Choosing the right niche for you is a mixture of finding something that you enjoy, as well as one that will make money, and ultimately appeal to others. Sound tough? – it can be. Once you’ve finished step one of finding something you enjoy, the next logical step is to take a look at the market size for your subject. How many pages show up in Google when you type in the topic name? It’s going to be your job to get to the first page so if Google is showing 100,000,000,000 ;D, you might be in for a long climb!

Here’s a basic outline of the three major steps in nailing down your niche:

1. Keyword Research

Once you have a list of topics that you are interested in and would enjoy keeping a blog on then it is time to do some keyword research. Keyword research is important when choosing the right blog niche because it enables you to see where your interests connect with the interests of others. Keyword research should show you two things – the number of people searching for a particular search term as well as how much competition you will have. It is important that you choose a topic from these keywords that you enjoy, that has a relatively high search volume to low competition (HINT: I usually tell competition by looking at an average of about 100 keywords cost in Google Adwords: more than 25 cents/click and the competition is going to be intense).

2. Market Research

The next step in choosing the right blog niche for you is to do some market research. Spend time on forums that discuss the topics you are interested in and see what people are asking and what they want. Ask questions and learn as much about your target market as possible. By taking this time to get to know your target market you will be able to make your blog posts relevant to the needs of your clients and so get more visitors to your blog. You will also be able to see what products they require that you can promote on your blog, and use keywords they are looking for to optimize your website to get the right Adsense ads.

3. Look  Back on your Choices

A blog niche that is right for you is one that you are interested and enthusiastic about, but your blog also needs to be one that people enjoy visiting and so you should spend some time doing keyword and market research before selecting your blog niche. Once you have found a place where your interests match those of many others and where you can provide interesting and useful information and supply products or Adsense ads that meet these requirements then you will have hit on a successful blog niche.

Some may argue that blogs have lost their original purpose. I can recall most blogs (in the infancy of blogging) were more an online diary of daily life than a tool to earn an income from. If you’re not interested in making a living from your blog, it’s totally fine to have your niche be your daily life or your pet turtle Steve, just keep in mind you will likely not earn anything tangible.

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