1. Chapter One - How to Spot a Profitable Blog Topic Idea
There are numerous factors you need to keep in mind when you select a blog topic that will create profits or let you build a large and dedicated audience for the blog. You have to keep in mind public interest, your expertise on the topic, the potential longevity of the topic, and the audiences interest in that topic. Its also imperative to study the competition and develop a way to deliver your content thats different, more engaging, and simply better. Begin by coming up with a few possible topics youd like to use, and then consider the following:
Who is the audience for your topic? As the writer, youre going to cater to that audience and write or produce content that the audience can relate to.
Does the topic have some long-term appeal? Is this topic going to be relevant in a few months, a year, two years, maybe even five years down the road?
How large will be your target audience for this topic? How are you going to reach your future audience to notify them of your blog?
Is there going to be sufficient to write about this topic in the future? In a few minutes, can you write down twenty-five things you could blog about in future posts? Will you be able to come up with some new things to blog about to keep your content fresh over the long-term?
How much competition is there when it comes to this topic? Consider other websites, blogs, magazines, newsletters, newspapers, television shows, vlogs, podcasts, radio shows, YouTube channels, and Facebook pages. There are many other outlets you can consider, too. Think about the other content thats available to your targeted audience.
What will you do thats different to make your blog more appealing, entertaining, engaging, and interactive?
For every potential topic, you can offer experiences, opinions, commentary, how-to information, news, and delve into subtopics that relate to your main topic. You can also focus on any controversies that surround your topic in order to engage your audience.
Here are a few general areas you could consider blogging about.
- Industry Related Topics. Focus on a certain industry and blog about that industry as an entirety. Most of your time preparing content is going to be spent looking for industry news, following any developments, reporting about innovations, and debating industry talk.
- Personal Topics. There are numerous successful bloggers who dont cover a specific topic at all, but they cover a variety of topics with humor. If youre good at making others laugh, then go ahead and try a humor blog. If youre a photographer, artists, songwriter, musician, poet, writer, or another creative genius, then you could share your work online and build up a fan base.
- Political Blogs. Maybe you have an insightful and informed opinion, or you have an interesting way of communicating your ideas and opinions. You could consider a political blog. If you want to have a political blog but not proclaim personal opinions, contemplate using your blog as a sieve to help your audience plow through all the political mumbo jumbo out there.
- Special Interest or Hobby Topics. Many bloggers have achieved a lot of success just selecting a topic they were previously ardent about. You will find informative, creative, gossipy, and how-to blogs about many different hobbies out there. The trick for this type of blog is to find a niche that you are knowledgeable about and interested in, and then share your unique information and perspective about this topic.
- General Interest Topics. Never limit yourself to the topic areas that have been listed this far. There are thousands of possibilities out there for blogs! You never know whats going to spark some interest or catch on. If you have a crazy idea that just might attract some attention, then go for it!
When you are choosing a topic to blog about, remember to choose one that isnt going to dry up. Public interest will rarely stay on a subject for long, so be sure to choose a topic thats held the interest of your target audience for quite some time and will continue to keep doing so in the future.
You also have to have or develop a more than normal familiarity with the chosen topic if you want a reader to take you seriously. Readers are not going to stick around to read things they already know or that they dont believe is interesting or relevant.
Therefore, never choose a topic that you dont know anything about. Chances are, if you know nothing about it, then you most likely dont have much interest in it. Ideally, when your audience is reading your blog, it should be obvious that not only are you an expert on that subject, but youre also passionate about it.
In addition, be sure to research competition. Find out who they are and how much of it really exists. Unless you develop an original approach, youll do yourself harm by entering a topic thats already flooded.
If your topic area appears crowded when you first take a look, remember that every topic has countless niches that have been unexplored. Do your homework and find a topic no one else has done and what might work for you, based on your knowledge, experience, passion, education, and interests.
Before you commit yourself to a specific topic, understand that whatever theme you choose is going to become the central point of your blogging career. Your passion and interest for the topic should be strong enough to sustain you through times when youre not sure you can bring yourself to read another article on that subject, much less write another blog entry about it.
2. Chapter Two - How to Become a Master in Your Craft
One of the largest challenges youll have to overcome when youre a blogger is proving to your audience that youre an expert in your niche. Its imperative to pass the message to your audience that you know what youre talking about so theyre able to trust you. Trust is what will convert a simple reader into a loyal reader, follower, or customer.
The most obvious way is to begin a blog in a niche youre an expert in. For example:
If youre a lawyer, then begin blogging about laws.
If youre a doctor, then start blogging about nutrition or general patient care.
If youre a writer, then blog about how to write.
If you have a hobby, such as model train building, then write about model train building!
A successful blog will depend on the quality of your content. Content is the king, and you have success with or without having SEO on your blog if you have good content. To make good content, you have to have a passion for that niche. Passion is way above expertise, and this is what distinguishes a good blog from an exceptional one.
However, what happens when youre not the true expert in a niche but you still want to run a website on that topic? You have a few different options.
Hire an Expert
This might sound a little odd, but one of the great things about the internet is that it makes this ability to hire an expert to assist you to cover the gap between just okay content to excellent content. Whenever this is brought up, many people have questions as to how this works.
Basically, you play the role of an entrepreneur and approach the blog in the same way you would a business. In the real word, when a company needs a skill in a certain area, they hire an expert or outsource to another company. This is how it works in the online world, too.
Where?
There are numerous websites that will bring freelancers and clients together. Some of them include upwork.com, freelancer.com, and many others. Do a simple search on a search engine website and take a look at all the sites that come up.