Where Should You Start Blogging?
What to blog about is often a problem for most people. This post will cover the following areas:- Topic or niche of personal interest
- Evergreen versus Seasonal topics
- Who is searching for information on the topic
- How many people are searching for the topic
- How competitive is the niche?
Topics of personal interest
First off, I should define two keywords in this post. They are niche and keyword:
- A niche is the specialized product or service you offer to your ideal customer or the idea/content you want to blog about.
- A keyord is a particular word or phrase that describes the contents of a Web page. Keywords are intended to act as shortcuts that sum up an entire page and help search engines match a page to with an appropriate search query made by an individual (techopedia.com, 2015). In short, keyword and niche are similar concepts.
According to Mr. Wallagher, when a blogger is passionate about the topic, readers will return for more, share your content and buy your products or services.
Your assignment is to write down a few ideas that you are interested in, then to rank or list them according to the degree of interest in that topic.
Blog about evergreen topics year long and seasonal topics when they are trending
Evergreen topics are popular now, and will continue to be useful for months or even years. Seasonal or trending topics are popular, but have a limited lifespan.Examples of evergreen topics
- Money
- Relationships
- Parenting
- Employment
- Diet and Fitness
- Weddings
- Hobbies
- Decorating
Examples of seasonal topics
- Sporting events - World Cup
- Holidays - Christmas, Easter
This answers the question of who is the target audience that you wish to reach as a blogger. The big question is how to define and find the target audience. There are various techniques for finding the target audience which I will discuss in another post.
Meantime, these two articles share general principles for identifying your audience:
Defining Your Niche Market
Examples of Target Market Profiles
How many people are searching for the topic?
Your great big blog idea may turn out to be a flop if too few people are searching for the information. There are varying guidelines among marketers, but a general rule of thumb is that about a minimum of 500 - 20, 000 people should be interested in the information on your blog.
There are tools available to help you discover the number of searches that are being made for the topic. Google Keyword Tool aka Google Adwords is widely used. I use it myself.How competitive is the niche?
Competitiveness of the blog content is an area that bloggers should pay attention to. Competitiveness answers the questions
"on what page of Google search will your content appear when someone searches for it?"
Will your content appear on Page one of Google search or will it appear after the person searches through an indefinite number of pages?"
In order to have a better shot at being found online, one school of thought is that one should market in a niche or content area that has low rather than high competition. The Google Keyword Tool gives low competition keywords with the related search volume.
Mind you, I am no hot shot internet marketer with page ranking software that can shoot my blog to page one of Google search, but I can share the principles that will help your content from being lost in a highly competitive niche. So, if as a beginner you are being enticed by a highly competitive niche, take off running...
By the way, there are marketers who teach strategies for marketing in highly competitive niches.
Coming up - Easy Keyword or niche research using Google Keywords Tool
READ
No comments:
Post a Comment