Blogging Tips

You have several different ideas for possible blogging topics. But how do you choose the right one?

When you are first starting your monetized blog, a lot of the decisions you make early on can determine how successful it will be. Choosing the right platform is pretty important. So is choosing a good title. Even choosing which affiliate products you will promote can make a huge difference.

But it all starts with your topic. It’s easier to maker profits with some blogging topics than with others. My win a mercedes or empowerism blog are quite profitable but some topics will be extremely difficult to make money with, especially for a new blogger.

Here are some tips on choosing blogging topics.

Choose a Profitable Niche

One of the big draws of running a monetized blog is that you can make money while writing about things that really interest you.
But maybe you really love tadpoles, so you have decided to start a blog all about them. Keeping a tadpole blog for fun might be a great experience.

But, if you want to make money blogging, you might find that tadpoles aren’t a very profitable topic.

Actually, experienced bloggers might say it’s possible to make money in any niche. But, when you are just starting out, make things easier on yourself and choose a niche that will appeal to more people. For example, instead of focusing on tadpoles, make your blog about caring for pet fish in general. That way, you can still write about tadpoles, but you will increase your blog’s money making potential.

How Do You Find a Profitable Niche?

So, how do you choose a profitable niche?

You look at the stuff people are buying. If people are spending money on products in a certain category, then niches related to that category will probably be profitable.
How many infomercials do you see related to dieting and losing weight? Quite a few. The dieting and weight loss industries are big money makers.

What books are on the nonfiction bestseller lists? What are those books about? If people are buying books about these topics, then they could make profitable niches for your blog.

It is possible to make money blogging. But choosing the right blogging topics can make all the difference in how much money you make, and how fast you make it.

It doesn’t happen everyday but when it does happen, I’m compelled to write about it to address the questions once and for all on the importance of choosing the right niche with the emphasis on the word ‘right‘.

A lot of my readers emailed me with all the nicest words I couldn’t say it better myself and for the sake of this article, I pick two of the questions posed to me,

Tom from Stand Out Blogger

You have created an amazing blog in the blog about blogging niche and I think it would be great if you could write a little bit about why you decided to choose this niche for your blog.

Junnette from Word Play

Why “a blog for beginners” instead of a “make money blog,” just as you said in your About page?

Here’s What I Have To Say

In retrospect, I didn’t start this blog with any niche in mind. I discovered it later upon clear understanding what my audience’s needs were.

thoushallblog.com was initially created with only one single purpose, that was to be my personal journal of all things I learned about the beauty of WordPress. Little did I ever expected that people actually appreciated what I did and have continued to support it till today.

I attribute the continued support to the fact that I’m passionate about what I do. It’s the single most important key to blogging success if you ask me. I write about topics that interests both my readers and myself. Yes, myself. I couldn’t possibly continue to do what I do if it doesn’t excite both myself and my readers.

Why I Choose This ‘Blogging for Beginners’ Niche

Every minute a new blogger is born and they need a one-stop place to find all the elementary blogging resources and I see the need to fill in the gap. The fact that I’m a beginner myself, I know what’s best for beginners and I make every possible effort to speak in the language they could easily understand.

Just in case you aren’t in the know, thoushallblog.com is not a blog that teaches you how to ‘make money online’. I simply can’t bluff my way into that MMO niche.

What I’m blogging sharing here is what I have personally learned, experimented, applied and experienced first hand as a beginner. As such, everything is written by a beginner, for beginners and with beginners in mind and it will stay the same.

I aim to be the best in the ‘blogging for beginners’ niche and I wouldn’t trade it for any other niche – at least for now. Also, this is the kind of niche I could stand tall among the pack and to be a stand out blogger.

That said, I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of sharing what I learn about ‘blog monetization’ at a later stage but that will only come in later when I have found greater success with what I’m doing.

Yes, I did make my money through private ads, affiliate sales, sponsored reviews to have a decent living in the third world countries but that’s not the kind of stuffs my readers are interested in – I presume.

Choosing The Right Niche

It’s true that one of the first things you’ll be deciding when you start your own blog is the niche you want to be in. What kind of target audience you’re writing to? A niche gives you a sense of purpose, yet many is good at failing to choose the right one.

Sad but it’s true, a lot of new bloggers are happy to be part of the ‘make money online’ crowd without realizing that one has to go above and beyond the ‘average’ to succeed in such super competitive niche. In most cases, when the money is no where to be seen, they are quick enough to find the next exit door.

The MMO Niche is a victim of its own success. Here’s why Jason from TUK reasoned out that Make Money Online Blogs = Fail which makes an interesting read.

My Thought on ‘Make Money Online’ Niche

Let me hold your hands and show you how to be the next millionaire…

Sounds familiar? Oh yeah, I’ll let you hold my hands once you decide to change your default WordPress theme. I could perhaps give a couple of good recommendation if you need one. If a million of people like you buy premium themes using my affiliate links, I’m on my way to be a millionaire.

My point is ‘stop telling others how to make money online’ when you are still a distance away from cashing your first adsense check. Switching out of the MMO niche will probably make you more money and how about getting off the Make Money Online bandwagon & make your fortune from John Cow who is considered the authority in the MMO niche.

If that isn’t enough, please allow me to quote one of my favorite words of wisdom on the MMO niche

“Those who know SHOW while those who don’t TEACH”

You have to be seen as a master in your chosen niche to stand out from the crowd and aim to become “a big fish in a small pond rather than a small fish in a big pond”

Passion is The Key

Choose one that you are passionate about and it’s not time-sensitive, which stop appealing after a few months. Apart from MMO niche, there are still plenty of gold mines yet to be discovered.

Once you have decided your niche and target audience, your blog should be a one-stop solution for them or at the very least, try to be one.

That being said, if the passion and enthusiasm runs dry, it’s time to move elsewhere. You can’t excite your readers without a drop of passion in what you do or write. The key is being aware of who you are and what you are passionate about, and use it to leverage your success

….and be a winner.

I’d like to hear your thoughts on this and why you decided to choose the niche you are in. Are you a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond?

In any case, here are my 12 lessons:

1. Ask Questions. No matter if you have just started blogging or have been doing it for years there is a ton to learn and asking questions is the best way to do it. But first, you always need to be able to answer this one question. “Why do I want to write a blog?” This one question alone will help you answer all future questions. Why? Because the answer will help you to know what the right questions to ask are in the first place.

2. Dive In. Again, there is so much to learn and the sooner you get started the better. One of the best resources on the web is The Blogger Face-Off at Daily Blogs Tips. If you look through all the advice these many popular bloggers give you will find that most of them wish they would have started sooner. So if you are worried about learning something just dive in and do it. Just remember to back up your database first. ;-)

3. Join the Community. No blogger is an island. We are all part of what I consider to be a fairly tight knit community. And most of us are pretty friendly and helpful to each other. If you have that concept in your head from the beginning you will be a much more successful blogger in the long run.

4. Write grrrreat content! You want Tony the Tiger saying your blog is great. If you have nothing of real worth to read on your blog, why should people come? The must read article about creating great content is Yaro Starak’s article on writing a Pillar article.

5. Go Comment. Ok. So you have decided upon your reason for blogging and have started learning how it is done. You started to feel the community vibe, and you have started writing at least a few good articles. Now what? Well the reason I got so many visitors to my site in my first week is because I commented so much. I just dove into the community and started commenting on everything. A lot of people followed my links back and I had over 500 page views my first week. I attribute most of that traffic to my comments on other people’s websites.

6. Write Some More. You might not have to write everyday depending on your niche, but you should sure try when you are just starting out. It doesn’t have to be great content every single time, but it has to be good. Always strive for original content. If you got nothing for that day, highlight another article that is a great resource that you have dug up along the way. Make sure you write at least 2 or 3 paragraphs summarizing why this is a great article. For an example, check out my post entitled “Become a Lifestyle Entrepreneur: Anywired”

7. Leverage Your Available Tools. Have you got your feedburner feed going yet? Have you setup any useful widgets? These can come after writing some great content, but I think a feedburner feed is a must have from the beginning. It should be easy to subscribe by email as well as by a reader. Also, think about your REAL needs. It is almost guaranteed that there is a tool out there you can use to accomplish what you want to do.

8. Use Your Tools Wisely. Being the gadget junkie I am, I downloaded over 30 plug-ins to try out. As I activated them my page load time became slower and slower. Don’t make the same mistake. Here is my bare essentials list of plug-ins that I use. Akismet, commentluv, Homepage Excerpts, SRG Clean Archives, Subscribe to Comments, Top Commentators, WordPress Backup, WP Super Cache, and WP Widget Cache. To make it a nice round 10 I will give a shout out to the Dagon Design Form Mailer. Feel free to ask me about any specific plug-in in the comment section. ;-)

9. Be Accessible. Make a contact page with the Dagon Design Form Mailer. Answer your emails. Respond to every comment. It’s a community right? If you don’t participate you miss all the fun!

10. De-clutter and Simplify. My web page started to be one big mess because I kept adding things and had no sense of organization. I still feel my website is too “busy”, but I am working on that. My mantra is that simple is always better. I think Apple has some great products because of that mantra. You can too! Learn to simplify.

11. Learn Some Marketing. Once you got some grrreat content, have learned how to use all the tools, and have simplified your site to make it user friendly, you still have to promote it. I won’t pretend to know how to add “1,000 visitors in one day”, but I know you can learn it somewhere. So learn, apply it, tweak it, repeat…

12. Fall in Love All Over Again. No matter what endeavor you chose in this life, you are only going to succeed in it if you love it. The key to a great blog is to love giving your readers great value for their time. If they click on your site, you better deliver something great, otherwise you are just wasting their time. And the only way to do that is to always be in love with what you are doing.

Thanks for reading everyone! I hope you can take at least one of my lessons and go and make your blog better today. I look forward to the comments!

According to Technorati data, there are over 175,000 new blogs every day. Bloggers update their blogs regularly to the tune of over 1.6 million posts per day, or over 18 updates a second.

In what I come to notice, the majority of beginners that jump into the blogwagon have several commonalities. In this regard, they are more likely to commit one, if not all, of the 7 deadly sins of newbies.

Blame it on the “gurus” who are selling dream that blogging success can be achieved overnight with little efforts. Nowadays, a blog can be created almost at the snap of fingers.

You and I know that blogging is fun and rewarding and it can also be pretty frustrating at times. It’s also true that there is no such thing as instant success. It takes a great deal of commitment, time and efforts to see the fruits of our labor. Convince me otherwise.

This article is by no means the end-all and be-all of being an effective and better blogger, but hopefully it may shorten your learning curve and bring you closer to whatever your dream is.

Deadly Sin #1 – Too many ads too early

There’s nothing more amateurish than seeing the desperate display of ads block on every possible space on a blog. Adsense aside, it’s pretty common to see 8 125×125 ads on their sidebar when 7 of them are empty. Why? It’s probably because John Chow has 8. If he has 10, they will have 10 also.

You see, there is no hard and fast rules when you should monetize. It’s a matter of personal choice. However, it’s advisable not to overdo it and distract your visitors’ attention away from your content with too many ads.

Pick the ads carefully in the beginning – if possible, make them relevant to your niche. For example, if you are doing finance, credit cards might be great. Suffice to say, content is one of those factors that either makes or breaks your blog in its early stage.

Deadly Sin #2 – Too passive

The best way to get yourself noticed when you are a new kid in the blog is to go out and introduce yourself to the blogosphere. I can even begin to say that how many beginners don’t do this but blog commenting is the most effective and powerful method of propelling yourself from an unknown to possibly a celebrity. A case in point is Caroline Middlebrook who is still the undisputed comment queen.

Gone are the days when people will come knocking at your door, you need to seek them out. So the next time you lament why you ain’t getting enough comments, don’t be passive, go commenting and be the next comment queen or king.

On the home front, make an effort to reply to your comments and reciprocate the same by visiting their blogs. It’s a time-tested and proven strategy to build relationship with fellow bloggers. As the saying goes, “No blogger is an island.”

Deadly Sin #3 – Wrong focus

In any marketing principle, product comes before promotion and it’s sad to see that most beginners are either unaware of this or simply be in hurry in pursuit of popularity.

Getting the visitors is the easy part (see #2), converting them to be your returning visitors (aka: subscribers) is probably the hardest part. Who would be interested in a new blog, let alone subscribe to it? It’s not the ideal first impression for first time visitors.

My point is to worry less about traffic, promotion or subscribers in the early stage of your blog. Instead you should focus on creating quality contents you and your visitors can be proud of.

Deadly Sin #4 – Ignoring basic SEO

One of the most common mistakes beginners are more likely to commit is to take for granted the importance of permalinks. It’s the easiest SEO trick yet overlooked by many. Frankly speaking, ignorance is not an exception here. If you are still at a loss, here’s 15 SEO Tips for Beginners.

Deadly Sin #5 – Not proofreading

No one is expecting you to be perfect always. Even in the best of times, we’re all make some unforced gramatical errors but that’s not the issue. The fact that you proofread before you push the ‘publish’ button does say a lot about you as a blogger.

If you can’t be bother to proofread your content which is esentially yours, would you be atentive enough to look after your’s readers? Would you be diligent enough to provide the most valuable and informative contents in the best interest of your readers?

* grammatical errors are not proofread on purpose

Deadly Sin #6 – Faking your subscriber count

Despite all the bad publicity, blogosphere is never short of fakers who proudly display his/her inflated subscribers count. I recently came across a site with a decent 950+ subscribers on its chicklet and an archive as deep as 2 months. I clicked away with smile on my face. We certainly need idiots like them to remind us of the value of honesty.

Faking your subscriber count is the lamest and dumbest marketing gimmick. Don’t fall into the trap, it’s a sure-fire way of losing your credibility fast. There’s a real good chance you’ll never get it back.

Deadly Sin #7 – Not subscribing to www.bloggingtip.net

It’s probably one of the biggest sins any beginners should avoid. It’s highly recommended that you subscribe now if you haven’t yet as the best of blogging tips for beginners is yet to come. Didn’t anyone tell you that before?

There you have them all – 7 deadly sins to avoid. Don’t commit those mistakes, I have warned you in much the same way God had warned Adam not to touch the forbidden fruit.

So God bless you and I love ya all

A good proverb can communicate an abundance of wisdom in a simple sentence. These sayings can be applied to many areas in life and blogging is no exception.

While these sayings were first spoken many years before blogging was even thought possible, their meanings still ring as true today for modern bloggers as they ever did.
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket When it comes to making money online, especially from a blog, don’t limit yourself to a single source of income. Different methods of monetization are naturally going to suit some types of blogs and niches better than others.

If you only use AdSense and never branch out into other ad providers, affiliate marketing, paid reviews or the many other ways to earn online (that are increasing every single day) then you are only taking money out of your own pocket by limiting your options.

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer While you shouldn’t consider other bloggers in your niche enemies as such, you shouldn’t forget that they are also your competition. When it comes to the quality of your content, it’s these other blogs that you will be compared against.

For this reason you should always keep an eye on what other bloggers are doing and what they are writing and never let yourself get left behind. Reading should be as important to a good blogger as their writing is as it’s the best way of knowing what’s going on in your blog’s world.

A picture paints a thousand words While blogging may rely on the written word, at it’s core it’s really about communication and there are situations where an image can communicate something far more effectively than words ever will.

Images in a blog aren’t just about making things look pretty or breaking up a wall of text, when used correctly they can speak volumes to your readers and help you get across an idea that would be wasted in words.

Rome wasn’t built in a day and your blog wont be either either. There are thousands of new blogs created each and every day but if you visit these blogs again in 3 months time, most of them don’t survive, instead they get neglected and abandoned.

Success in the blogging world doesn’t happen over night, it requires a lot of patience to build a blog into what you want it to become, so don’t give up too quickly.

Two heads are better than one No matter how much of a blogging genius you may think you are, you are still only one person with a single perspective. By discussing your ideas with other bloggers and getting feedback on what you do, you’ll be able to improve upon what you are capable of creating.

Networking with other bloggers is fun, rewarding and easy! You can find other bloggers on forums, through email & blog commenting and don’t forget Twitter, which is getting more popular all the time. So don’t be afraid to talk to other bloggers and become a part of the community.

If at first you don’t succeed try, try and try again Most of the time, your first idea will fail, no matter how much you believe in it. This is a hard fact to accept for a lot of bloggers but it’s an unfortunate reality. This doesn’t mean that you should give up or even consider these setbacks as failures, instead think of them as lessons in what no to do next time.

Thomas Edison was quoted as saying “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work” and that’s the attitude bloggers should adopt as well. If something isn’t working then don’t waste your time struggling to keep it afloat, instead try throwing all your ideas out there and seeing what sticks.

So what’s your favorite saying and how can it help other bloggers?