How To Make Money Blogging – Choose Your Niche (Part 1)

In all my years of looking at all the ways to make money at home, there was always loads of ideas and “the best ways” but what I found was no one told me exactly how to start. All the information was concentrated on how much I was going to make and rarely where to begin. So what would I do but dive in only to discover down the road it wasn’t going to work for one reason or another. I decided then that if I ever figured it all out that I would share it all. Free.

In looking at all the many sources of information about how to make money blogging, I can’t say this guide is the best, but it’s certainly the most condensed. You want to get started, so let’s go!

So! To begin your blogging career, you will need to decide what you want to blog about! This is probably your most important step. You don’t want to sign up for a domain name or service yet, because you need to have a clear vision of what your blog’s purpose will be FIRST.

Your blog should be something you’re interested in or your apathy will show through your writing. You will also find it very hard to continue writing every single day about something you don’t have a passion for. Of course, you also want to be sure your subject choice is profitable. Are there products or services connected to your blog that are in demand? Think about where your experience and knowledge intersect with a subject that people want to read about. One way to determine what you are really interested in is to browse the open questions in Yahoo Answers. Take a look at some of the open questions and see what you tend to gravitate towards.

If you are still having problems thinking of ideas, try looking at some of these sites and see if it helps you generate some ideas:

blogflux-top blog sites

blog of the day awards

top 100 blogs (if you can stand the flashing ads…)

another top 100 blogs…(no flashing ads…)

have fun! You might want to set a timer, it’s easy to get lost in time when surfing the top blogs!

Make a list of 5-10 subjects you think might be possibilities and then check  which subjects have profit possibilities and which don’t! The way to do this is do a search on the topics of choice and see what is available. This is the hard part, and is best an item of prayer for guidance. If there is very little available on your subject, you may find there is little interest. (not profitable) Don’t be afraid of diving into an overloaded subject area (like dieting or dating) if you think you can do a better job than most. While you are looking, try to notice any unfilled niches in your subject area.

There is a program that is highly recommended that has a plug in search area telling you the perfect ratio of interest to availability. They also provide one of the easiest web hosting and posting options there is for a very affordable amount. It’s everything you need in one package, if you’re interested it’s called NPC-Niche Profit Classroom. I’ve tried it myself and can highly recommend it. It will cut your learning time in half, if not more.

Once you have your subject chosen, think of a domain name and blog title that says what you write about. A cool tool to brainstorm a domain name is NameTumbler.com.

Hold off on buying your domain name for now. Remember, if you haven’t purchased your hosting yet, most companies will give you a free domain name with your purchase.

The last task in this lesson is to think of your byline. Your byline is a one sentence summary of what your blog is all about. This will give you focus and help you stay on track. For instance, Homeschool-Entrepreneur.com’s byline is “Teaching It, Learning It, Doing It!” At one point, it was “Where Learning Makes Sense Cents ”

Read next: How to make money blogging – Part 2

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