Easy Guide to Choose a Blogging Niche + Free Workbook

To make money, you need to get clear on your blogging niche. Your blogging niche will inform the creation of your products and services, affiliate partnerships, sponsored work and collaborations.

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To build a successful blog or business that makes money, you have to get clear on your niche. The work you do to narrow down your blogging niche and craft a clear picture of your ideal reader will direct every aspect of your marketing.

The number one truth about a profitable blog is that it is designed with the reader in mind. Every post, every offer, every affiliate recommendation must have the reader’s needs in mind. The profitable blog serves the reader by offering solutions to their problem and fulfilling their needs.

Focus on who your reader is and how your blog serves them, and your blog will make money for you.

Find the Sweet Spot to Choose Your Blogging Niche

The key to discovering the best niche for your blog is to find that sweet spot between your passion and expertise, a problem that needs solutions, and people who are searching for and are willing to invest in those solutions.

If you’re just starting your blog, or you’ve been blogging but struggling, it’s time to figure out your blogging niche. That’s what you need to get the traffic, subscribers and income you want.

Block out some quiet time for yourself to do this work. Grab a notebook or laptop and get ready to start brainstorming.

Bonus: I’ve created a printable Niche Smarts for Bloggers Workbook which you can download for free! Use it to follow along with the prompts in this post.

Niche Smarts for Bloggers Workbook

Use the form below to get free access to the Niche Smarts Workbook now! Each exercise below is outlined in detail in my exclusive 26-page workbook.

Of course, you can follow this post and just do the exercises in a notebook. But if you like to use a fill-as-you-go workbook, grab it below.

Does Your Blog Need a Niche?

Yes, your blog needs a niche if you want to be successful and earn a living as a blogger. Why does your blog need a niche? Because having a clear niche makes every step of the journey from newbie blogger to profitable blogger so much easier. It simplifies and clarifies every piece of the blogging success puzzle.

Money Comes Quicker and Easier

The clearer you are about your blogging niche and ideal reader, the sooner your blog will earn money. When you know exactly who you writing to, and what problems your blog can solve for them, you streamline the process of choosing affiliate partners and products to promote.

It makes it easier to decide which products, courses or services you will make available for sale. A clear niche for your blog can strengthen your domain authority and help SEO work faster to bring you traffic. More traffic results in more ad network revenue, if you choose that route.

Read Affiliate Marketing Basics for Bloggers Who Want to Make Money

List Building and Freebie Offers is Easier

Without a clear blogging niche, it’s challenging to know what to offer as an incentive to join your list. You may have figured out by now that “Get my Updates” and “Join my Newsletter List” prompts get you nowhere.

Readers will only share their email address and let you into their Inbox when your offer is all about them. Your offers must fill a need or solve a problem. When your blog is trying to satisfy five different niches, you need five different offers. Then those five offers lead to five separate email marketing lists. That’s a lot of unnecessary work, especially when you’re still new.

Instead, clarify your blogging niche and ideal reader. With a clear niche, you’ll know exactly what to offer to get readers on your list. You’ll know exactly what to write about in your weekly email broadcasts and how to increase your email open rate.

Email marketing success is the greatest obstacle for bloggers without a niche. Email marketing is the most powerful tool for making money with your list. It’s the best way to reach your readers, create relationship with them and get engagement with your content and offers.

Read Why Email Marketing for Bloggers Matters (and How to Start for Free)

Content Creation is Clearer

With a narrowed down niche, you know who you’re speaking to and what problem they want solutions to. You know what need they’re looking to fill. That information makes it easier to come up with a long list of blog post topics to write about.

As you write, think of your ideal reader or avatar. Then, you can write to her specifically. Rather than writing for yourself or for the huge and very general “them”, you will strike a more intimate tone that converts.

You’ll find it easier to create email content for your broadcasts and sequences as well.

Having a clear niche makes it easier to create connection with your readers, because you have defined who your readers are.

Read Quickly Find Blog Post Ideas for Beginners

Marketing and Social Media is Easier

Marketing your blog is about putting your content and offers in front of the people who want them. To do that, you need to know where to find them.

When your audience is clear, you know where to find them online because you know who you’re looking for. You’ll know what products and services your reader wants. When you’re clear about your niche, you know how to entice readers to join your list. You know what it takes to engage with them on social media.

With a specific blogging niche, you know what search terms to use to find the right Facebook groups to join. It’s easier to gain traction on Pinterest with specific boards and pins that speak to a clear subset of pinners. You’ll figure out the right hashtags for Instagram and Twitter more quickly too.

Read Best Social Media for Bloggers to Grow Traffic and Make Money

Read Get Easy Traffic with Pinterest Basics for Bloggers

Know Yourself First Before Choosing a Niche for Blogging

Before we dig into who your reader is and what they are searching for, let’s focus on who you are. Who are you as a person, and what kind of blogging business do you want to build? 

Start by brainstorming what your passions are and what areas you have some expertise in.

Passions are those things you love to spend time working on, reading about or talking about.

Expertise can be gained from your professional background and formal education. It can also be self-taught or learned through life experience.

Answer these questions about yourself:

• What are you good at?
• What are you most passionate about?
• What’s your vision for your blogging business?
• Are there topics you most enjoy talking, writing and thinking about?
• What personal challenges have you overcome and what did you learn from them?
• What do your friends ask you advice about?
• What’s your favorite Facebook group to read and participate in?
• What are you most known for in your circle of friends and family?
• What’s your professional and educational background?
• Do you have any degrees and certifications?
• Where do feel most confident?
• What non-fiction books or podcasts do you enjoy most?

Now look at those two lists and notice where your passions and expertise overlap. Circle these and add them to a new smaller list.

What Niche Do You Want to Blog About?

Of the topics that overlap between your passions and expertise, which you will enjoy writing about most? Which topics can you create content around for many years to come?

Start a new list for each overlapping niche topic. Then start brainstorming ideas for blog posts, ebooks and courses you can create for each. Think about products, videos, social media content and podcasts too.

Consider if the topic may only be of interest to you for a short while. Or is the topic something you have a deep passion for that will inspire you long-term?

For example, your niche may be showing moms how to make their own baby food. Maybe you’re super passionate about it right now with one toddler at home and a baby on the way. What about two years from now?

Think ahead and keep your family dynamics in mind. Try to choose a blogging niche that you’ll be passionate about for years to come.

Niche Content Brainstorming

Content brainstorming is an especially good exercise if you are already running a multi-niche blog. Count up how many pieces of content you have already created for each topic. Consider all forms of content, on your blog, list freebies, videos, social media, etc. Then add that number under each topic, from above, as you work on new ideas for this exercise. 

The idea is to have fun with this. And to see if there is a clear winner or two in the remaining topics list. Do your ideas flow more easily for one topic than the others?

Make note of which topics have the most content ideas.

How Do You Want to Make Money Blogging?

Not all blogging niches are equally profitable. However, having a clear niche is more profitable than being broad or unfocused.

Consider the top topics you noted in the last section: the ones you’re most passionate about, have some expertise in, and can easily think of content ideas for. These are the top topics you would enjoy committing to for years to come.

Next, you’re going to start brainstorming ways you can monetize around those topics. You may have already generated some ideas in the last exercise. 

There are lots of ways to make money with your blog:

• creating products
• offering services or coaching
• designing courses
• affiliate marketing partnerships
• sponsored work with brands
• placing ads on your website

Competitor Research with Google

Start doing some competitor research. Run some Google searches on your top topic ideas and see who the leaders in your potential blogging niche are.

Scroll through the first 1-3 pages of search results. Do the results of your query include bloggers, or are all the results from huge websites and international brands? Are most of the results from .edu or .gov websites?

If most results are from credentialed or official organizations, it might not be the niche for you. However, there may be a subtopic or other angle on that topic that’s a better fit.

Google search is the best way to research your niche and see what’s already out there.

If you find a niche with bloggers in the top results, would you be excited to be part of that group?

How Do Bloggers in Your Niche Make Money

Look at a selection of the blogs you find in the results to see how they’re making money. Don’t worry if you don’t know how to do these things yet. Just check in with yourself around whether you’d be excited to learn how to monetize in those same ways.

Keep these questions in mind as you conduct your competitor research:

• Are all the blogs in your potential niche covered with ads? If they are, how comfortable are you with that form of monetization? 
• Does it look like selling products or services is going to be the primary way to earn money? Is that something you’re interested in?
• Is affiliate marketing a large part of the blogs you find? Would you enjoy that?
• Or is it some combination of all of the above? Something else entirely?

If you want to do some more research into affiliate marketing programs, start by joining these top affiliate networks now: ShareaSale, FlexOffers and Awin.

Bring Your Ideas and Research Together

Brainstorm some of your own ideas, consider how the leaders in your potential niche are making money, and whether that’s aligned with your own vision. Write as many ideas as you can for each of the remaining niche topics noted in the last exercise.

Which of your remaining potential niche topics have the most monetization ideas? Which has the most money making avenues that you’re excited about? Circle or make note of the one or two topics that really stand out for you.

Read Affiliate Marketing Basics for Bloggers Who Want to Make Money

Niche Smarts for Bloggers Workbook

Who Will Read Your Blog?

Your reader is the most important element to consider while you narrow down your blogging niche. Yes, it’s good to find the place where your passions and expertise meet. It’s important to consider which topics come more easily to you, and which are most profitable.

Ultimately, you must think of your reader. And that’s who we’re going to focus on now.

The individuals who land on your blog all have one thing in common: a need they’re looking to fulfill. Finding solutions is the number one, singular and only reason people are googling search terms all hours of the day.

Some folks are seeking a particular recipe, fashion tip, breastfeeding advice, or a home decor DIY idea. Some are searching for celebrity gossip, cat pictures or kid’s birthday party themes. Others are looking for book reviews, tech expertise or hotel recommendations. There’s no end to the possibilities!

Read Quickly Find Blog Post Ideas for Beginners

How will you steer some of those folks, looking at their screens in search of specific answers to specific questions, to your blog? Who do you want clicking around your site, looking at your images, reading your content and subscribing to your list?

What problem does your content solve? For whom? What need does it fulfill? For whom?

Who is the Ideal Reader for Your Blog?

Thinking of the hundreds and thousands of people who may read this post is quite daunting. Instead of an audience of readers, I only think of one woman. A mom, possibly single, looking for ways to support her family with a blogging career.

Maybe she’s a partnered mom seeking more financial independence, a passion project and second income. Maybe she’s seeking security, concerned she may join the ranks of the single moms in the next year.

I can picture you. I have an idea of how old you are, what your lifestyle and income might be like. Your children are everything to you. I know what you worry about, what attracts you to starting a blog and what keeps you stuck. Yes, I know you and I think of you with every word I write.

I learn about you by leading a Facebook group for mom bloggers, and being a part of other such groups. By reading your questions, celebrating your wins and visiting your blogs, I get to know you. By getting to know you, I know where I can reach you online.

That’s my job as a profitable blogger. It’s not about me, it’s about you. And in serving you, I serve my family by earning an income on my own terms.

Who do you have in mind when you create content? Do you know where to find him or her? Do you know how to serve them?

Does Choosing a Niche Mean Excluding People?

Choosing a niche doesn’t exclude anyone from enjoying your content. Some readers will naturally exclude themselves from your content if it doesn’t feel like a fit for them. And that’s a good thing!

Attracting mismatched readers to join your group or subscribe to your list doesn’t lead to satisfaction for them nor income for you.

My content marketing is geared towards moms who want to start and grow a blog and make money working from home. I lean slightly more towards single moms, because I’m a single mom. But that one qualifier doesn’t make much difference in my content about blogging.

Does choosing a niche of moms who want to blog mean there’s nothing useful here for childless female bloggers? What about men bloggers? What about hobby bloggers who aren’t motivated by making money? Of course not! You may be reading this and be in one of those categories yourself.

Anyone is welcome to find and consume my content. If you like my style, you may join my list or follow me on social media, whether or not you’re a mom. But I don’t set out to please every possible reader, in every possible demographic, with every possible need. That’s too much work and very overwhelming. It’s impossible to please everyone.

Focus on filling the needs and solving problems for the people you know best, and don’t worry about everyone else. They’ll find you if you’re a fit, and they’ll go elsewhere for content designed better for them if not.

Choose Your Blogging Niche

The combination of what topic you choose to blog about and who you are writing for, is your blogging niche!

I show ____________________ how to ____________________.

For example, a travel blogger’s niche might be I show young couples how to travel on a budget.

A food blogger might choose I show busy moms how to cook quick, healthy meals for their kids.

A fashion blogger might choose I show plus sized women how to dress professionally with style.

When You Still Don’t Know How to Choose Your Blogging Niche

Have you followed the exercises in this post, but still can’t decide on a blog niche? Are you still unclear who your ideal reader is?

I am confident in the importance of niching down, but I also encourage you to be true to yourself. Don’t force the niche if it’s not coming to you by doing the work in this post.

If you’re still unsure of your blogging niche, narrow your topic down as best you can and start creating. In most cases, clarity will arise as you continue writing. You’ll discover which topics you most enjoy writing and talking about, what comes more easily and what blogging niche inspires the best ideas in you.

Keep in mind, though, that it will take you longer to get great traffic, build a following and start making money with your blog. Be patient and keep creating. You’ll get there.

Read If You Blog Without a Niche: Success Tips

Revisit this post (grab the free Niche Smarts Workbook now so you have it) after you’ve spent more time blogging.

What is your blogging niche?

If you’ve narrowed it down, let me know! Leave a comment and share your blogging niche below.

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