At ‘South by South West’ this year I had the pleasure of catching up with Web Pro New’s Abby Johnson (who everyone I talked to at SXSW agrees is one of the nicest people going around).
Abby and I chatted for 5 or so minutes on a range of topics to do with making money blogging – in particular we talked about choosing a good niche to blog about.
Read more on how to choose a niche to blog about.
Thanks, Darren, for this interview published here. Really interesting and useful!
Thanks Darren. Great video.
The blogger must be interested in that niche to start the blog in that topic.I tried several niches to start a blog and make money.But I can’t post frequently because I didn’t interested in that topics continually.
Really useful reminders. No new stuff though. Also, I noticed that twitter got a few plugs in there. Very telling that I only saw 2 women in the background. Come On! Where are the women involved in blogging and social media?
Nice interview Darren, Blogging Tips and Blogging for Money niches became harder than before, it was not the best choice for me but I like the challenge, it’s lots of fun!
Good to know that you are near… are you passing through Houston? ;)
I’m reading a great book about 30 blogging heroes (i don’t know why Darren and others are not mentioned there ).
in the book, the interviewer asked the bloggers about how they became successful bloggers…
most of them said that you have to blog about subject you are passionate about…
You don’t chose a niche, your niche chooses you.
At the risk of ruining that incredibly prophetic statement:
You mention whether you’ll be able to to monetize that content as a basis for choosing your niche. Well, you can always come up with new ideas for monetization. People mention smart pricing by google. Well google is one of the few ad networks that lets you run ads and lets you make money by it’s ads even if their are no existing products for your niche. You can have a 0% conversion and click-thru rate and still make money(albeit small) through google adsense.
As for running out of topic ideas, problogger is such a blog that has trouble finding new content and it succeeds via comments. The comments section is a great way to connect with another new bloggers(or for list builders to find bloggers for their “list”) or as an opportunity to advertise your blog via non-search engine methods.
So, once you become “big enough” content becomes less of a problem as you almost become a social networking site for bloggers looking to build traffic to their website.
Great advice. “You don’t chose a niche, your niche chooses you. ” I hope my topic will select me soon !
After 4 years of blogging on random topics, I finally follow your suggestion to narrow it down. Hopefully, this will last longer than other niche I have tried before. Your insight is really very helpful.
Nice work Darren!, I’m going to look into uploading videos soon. It’s a great addition to a blog… :]
Interesting take on the number of posts you should produce per week. I guess I never thought of it in that way in terms of how many “gateways” you have into your site through search engines.
Although I would say that consistency with your posts are even more important than posting frequency, especially for your returning readers.
Darren, thanks for this valuable interview! I also finds your words in the interview – very effective to understand… Carry on! :)
Thanks for sharing this… I don’t often blog, but realize that I need to – and this has been very helpful.
Thanks!
Hi There, I just spent a little time reading through your posts, which I found entirely by mistake whilst researching one of my projects. Please continue to write more because it’s unusual that someone has something interesting to say about this. Will be waiting for more!
Darren, thanks again for another great video. Also enjoyed the comments by Tyler and drt!. Finding a niche is an important part of the blogging process, however learning to treat it like a business and commit to a regular posting schedule is equally important.
I try less competitive niches now. Building a blog on highly competitive stuff takes years and still goes nowhere.
nice video darren
i’m awaiting the next one
Thanks Darren for the nice video. I always recommend the new bloggers to choose the niche in which they have interest.
Well said Darren! Very inspiring video. You have some great things to say here. I especially love the point that you made about a person who blogs 365 days a year versus once a week, means more avenues that people can find you. That statement motivates me to continue blogging once a day.
Thanks for sharing!!
Thanks for the great help .. niche choosing is very important ! .. but can be difficult some times… my blog (bookitnow.com) is a very general blog .
hey I like this post. I found it from doing a google search. Ive been looking for this sort of thing for a while. This info will come in handy to me. I will check back soon to search the rest of your blog. thanks
My question isn’t so much choosing a niche (as I’ve already done that), but rather: How do you know if your niche is TOO niche? Sometimes I feel like mine might be; other times I think it works just fine.
Any thoughts?
Great post. Can I ask you a question? I want to start a blog as well that is why I was searching on the internet for blogs to use as examples, do you find you have to be perfect in your grammar to have people like what you write? I have been told I write like I speak, so I was wondering if that was a bad thing.
I really can’t see niches running out. Everytime something new is invented or the next iphone or mp3 or whatever electron ic device comes along. When the next president is elected or the next health care bill is signed or thenext new political party is formed. Don’t see how niche marketing will ever die. Thats why I love this business
Very insightful interview. I did some research when choosing my niche – I wanted to write about moves , but then the internet is full of movie review sites and I had to find a way to differentiate mine from the rest. That`s is why I decided to focus exclusively on coming f age movie as I was able to relate to the stories told in them and really like the morals and inspirational messages most of them have for its viewers. By now I think that my blog is one o the most influential medias in this field and part of this success is due to the fact that I am really passionate about the content I write about. I also like the blending of the medias as Twitter has been really useful for me allowing me to have a blog within the blog. There are always news things to learn and new discover ….and your blog is truly inspirational to me.
This video was fun. Nice to see and hear Darren in person after reading the Problogger book and the blog.
Thank you for the sensible critique. Me & my neighbour were preparing to do some research about that. We got a good book on that matter from our local library and most books where not as influensive as your information. I am very glad to see such information!
I’ve created many ebooks (Clickbank) and Adsense sites that have done pretty well. But one of my more recent sites isn’t doing too well traffic-wise or income wise.
Very insightful interview. I did some research when choosing my niche – I wanted to write about moves , but then the internet is full of movie review sites and I had to find a way to differentiate mine from the rest. That`s is why I decided to focus exclusively on coming f age movie as I was able to relate to the stories told in them and really like the morals and inspirational messages most of them have for its viewers. By now I think that my blog is one o the most influential medias in this field and part of this success is due to the fact that I am really passionate about the content I write about. I also like the blending of the medias as Twitter has been really useful for me allowing me to have a blog within the blog. There are always news things to learn and new discover ….and your blog is truly inspirational to me.
Nice account Darren, Blogging Tips and Blogging for Money niches became harder than before, it was not the best best for me but I like the challenge, it is lots of fun!
Darren, this was a very informative video. I have a passion for flash fiction. So my blog is about flash fiction but that’s a pretty narrow niche. I try to broaden my readership by offering a flash fiction contest, news commentaries and erotica. I make money on yahoo ads and I offer an ebook of flash fiction stories at $6.00 a pop. I get $3.00 off the top. I finally finished putting this all together only recently. So, the verdict is still out on how much money I can make on my blog but my readership is slowly increasing.
It’s true that content is king…but I think what is missing for a lot of folks is the marketing aspect of the game. Passion is cool, but if there are no buyers in your market, you might as well be writing a diary.