The Niche: What is Your Blog About?

First of all, what is a niche? There are various ways to define this term in the context of marketing and science, and because I am primarily a disciple of the latter, this is the definition I will refer to: niche n. the particular area within a habitat occupied by an organism.

If the internet world were the ocean, you (the organism) will belong to a particular location in it, usually with a group that shares the same living area and activities.

Niches in Blogging
When I first started blogging, I belonged to the niche of “Anything Under the Sun”, which isn’t really a niche at all. Then, I realized that there are programs and blogger communities that require me to put in a blog description. I detested having to write ‘a blog about anything under the sun’ so I came up with ways to delineate which specific niche my blog belonged to.

Guide on How to Find a Niche for Your Blog

1. You start out by pretending that you are being asked to describe your blog in one sentence. Initially you start with the simplest statement:

“This is the blog of  (a) who (b) .”

Where:
a = something about you. It could be your profession, a description of yourself, your dream profession. Anything that will instantly tell the different money networks or blog visitors what’s unique about your website….
examples: a lonely guy, an overseas worker, an immigrant, a stressed employee, a Filipino, an aspiring musician, a successful business woman, a frustrated computer programmer etc.

b = likes and dislikes, favorite activity, dreams and aspirations, current situations, present  locations, etc.
examples: likes cars, likes to sing, wants to try again, loves to crochet, loves biking, lives in another country etc.

2. Your one-sentence blog description will give you an idea on what your niche is. Basically, this means that the people most likely to visit and follow your posts are those who share the same interests or are intrigued by people like you. These are your “niche-mates”. They can be bloggers themselves or ordinary internet passers by looking to buy/sell something or simply read something about your topics.

3. Moneytize (earn money from) your niched blog by seeking out advertisers who belong to your niche. These are merchants who have products that could interest you or people like you.

Remember that your readers or regular blog visitors will always be the people who can relate with what you talk about frequently. All you have to do is find advertisers who want to sell to these people.

Where to find Advertisers

On succeeding posts, I will give some concrete examples of niches in blogging, and my suggestions on how you can moneytize your niched blog, so be sure to subscribe via RSS feed or via email.

Happy Blogging!
:D

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Top Ten Reasons Why People Do Not Want to Blog

After spreading word that I have a blog about blogging to my friends (via IM and email), some went on to build their prototype blogs and informed me. Some were excited, some were skeptical yet willing to try, and some others were disillusioned (yes, after a few days). For this post, I will address that last bit.

In reverse order, the top ten reasons why some people won’t blog:

10. I don’t have internet connection at home.

9. Too technical. I’m not a techie.

8. Too expensive. (Free blog?) Too confusing.

7. I don’t have the time.

6. It takes too much effort.

5. I’m not interesting enough

4. I don’t have much to share

3. I don’t like sharing [my experiences/thoughts]

2. Do I look like someone who would keep a BLOG?

and the winner….

1. It’s too difficult to figure out what to blog about

In the Philippines, we have a saying: If you want to, there’s always a way. If you don’t want to, there’s always a reason.

Blogging isn’t for everyone and I respect how you would balk at the thought of anyone in the world reading what you have to say about something. And, yes, I still love you even if you are not quite convinced that this is how I earn online.

:D

However, because I made this blogging blog for you, I know you will still follow my progress with this blog and read how I make money online using a blog (and a dash of hardwork).

Kudos and welcome to the world of blogging!

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My Story: Why It Took Me So Long to Build A Blogging Blog

I just added a nifty text on my lower left sidebar. It says “this is my seventh attempt” at building a blogging blog. Those who are close to me already know that I have a lot of other website and domains, some of which I gave away to friends and family members.

So…. Why?

The Beginning

I built my first website to join the bandwagon called blogging. All the talk among my peers about “Making Money Online” over the internet got to me and I decided to try it. My first attempt at blogging was with a blogging blog and it… errr… sucked. It was so bad that I was forced to buy a domain of my own (my first was a subdomain, a free blog) and start over.

What I LOVE to write about

I found that I wanted to write about romance, and that’s what I did. Without thoughts of making money off it, I wrote daily about love, my past experiences and my advice to people who wanted to know more about it. Then, I branched out to other niches I am passionate about: motherhood, self esteem, business… etc.

But still… no blogging blog.

My next attempts at building a blogging blog (or a blog about money making online) also ended in an uninstall. I found it hypocritical to write about making money online when even I could not convince myself to leave my job and live off my internet earnings.

Finally…

If you read the other entries of this blog, and my About Page, you will know that I found my formula for making money online… and it worked well enough for me to give up my job and go at it full time. The formula is no secret, and some others may be better at it…

NOW is the time to build a blogging blog. Please subscribe to track my progress.

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