“Ask The Blogger” Type Of Question – Answered
As you know, we’re here to help bloggers of every level get the most from blogging. I receive many requests for help through our contact page. I try to personally answer most of those requests myself and give the best advice I can. Some are harder questions than others, of course, and others seem to be repeated by several bloggers. Today I’d like to address a common question regarding niche blogging. This question about choosing a niche was sent by Andrea:
Blogging Question
Hi [Brian], I like your article on choosing a niche [The Art Of Choosing A Niche For Your Blog] since it is something I am having great difficulty in doing. So, I thought I would start with writing about several topics but I still don’t seem to know where to start.
Please can you help me to find a way to choose some niches that I can start researching to write about? I think I would like to research and write about things that I don’t have a lot of experience in.
I am interested in a lot of things but I can’t seem to concentrate on one specific topic. How would you approach this?
I thought I could write about several topics to see which ones perform the best with adsense and then create websites on subjects in those that interest me the most.
I hope you will reply.
Regards, [Andrea]
Hi Andrea, I appreciate the question and I’m going to answer it on our blog to help others in the same situation.
What Is Niche Blogging?
First, I’d like to explain a few different types of niche blogs, as I see them.
1) The Niche Business Blog
First, we have a business blog; a blog used for a business within a certain niche. A great example of that comes from Melanie, a regular reader of our blog. Melanie links to a Call Center and Live Answering service and they run a blog on their site. This is a niche blog that supplements and is determined by your present business. A couple of others I have to point out are from Pro Blogger Extreme John (See our interview with John), an Indoor Tanning Salon business, and Insane limousine Service.
2) Real (Authority) Niche Blogs
Second, we have a niche blog that is determined by your skill or interests. This isn’t to say that a business blog doesn’t fall into the same category but this type of blog is independent from another site or service. A Real Niche Blog can be run as a business within itself or it can just be a personal blog you run for your own enjoyment.
3) Niche Websites
Third, we have niche websites that often use the blog format that are created for the sole purpose of quick profit. This type of blog doesn’t worry about traditional blogging issues such as generating blog comments. Many niche bloggers create dozens or even hundreds of niche blogs in various niches based on search traffic and competition determined by extensive keyword research. There are a few bloggers that frown on this type of niche site but I am not one of them. While Iâll be the first to admit they are low quality blogs with little to offer their readership outside of referring services, I’ve earned a significant income from niche sites in the past and have no problem separating the difference between these and what I call “real” blogs.
Because I’m not exactly sure exactly which type of niche blog Andrea is looking for, I’m going to offer a couple of different resources. The statement,
“I thought I would start with writing about several topics
leads me to think she’s interested in the second type of blog I discussed above and what I often refer to as a “Real” blog. One example of a fantastic niche blog that covers several mixed, and even unlikely, topics is Sweets Foods Blog. A blog that covers several different niches poses a few real challenges but Gera made a go at it and has done a fine job. For this type of niche blog, I have to recommend you read a recent post by another one of my blogging buddies, Brankica, called “Choosing a Niche â Passion or Money?“.
The other statement Andrea made,
“I think I would like to research and write about things that I don’t have a lot of experience in
makes me wonder if she’s more interested in the third type of niche blog. If that’s the case, there’s a lot of work and knowledge involved. Without the knowledge, there’s a huge risk of wasting a bunch time, especially with Google’s Panda updates. Other than reading my eBook, I recommend reading a post that can help save you a little time by another blogging buddy, Joshua Zamora, called “2 High Quality SEO Content Writing Services I Use Personally“.
You And Niche Blogging?
Are you interested in any of the three types of niche blogging I just covered? Don’t forget to subscribe, we have a lot planned when it comes to Niche Blogging. What type of Niche Blogging are you interested in?
About Brian D. Hawkins
Finding a niche is much the same as focusing, and focusing is paramount in the blogging world. The good news is that you can get creative with respect to how you define your niche or focus. If you want to write about a variety of topics, for instance, you might focus on producing high-quality writing or on doing extensive research into sources to which you can direct your readers. Deciding who you are and what your blog is about is difficult, and doing so might require some time and experimentation. Thanks for the insight!
Thanks Doug, I like the way you put that, “Deciding who you are and what your blog is about”.
Hey Brian, I love that you gave examples of different niche blogs by actually linking to them. This gives a bit of luv as well as showing those interested exactly what you’re talking about. Good job mate.
Thanks Sire, that’s what it’s all about. We have to work with each other or it just won’t be fun any more. 🙂
Yeah and where would we be if you took the fun out of blogging, right?
I consider a niche more broadly as the topic of your blog. Finding a niche can be as simple as figuring out your own interests that you wish to write about. This can be a present or future interest and can often tie together into several related topics. I think it’s ok to have several diverse interest for a blog as well, since it’s the individual blogger’s personality that makes a blog unique. That means that if you can gather together several related topics that are personally interesting, you can create a really good niche blog that’s diverse enough to bring in a larger audience.
Thanks Richard, that falls right in line with a recent guest post titled The Art Of Choosing A Niche For Your Blog.
These is my first to encounter an ideas’s about niche blog, And I think it was a nice feeling to know about it.
Thanks Jenny, I hope it helps.
Agree with you the common difficulties faced by the bloggers is about choosing the right niche. If blogging is done for business, then it must be of high quality. Even I think niche websites are the best option for niche blogging. All the other suggestions suggested by you are perfect. This will surely help in making profit.
Thanks Elvin, truthfully everything focused is within niche, I guess it just depends on the size whether it’s viewed that way.
Everyone should try these types of blogs and eventually stick with the one that fits them better. Because while some people can get by with low quality a niche website, other need something more. Maybe they just need people to acknowledge their work from time to time, they need to connect. And you can do this with a normal blog.
Thanks Stan, it can be a lonely place for those blogging in really unique niches.
This is one of the most useful blogging information pages i landed myself into. I am really impressed with the hard work you have put in doing so much research about these bloggers and also this is crazily one of the best promotions for the blogs you have mentioned above. Really impressive..!!!!
I deleted your Mika Castro post. You have so many names you’re getting mixed up.
Was not aware of three types of niche blogs. But I surely know niche blogs are very profitable. The comparison of the niche blogs which you have posted seem to be very effective. Niche Website seems to be the most effective. This is easy to achieve also i guess. For business would prove to be very beneficial.
Hi James, those are just my definitions, not really three official types of niche blogs. I just thought it would help bloggers understand the differences by breaking them into three parts.
i am new in niche research and doing my self with free pplication of google and all but really niche blogging is fun with lots of money
It can be a lot of fun Rohit but the “lots of money” part depends on many factors and rarely comes easy.
i already know your niche AdSense Blogging Modus Operandi because i’m one of your newsletter subscriber . your book is really awesome 🙂
Thank you Sai, I will eventually update that ebook to factor in Panda and other Google updates.
I definitely fall in the “business blog” category, even though I am working on a personal blog that might fall in the “niche” as well, to complement my music production activities.
I have a lot of examples of micro-blogs I found around here and there, I must say I am not a fan of them at all, I see little value in them apart from pure technical reasons.
I guess some people are rightfully writing for their peers, while some other are just writing for algoritms.
I set up a micro blog about a year ago Gabriele and it didn’t do very well. Readers could post to it much like Twitter without the restrictions but was treated like a FFA site. I shut it down within a month.
I think a real niche blog is something that is totally specific, for example a blog site that is all about the Emu Sp1200 Sampler Drum Machine. A blog site dedicated to the iconic 1987 standalone Hip-Hop gear will always have post related to music produced by this machine and nothing else and that is a real example of a niche blog site.
Hi Brian! Thanks for some reviews about Niche blogging. The new ones can learn more about it through your post. They should really know how important niche is.
Great post Brian. I have a couple of ideas I am tossing around but really feel I need to be valid in the field for the niche. So, I am counting my carrot sticks and when I am ready I will go ahead and try to give them a whirl. The hardest part is the time it all takes. What in the world was I thinking, Simple “daily ” Challenges for Moms.. lolol
Pam
I know exactly what you are saying Pam, it just took me four days to reply to this comment. 😉
The comparison of niche blogs made by you are perfect. These types of niche blogs are right. The bloggers should keep in mind about the business and choose the right type of niche blog that would help them to achieve success for their business. I think niche websites is the best way to do niche blogging.
Niche blogging is really interesting. No doubt most common questions you receive are only about niche blogs. These are very interesting to do and also high money income is also attached with it. Totally agree with you choosing the perfect niche is very important. This can help to make huge profit if done with the right approach. Your niche definitions are perfect to make a beginner understand the concept of niche blogging.
That’s very nice of you that you give links on other niche blogs! That’s great when bloggers collaborate with each other, by making interviews, practicing guest blogging, advising each other’s blogs etc. Only in this case excellent results can be achieved
Good explanation and examples for the questions. It should help those that are new to Niche blogging. I too have my own blog and i am currently doing well with it. I’m still planning to start a new niche site to attend to some of my other interests.
Nice explanation of Niche blogging. I have yet to try Niche websites but I have seen few people putting them to good use and earning good money. All depends on the things we are targeting.
Thanks Sanjeev, iit does take more work to profit from most niche blogs today.
Hi Brian
I feel the same way as you about the third example you gave, a lot of niche bloggers use WordPress to build hundreds of sites and try to pick up long tail traffic, which they can do. As you say these are generally low quality blogs and risk getting de-indexed either automatically due to footprints or through a manual review. Although these kind of blogs can make money spending months and months building a network of blogs and then seeing them wiped out of Google must sting.
Sting indeed Beth, I personally lost thousands last year but I will admit the niche sites were useless to anyone that landed there.
That was very good post. There are lot of bloggers (mostly newbies) start a blog with a niche without knowing about it. They keep on posting about that niche for a while but after that, I think they forget for what, where they started the blog/site.
I have seen domains with something like “blogging tips” and they are sharing “How to get Facebook timeline?”. LOL
I’d be so grateful if you’d read the post linked below and, if you enjoyed it, leave a comment to let me know!
It kills me to see the hundreds of so-called SEO expert blogs that have zero PageRank or traffic.
i agree with you brian hawkings competition is too high i every niche
“Many niche bloggers create dozens or even hundreds of niche blogs in various niches based on search traffic and competition determined by extensive keyword research.”
Hi Brian, insightful post. My takeaway is that if you have a lot of interests it’s ok to have a lot of niche blogs/websites (as long as you’re prepared to do the work that is).
This is a wonderful reality compared to something like picking majors in college for example. In college and in life, it’s hard to choose and study everything that you’re interested in.
But that’s the beauty of the Internet. The barriers to entry are low (ie blogspot, wordpress, typepad, etc. all are free or have free versions).
What’s more there’s the wonderful feeling of satisfaction that you get what you make your first sale. I still remember my first sale of 8 USD. Though it is small compared to a salary, that 8 USD represented something more than money. It symbolized freedom AND competence.
Once again, hard work is necessary.
A lot of people take the short cut by registering for a blog account and run lots of rss feed posts through it, based on other people’s contents, which basically makes it a splog. There’s all types…
But yeah, thanks for the encouragement. Look forward to reading more.
Picking a major in college is a great analogy Michael. The niche sites written purely for search engines or for the sake of redirection by way of ads can be written by anyone with a little SEO and copy experience. Many bloggers outsource their content. It seems very impersonal but it’s but business I guess.
Hi Brian,
Difficult theme, defining niche topics and sites. In terms of keywords is easier to define them to try to catch traffic. The problem if it is too narrow also, you can dry off related to ideas or themes, in the long run.
Too broad isnât a good idea also, because you don’t know if you arrive to a site for example, for astronomy or gardening..
If it is possible, the ideal is to be in the middle.
I see several bloggers that are in the more “tech” that have a mix of gadgets, social media, SEO. Other blends blogging, social media, internet marketing and SEO-stuff.
My case I have this mix of blogging, social media and more tech-articles; the difference is the extra food & health. I know it is better to have perhaps separated, but in my mind are all together. Non-tech & foodie people feels more comfortable consulting me, because I’m closer to them in terms of foodie, but I can help them in terms of more techie-stuff.
Btw, thanks a lot for the mention! 🙂
Good weekend!
Cheers,
Gera
I think finding a niche is a difficult job because you may have passion for other niche and you want to blog in some other niche that makes more money.
I think when choosing your niche, you should be personally interested in it, an expert of it, or really like/love it. When you enjoy what you are doing, it all comes well.
I long for a niche, but then I think to myself…. is this like committing myself to one hair color long term? Will it make seem boring? Will I still be asked to write about pollywogs and doodle all the days?
Yes, I think I have found a sort of niche, but I am not yet ready to commit. I love your tips by the way.
Pam
Hi Brian, Call me a little confused Or I’m just unable to grasp this topic! Does niche blogging refers to blogging about just 1 topic/theme? Like, on this blog, do you publish articles confined to just blogging and internet marketing? What’s the exact name of this niche? Tech niche Or IM niche Or blogging niche? I’m looking forward to your answer 🙂