How to choose the right niche for your blogging career

Are you planning on starting a career in blogging?

Don't know what topic or niche you fit into?

Blogging can be a very rewarding career if you put your mind towards it. In a previous post, I wrote about the benefits of blogging for business and individual, of which one of it is financial freedom. However, blogging is not something you just rush into. It takes a lot of time, decision, and planning before you can start blogging.

A lot of times we hear people complain about how they start a blog and had to shut it down because it wasn't giving them what they want. One of the major reason for this kind of negative comments about blogging falls on the fact that most bloggers do not pick the right niche or topic they want to blog about.

I too was formally a victim of this until I got to realize my mistake I probably won't be blogging by now.



Your blogging success depends on the niche you choose to write about and Five other factors which we will be discussing in this post.
 These factors include

1. Motivation
2. Knowledge
3. Content
4. Market
5. Patience 

Let us look at them.

How to choose the right niche for your blogging career

Motivation

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you want to start blogging?

 Lots of people allow money to be their motivation when they start blogging. They hear how people succeed in making money out of it so they decide to jump into it and thus get their hands burnt.

At first, you need to have a passion for what you do. Many successful bloggers out there became what they are not because they started blogging just to generate revenue, but rather because they love what they do.

When you make money your motivation, you land into trouble as you will be tempted to choose a topic or niche you won't be able to handle.

I started blogging back in 2013, and since then I have gone through many blogs and failed. What drove me then was the money.

I wanted to make money so I started a news site. Which didn't give me any fulfilment and money?

It was great but something was off. News niche required much time and patience than I could give and thus I couldn't stand it and I closed it. Time wasted, money never came in.

So when you are starting a blog, you need to ask yourself – are you passionate about this topic?

Do you read on this topic and follow the news regularly?

If yes, then you have crossed 33% of the journey. Because having a passion for a topic is not the only criteria which determine your blogging success.

Knowledge

The second factor has to do with Knowledge. How much do you know and understand what you are blogging about? Take for example you love travelling.  You blog about travelling and yet you haven't stepped out of a particular area before. You won't be able to create rich content or add your flare to such content about the place you write about because you haven't been there before.

While experience might not be for every topic you blog about. You need to have a deep knowledge or be ready to carry out deep research on your niche.

Content

Every blogger wants to make money through their blog. However, if you want to make profits from your blog you need to create contents that will relate to your audience and get them engaged. Any product or service, no matter how passionate you are about it, will not sell if there is no demand for it.
According to the richest man in the world Bill Gates,

'CONTENT IS KING'

Yes, there are some products that people never realized they would need until they see a very attractive content that was able to lure them to get it. A good content attracts sales and creates a market for you.

Market Demand

You want to make money from your blog, you have to write something people want to know. Any product or service, no matter how passionate you are about it, will not sell if there is nobody wants it.

Let’s say you are passionate about making snacks, but no one cares about your snacks. That could be a disaster for you because unless the market pays you for your passion, you won't be able to

Patience

Have I mentioned earlier in this article, blogging takes time. For you to be a successful blogger patience is required. This is not only applicable in the time it takes from you but also the time it takes in growing and eventually making money from it.

Patience is key for every blogger because, without it, failure is imminent.

Conclusion

Blogging isn't easy at all, to become successful you must be ready to put in all your time, energy as well as have patience and choose the right niche. All the best for your blogging efforts! If you have any questions, leave a comment below!

15 Benefits of Blogging for Businesses

Does your business have a blog?

According to stats, 60% of businesses who own a blog acquire more customers than those that don't.

A blog is a website through which opinions are shared, information is passed, and most of all businesses directly engage with their customers.  It is a valuable tool for marketers.

In this article, I shared 15 benefits of blogging for businesses

15 Benefits of Blogging for Businesses

It is the soul of content marketing. I am sure that content marketing is a part of every business marketing strategy. Every business owner wants customers to understand what their services are about and convince their customers on why such services are needed and the best way to do this is using a blog. Be it through Videos or images or articles, owning a blog gives you an edge in content marketing.

Its the communication channel with your leads and customer.  A blog is like an online customer service for businesses to answer their customers -frequently asked questions (FAQ) and connect with customers and leads by sharing relevant information(s).

It drives traffic to your website. Though a blog is a website, it is an information sharing website and not the actual front of your online business.  By writing relevant articles and sharing it online either through social media or search engine you indirectly through your blog drive traffic and sales to your business.  This you do by including a call-to-action link to the main business website on the blog.

It is simple and easy to use.  Setting up a blog is not rocket science.  You do not need to be a website designing genius or an HTML guru to start a  blog.  There are several blogging platforms out there and most of them are free. Blogger,  Wordpress are the few good ones around.

It is your company/business voice. Your business is an abstract entity and needs a voice to let people know it exists to serve them.  The blog is that voice.  It gives you room to tell the customer about your new and old product and space to share your company's initiative and get customer views about them

It makes you an authority in your industry. By posting frequently and updating your customer about your industry and answering questions from customers through your blog.  You are indirectly establishing yourself as an authority in your field.

It converts traffic to leads and leads to customers.  The main objective of a business blog is to generate traffic and leads.  Every article you post through your blog gives you a fighting chance to convert traffic to leads and if the post is convincing enough then leads are converted into customers.  You generate leads by adding a call-to-action button on your blog that gets visitors to fill in their data.

A blog gets your business discovered.  Blog, as I pointed out in point 1, is the soul of content marketing and by sharing your blog content on social media, your brand and business get discovered as more people re-share the post on their own social media page hence indirectly giving you the popularity you need.

It brings in money for freelancers.  This is more and the most important reason why you will need a blog.  It brings in money for both normal bloggers and business bloggers alike.  For normal bloggers platforms such as AdSense and media.net are advertising agents that help bloggers make money. For business owners, it helps push up sales.

It builds customers confidence in you.  As mentioned earlier your blog is your customer relations service online and by providing solutions to their problems and updating them about new products and services, customers will see you as a professional and a reliable source of information in your industry. They will have no choice but to come to you for services.

It is a good free PR.  A blog creates free press for your business and most especially you.  Publishing great content entices a journalist to look for the person behind such great content because they see you as an expert in your field and will like to share your story with the world.

It keeps your focus on your goal.  A blogging strategy requires you to define your blogging goals (who you are blogging for and why.)

It keeps you on your feet.  To be seen as an expert in your field and to drive more sales and traffic you need to post new content regularly meaning you need to be up to date in your industry.  A blog keeps you alert about trends, changes and info about your industry.

It gives you insight about your customers.  Many blogging platforms come with analytic data that tells you who your customers are,  where they are coming from, country and behaviour.

It powers your social media.  By creating good content,  your marketing becomes easy as you provide value to your customer who likes wisely share it on social media and thus you gain valuable followers also.