This post shares the most profitable blog niches and how to pick the right one for you so you can start making money blogging.
When I first started blogging, I literally wrote about anything that popped into my brain. A new shirt I bought, a restaurant I ate brunch at, a trip I planned, what Rob and I did that weekend. You get it—it was old school blogging. My blog was basically an online journal of mostly useless junk. And, that actually did work for a while.
But, as blogs and the internet continue to grow, if you want people to read your blog and continue coming back, it has to do more than entertain them. It has to provide VALUE. Real, solid, good value.
So yes, sadly, the days of the lifestyle blog are over. Of course, it still works for some people, but if you’re getting started today, or thinking about redefining and pivoting your brand (what I just did), you need to be more thoughtful and strategic about what you write about.
But, how do you choose a blog niche when you actually have so many passions and interests that you want to share? I’m sharing my formula for selecting a blog niche, plus highlighting the most profitable blog niches out there and how to narrow down to find your exact niche.
How & Why to Pick a Profitable Blog Niche
Remember, Your Blog is a Business
There will be some people that just want to start a blog for fun, but most people I talk to actually do have dreams of their “little side project” taking off and making them enough money to quit their day job. First off, that’s okay to admit! And, if you go into blogging with a business-minded approach, you’re going to grow faster than you would if you just dilly-dallied away posting random junk like I used to do.
Now this first part is so important, so listen up! I know you’re multi-passionate, but so is everyone. For your business to grow, you need to get serious about your niche, because if you’re trying to talk to everyone, you’re talking to no one.
Think of it this way.
Here’s an example:
Your friend opens a bakery because she’s an amazing baker and makes the best cookies and cakes in all the land! She’s also passionate about helping shelter animals, making candles, reading Harry Potter fan sites and F1 racing. At first, your friend considers adding all her favorite things to her business, but then decides, to have a successful bakery, she should really only focus on baking the best cookies and cakes. She leaves her other passions for her spare time! Thank goodness, because what kind of crazy bakery would that be?!
Think of your blog in the same way. Focusing on one topic brings people in for the same collective reason—you are building a community and a movement. Of course they have other passions too, and some of them might overlap with yours, but if you’re posting about posting about the best clothes for tall girls, then sharing your review of a hotel in Mexico, then sharing your aunt’s famous chili recipe, then your weight loss tips—it’s gets jumbled, people lose interest because they no longer know what they’re going to get. Your content is random, unreliable and does not always provide them with the value they were expecting.
As, someone who wrote a lifestyle blog for years, trust me! As the years went on, it was harder and harder to grow my traffic as my blog covered so many random topics. I finally decided to niche down and focus on helping other women grow their small businesses and blogs. Stick to your niche and magical things will happen!
Formula For Finding Your Niche
There’s a quick formula that can help you start brainstorming exactly what you want your niche to be. For it to work, your niche has to fit all three of things:
- It’s got to be something you’re passionate about, if it’s not, you’ll get burned out
- It’s got to be something you’re knowledgeable aboout—whether that’s from your education or personal experience, honestly, it doesn’t matter (unless you’re trying to teach people to be doctors and you have no medical license- ya feel me?)
- You need to see income possibilities. Are other people in a similar niche making money? If so, how?
The Most Profitable Blog Niches
According to Russel Brunson, there are three main categories that your content will fall into: health, wealth or relationships. This video breaks it down a bit more if you’re interested—it’s a quick watch.
Obviously, these blog niche ideas are very broad categories. Health can cover anything from physical therapy to homeopathic remedies, to elderly care to newborn care. You can start to see that within each of these categories there are endless possibilities. But, what’s great is that you know the main blog niches that make money, so you can pick yours accordingly.
Your goal is to find the sweet spot between niche enough that you attract a loyal audience, but not so niche that no one is searching for your topic, or that you don’t have enough content ideas to write about it for a long period of time.
When I was a lifestyle blogger, I really struggled figuring out which box I fit into because parts of my content could fit into any box. That was another red flag for me. If I couldn’t figure out what I stood for, who else would?
Now, Get More Niche
I’m sure you’ve heard someone say “the riches are in the niches” and it’s still true! So, grab a pen and paper and decide which main category you fit into, then break it down. Then break it down again, and again until you hit your sweet spot. What are you left with? Your unique niche! If you’re struggling, I’ll break it down with an example so you can see how you can get clearer:
Let’s say you want to help people lose weight—GREAT! With simply that goal, your competition is ENDLESS—there are weight loss programs, diets, freezer meals, coaches, trainers, etc. all competing for the same person’s attention, so how do you stand out?
Let’s get into it more—who exactly are you wanting to help lose weight? Women? Great—how old are these women? How much weight are they aiming to lose? Do they work? Are they mothers? What’s their income level? What type of diet will you suggest? Also, what type of exercise? What type of food and resources do they have access to? Gyms? Organic food?
Maybe you end up landing on: I help women lose weight permanently by teaching a lifestyle shift, not a quick-fix diet. You teach them how to switch to a primarily plant-based diet, incorporate gentle exercise and a focus on loving themselves.
With that niche, you know exactly how to speak to your audience, where to find them, what their pain points are, what type of content is going to be most helpful for them and so much more. Knowing exactly who you’re creating content for actually makes it easier to create content because you’re not sitting there pinging on all different types of weight loss suggestions with no real plan or idea of who is listening.
You Become an Expert
When you focus on one topic, you quickly become an expert in the area. Your site traffic grows, people talk and share your information and before you know it, you’re the go-to on your subject! Becoming an expert builds that know-like-trust factor that is essential in selling a product or service, which in turn is how to make money blogging.
First, people get to know you because you deliver high-quality information and answer a question they were searching for. Then the ones that are meant for you stick around because they like you. As you continue to deliver high-quality content that improves their situation or their business or their lives, they trust you.
And, when it comes time to selling a product or service, your job is so much easier!
Think of some of the blogs you follow or people you follow on Instagram that give you the most VALUE. Not just the people you follow because they share pretty things—think about the ones who are constantly giving you amazing, killer information that improves some part of you life.
A few that come to mind for me are Solid Starts, Jenna Kutcher, Nina Walder, The Defined Dish, College Nutritionist and Gabby Bernstein. What do they all have in common? They are EXPERTS in their field. They are the go-to resource that people seek out on their topic.
The goal is for YOU to be someone else’s go-to on whatever topic you write about.
Got it? Good!
Helps Build Passive Income Opportunities
So, what’s passive income? This is income that you don’t actively have to work on. It’s not totally hands off, but it allows you scale your business’ income without trading dollars for hours, and it’s a great way to earn money by blogging.
A few passive income types are:
- advertising
- affiliate revenue
- ebook sales
- digital course sales
- digital products
- membership programs
Anything that you can create once and continue to make money off of it for years to come. When picking your niche, consider these forms of passive income and start letting yourself daydream of ways you can serve your audience by creating something amazing for them.
If you’ve been wondering all these years how to make a profitable blog, your niche is going to be your answer. You can have the most beautiful photos and design in all the world, but if you’re not providing valuable content to your audience and doing it consistently, it’s going to be harder to grow.
I hope this post helped you nail down your own blog niche, or got you thinking about how you can tweak your current blog to get more niche on your topic!
BTW, why rest is one of the best productivity hacks you need to master, and how to use header tags in your blog posts for SEO.
