Selecting the Right Topic for Your Blog

In September, I wrote a post titled, “On Crowded Niches“, covering a few details about the advantages and disadvantages of entering crowded niches.  However, I didn’t mention how to go about starting your blog - what are the basics involved in selecting a category that you will blog about, based on your interests and other details about yourself.

Main Category

First, think about one of your favorite hobbies, passions, or things you love to do in life that you can write about.  It should be something that you are comfortable sharing with others, knowledgeable about, and something with a lot of content that you will be able to expand upon.  While it has been proven that topics can be extremely diverse, you should first focus on a broad subject.

For example, if you like reading about celebrity news, then you should consider writing about celebrities (a wide subject), then you should consider smaller topics, or you’ll become overwhelmed with the amount you should be writing about every day.

Things to Consider

• How often will you *or want to* publish on your blog?
• Is the niche overly crowded, or is it a newly created subset of a larger niche.  For example, some bloggers have found a lot of traffic/profit in creating a separate blog for the 2008 Election.
• Don’t be afraid to create a blog about “nothing” in particular.  This could be your personal blog, which you will be able to spin further ideas off of to become more focused.
• You should put a fair amount of thought into your first blog/site, as your future ventures could be influenced by this decision.
• As long as your remain dedicated, blogging about something you love is the only way you can continue growing your blog.

Sub-Category

Once you have chosen your main category, think about smaller, or subsets of this main category that you will be able to write about.  It should be specific, but not so specific that you will only be able to write ten posts on the subject.

Some bloggers make the mistake of creating a blog that covers so much content that they become frustrated before their website makes it big - resulting in content that is sparse and doesn’t reflect upon their original goals.

In the end, many bloggers feel it is best to write about what they feel relates to them and their readers most.

Browsing the Web

It can be difficult at first to navigate the Internet and find what interests you most, a devotion that you will be able to comment on, inviting others to share their similar interests.  Again, you want to make sure that the niche isn’t overly crowded, there is still plenty of content to create, and voids to fill in terms of the perspective you will bring to the blogosphere.

Start by doing some keyword searches for the niche that you want to get into, then work from there to develop one that suits your personal preferences.

Remember One Thing

Your space is your space - not someone else’s.  Unless you don’t attack another group of people and your country doesn’t block content you produce, you are free to blog about anything you want to.

This was a quick roundup of ways to choose a niche.  There are dozens of other methods, so this should not be viewed as the one source for discovering your perfect niche.