Blogging has become increasingly popular over the last ten years. There is a good reason for it. You can make a sustainable income working from home. You can decide your own hours, work at your own pace, and be in control of the content you put out into the world. It sounds like a dream come true. However, it is so much more than just putting out amazing content. The first thing you need to do when you decide to start a blog is deciding on a blog niche. You may be wondering, what exactly is a blog niche, and why can’t I write about anything I want?!
When I first started thinking about blogging a few years ago (yes it took me two years to launch my website) I just thought I could write about anything. I wanted to be a lifestyle blogger and just talk about my life and anything that peaked my interest. This is not a good way to make money. Yes, there are some websites that make money writing about their life but most of them have an underlying niche.
Deciding on your blog niche is a big deal because you’ll need to research and write about this topic day in and day out. You’ll need to become an expert in your blog niche so you are the go-to person when someone thinks of your particular topic.
There are some blog niches that make a lot of money, and then there are some niches that make little money. When first starting a blog think about your reason for starting it. If your only reason for wanting to blog is to make money you’ll most likely struggle. While blogging about your passion is not a necessity it may help you produce better content.
Blogging is much more than just finding a niche and writing about that particular topic. You will need to solve a problem for your target audience.
I could write about all things frugal living but that is not necessarily solving a problem. I write about living a happy healthy life on a budget. Getting ahold of your family finances is my main underlying problem and everything I write about centers around that idea. You may be thinking, but Sara, you’re writing a blog post about blogging right now. Yes, I am. However, this blog post will give you ideas on how to make more money with your own writing so you can create more money for your household. It all comes back to that budget and tackling your finances. More money, more wiggle room to live a happy healthy life.
Choose A Blog Niche That Will Make You Money
How To Make Money
This may sound obvious and at the same time may sound silly. A lot of people just starting out in the blogging industry think that this is the only way to make money in the blogging industry.
It is not.
While blogging about how to make money is very popular and gives you a very easy entry point (who doesn’t want to make money while they sleep?!) It is not the only niche that can make money.
If you are going to blog about how to make money be sure to be an authority in this area. You do not want to seem disingenuous because you thought it would make you a quick buck. You will want to have experience in online business and actually have made money in the past.
Maybe you are just starting out in the online world and would still like to blog about how to make money. You could use your blog as a way to chronicle your journey and how you are making money online.
Following popular bloggers who blog about How to Make Money is how I ended up creating this blog myself.
Blogs in this niche include:
Smart Passive Income
Create and Go
Melyssa Griffin
Personal Finance
Personal finance is a very popular blog niche and can take on so many different topics. You could easily blog about how to make more money in the personal finance niche as well as numerous other topics including investing, frugal living, and budgeting.
This Blog, Budget & Bliss, will cover a number of those topics because it is what I am passionate about. I truly believe you can make money online while living on a budget and enjoying life.
Rosemary of The Busy Budgeter is the blogger that introduced me to Elite Blog Academy, a comprehensive course about how to start and run a successful blog. Then I found Michelle of Making Sense of Cents that showed me you can make a lot of money online while still living very frugally. These two ladies are the main reason I am here today.
Blogs in this niche include:
Millennial Money Man
Frugalwoods
Whitney Hansen
Health and Fitness
This niche is increasingly popular especially around the beginning of the new year. You’ll gain traffic (ad income) and have products to promote (affiliate marketing) but those two monetization strategies don’t always pay the big bucks. You can also create your own e-books and e-courses to boost your income a well.
Blogs in this niche include:
Avocadu
Sweaty Chic
Nerd Fitness
Travel
Who wouldn’t love to travel the world and share their journey? I know I would! Travel bloggers get to see new places, try new foods, and share all about it while getting paid to do so. This niche can be harder to break into though especially if you are footing the bill yourself.
This niche can also overlap with other niches like personal finance. Michelle of Making Sense of Cents has talked about travel on her blog quite a bit. She lived in an RV traveling the US for quite some time and is now living on a sailboat. How cool is that?!
You can earn money through affiliate marketing by promoting products you love from a specific place. You can also make money through sponsorships and brand deals.
Blogs in this niche include:
The Bucket List Family
Nomadic Matt
Adventurous Kate
DIY and Crafts
This is such a broad niche but can offer so much content especially if you want to be active on Pinterest. There is a huge visual element so you’ll need to work on your photography skills and maybe even your video skills. The DIY and Crafts niche is great because you can share links for products as well as even sell your own tutorials.
The craft niche is actually where I started in online business sharing scrapbooking (Project Life) inspiration as well as building my own product line. I didn’t know much about the blogging aspect of online business when I started this business and it eventually flopped when the scrapbooking industry changed.
Lessons learned – you need to adapt to the industry and not be afraid of change.
Blogs in this niche include:
Jennifer Maker
Allie Edwards
Pinspired to DIY
I am leaving out a ton of great niches in this post but I wanted to give you an idea of different niches you could potentially earn money from. I can’t guarantee you’ll make a penny online but if you invest time in learning how to blog and start out with a blog niche in mind you’ll be ahead.
Don’t forget – while you do not have to passionate about a particular topic to write about it you’ll want to become an expert in that area. Having passion will make blogging that much easier as you get into the nitty-gritty of it all.
If you are already a blogger – leave a comment below and let me know what your blog niche is.
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