Are you stuck in that box?

Let me try to answer this question for you, in as simple a way as I can.

I guess the first questions you might want to ask yourself is:

WHO AM I 

What am I interested in.

What am I good at.

What DO I like to do.

What do others think I am good at

Have I ever helped someone solve a problem.

Have I ever helped someone.

How did I help them.

These are basic and fundamental questions. Get to know yourself.

Do you have any hobbies? No? Go get one

Why are these important questions to ask yourself. In a nutshell you’re going to be devoting a considerable amount of time to which ever niche you choose and it really makes no sense what so ever to spend ANY amount of time on something you don’t like doing or have no real interest in. No matter what the financial rewards are for that niche. Now before I get flamed for this. Yes I am well aware of ghost writers and PLR products and the cut and paste idea to riches. If that floats your boat then go for it. That’s what jobs are, Just doing what ever it takes to make money.

IMO blogging is a lifestyle choice

Whats the interest level of your chosen topic at large.

How many others share the same interest as you do. This is a somewhat dicey notion, because it really depends on whether or not you are looking to for large numbers of readers which translate into RSS readers which translates into advertisers which translates into monetization methods.

Ok but all that aside. You need to decide for yourself firstly is this something you’re going to try and monetize or do you even care to monetize it.

Are you just trying to start a business blog? By business blog I mean a virtual piece of real estate that is going to make you money which you can then potentially flip in the future?

Again this boils down to some fundamental questions you need to ask yourself.

I personally think this comes down a personality type that you can dig into to help yourself decide what you should be blogging about.

With out sounding all kooky and doctor phil-ish I’ll let you have a look inside my head.

I like to help, I like to problem solve.

I am very curious individual.

I like to figure out how things work and why they work that way.

I have a keen interest in and am an observer of human nature and what makes people tick. A psyche major friend of mine calls me a behaviouralist.

I like technology but am not a techno geek

 

SO I try to apply my personal interests to my blogging ventures.

One of the things you try doing is appealing to enthusiasts in any niche.

The interweb is a huge place now, and growing by leaps and bounds daily. So theres definately no shortage of ideas, products and means of monetization for blog.

By way of example I have a friend who is a potato gun fanatic, that and blowing things up. He has more potato guns than you can really imagine and probably enough to equip a small army. He’s also a paint ball enthusiast. Just in that there are more than a few niches that one with an interest level in could blog about. Never mind the fact that paint ball is an international sport now. Maybe even olympic in proportions. Did you know that ping pong is the national sport of china? now theres a niche and a half…. A few billion Chinese people cant be wrong.

Find a need Fill a need.

OK so thats all fine and good you say but what about competition

Again this boils down to your interest level, knowledge base and the general level of enthusiasm for the niche.

Places like:

http://answers.yahoo.com/

http://answers.google.com/answers/ (not accepting questions any longer) but  theres a rich category base to search in

Sure enough there alot of interesting blogs in alot of niches. What I have noticed is this, and like I said I’m a curious person so I do a lot searching on a regular basis. There alot of smaller niches with little to no competition and I’m sure these blogs are great little earners.

Here’s a small example of what I mean. I was doing some searching about astrology, astronomy and ancient civilizations. Because I was curious as to why it is that in the same time period in history there seems to be all these pyramid temples being built that point to the same or similar star constellations and used the same or similar astrological formations. Ok that may be bizarre but know what its a small niche or sub-niche with lots of interest.

So If I had a background or burning desire to blog about it I could get some decent traffic and find ways to monetize it.

It’s the big fish in a small pond idea.

If you’re like my buddy and absolutely nuts about potato guns then you have some level of expertise. That knowledge base will allow you rise above any competition and draw you a crowd.

Do some demographic research. Find out who is online and what are they doing when they are online. Places like forrester research, jupiter research. These are paid reports. Or you just google until you find what you’re looking for

The real innovators will be the ones that CREATE niches. 

Often times and this is a major drawback for many new and aspiring bloggers they get all fired up about making money online or making money blogging and decide to go all guns into the niche. And fail at it, why ITS A VERY CROWDED NICHE and is very competitive.

So my best advice would be to steer clear of this niche at the outset.

Can you do whats already being done better 

This a staple notion in the business world and perhaps is the story of human evolution, always finding better and more efficient ways to do something, produce something, become better than you were a few days, weeks, months ago.

Whats happening in your area of interest, whats being talked about? can you do this better, can you add to it?

What about content 

There’s all kinds of places and article resources to choose from if you’re lacking inspiration. But like the above if you’re in “your niche” creating content won’t be hard.

Use some news sources and be the first to blog them, break the news as it happens or before it has reached the viral grape vine.

The secret to writing is to write,write,write, and write some more

Should I have a personal blog if I’m trying brand my business blog?

I say yes.You don’t want yourself coming off as cold and totally business like, people like people interaction, by having a personal blog or even now a facebook profile you make yourself look human and not just a cold and static url.