My friend, Sarah has mentioned to me on many occasions that she wasn’t sure how I came up with topics to write about, day after day.

There have been times when I have thought the same of other bloggers. Then, I feel into a groove with blogging and I get how it’s done by others (and myself) now.

The thing is you have to have a niche. As defined by dictionary.com:

Niche
a place or position suitable or appropriate for a person or thing: to find one’s niche in the business world.

To find your blogging niche means that you’re finding your place within the blogosphere. And just like you would find your niche in the business world, based on your business passion, you’ll find your niche in the blogging world based on your blogging passion.

So, how are you going to do that?

Question 1: What do you know?
When you’re having a conversation with your best friend, what do you tend to lean to into the conversation? Something you know about, right? Your topics are things that you can actually have a conversation about. It’s all about what you know.

Finding Your Niche:
Create a list of things that you feel you know. Go back over conversations or in conversations over the next few days, pay attention to what you’re talking about. Write them down. If you repeat a topic in a conversation that’s on your list, put a check mark next to the topic every time you talk about it after that first initial conversation.

Over the course of a couple of days, with thinking and conversation, you should see what you talk about the most. Typically, this is going to tell you what you know and enjoy talking about. Both elements are key to having a successful blog, not necessarily finding your niche.

Question 2: Who do you know?
In life and online, we tend to gravitate to people who have similar interests as we do. So, take a look at who you socialize with both on and off line. They’ll be resources for you to create blog posts in your new niche that are packed with information and create your audience.

Finding Your Niche:
Write another list telling yourself about the basic people in your life. What do they do for livings? Who do you socialize with online that could be potential resources for your niche blog?

Question 3: Q & A
When I’m online I prefer to _____.
Of everything I read online, I’m most interesting in reading about _____.
I network online by _____.
The books that I enjoy reading are _____.
My favorite hobbies are _____.
I really enjoy _____.

Finding Your Niche:
Answering these questions will open yourself up to what it is you enjoy doing and reading. Paying attention to your hobbies are key to finding what your possible niche is.

At this stage, you should have some glaring answers about what it is that you enjoy doing, reading, and what your hobbies are.

Research:
Now that you have narrowed down your selection of things that you like, you should be looking at some glaring niche topics. This is your time to research, what is it that you that others are writing about?

Hit up blog search engines and put in some keywords to your niche. You discovered you like sports, which sport is your favorite? Football, Basketball, Soccer, etc.

Go to Google and do a blog search, hit up Technorati and search through the tags, visit BlogCatalog and visit their tags. This will give you an idea of what people are talking about in the niche topics that are good choices for you.

It’s important to know who your “competition” is. For example, there are a lot of people that blog about “make money online.” This niche would potentially put your blog right next ProBlogger and John Chow. Do you know what these guys know to draw in the audience that would be needed to sustain a blog about making money online?

Wild guess, probably not.

And while we’re on that subject, consider this. Too many people have started blogs about making money online. I begin to wonder, what do they really know? Can they hold up a picture, like Shoemoney has and show the world their huge check from Google?

The answer is no.

You’ll find that the majority of people are sick of these blogs because they cannot compare to the others in their niche that provide proof of what they have actually done online.

Specifics:
Carefully finalize that niche. Don’t be too limiting, more specific niches means a smaller audience and a bigger challenge for you to write. If you found that you like Baseball, choose your niche as sports. This will allow you to report news on drafts for all sports, the Superbowl, and headline news pertaining to sports. You may find that by saying “all I’m going to talk about is Baseball” that you’re limiting yourself. There are more people that like sports, in general, than people who only like Baseball.

Setup:
You’ve got the information you need, you know what it is you like; you’ve researched for your competitors and people you’ll want to network with. Now you’ve got to setup your blog. Choose an appropriate domain name.

Be serious, pay for good hosting and a domain name (I prefer GoDaddy, save $3 by using coupon code Skinny3 at checkout). Setup a WordPress blog, grab yourself a theme, and start writing.

Conclusion:
Niche blogging has to be something that you love. You must have a passion for it. This blog works for me because I have a true interest in the blogging world, marketing, social networking, and all things related to the blogosphere. I do research on these topics to see what other bloggers are saying and based on what I have read I’m able to bring these topics to you from my own opinion.

Do not be a blogger that simply says what others have already said. Have your own voice, the rewards are much more great.

And once you have that niche blog setup, remember who your go to girl is for those networking and blogosphere topics are that can help you propel your blogging to the next step.

Start today. What’s your niche?

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