So you are a newbie in the world of blogging. You’re thinking about starting a blog that will attract a large readership but you don’t know where to start from. There are so many other blogs out there that you feel intimated and you don’t know if your blog will stand out in the crowd. One thing you should know is that the likes of Linda Ikeji and Uchenna Jennifer Eze (Bella Naija) didn’t have it all figured out when they started their blogging careers.  It was through strategy and purposeful action that they got to be some of the biggest bloggers we have in Nigeria today. You can also become successful at blogging. However, note that success does not happen overnight , and there are a few things you should consider before you start a blog.

Things To Consider Before Starting Your Blog

• Finding a niche
• The best niches to write about

 

Finding A Niche

What is a niche? A niche is a general subject all your blog posts revolve around. This means if you have a blog niche you are focusing on, you would be writing posts for a particular audience. For instance, the blog, writersincharge.com, provides content to freelance writers and bloggers.

“But won’t blogging about the same thing over and over again become monotonous for both you the blogger and the readers?”

The answer is no. This is because people subscribe to blogs that provide content resonating with them. This isn’t to say that there are no successful general or multi-topic blogs. Lifestyle Blogs like 360nobs.com which cover topics on fashion, entertainment, events, and music actually exist and are doing pretty well. However, it is difficult to monetize, carry out effective search engine optimization, and gain traction with these kinds of blogs. On the other hand, niche blogs come with some benefits.

What Are These Benefits?

• Jack Of One Trade; Master of One

Presumably, anyone blogging about a particular niche must know the ins and outs of that niche and find it relatively easy to write about it. This is because most niche bloggers are blogging from their own authentic knowledge and experiences, or may have taken interest in a particular niche and through practice and research, become better at it. As time goes on, people come to learn from their blogs and they become experts in their niche, garnering a readership that has come to trust and benefit from their content.

• Assurance of A Growing Audience 

People read blogs so that they can gain information and improve on themselves. Once they’ve found a blogger that can provide reliable and authentic content that resonates with them, they’ll stick around. Also, bloggers who focus on a particular niche have a higher chance of retaining readers. For instance, if a blogger writes a fascinating post on food, his/her readers will keep expecting food-related posts. And it can be a very big turn-off if the next post is about soap-making. This is why it is much harder to build a solid multi-topic blog.

• Money, Money, Money!

In as much as the emphasis shouldn’t be put on making money at first, the end goal of most bloggers is to make a living. With a strong readership, the next priority – if they plan to monetize it – for any blogger is to make some income from their blog. Targeted Ads are usually the way to go if you want to monetize a blog. It is more realistic to display these ads on a niche blog because it is exclusive to a particular audience and topic. But with a multi-topic blog, it is not as feasible to display targeted ads because the blog has no particular topic. Hence, this leads to reduced click-through rates and decreased earnings. For instance, if a car-manufacturing company wants to advertise its products and has two blog options to choose from: Blog 1: Has 5,000 monthly page views and its traffic coming for car-related topics Blog 2: Has 10,000 monthly page views and all its traffic coming for topics on cars, food, and fashion. Which blog do you think the company will most likely go for? They will most likely go for the first one because of its better-targeted ads and click-through rate. The second may most likely be a bad deal because they have no idea what percentage of the blog’s audience is interested in mobile cars. Now that you understand why niche blogs are a safer bet than multi-topic blogs, let’s look at some lucrative blog niches.

The Best Niches To Write About

If you are really longing to start a blog but are not sure which niche to start blogging about then you can discover some of the best niches to write about below. But bear in mind that it is not just about finding a niche but finding a problem and solving it. So it is always advisable to find a niche that resonates with people, especially if you hope to make a living from it. Let’s jump right into the most lucrative blog niches people can blog about:

• How To Make Money Blogs

This one is very obvious because everyone wants to make money and most people won’t mind someone with financial knowledge to put them through. If you have some ideas for this then you can go for it. However, this is one niche that requires you to write form your personal experience because people want to see evidence that you know what you’re writing about. An example of this kind of blog is Smart Money Africa by Arese Ugwu.

• Health and Fitness Blogs

Health and fitness blogs have a very large audience but it can be very difficult to monetize. The way to go about it is through affiliate marketing because. Through affiliate marketing, a fitness blogger can introduce his/her audience to a product that was beneficial to him or her. The blog by fitness trainer, Anowa Adjah and foreign fitness blog, Strive/Thrive are great examples of this.

• Food Blogs

The best way to monetize food blogs is to build a large audience and then rely on ads. Why? Because most people who visit food blogs are not really in search of products to buy, they just want recipes. The likes of SisiYemmie and Afrolems fall under this category.

• Lifestyle Blogs

Lifestyle blogs are the broadest among all these categories. The advantage of having a lifestyle blog is that you can write about more than one niche. However, as it was noted earlier, lifestyle blogs are harder to monetize because they cater to more than one audience. Ads and e-books are the way to go if one wants to monetize this niche. SisiYemmie falls under this niche because you can find not only content about food recipes but also content on beauty and fashion, self-improvement, and travel. Following this guide will put you on the right track towards launching a blog.