Have you been thinking about starting a blog (maybe even a recipe blog?!)
If so, you’ve probably been doing some research… and you’ve probably seen lots of advice out there to “niche down” when it comes to choosing your blog topic.
Now, as someone who’s been blogging for almost 10 years, and grown two different blogs to consistent income-generation, I can tell you for a fact that, yes, “niching down” matters. It helps to really focus in on a specific topic, especially when you’re just starting a blog, to establish your area of expertise.
However… that does NOT mean that you need to put yourself in a box! Your blog should be an expression of you – the things that you love and are passionate about – and you’re a three-dimensional person, right?
So, how do you find a viable blog niche without constraining yourself? Lucky for you – I’ve got an exercise to help you do just this! Here are 12 steps to help you find your blog niche. And maybe the best part – this exercise will only take you an hour!
12 Tips to Help You Find Your Blog Niche in 60 Minutes Time
- Write down your hobbies
- Write a minimum of 5 blog post topics for each hobby
- Write down 5 magazines that you like to read
- Write down 5 things you like to do in your free time
- Write down 5 things that you know a lot about
- Write down 5 things that you want to learn more about
- If you could quit your job tomorrow what would you do with your time?
- Review your lists – find one or two common themes
- Review #7 – Finding your why
- Write your why down somewhere
- Search the internet for the two common themes in step #8
- Get Moving
1. Write Down Your Hobbies
What is it that you are most interested in? When you are with friends what do you tell them about? What are the “tips” you have to offer to the group?
Does getting organized light your fire? Does crocheting make your heart sing? Maybe making adult coloring pages is your thing.
Write a list of your passions. Make sure you have at least 5.
2. Write a minimum of 5 subtopics for each hobby
Make subtopics from there.
This exercise is truly meant for you to start to narrow down your passion.
It is a good sign if there are a couple of your passions that you can’t stop thinking of subtopics and you keep writing and writing (and writing!).
This is likely a good sign that you, my friend have the perfect blog niche to enter.
Whatever you do – do not stop writing.
You’ll have blog posts for days when you spend time coming up with the who’s, the what’s and when’s of all of the things you love.
You can make money online sharing anything.
So, it’s most important that you’re passionate about your topic.
3. Write down 5 magazines that you like to read
Yep, you guessed it! You’re doing even more soul-searching with this exercise. Before starting your blog, it’s important to take 20 minutes or so to go through this entire exercise to see the common themes that you find.
If Martha Stewart Living, Good Housekeeping, Rachel Ray Everyday are all favorite magazines of yours to read then it’s highly likely that a recipe blog is in your future (yay!)
But, on the flipside, if Parents, Highlights and Zookeepers intrigue you, well, parenting and crafts might be in your near future.
4. Write down 5 things you like to do in your free time
What is it that you love to do in your free time? Painting rocks? Reading business journals? Cooking? Playing games?
This is where you can learn to be a specialist in your corner of the internet. It doesn’t hurt to niche down either.
5. Write down 5 things that you know a lot about/are really good at
It’s highly likely that these strengths will come from a previous job or volunteer experience, and that is awesome.
Extra Tip: Writing these down will also help you when you feel down.
Kind of like a “sunshine file.”
If you don’t have a sunshine file yet, start one right now.
What is a sunshine file, you ask? A sunshine file is where you put the printed emails of people praising you for your help, your time, your expertise. You know, those notes where your kids/students/grandkids draw a picture or write a note of how awesome you are?
It’s those!
So that when you’re having a bad day or something goes haywire you can pull out that sunshine file and remember how great you really are. 🙂
6. Write down 5 things that you want to learn more about
Chances are that if you want to learn more about this than someone who likes the same things you like and has the same hobbies as you also wants to know more about this, too.
These will also become great blog post ideas as you start to learn even more about your subject.
7. If you could quit your job tomorrow what would you do with your time?
If you quit your job tomorrow and could do absolutely anything what would it be?
Would you spend more time gardening? More time coloring with your kids or doing crafts? Would you exercise more?
Would you do more hiking? More camping? More bike riding?
Chances are that this list will align with question #1, but that’s ok.
The point of this exercise is to get you finding the similarities inside each of these activities.
8. Review your lists – find one or two common themes
It’s time to find your common denominator.
What are the one or two things/hobbies/specialties that you kept writing over and over and over again?
Write them down on your paper.
These ideas, my friend … this is what you’re going to make money doing on the internet and I can’t wait to watch your success.
9. Finding your why
We all have a reason for doing what we do to make money. Making sure that you keep that reason front and center is important.
Why is your why important?
There will be times throughout this journey that you want to throw your computer across the room.
There was one time where one of my websites was under a brute force attack by hackers. Yes, that’s a true story.
I could have shut the computer and said “Whatever, I’ll deal with that later. They probably won’t be able to get in.”
My “why” is to be able to provide for my family and my blog is my way of providing for them. And my blog was the precious thing that these hackers were literally trying massively to hijack.
My “why” is too big to just let it be taken over.
I stayed up working for a better part of that night with my host to be sure that we put the systems in place so that they couldn’t get on to the back-end of my blog.
And, it worked. Eventually they went away when they found the new systems in place to be sure that there was absolutely no way that they could do a hostile takeover of my blog.
But, if my eye wasn’t on the prize (my “why”) then I might not have stayed up.
Don’t ever let your “why” down.
10. Write your “why” down somewhere
Whether it’s a sticky note stuck to the top corner of your monitor or a handwritten note inside of your planner, write your “why” somewhere that you can see it often.
11. Search the internet for the two common themes in step #8
Go back to your one or two themes that you isolated in step number eight and get on the big ‘ol internet to research what is already out there.
Do you notice anything that’s missing?
In your mind, I want you to be thinking of your intent. If your intent is to be searching for grilled kabobs, what are those things in step #2 that could be subtopics?
When you are searching, are you seeing any blogs or websites answering these questions?
User intent is a big deal on the internet.
And if what you’re finding online isn’t addressing the user intent, then there’s your blog niche!
12. Get Moving (Yes, this is an often forgotten and skipped, but it’s the most important step!)
Don’t – I repeat – don’t take all of this and sit on it.
You’ll lose the excitement and even worse, you’ll lose your momentum.
Take this homework and start a binder – this will be your blogging binder.
Keep all of the information from this course in one spot so that you can come back to it. This blogging binder is a great place to also stick your “why”.
So… now you should have a pretty good idea of your blogging niche! Was this exercise helpful? Leave your comments below! I’d love the feedback.
Ready to start YOUR money-making recipe blog? Join my free mini-course, How to Start a Blog in Under an Hour!
In this free course, I will walk you through the 2 crucial phases of setting up your own blog:
- Decide exactly what you should blog about – Find a topic you’re passionate about and create your table of contents to jumpstart your writing process!
- Go through the process of getting your domain, hosting your website, and setting up your WordPress account – I’ve included detailed tutorials and step-by-step walkthroughs (with screenshots) of EXACTLY how to set up your blog, from start to finish! Including getting a theme that makes your new blog beautiful and user-friendly!
I would’ve paid ten times over for just this info right here when I was starting MomsCravings.com.
Get access to the free course right here: