How to Find a Niche for Your Blog – 4 Things You Need to Know

Looking for Things to Blog About

Whether you are an artist, writer, photographer, foodie, gamer, or enthusiast of any kind, you probably want to find some way to share your passion with others. That’s exactly why many people turn to blogging — it’s a fantastic way to find your people and create a community. Plus there’s nothing quite as rewarding as building something from nothing and sharing it with the people around you. You can share your work in a ton of different ways, but one of the easiest and most accessible avenues to share your creativity is through a blog.

The internet has grown into a vast community of incredible creators, and we are now in an era where a humble blog has the potential to put your work on the map. So naturally, you are drawn to share your work through this medium. But there’s a hitch. You don’t know what things to blog about! While this might be a frustrating obstacle, fear not — this post will help you figure out how to find a niche for your blog and get you started with your awesome new site! Once you are ready to start your blog, make sure to check out my comprehensive guide to help you get started.

Why You Need One Narrow Niche

You might be wondering why you restrict yourself to one topic instead of several. After all, there are plenty of successful lifestyle blogs that feature all kinds of topics, from child-rearing to cooking to DIY projects. So why only write about one thing?

The reason why you need to narrow your blog to a single niche is that you want people to read it. If you are totally fine with creating content and posting it online for your own viewing pleasure, then, by all means, write about any and all topics that you like! However, if you want to have real people looking at your work and you want a chance of making money off of your blog, then you need to niche down. No one will come to your tiny corner of the internet to wade through a sea of unrelated content to read one article — not even your friends and family. As much as it sucks, your interests and passions won’t mean beans to readers unless you’ve got a niche. Shouting into the void isn’t fun. Trust me; I’ve been there.

My First Attempt at Blogging Sucked

My first blog was a mess. I wrote about art, cooking, leatherworking, and crocheting, among other things. You see, I’m one of those people with a million hobbies. I’m shamelessly enthusiastic about dozens of activities, which makes for a rich an interesting life. But in the year that I had my first blog, I discovered that all my interests made for a boring blog. The site rarely pulled over 100 visitors each month. Without any reader interest or feedback, I slowly stopped posting. It felt like the world was confirming what I already feared — that I was not worthy of anyone’s time and my passions were worthless. That is not a pleasant feeling.

It was only when I wrote several posts in a row about a single topic, bullet journaling, that I saw an uptick in readership. It was like a switch was flipped, and everything changed. At the time, the bullet journal community was tiny. That meant that my posts, which weren’t particularly good, were in high demand. People in that community were searching for anything they could find on the topic, and since there was such a content vacuum, my articles were quickly devoured by readers. My posts started getting shared in the small bullet journal circles, and I was gaining a reputation for being a bullet journal blog. This led to more readers, which led to more on-topic posts, which led to more readers. The rest is history.

In 2018, this humble little blog received over 4.7 million page views.

Build a Reputation in Small Circles

If you want readers to flock to your blog, read your posts enthusiastically, and come back for more, then it’s time to find a niche. Make a name for yourself in one narrow topic, and you’ll grow exponentially. The communities for these small niche topics are small (duh), and they are typically enthusiastic readers. If you fill a vacuum in that community with your content, then readers will quickly begin to know your site and get to know you as a person.

Once you get people in the door with your excellent content, many will stay because they like you. Your humor, your quirks, and your creative flair will keep people coming back for more. That’s how lifestyle blogs come to be! A site can begin in a narrow niche and slowly build to include more topics. It takes time, dedication, and slow integration of new content, but it can be done. Or if you have two totally different things to blog about, then just start two separate blogs! You don’t need to have all your passions in one place to share them with the world. However you want to do it, you want to find a niche right off the bat and get specific.

And when I say specific, I mean specific! Want to start a cooking blog? Narrow down your niche as much as you possibly can. Maybe you’re a 20-something with a passion for vegan dinners. Perhaps you’re a single parent with a love of kid-friendly organic desserts. Or perhaps you’re wild about medieval era recipes! Whatever you’re into, try to get as specific as you can. There are whole communities of people and niche markets out there right now who are waiting for your marvelous blog to satisfy their online content needs.

How to Find a Niche for Your Blog

We’ve talked about why you should niche down your blog. Now let’s talk about how you’re going to make it happen. The possibilities are endless, and it can be daunting to pick just one specific topic to base your whole blog around! But there are a few things to keep in mind that can help you narrow down your blog niche ideas.

#1 – Follow Your Passion

This is the first and most important tip for how to find a niche for your blog. If you want a blog that is successful — whether you define success by the money you make, the number of readers, or pure personal satisfaction — then you need to be passionate about your topic. You’re going to be spending a lot of time with your blog, so make sure you’re focusing on a topic that you really love. Don’t try to write about a niche just because you think it will make you money. Readers can tell if you’re writing from a place of passion, and they can sniff out the deception if you’re faking it. Just figure out what topics you can excitedly gush about and you’ve got yourself a few blog niche ideas.

#2 – Share Your Expertise

Another great way to determine your blog niche is to assess what you’re good at. What skills do you have? These skills can be just about anything — tying knots, glazing ceramics, gardening succulents, shopping for the best deals, etc. Do your friends or family often compliment you on a particular skill? Better yet, do they ask you to teach them how to do it? Maybe that’s a great niche for your blog! Now you might be thinking that you’re not an expert, so you’re not qualified to write a blog about it. But hold on!

You don’t need to have a Ph.D. in a skill to be qualified to teach. You just need to know a bit more than your audience. For example, I am a brush lettering artist, and I have a ton to learn before I’d be comfortable calling myself a master. That doesn’t stop people from buying my brush lettering course for beginners! I’m well beyond the beginner level, so I am more than qualified to help teach the basics of brush lettering to newbies. List out some of your strengths for some blog niche ideas!

If there is a particular skill you haven’t gotten around to learning, now’s a great time to pick it up! Head to Skillshare where you can find thousands of online classes that can help you develop a much-desired skill. The skills you’re excited to learn likely make excellent blog niche ideas to add to your list!

#3 – Provide Value

One thing to help you find your niche is to think about what your audience will get out of your blog. Who is your audience? What do they want from your content? There are three main types of value that you can provide for your readers, though you can create content that satisfies more than one of these categories. Either way, it’s important to keep your audience in mind when you find your niche so you have a better idea of what your blog will become.

Entertainment

Your blog could simply hold entertainment value. People may visit your blog because your work delights them. Perhaps you want to write poetry, fan fiction, or amusing short stories that will make your readers laugh. Either way, your readers get some sort of entertainment from your work.

Perspective

Your audience might value your opinion. You can write about the best restaurants to visit in New York City, your favorite books in the horror genre, or your review of the latest RPG video game. Perspective-based content allows you to share your thoughts in a way that helps others shape the way they think about specific topics and might lead to debate and discussion.

Educational

You take your own skills and knowledge and help others learn. Your audience comes to you to learn how to accomplish something. Hopefully, your readers can walk away from the experience with more skills than before. Whether you’re teaching others how to bake, how to fish, or how to design a logo, you are giving tremendous value. Educational content is my favorite kind of content to both consume and create. It can be some of the more difficult content to make, but it is extremely rewarding. Readers appreciate the high value of the work. There are tons of tutorials and how-to’s (like this very post) on the internet because people love to learn. Making educational content a great option to consider for your blog niche ideas.

#4 – Ask Others

When you have narrowed your blog niche down to just a handful of options, but you just can’t decide, then it’s time to outsource! Ask your friends and family what they think of your blog niche ideas. If you are considering a knitting blog, then call up your auntie who loves to knit and ask her what she might like to see in a knitting blog. If you want to start a blog about video game design, then ask your gamer friends what type of content they would love. Find people who might fit your audience and ask them whether they might be interested in reading about your topic.

Try to take answers with a grain of salt — if your granny isn’t super enthused about your video game blog idea, then keep in mind that she might not really represent your audience. Remember that not everyone will be interested in your blog, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get some valuable perspective and ideas from the people around you. Ask your loved ones, and who knows? Maybe you’ll have an epiphany that will help you jump into your blog.

Niche Down to Build Up

Starting a blog is a daunting experience. There’s a ton of decisions to make, and it can feel overwhelming. But once you’ve locked down your niche using the tips above, I promise that the whole thing gets easier. Creating a blog based on your skills and passions is exciting and engaging, and it will make you come back again and again to create content. Knowing what you want to create for your audience means that you can go into the process of content creation with precision. Thinking about what you want to get out of your site and what you want others to get out of your site will help eliminate a ton of fear and uncertainty. So if you’re ready to start a site that fulfills you creatively and makes you money, then narrow down your niche and begin building your blog!

If you’re ready to start your blog, make sure to check out my step-by-step guide to starting a blog.