottega Veneta bags unless of course, it’s thrifted or if you’re going to share tips on how to save money in purchasing designer goods.
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Why is it Important to Pick a Blog Niche?
There are various reasons why it’s very important to pick a blog niche. Some of those reasons are:
Grow Your Blog Brand
It’s important to pick a blog niche because this will help you grow and establish your brand, which, will ensure your blog’s success for a long time.
What do you want your blog to be known for?
Do you want your blog to be known as the go-to blog when it comes to ‘Sustainable Fashion’ or do you want your blog to be known as the best blog for ‘Dividend Income?’
Regardless of what you want your blog to be known for, knowing your blog niche will help you easily grow your brand.
Targeted Market
Picking a blog niche will help you further narrow down your readership into your target market. And if you are aiming to profit from your blog, then this is a great way to start.
Again, given the example earlier, if your blog is about designer bags and other designer goods, then it will be very easy to build an audience that is interested in buying one.
And, if they’re interested in buying a designer bag, then your blog can help them decide which one is perfect for them. In return, you have the potential to earn money from designer bag purchases thru your affiliate links.
However, if your blog is about being frugal, then, as I have mentioned earlier, talking about buying a designer bag may not be the right blog post.
It might not generate substantial clicks or affiliate sales for you because most of the readers of your blogs are looking for ways to save money and how to live a frugal life and not to buy designer goods.
Sustainability
This is probably one of the most important reasons why it’s important to pick a blog niche.
Can you sustain your chosen blog niche?
When I chose Personal Finance as my blog niche, this is also one of the first things that I considered.
Can I sustain writing about Personal Finance for a long time?
Luckily, my niche is broad enough for me to venture into a lot of other related topics.
However, if I pick a niche that I have very limited knowledge of, then I won’t be able to write articles for it for a long time.
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How Narrow or Broad Should Your Blog Niche Be?
Personally, there really is no right or wrong answer on this one especially if you’re not blogging for profit. However, if you want to profit from your blog, then it will all depend on a variety of factors:
Blogging Goal/s
One of the factors that will determine how narrow or broad your blog niche should be is/are your blogging goal/s. When I created Thrifty Hustler, my main goal is to only have a platform that I can use to connect with other PF bloggers, and one of the easiest ways to do that is to have a PF blog of course.
Your Level of Knowledge
Another factor that you should consider is your level of knowledge of your chosen blog niche.
In my observation in the past two years (almost), some people are blogging even about things that they’re not an expert on. Some of them are using their financial resources to learn more about what they’re blogging about or to hire writers that are experts on those topics.
However, if you’re limited in financial resources (like me), it would be easier to blog about the things that you already have a vast knowledge of. This way, you don’t have to spend money on hiring writers right away.
This will also ensure that you can sustain writing for your blog even if you have or don’t have a team of writers to support you.
Your Monetization Strategy
After blogging for almost two years, I realized that your blogging niche should be aligned with your monetization strategy. If you’re aiming to monetize your blog via affiliate links then your blog niche should have available affiliate programs in your country/region.
Take this blog, for example, I blog about personal finance and aside from writing about online selling, I also write about credit cards, banking options, and other related topics.
Unfortunately, in the Philippines, there are only a handful of companies that have an affiliate program related to the topics that I cover. After checking my Google Analytics, I also realized that I have been driving thousands of clicks to these companies on a monthly basis and I’m not earning from this even a single cent. When I saw this data, it helped me understand how affiliate marketing works.
If you’re located in the US, Canada, or the UK, then you’re in luck as there are tons of established affiliate programs available in these countries. If you’re outside these regions like I am, then we’ll have to find other ways on how to monetize our blogs.
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How to Choose the Right Niche for your Blog
If you’re confused about which blog niche to pick, and if you are blogging for profit, then read on. In choosing the right niche for your blog, you should consider the following.
Will you be able to consistently and continuously write articles for your blog, year after year?
I know that there are blogs that earn money even if they contain fewer articles. However, think about this, how can you sustain the attention of your audience if you’re not frequently updating your blog?
So when choosing the right niche, think about how you can sustain writing for your blog, year after year? Do you have enough knowledge or are you willing to learn and be an expert on what you want to talk about?
I believe that most, if not all, skills are acquired or learned. And if given ample time, anyone can be an expert on almost anything. So ask yourself, are you willing to work hard, study hard, and be an expert on your chose topic?
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Is there a substantial audience for your chosen niche?
I believe that there’s an audience for almost every topic. However, is the number of audiences enough to generate a substantial profit for your blog?
There are lots of available tools online that could help you determine the popularity of keywords in your chosen niche. One of those tools is Google Trend.
For example, in my chosen niche, two of the most popular topics are ‘make money’ and ‘save money’. If you type these particular words in Google Trends, you can see their level of popularity. The higher the number, the more popular it is.
You can adjust the timeline, depending on the timeline of the data that you want to see. Given the example and based on the available data, it seems that making money is more popular than saving money (by a mile) in the last five years.
So given this data, perhaps, on a personal finance blog, you should write more about how to earn money in order to generate more traffic to your blog.
Another tool that I used to check keywords is Ubersuggest by Neil Patel. It’s a paid service, but, there’s a free option wherein you can search for at least three keywords in a day.
For example, I am an online seller and I used a variety of online selling websites and apps to sell my merchandise. If I’m going to write an article about ‘How to Make Money on eBay,’ well, actually I already have an article about this one. But let’s say I have not written that article yet and I want to gain more information about that keyword, I’ll just type it in Ubersuggest to see how many searches are there, etc.
It will even give you keyword ideas and a list of existing similar articles (e.g. your competition and at the same time inspiration).
Here is what you’re going to see on Ubersuggest:
Try it for yourself. It’s not really that difficult to use both of these tools. As I have not yet fully monetized my blog (aside from ads and a few affiliate links), I only use free tools available online.
In the last two years, I have been using only free online tools. But, eventually, especially, once I get to grow this blog, I might opt for the paid option so I can gain more data.
Are there opportunities to earn money from your niche?
There are tons of ways to earn money from a blog and this itself is a very broad topic with a very targeted market. Heck, a lot of blogs are specializing in this topic alone (Here’s a niche idea for you!).
Two of the most common ways to earn money especially for new bloggers are:
- Advertisements
- Affiliate Marketing
Of course, there are tons of other ways to earn money from a blog (which I will write about soon). But for starters, try to think if your chosen niche will do financially well in having ads or affiliate links? Does your niche have a lot of products and services that you can talk about?
Can I compete with the existing blogs out there?
Again, using Ubersuggest, you can check the existing competition online. You can also use Google search just to see who’s dominating the search engine on your chose keyword.
Given the same example as above:
If you think that you can compete with the existing blogs that use similar keywords then go for it.
However, if unsure, try going after a different set of keywords that have less competition.
Less competition means – easier to rank in the search engine.
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What are the Most Profitable Blog Niches?
Without even searching the internet, the most profitable blog niche are the ones that are being searched by most people. These are the topics that are connected to our basic and modern needs as humans. And these are:
- Food
- Health and Fitness
- Personal Finance
- Lifestyle, Beauty, Relationships, and Travel
- Technology and Business
These are the topics that generate tons of traffic from search engines because basically, people around the world from different walks of life and economic status are searching the internet about these topics.
Final Thoughts
I hope that this post helps you identify the right niche for you. To summarize, you have to identify the following in order to find the perfect niche for your blog:
- Content Sustainability: Will you be able to consistently and continuously write articles for your blog, year after year?
- Blog Traffic/Market: Is there a substantial audience for your chosen niche?
- Blog Profitability: Are there opportunities to earn money from your niche?
- Market Competition: Can I compete with the existing blogs out there?
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Do you have additional inputs to share? Feel free to share your insights in the comment section below.
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