TIPS|| BLOGGING 101: HOW TO SURVIVE IN THE BLOGGING WORLD BY CREATING YOUR NICHE

This post is basically a two in one post because I skipped yesterday, do enjoy the read and I hope it helps.


Why i'm I successfully running a blog that people like? The answer to this is  simple, I created my niche. There is definitely something in the air that makes everyone copy one another, from the crazy invasion of the human hair movement to the natural hair movement to other trends that seem to keep pulling all of us on the same bandwagon. With blogging however, this can't work. If you want to blog about everything then you will probably end up becoming nothing. the best thing is to choose something to blog about and become everything you can be. I have seen several bloggers who are so good at everything else they blog about but feel the need to add a personal style series to their already blooming blogs. Creating your niche is something that every blogger would advise an upcomer but won't follow themselves. The wake of lifestyle blogging as even sort of opened more doors to a lot of people doing so much that they have no niche. what is a niche?
Niche is defined as, “a specialized but profitable corner of the market.” Maybe that's why a lot of bloggers especially nigerian bloggers tend to run towards gossip & entertainment blogs, fashion blogs, beauty blogs and lifestyle blogs. I have however seen Nigerian bloggers who are successfully blogging about health, life issues and Nigerian education. why find your niche?

• To help narrow your target audience and open better doors to sponsorships and collaborations.
• To end up build a collection or related and helpful content covering similar and related contents

if you choose to write about everything, that's fine but it ends up being so chaotic instead of feeling like a magazine of your niche. Examples of niches include:

• Fashion (personal style, lookbooks, inspirations, interviews, business, art)
• Health
• Art
• Musings
• Parenting
• Finance
• Beauty
• DIY ( home decor, fashion, beauty, art)
• Fitness
• Web Design
• Travel

As you can see some niches can be broken down into various other niches. Its is better to narrow your own topics so you can successfully hit your target audiences and readers, this will help reduce your competition.

For example; For the Deemako.com blog, its a Fashion blog with focus on my personal style with lifestyle tips from time to time focusing on DIYs, tips and tricks.

How to choose a Niche?

• Passion: Choose Something You Know and Love

when you blog about something you love, it feels more like a hobby or a form of recreation than a chore or work. It becomes the perfect answer for when people ask you what you do in your spare time.

Also if you blog about what you know, you are likely not to run out of ideas and topics and this contributes to how long you will last in the blogging world.

If you decide to go with the band wagon and choose a more popular or a more profitable blog that you aren't passionate or knowledgeable about, you are likely going to end up running a mediocre blog.

How to Find Your Passion?

For some of us it's glaring what we are passionate about, we like to check the calories we in our meals, we like to check our health status, we like shopping and just staring at nice fashion items, we find words easy to write and we like entertainment.

however for others, it can be a bit of a task especially if you are like me and you like a lot of things and excel in them.

Just incase you are trying to narrow down what you are passionate about, ask yourself or even your friends and family these questions;

• what are your hobbies?
• what do you do in your free time?
• what do you friends rely on you for and trust your advice on?
• what do you like to talk, read and research about?
• what were your strongest subjects in school?
• what would you do for free or what do you already do for free?

I found this exercise on a blog if you still can't discover what your niche is or you have multiple answers,

• write all the niches on several papers or blog posts
• write 10 post ideas or topics
• if you don't like them then that's most likely not your niche
• if you do like them however, write the ideas and topics into proper posts on your computer or drafts.
• if you can't finish then you probably shouldn't bother because you might just end up abandoning the blog
• if you do finish them, then you got yourself ten posts to start your blog with.

• Market: Choose Something Someone Needs

You must know that no matter what you choose, someone already does it People already do it.

However, they probably haven't explored every corner or part of it or maybe they even have but not as a focus or center of their blogs. 

That is where the need comes in and that's what leads to profitability.

For instance, when The Deemako Blog started there were a lot of fashion, personal style and lifestyle blogs already, but there is none whose focus on personal style as to do with experiment, budget and DIY fashion with an African twist.

I can even say that when it comes to collaborating with other bloggers to bring our reader double dose of inspiration, our double dose segment is on top. we also take into consideration the questions every fashion lover who needs inspiration might be asking with our lifestyle and tips and trick segments.

You can narrow your niche in the same way by adjusting your target audience to those who rarely get attention, such as novice versus advanced individuals in your industry. Another option is to focus on a certain geographical area.

You need to know that you are certainly not restricted to blogging about one thing forever, for example my first blog Perfect gibberish was a blog on musings and words, then I had another one that wasn't really anything but a diary till I finally arrived here, who knows maybe when I get married I might want to write about that.

Creating and choosing the right niche is definitely important to help save time.

Still not sure? Tell me where you're getting stuck in your decision-making.

What if you have many passions and no focus? What if you're not sure how to find your niche?

What do I think your niche is?

Related posts you should have read by now:

BLOGGING 101: BLOG LAYOUT & DESIGN MISTAKES YOU SHOULD AVOID

BLOGGING PREREQUISITE: 10 MUST HAVES FOR EVERY BLOGGER

TIPS FOR POSING FOR PICTURES FOR FASHION BLOGGERS

MULTITASKING TIPS: BALANCING WORKING, SCHOOLING & BLOGGING

TIPS FOR GETTING OVER A CREATIVE BLOCK

More posts to come, do leave your comments and questions.