One of the most common questions I'm often asked when I'm recording episodes for my The Fight Within Her podcast, or writing articles is, "How Do I Start a Blog?"
I will tell you this, it takes a lot of hard work and patience, but if you are passionate about writing and dedicated to the work required, it's well worth your time. Being a blogger is also a fantastic way to help others and be able to work from home during the pandemic, quit a stressful job, create your own hours and spend more time with your family.
Blogging doesn't require investing a ton of money. In fact, if you are looking to make money from your blog and you are on a tight budget due to the covid crisis, there are many cheap and even free blogging resources. The only thing blogging truly requires is a love for writing and your dedicated time!
However, I also understand how frustrating it can be when you don't even know where to start as a blogger. I want you to succeed. I want you to live your dream.
So, I sat down not long ago and created a blogging series, a guide to help you achieve that goal! And while I can't do the work for you, I can lead you in the right direction.
In the first part of my Blogging For Life Series, I'll guide you through the process of deciding on a niche for your blog.
Once you have an understanding of how to choose a niche for your blog, you'll move on to the second part of my series. If you are not already following me on social media, I suggest that you do. You will find me on social media as The Fight Within Her.
You'll also want to join my Facebook Group:
Once you join, you'll have permanent access to the series, discover freebies to help your blog, connect with other members who are new to blogging, and more.
So now that we have all of that covered, are you ready to get started?
How to Choose Your Niche:
The first thing you will want to do is ask yourself, what do I want to write about? If you are not sure, consider your passions in life. What do you love to do? Is it something you love doing in your free time, without getting paid for it?
What are you really good at? What do friends and family come to you for help with? What do they tell you you're good at?
Don't just consider a popular niche or topic you are only somewhat interested in. Choose a niche aka subject that you know you will still be interested in (hence your passions), in the years to come.
Then, ask yourself, is it a passion that can help others solve a problem. Do you have the solution? Most topics (niches) can easily be adapted to help someone in need of an answer to their problem. Yet, not every niche that you are passionate about isn't always enough to bring in revenue from your blog. Making sure there is a real need for it is a must.
One of the best ways to find out if your chosen niche is worth blogging about is with a simple keyword search. One of my favorite free tools to research keywords is with the Google Keyword Planner. You simply enter a few keywords that are related to your niche, and Google will provide you with a list of words and suggested phrases.
Look for keyword search volumes that are around 1,000 to 10,000 per month. If you see any keywords where the search volume is less than 1K, it means that niche isn't very popular and might not be profitable.
You may want to consider narrowing your niche even further, by visiting Facebook groups or other social media sites where your potential niche may be a popular topic that readers are looking for a solution to.
If you have a favorite blogger you already follow that is in your chosen niche, look for their blog in the competitor's area for Google Keywords. Knowing how well your favorite bloggers are doing may very well give you an excellent insight into who you are up against, a little friendly competition as well as inspiration for your own blog.
Another useful and free tool is the Google search engine! Try entering some of your niche keyword ideas into Google's search engine and see which websites come up in the results of page one.
You may discover that there are already a lot of popular websites ranking for your niche. If this is the case, you'll want to consider another niche idea that isn't as well-known.
You may also find the complete opposite and there are no sites listed for your chosen niche. When this happens it indicates one of two things, very little opportunities for your niche idea, or other bloggers just aren't interested in writing about that particular topic.
There may even be some sites listed in the search results, but they just aren't ranking on page one. This is often a good sign and worth investing your time into that niche (keyword) since there won't be much in competition.
Now it's time to put your niche into action and take that next step to starting a blog.
In part two of my Blogging For Life Series, I'll show you how to choose a name for your blog.
Success begins with you.
