Passion or Profit? How to Choose (or Reassess) Your Blog’s Niche - DailyBlogTips |
| Passion or Profit? How to Choose (or Reassess) Your Blog’s Niche Posted: 24 Apr 2014 02:45 AM PDT Bloggers without an existing business typically fall into two broad camps. The passion-driven bloggers love writing about their favourite topic. (You’ll probably find them talking about it to anyone who’ll listen, too.) They may have started blogging simply to share their enthusiasm, though they’ll often be interested in monetizing their blog too. The profit-driven bloggers love making money online – and that’s their main focus. They may not be all that interested in their blog’s topic, but they’ve got a clear strategy and they’re keen to start making money, or growing their revenue, as quickly as possible. Here’s why I think both camps have something important to offer: Not All Passions Will Make MoneyLet’s say you’re really passionate about an obscure ’90s TV show. While a blog could be a fantastic way to meet fellow fans and share your enthusiasm, it’s probably not going to be an easy way to make money. Sure, you may make some through running ads, or using affiliate links to the show’s DVDs / memorabilia … but realistically, this isn’t going to be anything near to a full-time income. A good test of whether your interests will make for a monetizable blog is whether or not there’s a reasonably large market for that topic. If there are books, magazines, other large blogs or products related to it, that’s a good sign! … But Profit-Driven Blogs May Be DoomedIf you start a blog purely with profit in mind, especially if it’s your first “pro” blog, you may find yourself giving up after a few weeks or months. You’ll probably find it takes a while to get your blog to a point where it’s even making a few dollars a week. This means blogging away for months while trying to build up an audience, which is really tough to stick with if you’re not actually at all interested in your blog’s topic. Your blog posts may also come across as rather bland and derivative, as it can be tough to keep coming up with good ideas when you’ve chosen a topic for its money-making potential. The Solution? Blend Profit and PassionWhen choosing a niche, then, your best bet is to look for a good mix of both profit and passion … and I recommend starting with passion. Make a list of all the topics that interest you. Think about:
Next, think about which of these topics are most likely to have the potential to make money. For instance, let’s say you’ve drawn up a list that looks like this: Hobbies: hiking, knitting University: ancient history Jobs: didn’t enjoy any of them Books/blogs: personal development, entrepreneurship The topic that stands out here to me as not being a good one is ancient history. While I’m sure you could monetise a blog about classical civilisations (perhaps with affiliate links to textbooks, etc), it’s probably going to be a struggle. Hiking or knitting could both make great topics, as both are hobbies that involve quite a bit of equipment – and readers who are enthusiastic about a hobby will often be open to buying new products (which you can link to as an affiliate). Both could also work well for selling a digital product, perhaps a book of knitting patterns or a book of interesting hikes. Personal development could work well, if you’ve got an interesting angle (e.g. aiming at a particular audience like stay-at-home parents). Entrepreneurship is of course a hot topic online, but unless you really have some experience and expertise, avoid starting a “make money online” blog.
Ultimately, you need to choose a niche that genuinely excites you, and one that you can imagine blogging about for years to come. If you’re looking to make money blogging, then obviously you’ll want to consider whether you’ll be able to easily monetise it … but if you start by focusing on profit, not passion, you’ll find it harder to succeed.
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| The New Top Level Domains Are Here! Posted: 23 Apr 2014 06:25 PM PDT I am not sure if you remember, but a couple of years ago we got the news that ICANN would start selling new top level domain extensions to whoever had $100,000 laying around to buy them. The discussion about the implications of the change were heated, and many people were skeptic about whether or not those new extensions would see the light of the day. Well, they have. The rollout (or delegation, as they call it) is a gradual process, but every day some of these new domain extensions is becoming operative. Here’s the page where you can follow the rollout: Some curious ones that are already available: In my opinion opening up those new extensions was a terrible idea. But who knows, maybe their effect will be to strengthen the .com even further, as they might create confusion, and when confused people resort to what they are familiar with. Wanna learn how to make more money with your website? Check the Online Profits training program! |
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