“Location! Location! Location!”
How often have we heard that when we are buying a house. In the world of blogging it can be described as, “Niche!, Niche! Niche!”
What do I blog about when there are over three billion blog references on Google? I suspect many of us have asked that question when we were just getting started. Whether you are writing
- a blog diary,
- about your travels,
- for your family,
- or even to make extra retirement money,
…you need to decide where you will fit within any of those.
You must decide on what your specific niche will be. As an example, if you were to blog about your travels you need to know that if you type “travel blogs” into Google you are going to get over one billion hits. If your goal is to have a public website and be read, then you need to narrow down your niche.
Let’s talk about ways to find your niche and how to add to it:
1. Google it…really!
Start to get a sense of what is being used and what are the popular sites.
What you will find are websites that are very interested in ranking high so that they get a lot of views. Most times when we research online we don’t look much further than the first page, maybe go into the second page but not a lot further. Again, the intent of your site will help you decide how important this is to you. I.e. are you searching for a lot of readers or even wanting to make money. Then ranking high in the search engines will be important.
What you will then want to do is begin to narrow your searches down. Again, using our travel example, you may want to narrow that down to the country you’re in and then even further to the area you live. That would be a fairly specific niche and you likely have lots to write about. Or you may choose to blog about your travels to a favorite destination resort overseas. Just think of all the pictures you could add to that.
Any of your favorite search engines will help you in deciding what your niche will be and how you can focus your blog to something unique to you and what you are passionate about.
Here’s a link that explains this further: The Core Fundamentals of Researching Niches.
2. Finding keywords…these are more than just a word.
Keywords often includes a phrase that people are searching for.
For example, I live in Alberta, Canada and if I wanted to travel there I would likely type in something like, “travel in Alberta Canada”. When I type that into a search engine I received millions of hits which included things like agencies and agents.
Keywords (phrases) will help you decide what your niche might be as well as what you can blog about to build your website and do so on a regular basis. I could add to a “Travel, Alberta” site by blogging about the Calgary Stampede or about Edmonton, the Provincial capital.
I do want to note that the Wealthy Affiliate University is an online teaching site that has a free keyword search tool for everyone, even those who choose to sign up free. You’re going to realize that keyword is important when blogging…even if it’s to do some brainstorming for new or fun ideas. Enjoy it!
3. Find your niche + keywords = your blog.
It doesn’t need to be more complicated than that.
Our niche will often reveal who we are, what we like to do, where we are going. It’s important that you always keep that in mind when developing your blog. We’ve all seen websites that are either very similar to one another or are filled with ad after ad wanting us to buy something. But is that what you want your site to be?
Or do you want your site and your blogs to reflect those things and people that are important to you? Are you intending to write in a conversational style as if you were having coffee with someone? You will certainly take a different approach if you choose to make some extra money with your blog. Great keywords and ranking will then be extremely important to you.
Read my article about Making Extra Retirement Money if you want to know more about this.
Whichever way you choose to go with your blog, you still need to find your niche…to find your piece of the internet real estate community. Something unique to you and based on your passions and interests.
Developing a blog and deciding what you will write should be fun and should be something that you want to write regularly for. Hobby or business…or both…your blog is your message to the world.
Thanks for reading.
