So, you’ve decided to start a blog and now the biggest question is ‘What am I going to write about?’ Right? There are MILLIONS of topics you can focus your content around. And this makes the process of finding a niche for blog a tedious task.
But don’t freak out right away 😁
I’ve asked 19 experts to share their advice about finding and choosing a profitable niche.
Make yourself comfortable and let’s get started.
19 Experts reveal their tips on how to find a niche for blog
David Alexander @ Mazepress
My favorite way to weigh up whether I have found a winning blog niche is to list out the criteria in a decision matrix.
A decision matrix is a tool to help you work out the overall score of an idea and involves listing out the variables you are using to make your decision and allocating a score to each one.
These variables should include:
- Interest in the subject
- Expertise
- Market Demand
- Traffic opportunity
- Commercial Viability
- The Difficulty of Creating Content
- Market saturation
You then give each one a score from 1-10 for each niche you are considering.
You can also use a weighted evaluation to give more importance to some of the above variables like your interest in the subject.
Once complete go through the totals and you can see which niche has the most potential and that’s it, you likely have yourself a winning niche provided you compare enough options.
Marc Andre @ Vital Dollar
The most popular blog niches (health and fitness, food and recipes, finance, business, travel, fashion, and beauty) will all provide plenty of opportunities to make a good income.
But these niches also have thousands of different blogs that are competing for attention.
The best way to avoid some of that competition while still staying in a profitable niche is to choose a sub-niche. For example, instead of starting a general travel blog, you could focus on a particular topic like cruises, travel hacking with credit card rewards, or road trips.
That way you’ll be able to grow a blog that differentiates itself from 95% of the other travel blogs while still having plenty of potentials to make money. Having a tighter focus makes it easier to gain loyal followers and to attract search engine traffic to content focused on that one topic.
Andrew Helling @ REthority.com
As the owner of a niche real estate blog, I have ample experience picking a niche. Here are my thoughts:
1) Do your research
You may be tempted to start writing about a topic you are passionate about, but make sure it’s profitable. Using an online tool like Ahrefs or Semrush, you can see how many people are searching for any given topic. Going one step further, you can see the estimated “cost per click” and the amount of competition for each keyword.
2) Analyze the competition
After narrowing down your target niches, you’ll need to analyze the competition. Topics like Personal finance are oversaturated, so you likely won’t have much success competing against the big players. However, topics like cryptocurrency or wearable tech are relatively new and will have lower competition.
3) Traits of a profitable niche
Just because there is search traffic to a topic doesn’t mean it’s profitable. You can monetize a blog by putting ads on your site or by promoting third party services. These partnerships are known as affiliate programs. To be profitable, your niche must have affiliate programs and advertisers willing to pay to put ads on your site. Without these, you aren’t able to monetize your blog’s traffic.
BONUS
To run a successful blog, you need to be willing to put in hard work and long days. Marketing efforts using SEO take up to a year to see any results, and you must have patience and a long-term vision, and then stick with your plan. Many blogs fail because they give up after a few months. However, many bloggers are able to replace their salary many times over with enough hard work, which makes their patience rewarded.
Danielle Mühlenberg @ Pawleaks
First and foremost, you have to choose a topic that you are very interested in because you will have to put a lot of time into it.
If you do not enjoy blogging about a certain topic then don’t do it just because it might make you money.
Today, you can make money blogging in any niche. I have seen full-time bloggers crushing it with a blog about how to care for succulents or writing about a certain diet for your cat.
Get some inspiration online and see what other people are blogging about. Once that you have decided on a topic, niche down. High competitive niches like travel or beauty are simply too big to start a blog about such a broad topic. Be very specific, maybe specialize in finding the secret spots in southeast Asia or how to find the right makeup for your skin tone.
You will then have to find out if your niche will be profitable. The easiest way is to look at Amazon and Google. Are brands advertising on Google for this niche, are there products that you could promote through affiliate links on Amazon?
Tips for blogging fulltime:
If you get into the blogging world to eventually make a business out of it, then you will have to treat it like a business. You have to put in plenty of time creating content, promoting it and reaching out to brands and other bloggers.
A friend of mine makes 6 figures blogging a month(!) but she also worked 100 hours a week for 2 years. Would you be capable of doing that for your passion?
If you have a full-time job, work on your blog in the evening, on the weekend and on the holidays. Cut back on free time and leisure to really start growing your business. Starting a business doesn’t need to cost anything but you will have to invest something into it. If it is not money than it will be time.
Start your blog today. Do not overthink the process and start within one day. Get your domain and a host and get that thing running otherwise you will never start. Don’t be a perfectionist and work weeks on your theme.
It is very important to only put out high-quality content on a consistent basis. Whether that is every day or once a week. Focus only on low competition and long-tail keywords in the beginning to get a chance to rank. Google won’t trust your site for the first 6-12 months and you will have to build up that trust through backlinking and content.
Collaborate with other bloggers. It is much easier and faster to grow together. If you have the opportunity, get a mentor. There is no better way than learning from people that are already doing what you dream about.
Max Falb @ Fueled
I am Digital Marketing Strategist at Fueled and part of my job is running our blog, and it sounds kind of obvious, but the best blog to start is the one right for you.
If you already have another business, find the questions, topics, etc that your customers are asking and looking for and create a blog that revolves around those ideas. This will help you grow your business and direct traffic to your business.
If you just want to start a blog not tied to a business than create one that interests you the most. Figure out what you enjoy most writing about by understanding what you like to read about the most and find the most interesting.
It is SO important that you blog about your true passions because the best blogs have writers that are passionate about what they write about and it’s reflected in their writing.
Sam Rexford @ CHILLREPTILE
The key to finding a profitable blogging niche is to write about something you’re passionate about (or have deep expertise in), which also has strong market demand. Create a list of all your strengths and passions.
If your chosen topic is something you’re not passionate about, or don’t have expertise in, there’s a much higher likelihood that you’ll lose interest and flame out.
How will you compete with passionate experts on your chosen subject if you can’t drum up enthusiasm for the topic? Following your natural curiosities, interests, and strengths will help you pick something that you can wake up every morning and be excited about.
Now you have your list and a few ideas. It’s time to figure out if there’s “money in those hills,” in other words… is there strong enough demand for related products and services that you can monetize your topic?
Step one is to go into Google and search your topic keyword(s) + “affiliate programs”, example: “Knitting Affiliate Programs.” Are there results that come up right away from reputable companies? If so, you’ve got potential revenue streams from each affiliate program.
Step two is to go into Amazon and search for your topic. Are there a lot of products related to your niche with a lot of buyers? If you see popular items with hundreds of reviewers there’s a good chance there’s solid volume (market demand) in that niche. Each one of those products can be sold as an affiliate product on your site or dropshipped on a store.
Douglas Berg @ MerchMetrics
We all want to blog about something we care about, but confusing your interests with what might be profitable can be a big mistake (and potentially takes all the fun out of things you’re passionate about).
Here are my tips for picking a profitable niche:
1. Start backward – Investigate products or services that you might promote, locate affiliate programs and make sure there are enough different products or services that align with the topic.
2. Make sure there is enough of a following for that topic. Use your favorite keyword tool to look at the top-level niche keywords. Check for monthly volume and how competitive the terms are.
Compare keywords you find on Google trends and make sure you’re not picking something that’s already a dying fad.
3. Pick a niche you won’t get sick of! If you can’t keep working consistently on your blog because you have little or no interest then you’ll never get a consistent return.
I like to pick topics I’m interested in but that aren’t major passions. I’ve found that if I pick a topic that I’m too interested in it will quickly turn something fun into work that I want to avoid.
If you’re looking to start blogging for a living I’d strongly recommend that you look into writers marketplaces, try writing for someone else and make sure it’s something you think you can do long term.
It’s also a great way to get feedback on your writing from experts in the field and get paid at the same time.
Brady Dill @ BradyDill
There are three things to keep in mind when identifying a niche for your blog.
First, focus on niches that have high-ticket items you can market – an affiliate sale on a refrigerator can buy you groceries for a week, while a sale on a $9 book will let you buy a hot dog.
Second, remember that limiting yourself actually increases your chance of success:
The more specific and limited the niche, the less competition you will have with other blogs, and the more effective your blog will be at capturing readers interested in that particular subject.
Finally, it is important that your niche be something that personally interests you – making your work enjoyable is a huge step toward getting work done, and choosing a niche that bores you will lead to a boring website.
Nicole Durham @ Struggle Today Strength Tomorrow
Any niche can be profitable if you give it a good amount of attention and are willing to do the legwork.
To find a profitable niche-
- think of what you currently search for
- what you already know
- what atmosphere of people you put yourself in on social media
These can be things like how to budget, stay at home mom advice, parenting, home decor, etc. It helps by choosing things that you are already interested in because the topics don’t get boring as quickly. Plus, if you’re looking for these things-that means other people are too.
To find a niche at all:
Think of the things that interest you the most. Something you want to learn about or already know more than the average person.
For me, this was budgeting. As a SAHM of 2, the wife of a veteran, the daughter of long haul truck drivers and having personally been all over the country, I have seen first hand the price differences and cost of living in different areas. I’ve been so broke that we lived off of pennies and stretched $250 for 44 days to feed 4 people and 5 pets (2 kids in diapers) while waiting for government assistance.
I know how hard it is to bring yourself up from poverty and my passion to teach others with frugal tips or ways to cut costs on groceries without sacrificing health has me writing my blog to help others in similar boats.
When you find something that you know better than anyone else, draw out a game plan.
What 4 or 5 categories can it be brought down to?
I chose Saving Money, Grocery Budgeting, Frugal Living, Side hustles. from there I have subcategories to narrow the topic down more.
You want to make sure you are seen as a figurehead for these categories and know what you’re talking about by staying on niche. This is great for SEO when you can stay true to these categories.
After you know what your blog is about, and the top categories that your content will be divided into, start drafting up a list of different posts and what topics you’d like to cover.
Scroll through Pinterest or Google for ideas if needed. Or go through your Facebook groups and see what questions people are asking, how can you answer them in a blog post?
When I decided to start my blog I made a list of 37 different blog posts I wanted to cover! Every time I get a new idea, I type it up with enough details to get me started and give it a temporary headline and place it in my WordPress drafts.
At the moment I have over 130 drafts waiting and I am constantly thinking of new things to post about. I simply cannot research and write fast enough to keep up with my mind and the direction of this blog. But I’m putting out several great articles per month.
Final advice:
- You’re going to change your blog’s direction a lot in the beginning before settling in on what works best for you and your readers.
- There is a lot of behind the scene things you wouldn’t think about (including coding)
- It takes time to build a following and get good traffic
- SEO is important but when starting your first blog it will take you a while before you get to that point and can dedicate yourself to it. -that’s okay because blog age is a huge factor in SEO too!
- Don’t check Google Analytics daily, you’ll just waste time and drive yourself crazy with the traffic going up and down like a roller coaster.
- Other bloggers are more than willing to offer advice and share tips on bettering your blog, when in doubt-reach out. They know there is more than enough space to share and are great people wanting to help everyone succeed.
Vernetta R. Freeney @ Vernetta R. Freeney
The best method for choosing a niche that is profitable for you is to see what’s hot and then cross it with what you’re good at, what your skill set is, how capable are you to create products/services/events that people will buy and what you actually like to do.
Once you cross-reference that, you’ll see what niches you can find a place to thrive in. If you want to make money as a blogger, you have to do 3 key things before you begin.
The first thing is to create a budget for a transition. That means you begin to save at least 6-12 months of your monthly bills in a separate account.
This will allow you to still be able to comfortably pay your bills once you leave your job and begin to blog full-time.
The second thing is to make sure you are making a certain amount of money. It doesn’t make sense to quit your job and not have any revenue to speak of.
The third thing to do is sit with a financial planner or CPA and make sure you have a financial structure in place that will provide for not just your blog but your household as well.
I wouldn’t recommend anyone leave their job to blog full-time if they aren’t capable of financially putting things in place first. It makes the transition less stressful and allows you more time to fully be immersed in creating content for your blog, pitching clients and doing the admin work without fear of not having as much money coming in when you start.
Nick Galov @ Hostingtribunal.com
This largely depends on the type of blog you will be running, and if it’s based on personal interest or strictly made to generate income.
Either way, the first thing you will want to do is use Google to find what keywords are trending. There are many ways you can go about this, but basically, you want to have a general idea of what people are actively searching for.
Then determine if the niche you had in mind will fit with what is being searched. It doesn’t have to be a perfect match, but if you notice keywords from niches that you can easily produce content for, then choose them!
The idea is to have a niche that is actively being searched for and that you can adapt to new keywords if search trends change in the future.
Another thing to keep in mind is how many competing blogs are writing for the same niche, so you can gauge your chances at succeeding. If you discover a hot keyword with just a couple of sub-par blogs publishing content for it, you may have found a golden egg.
Overall, the most important thing to make any niche profitable is persistence. It’s important to have some genuine interest in the niche and also publish for personal enjoyment. This way it will be easier to persist and work-harder, since writing about a boring niche just to monetize the content can get boring.
In fact, they say over 80% of blogs are discontinued after a few months, so pick something interesting!
Patrick Barnett @ The Income Spot
To discover your blog niche think about what you Google on a regular basis, whether it be hobbies or a problem you have. What is it you’re most interested in. Music, sports, arts, health?
Searching Amazon, eBay, and Pinterest are great ways to generate ideas. Magazines.com will also give you ideas including common topics. Google Trends is another useful tool that will help you make your decision.
What is that you’re always talking about to friends or family?
Look at Facebook groups to test and validate ideas. Are there groups around an idea and what are they talking about including common problems they are facing.
Look at the potential competition and subscribe to their email list to give you an idea of how they are making money in the niche.
I use keywords.io or Answer The Public to dig deeper and see what are common topics within the niche.
Stacy Caprio @ Growth Marketing
Pick a blog niche that you are passionate about enough to write at least an article a week for a year about without giving up.
Also pick one that has at least a little bit of competition online, because that means it is a profitable enough niche that others care to write articles about it.
There is nothing worse than picking a niche and then realizing there is no way to get traffic there or monetize it after months of working on it.
Ronald D’souza @ Angel Jackets
Firstly choose a niche you’re passionate about; otherwise, you will not be able to produce quality content in the long run.
Secondly, make sure it’s something your audience would be interested in, use google trends to see if people are interested in your topic.
Finally, make sure the niche is less competitive and has search volume.
How to make it profitable:
Affiliate marketing is a great way to make your blog profitable for example if you write about fitness you can add affiliate links of fitness products if your reader purchases using that link you will get a commission.
Max Chekalov @ AppGeeks
When choosing a blog niche, there are several things to consider.
1. Am I passionate about this topic/niche?
It’s really helpful if you have some knowledge of the niche you are thinking of writing in.
But think of it this way: it’s great that you have a passion for the niche because it will help you persist during the first period of time. In the beginning, you might not have many rewards besides the joy of writing about the niche you love.
2. Am I knowledgeable about it, and do I have something to say as an expert that can help others?
When you just start out, you need to produce a lot of content and perform various other strategies in order for your blog to rank. It’s great if you have your own experience and perspective that can be helpful to others.
3. Is my chosen niche profitable, will I be able to make a living of it?
The top profitable niches for 2019 include niches about making money – personal finances included, food, parenting, lifestyle, and marketing. Make sure to do some research and see what other notable bloggers are doing. Analyze what you think attracts their audience the most.
Also, analyze the keywords your audience is searching for, and see what kind of content pops up when googling these keywords.
To answer your question about what I’d recommend to someone who is just starting is to have a content strategy outlined. Make sure to have at least 20-25 posts ready before you launch your blog. Cover as many angles as possible with your blog posts.
You will find that you need to learn a lot about all the facets of blogging, including content strategy, marketing strategy, SEO, monetizing, etc. Be prepared to invest your time in this!
Finally, don’t give up easily! You need to be aware that success doesn’t come easily. Be ready to invest months before seeing any financial results from your blog.
Hamna Amjad @ Centriq
Here are my top two tips for choosing a niche for your blog:
1. Make sure you’re passionate about the niche you choose for your blog because you’ll be producing a ton of content on that topic. To make your blog profitable, you need to have good quality content on it, and that requires writing from your heart.
Unique & highly useful content >> More blog traffic >> Monetize your blog
2. Only passion is not enough! You need to make sure that there are people out there who feel strongly about those topics too. Do market research to see if that niche is actually popular. No use of choosing a niche, no one is interested in.
“Successful bloggers know their audiences well. 73% of bloggers who earn over $50,000 per year say they focus their content on the interests of a very specific group.”
Pro-tip: Use a keyword search tool such as SEMRush to see how many people are searching for terms(“keywords”) in your niche every month.
How to make sure that the niche you’ve chosen is profitable?
Do some research on your competitors (other blogs in the same niche) and see how they are earning money through their blogs. Top three ways to earn money through your blog are:
- Make money with affiliate marketing. (Write about certain products with links to where people can buy and earn a commission when they use your link.)
- Write sponsored blog posts. (Get paid to review and promote a company’s products or services.)
- Display advertisements on your site.
My advice to budding bloggers: Be patient! Don’texpect to reap profits overnight. It takes time before you start seeing actual results. So be consistent and keep writing exceptional content!
Toni Coleman Brown @ The Network for Women in Business
The best way to discover a hot niche for a blog is by following this 2 step process:
First, you should do some research on Facebook and here’s how it’s done. Basically, to determine if you have a hot niche you must find out if there are any groups on the platform about your topic.
If you find some groups you should join a few of them to see what type of engagement is going on within the group. If there is a lot of conversation happening, then you will know that you have found a very hot topic.
You should save some of the most popular posts in a collection on Facebook so you can use them as inspiration to write your future blog posts.
The second thing you will want to do is use a tool like SEM Rush to discover what are the low competition long tail keywords for this niche. This is an important step that you can’t afford to miss because the last thing you want to do is write blog posts that are too high in the competition.
If you do this then, you will never be able to rank in search for those keywords.
Nevertheless, if you follow this simple two-step process you can discover a truly hot niche and find low competition keywords that will allow your website to get found in search and will result in you making money with your new blog.
Jason Lavis @ Out of the Box Innovations
Every niche can be profitable for the best blogs. The most profitable niches are also the most competitive and challenging to get any results in at all.
The internet tends to work on a ‘winner takes all’ dynamic, where a tiny percentage of people make money. If you’re not on page one of search, viral on social media, or have the best content, (or two of the three), you’ll fail.
The only way to approach this dilemma is to consider niches, where you already have knowledge and enthusiasm. Whether its something connected to your primary job or a hobby, passion or cause, ask whether you can be the best.
This mix of experience, talent, and energy with shine through on your blog, and keep you motivated during the steep learning curve.
Amber Faust @ Faust Island
A profitable niche is one that you are knowledgeable in. I hate the passion word, but it’s applicable here.
There are millions of bloggers out there today and blog readers are smart and can see through anything.
I’m in the parenting influencer world and I’ve niched down to minimalism and healthy-ish living. Minimalism isn’t a profitable niche, it’s basically telling you not to buy anything. But healthy living and parenting is one of the highest-paid right now.
Parents are always looking for new products and healthy living tips for their families. But I could not blog successfully about either topic if I wasn’t already passionate about both topics.
I think to start broad and slowly narrowing it down, following your interests and what your readers respond to would be an excellent method of narrowing your niche down.
Hope you find this comprehensive guide on selecting your blogging niche helpful.
Now, it’s your turn. Please, let me know in the comments what niche you choose for your blog.