How to Choose A Profitable Blog Niche That You’re Passionate About

So you want to start a blog! Perhaps you already started one and you’re having trouble on how to choose a profitable blog niche.

Many blogs start out as personal blogs where one writes about anything that comes to mind.

Most successful bloggers choose a niche and spend their time getting really good at providing valuable content.

And that’s what you want to do too.

People usually go to blogs because they are searching for information on something or to solve a problem.

Think of the last time you Googled something or searched for something on Pinterest or YouTube.

That’s the kind of need that we’re talking about.

But before you even decide on what you want to blog about, I always recommend going back to the “why.”

Why do you want to blog?

This is the first question you should ask yourself.

And though it seems really basic, it’s actually quite complicated.

It’s one of those soul-searching questions that requires you to dive deeper internally and get to the bottom of things.

Here are the most common reasons why people want to start a blog:
Knowledge – You are an expert or know a certain topic pretty well and want to help others with information.

Money – You want to earn money by writing about a certain topic.

Help others – You have the desire to help others through your writing.

Free Stuff – You know that bloggers get samples and get treated to free stuff so that they will blog about it.

Access – Bloggers get invited to go to cool events so that they can promote it.

Fame – You want to be famous and grow a following.

Bloggers usually start for a combination of these reasons.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting fame, you just have to want it badly enough to be consistent and stay committed.

Through my experience, I’ve found that if you’re mostly doing it for money, free stuff, access or fame – you usually don’t stick around long enough or devote enough time and effort to do what it takes to make your blog successful.

What topic (or niche) do I know enough about?

Some people start a blog on a topic that they already know a lot about.

This is the most common course of action.

There are some bloggers that blog about a certain topic they don’t know much about.

Their blog is all about the discovery and the journey of learning and experiencing that.

They make their audience well aware of this fact and make sure other know they are not an expert.

I recommend starting off by making a list of things that you have fair to expert knowledge about.

After you’ve made a list of topics, then you can do some research on other blogs on those niches and check out the competition.

You can analyze how many competitors you will have in that space and you can also check out Google Trends to find out how many people are searching for information on that topic.

Can you write a hundred blog posts about this niche?

No, you don’t have to write a hundred blog posts on this topic, right now at least.

But when you’re asking what blog should you actually start, you want to make sure that you have enough to write about and are interested enough in the blog topic for you to come up with enough post ideas.

A good way to answer this question is to do a blog content brainstorm.

From your list of possible blog topics that you want to write about, start by creating another list of categories under that topic.

For example, you want to start a blog about dogs.

Now, think about what categories you would want to include such as puppies, active dogs, senior dogs, rescue dogs, etc.

Then from there you can expand your list to think about actual blog posts such as How to Train a Puppy, How to Train an Active Dog, How to Train a Stubborn Senior Dog (like mine!). It’s easier to come up with blog post ideas if you start with generating categories first.

Also, you can start thinking if your niche is too broad.

A dog blog may have a lot of competition (do your research on Google and Google Trends) but you can also narrow it down by breed if you want to only focus on Pomeranians or by age group, if you only want to blog about puppies.

Even those topics can also be broken down into more niche categories. Many have found success with more narrowed down niches and being the ultimate expert.

Will you be able to blog consistently?

I often joke about the “blog graveyard.”

This is where my many blogs that I’ve started and never finished have gone.

Creative people are usually great with coming up with ideas, but being able to be consistent is often an issue.

Most of the time, people are working a full-time job or have other commitments that can easily keep them from devoting time consistently to their blog.

It’s very hard to keep motivated and exercise discipline when you are first starting out and perhaps because you’re not making money yet with this project.

So it’s really important to know why you’re going to start blogging in the first place and what your goals are, so that you have a clear vision on what you want to achieve.

Are you excited and passionate about this topic?

I can’t stress this one enough because I am very passionate about what I blog about.

I can’t even imagine not feeling that way about my blogs.

It’s like when you have a job that you hate and every day you dread going into work.

You’re probably not going to do your best and create the best outcome.

So when you’re deciding what blog should you actually start, you should ask yourself if you are passionate about the topic that you’re blogging about.

Otherwise, your readers will see through you (right away!) and not really resonate with your voice, because it isn’t authentic.

Some bloggers say the opposite.

They say that you don’t have to be excited or passionate about your blog topic or even know much about it.

But I feel like it’s much harder to do that, it’s much more work to try to convey that you like what you are blogging about.

I’d rather come from a place of authenticity and genuine desire to help others with something that you yourself really care about.

Think about it like having to do some fundraising for a cause you really don’t care about.

How will you be able to persuade someone to donate their money?

How will you be able to provide a clear and moving message for someone to feel emotion with what you’re asking them to do?

Yes, it’s possible.

There are great sales people out there.

I personally don’t think I can do a very good job at selling something that I’m not really into.

This is probably why I do well as a brand ambassador, because when I agree to sell it, I really sell it.

Take your time!

Are you still having some trouble on how to choose a profitable blog niche?

Sleep on it.

I recommend that you really take some time to think about this.

If this is something that you really want to do and really are going to commit to, then it’s worth the time and effort.

Do some research, read other people’s blogs, write a few drafts or you can just start and see if you keep going.

If you’re just starting out and want to learn all the basics of starting a blog, take our free course – Blogging 101, located in our free resource library. 

Join the Spark Society now and get access to our entire resource library for influencers AND get added to The Spark List for weekly influencer opportunities such as brand partnerships, product collaborations and more!