Do you know the purpose behind your blog? Have you found a rhythm and flow to your writing?
Do you know who you’re speaking with and what niche you serve?
If the answer is no to all of the above, don’t panic. There’s good news.
Once you do know how to answer those questions – and you will – it makes all the difference.
How do I know? I was a first-time blogger once too.
Ten years ago when I started my first blog, I had no idea who my target audience was, let alone what their needs were.
I stumbled around, writing, posting and hoping I’d tap into my passion.
Guess what? I finally did…and you can too.
Below I share a simple 6-part blogging formula that helped me build my blog and is going to help you dominate any niche.
How To Find Your Perfect Blog Niche (and Make a Profit)
1. Know the Purpose Behind Your Blog
Finding meaning in my writing was something I didn’t connect with immediately. I blogged about things I knew, but my heart just wasn’t in it.
My articles felt lifeless and my readership numbers reflected that.
I needed a strategy and I needed it fast. The problem was, there was no way I could define a strategy without purpose.
I was sporadic and unfocused in my blogging and my words lacked conviction. I needed a “blog intervention” and fast!
While my intervention was slow to come, the questions I asked myself will hopefully help you move faster towards yours.
Ask yourself these questions to identify the purpose behind your blog and writing.
Questions to Find Your Blog’s Purpose
- Are you looking to find deeper meaning in your work and pass along the wisdom you’ve gained over your lifetime?
- Do you want to motivate and inspire people?
- Will this be a full time commitment in support of a current or new business or is this a hobby?
- Are you looking to build a legacy or make a quick buck?
2. Get Passionate About Your Topic
If you said you want to blog full time and tie it to your income, then you must eat, sleep and breathe the subject matter.
Consistently blogging about your topic creates authority, and authority is what creates opportunity.
And if you want to make money around this topic and within your niche, the doors of opportunity need to swing wide open.
That’s what makes writing what you’re passionate about extremely important. Without passion, your content will feel forced. And forced or inauthentic content is something readers sniff out immediately.
How to Find the Topic You’re Passionate About
Writing about your blog topic should feel as natural as breathing to you. If you want to find what moves and inspires you, follow this process.
Open up your favorite note taking application (mine is an old fashioned pad and pen) and answer these questions.
- Write down the top 5 topics you would you write about if time and money weren’t a factor? My examples:
- Dogs
- Wine
- Travel
- Motivation
- Health
- What about those topics drives and excites you?
- Can you put a new spin on that topic and make it unique?
- Can you clearly articulate a benefit around the topic?
- Is there an audience for your topic?
- Is it a sustainable topic?
Once you’re finished, read back through your answers.
What emerged for you? What topic stands out and feels right in your heart and gut?
Now that you’ve got that, it’s time to do your research and clearly answer number 5 and 6. Don’t move forward without those details unless you’re not in it to make a living.
3. Know Your Niche Inside and Out
Now that you know the purpose behind your blog and the niche you’re going to serve, it’s time to learn that niche inside and out.
Because here’s one of my biggest tips. Successful bloggers know that understanding who you’re speaking with is the first key to success.
Look around at the most successful bloggers you know. You will quickly see that they’re laser focused on the needs of their audience.
Michael Hyatt is an excellent example of someone that’s defined his niche. I’ve watched the evolution of his brand and it’s clear that niching down has rapidly grown his credibility, visibility and engagement.
Why? He’s speaking his audience’s language. He’s not broad in his conversations, but zeroed in on how to solve their particular problem.
From the moment you land on his blog, he has what any busy entrepreneur needs because he knows that niche inside and out.
And it’s that ability – the ability to get inside your audience’s head – that creates a rhythm and flow to your writing.
It gives your readers access into your thoughts, letting them hear you as if you were speaking them aloud.
4. Make Your Content Relevant and Useful
To engage your readers on a consistent basis you must be totally in sync with their needs.
Listen to their challenges, concerns and fears about what’s happening in your niche.
Figure out what keeps them awake at night and then craft your content around it.
Your articles should be a refuge, an answer and a calming force.
Give them what they are searching for and they will be forever grateful.
So how can you do this? As Diana Adams of InfluencerChat.com says,
“Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. What blogging topics would be valuable and useful to them? Get into the mind of your ideal customer. Make sure you choose a niche that you can write about over and over without getting tired of it.”
5. Be Willing to Create Conversation (and Start a Movement)
Once you know your niche and start writing about it, you’ll need to get into the conversation.
Because writing great content is only the beginning. Your next step is promotion.
Work daily to engage your readers, draw on their emotions, and ask them to discuss, debate and interact with you across your social channels.
Your blog is the springboard to further conversation. Take your thoughts and ideas and work to create a movement around it.
Ask open ended questions or offer free advice to draw your audience in. Define your calls to action and how to let your audience take that next step with you or your company.
Make your blog feel like home to them…a place where they belong and enjoy spending time.
And of course, promote, promote, promote your blog content!
Your Action Steps to Blog Promotion (and creating a movement and buzz around your content)
- Social Media
- Post to your Facebook profile and page
- Post a graphic specifically designed for Google+ and then pin that graphic to Pinterest (the size that works best for me is 735 x 1200)
- Create a unique graphic for Instagram and share with a short breakdown of key points
- LinkedIn – share to your profile and within a group. Writing about social media, marketing or small business? Become a member of the LinkedIn group I manage with over 35,000 members.
- Create a short “how-to” video highlighting some of the tips shared within your post. Add that to YouTube.
- Blogger Communities
- Video
- Guest Posts
- Commenting – Comment on blogs that fall within your niche. It’s an excellent way to create strategic relationships and connect with influencers within your niche.
- Newsletter
- Email Marketing
- Syndication
6. Tell a Great Story
I have one last piece of advice for you and while it should have made it further up on the list – I left it for last to make a lasting impact.
Yep, it’s that important so listen up.
If you’ve struggled to share your story – or worse – your expertise, get over it.
Your story is your gift. It’s should be shared with others as a way to help, motivate and inspire.
One of my favorite storytellers is Henneke with Enchanting Marketing. No one can weave a story quite like her.
I feel myself drawn into every word as she makes the topic come to life. It’s immediately relatable and easy to insert myself into the narrative.
Here’s what I mean…
So why do I share this with you?
Because I want you to stop worrying about what people will think or how people will respond to your content.
Instead, I want you to focus on your target audience, understand their motivation and then work to capture their attention each and every day.
I guarantee that this new found focus will give your audience a reason to stick around.
Final Thoughts
No one ever said building a successful blog would be easy. In fact, it’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.
But I also know how incredibly rewarding it can be.
Take the time to identify your purpose and commit to turning your blog into the catalyst that drives you toward your goals. Identify your purpose and then write with conviction.
Getting clear on where you’re going and how you’re going to get there will open up the creative flood gates and allow you to connect with your audience in a whole new way.
Create a brand worth writing about and profitability will flow naturally.
Hi Rebekah
Loving this post. I am new to blogging and did start a blog sometime ago and forgot about it. Now I decided to start again now that I have understood more about blogging and what is required.
I can’t stop thinking, talking, being and causing everyone I get in contact with be more positive. I even created a t-shirt business about positive quotes on t-shirts at http://www.SubconsciousLiving.com.
By the way I think that is the first blog post I have come across with so many comments from men….lol. For a while I thought only women blogged. Smile.
Keep posting more awesome post and I wish you the best.
I just read this article and one that you linked to from here; I have read many blogs about blogging and you stand head and shoulders above all! You are not the least bit vague, you get right to the point, your advise is clear and intelligent, and you don’t do any insincere, contrived, cynical, and irellavant grandstanding. This is advice I can really use as a very green blogger who wants to succeed. I am also glad to know that much of what I am already doing is on target.
Thank You!
This article is fantastic, Rebekah. You do what you say and it’s pretty straight forward. I’ve recently “rebooted” my blog and this reinforced what I want to do and also gave me extra nuggets to use.
Hi Rebekah,
What a great post with excellent ideas. I have a blog and a target audience, but I know that I need to really hone in on these and get specific so you’re suggestions on knowing your audience inside and out are incredibly useful.
Fantastic lessons in this article – shared too! Thanks.
Hi Rebekah,
I am extremely new to blogging and I have decided to take blogging as my permanent career after I searched many things on the web. I loved this field and I want to excel here with my passion. My interests are Movies, Sports and Facebook Games. I am playing Marvel Avengers game since 3 plus years now and play daily. So based on my interests I have started by blog to cover movie reviews, Sports related articles but after reading your article I found that I need to concentrate on one niche. Can you please help me out in this? In these 2 months of social interactions, I got good enough friends in the area of cooking, Technology, books, travel related niche ones but don’t have any in entertainment, movies and sports. How far can I go with no people around me who think of movies and sports and how to deal with this challenge and move forward? I will be extremely thankful for everyone in advance in guiding me in this blog world.
Hi Rebekah,
Another great article and so informative and inspirational. I even get inspired by some of your readers comments as well.
There are two thoughts of thinking on Niches. One is staying within your niche and target those people exclusively, the other is going outside your niche and targeting other readers.
I am not sure which works the best right now for me, as I am relatively new to blogging. But I know I don’t want to limit myself to just one audience. I am passonate about what I do and blog about, but sometimes I think you can get burned out, if you blog about the same thing all the time. You to a chance of scenery, so to speak, to recharge your batteries.
I love all the tips you gave in this article and I try to do all 6 of your points. I especially like the action tips to blog promotion. Promotion seems to be one of the steps that can be the most time consuming, but is well worth it once you see the attention you can get from people. I have not done all of these types of promotions, but I am steadily working toward them all.
Thanks, again for such an informative article and I will be sure to share with others.
Hey Rebekah,
It took me many years to be more clear on what I wanted out of my blog. Although I had an idea, but still I was getting emails from different people what exactly I did.
And you know what I did?
I revamped my ‘About Me’ page. This not only helped me, but helped those who were confused as to what I was trying to get across.
Thanks for sharing these tips Rebekah! Have a great weekend!
The “About Me” page is a great place to start Sherman. Mine has evolved dramatically over the years. As we grow, so should our blog.
Thanks as always for stopping by!
Excellent resource. I have a lot of interest and blog about different niches. I do not have a specific niche. But even though, I may still follow most of the advice posted above.
It’s great to hear you’ve nailed down your niche. Once you do, the difference it makes in your business is night and day.
Rebekah,
Do you drink tea? The beverage from Camellia sinensis is my passion topic! 🙂 I am writing the first short volume that will become a book series on tea with fabulous illustrations by cartoonist and fine artist, John Cox. Tea FTW Book blog will accompany to the books, with discussion threads on tea, posts on the book writing process, feedback on my writings, etc.
Passion and Purpose! Love it Rebekah. I put things into overdrive by being passionate about my blog topic and by blogging with a purpose in mind. Those 2 energies, or emotions, really make things go. Thanks for sharing!
Ryan
Hi Rebekah,
I found a lot of things that I used to miss and now I see the importance of them. Furthermore, I learnt some ways to promote my blog in your posts that are very useful. Thank you and thank to your blog.
In all the years I have spent training local real estate professionals about blogging and social media, there was a phrase I often used before I even started a coaching session: “Find your niche to get rich!” Everything you said here is totally spot on. It’s so imperative to find your perfect client and then market TO that perfect client, not a one size fits all type of approach. It’s funny, because so many people I run into are too scared to actually show genuine things online….but why? People like, and respond well to it, and it’s the best way to niche yourself out.
Thanks for the tips! Always appreciated and insightful.
Cheers!
Shauna
@ValkeryieC
The riches are in the niches…I wholeheartedly agree Shauna. So many people I talk to are afraid to niche down. They feel they need to cast a wider net and be everything to everyone. Instead, it often has the adverse affect. You’re talking to no one. Glad to hear you’re beating that drum!
I love the steps – apart from knowing your passion, one needs to know the “perfect niche”. That’s where most of us fail. And then target your audience well. I just love the way you engage us. Great insights as always, thanks.
Things I’m working on now – listening more, fulfilling my purpose and improving my brand to the next level. Thanks a lot for sharing and being such an inspiration.
What fantastic things to work on Davis! It’s all a work in progress. Give yourself the grace to take it day by day and know that each step is moving you closer to your end goal.
Its the stuff most of us know deep down, but few of us know how, thanks for the motivation.
Great post, Rebekah! I would add, in my experience, when I’m blogging about something I’m passionate about, I don’t necessarily have to be a super expert right out of the gate. By writing about your passion, you’ll necessarily be constantly researching the topic and then the two start to feed off themselves. You’ll be producing better content and gaining more expertise. Win-win in my book! 🙂
Everything you are saying make a lot of sense, and I find you such a good coach, I should stick to your coaching @rebekahradice
Hi Alice! I’m so glad to hear it’s helpful.
Rebekah,
This will be thus far my fave blog post you’ve written! This really inspired me to continue do more of what I love to do. Additionally I want to share another piece of thought with you. You and Peg are still my very fave SM Influencers.
You inspire the life out of me with the work you create and share with the world.
I’m grateful to have come across your blogs!
Thank you 😉
BTW: I love your social sharing buttons, please what plugin is that?
Hi Theodore – it’s a tool called Social Warfare, created by my good friend Dustin Stout. Here’s the direct link: http://warfareplugins.com/
You will love it!
Hello Rebekah,
I think I’ve actually fallen in love with your writing, i can’t stop reading and reading here and all the posts I’ve read on your blog so far are excellent.
Indeed, the reasons why a blogger should know his niche in and out cannot be over emphasized. If you do not know your niche, how then will you even know what you’re talking about? How will your readers get to trust your judgements?
If you must create a successful blog then, you must know everything you can about your chosen niche, you must also be passionate about it because if you’re not, your readers will easily notice it on from your writing.
Finally, a good writer is also a great story teller so, its also wise to master the act of story telling.
Thanks for sharing being awesome Rebekah :).