3 Steps to Finding the Best Niche for Your Blog or Online Business

In this article, we will learn how to find the right niche for your blog or business.

But before, there are 2 reasons why this is important:

First, if you choose a niche (or don't focus on one niche) then your blog will not be able to develop.

Maybe it can, but it can't produce.

Secondly, the mistake of choosing a niche will cause the content creation process to feel heavy. We become lazy to make content.
If you need a great site, here is another one: ExcuZily
And we can't make quality content.

(those who have chosen a niche will agree)

Therefore, if you want to make a successful blog, this is the first guide you MUST read.

Let's start.
Because some forms of online business also originate from a niche, and the concept is similar, this guide can also be used for business.
There are 3 things that we will discuss in this article:

  1. Considerations in choosing a niche
  2. How to determine the right niche for you
  3. How to do niche differentiation

Considerations in Choosing a Niche


There are people who say they must choose a niche based on their interests and abilities, some say interest is not important as long as its potential is large.

Which one is true?

Both.

Both are true and can be used as guidelines.

But humans are different. Maybe the advice from A is suitable for B but not suitable for C.

For that, let us first discuss the various considerations so that you can know which is the most appropriate for yourself.

Oh yes, there are tasks you can do:
Do you want to be a master? If yes, just visit this site: Mastah Muda
For every consideration, please write 5-10 niches that you feel are in accordance with these considerations.

1. Why beginner bloggers should follow their own interests

I am the type of person who always suggests that new bloggers choose fields that he considers interesting.

But there are many experts who disagree.

They say that they themselves have many blogs on topics that they don't understand at all, but can produce tens of millions per month.

It's true, it's not wrong ...

... but there is one problem:

They are experienced people.

They already understand the ins and outs of blogging and how to develop it.

Whereas beginners?

Don't know how to create good content, don't know how to develop a blog, don't know anything yet. Especially if you don't want to leave the fee (for the author's payment).

Blogging needs dedication.

If the blogger is not interested in the topic, he will get bored quickly.

In addition, because blog content must be quality, then you must want to learn about the niche you choose. Means you will learn 2 things at once, learn blogging and learn nichenya.

(after all learning things that we don't interest are difficult)

There is one more reason:

This blogging world contains people who are truly enthusiastic about their respective niches. If you are not interested, it will be difficult to compete.

But don't consider interest as an obstacle.

It is precisely the world of blogging that is good because we can earn income by writing things that we are interested in.

What's so bad to try?

Now, this is your job:

Ignore the potential benefits, ignore your current capabilities, please make a list of things that interest you. Minimum 10.

If confused, this is the inducement:
  1. Think about your daily routine, what activities are you waiting for most?
  2. What activities have at least never bored you?
  3. What things have always appeared in your life for many years?
  4. What club / forum / group / organization do you follow?
10 seems like a lot, but actually a little. Many people are not aware of their own interests.

Again, don't think about your earning potential and ability, just make as much as possible. Even that seems ridiculous.

In the second stage, we will analyze it later.

For example if you are still in school when you are in class like to draw cartoons without paying attention to the teacher who is teaching, then this includes interest.

Or if you like playing games on Android / iPhone, this can also.

2. Your relative abilities and knowledge

When you become a blogger, your blog will become a center of knowledge.

People who want to learn a topic will come to your blog. Learn from you.

Now imagine:

If we are not smarter or more skilled than those who want to learn, then how can we teach them?

By learning, of course ... but we have already discussed this interest.

So, one way to find a niche for a blog is to look at your own abilities.

But wait ...

Regarding talking about "expertise" or "ability", I did not say that you have to be an expert, teacher, or master. No.

So in this section section I write relative abilities.

This means that our important ability is above ordinary people.

For example, if an expert is 100% capable, ordinary people have 0% ability, then if we are only 40% our ability is OK.

Later you will also learn more after having a blog.

There is one more alternative:

This is if you feel that you are not PD with your abilities ...

Try creating a blog about your "travel record" in studying the topic. So this blog contains everything you learn.

Many blogs like this are becoming popular.

Now the task:

Once again, ignore the opportunities and business potential, make a list that contains your skills or things that you feel you can be an expert (though not yet).

Some questions are provoked:
  1. What hard skills do you have? (example: writing articles, programming, Photoshop, drawing, English)
  2. What soft skills do you have? (example: easy to make friends, can be an interesting presentation, high confidence)
  3. What achievements have you ever got? (example: rank 1 in class, lose weight, have a boyfriend, recover from depression)
  4. What praise did you ever get from someone else? (example: smart dress, smart singing, having interesting political opinions, high sense of humor)
  5. Parenting?
Even what you feel is ridiculous, just write it all down.

By the way, all the examples in each of these questions can be successful blogs. There are many proofs.

3. See trends that are or will rise

"First come, first serve"

We often make jokes, but it's not wrong.

Indeed, in reality, the fastest will usually have the greatest potential to excel and be successful.

We can make this as a niche.

If we know the current trend is rising or will soon rise, we will be very motivated to pursue this trend.

Especially if we are also interested in the field.

For example, when a quadcopter / drone became popular in 2013-14, many new blogs began to appear.

Until now it has become a giant blog.

Or when the Paleo and gluten-free diet models become popular. Many blogs discuss both.

Therefore, consider the trends around you.

For example if Apple released a new product called iRobot, then we know this product will become popular.

If we are the first to discuss the product, we will also become popular.

But be careful:

Don't choose trends that are momentary. Like agate.

Look at the graphic image of its popularity:

Only a few months, then dropped.

If you start a blog or a new business in this field, the popularity is only brief.

A good trend is a trend that has a strong reason why it is popular. Not because it was deliberately made into a scene, for example because of the artist.

Your task:

Look for some trends that are currently rising in the topic areas that you follow.

You might not be able to meet a lot of trends, or even not find it at all, because the trend is not always there all the time.

4. The business that you are running

There are 2 types of people who want to create a blog:

Want to make his blog a business to earn income.

Or to make his blog a means of business development.

This is for you the second type.

If you already have a business, look for a niche for a blog because it's easier to stay adjusted to its business.

For example if you have a vehicle rental business for tourists in Bali, you can create a blog that contains travel guides in Bali.

So that people who want to travel to Bali will rent a vehicle from you later.

Makes sense right?

This is how to choose a blog topic that can help grow your business:
  1. Understand people who are in your target market. Like the example, for example people who travel to Bali
  2. Find out what information they need. For example, a tour guide in Bali
  3. Provide the information they need. For example, tourist attractions in Bali, Balinese specialties, and so on

Determining the Best Niche for You

Now you have dozens or dozens of niche choices.

But of course you will not use it all. You will only choose the topic that is best for you.

In this stage we will make the decision.

At the end of the second stage, we will do the calculations with numbers to produce the best topic.

Before that, if you have a lot of topics, it's good to filter first which isn't too good. To make it easier later.

Please answer the following questions for each niche:

1. Are you enthusiastic about the niche?

That interest does not always make us enthusiastic in blogging.

Even though you are interested in a topic, but you might not like it when told to write about the topic.

For example like this:

I like watching movies.

I often go to the movies to watch, I have a lot of pirated movies on my hard disk, I also have a Netflix subscription.

But if you write about the movie?

Less interested.

So, that interest doesn't necessarily make us excited to write.

Try thinking like this:
  • Are you able to write articles in the niche for years?
  • Are you capable of being told to read a 100-page book about the niche?
If it is not capable, it means that the topic is not right.

2. Can this topic be a business opportunity?

Almost everyone who starts a blog today is usually because they want to earn income.

But not all niches can produce.

Speaking of income, don't equate the number of blog visitors with the amount of income.

There are niches that can get a lot of visitors easily but but the potential for income is small.

There is also the opposite ...

... the visitors are few, but the potential for income is large.

So, remember, the number of visitors is not an indicator of good or not a topic.

What we have to pay attention to are the following:
  1. Is there someone whose life is helped if you write an article in that topic or niche?
  2. Do people want to spend money on this topic?
  3. Are there products, services or events that can be made related to the topic?
  4. Has anyone successfully done it?
I want to emphasize on the fourth point.

Many people think that just because a blog / business has no competition, they can succeed easily.

On the contrary.

A field / topic / niche if there is no rival means it cannot be profitable.

So there are no competing people.

3. Is there much that can be discussed?

Blogs are websites that are updated regularly with new content.

If only a little can be discussed, then the blog will be difficult to develop. Should be avoided.

So, try doing this:

For each niche that is left today, think of more than 10 article titles that can be discussed on various topics in the niche.

If you can't, then there are 2 causes:
  1. You don't understand / are interested in nichenya
  2. Nichenya is too narrow
If the niches are too narrow, the income potential will be very small.

So you might waste time.

4. Use the 'decision-making matrix' to determine the best niche

This is how to determine the right niche for you personally.

I first knew this method in college a few years ago. I don't know what time I was learning, but this method is very good to use in making decisions.

Instead of explaining at length, it's better to direct the example:
Matriks Pengambilan Keputusan
The first line, horizontally, is the criterion in making decisions and their respective weights.

The higher the weight means the more important these criteria are.

In the example above I have included the weights that I recommend. If you don't agree, please change the weight yourself.

(but should not be changed)

While the leftmost column, vertical, is your niche.

For each niche, we give a score from 1-10 to each criterion (the line is gray).

Until now I still understand?

Continue ...

After that, each score for each criterion is multiplied by the weight of the criteria. This is the final score per criterion.

Finally, for each niche we total the score per criteria.

For example:
  • Niche "presentation" I give a score of 8 for the "ability" criteria
  • The "ability" criteria has a weight of 10
  • This means that the final score for the "ability" criterion is 8 × 10 = 80
  • Repeat like this for other criteria
  • Then total all scores per criterion
From here we get a total score for each niche.

We compare this total score for all niches.

Niche that gets the biggest score is the best niche for you.

It's easy, right?

With this decision-making matrix, you know clearly which niche is best suited to you based on your interests, abilities, and potential.

So you now know what niche is right.

But we haven't finished yet.

There is still one more step that is far more important:

Doing Niche Differentiation

I want to open it first:

Initially, this differentiation section I planned to separate on another page. So it's not too long.

But like this ...

... this stage is very often ignored.

Even though differentiation may be far more important than the selection of the niches themselves.

The selection of the niche is only 50%, the rest is here.

Because of the importance of the stages of differentiation, so that you all don't miss out, I finally joined it in this article.

I made this section as short as possible, just the core so it doesn't stand out.

What is differentiation? Why is it important?

In short, for those of you who do not know the meaning of differentiation.
Differentiation is a strategy to be more prominent than other competitors by making your business different. The goal is that customers have good reasons to choose you, not others.
Because blogs are also businesses, so the principle applies.

As I explained earlier, the competition must exist. As the saying goes, "Where there is sugar, there are ants".

(precisely if there is no competition even suspicious)

Watch Out:

"Being the best" is not differentiation.

All businesses and blogs also want to be the best. So, this is not differentiation because it does not distinguish you from others.

After understanding the meaning, let's start.

Stage # 1: Describe your niche in one sentence

Starting from the most basic first.

What is the purpose of your blog?

For example, I will use niche programming.

This is the sentence:
"This blog provides guidelines for learning programming".
Or if for example this blog contains the latest news or trends, the sentence will be something like this:

"Providing up to date information about programming".

In essence, think about the purpose of your blog then make it into a sentence.

Stage # 2: Determine who the person will be helped with your blog

The purpose of people reading blogs or buying products is because they need your help. They want their lives to be easier.

Who will be helped by your blog?

We use the same example as in stage 1.

This is for a blog that contains a programming guide:
"People who want to create web-based applications".
This is what the news says:

"People who are enthusiastic about programming and want to be the first to find out the latest information"

Remember ... this must be SPECIFIC.

Don't just "people who want to learn programming". Look deeper, what is the purpose they want to learn about it.

Stage # 3: Think about why they should care about you 

In stage 2, we have narrowed down the niches to be more specific and on target.

But that's not enough.

Because there are many blogs that contain programming or news programming. People will not choose your blog.

This is what we are discussing now.

What will make people want to come to your blog?

Example for blog programming guides:
"There is a step-by-step guide to creating various applications that readers can copy so they can directly build their own applications from scratch".
I explain a little more so that you understand ...

Imagine that you want to learn programming.

If there is a blog that contains a programming guide that can immediately make you able to build your own application ... right right?

Especially if the existing blogs only contain pieces of guidance.

So, at this stage we are looking for what makes our blog different and superior in something than other blogs.

Take 5-10 minutes for this stage.

Stage # 4: Explain why you are the right person

The credibility of a blog depends on the credibility of the owner.

Therefore, you must be able to explain the reason why you are the right person for those who need it.

Example:
"I have made several web-based applications, one of which was even acquired by company X with a value of Rp. X billion".
The more "wow" surely the better ...

... but, again, you don't need to be an expert or master.

It can also be like this:
"At the moment I am also in the process of learning to make an application, I can share what I have learned to beginners so that the guide becomes easier to understand".
Does that make sense too?

Stage # 5: Combine everything and hold this principle

After stages 1-4 you have done, combine it in one sentence.

This is what we made earlier:

"This blog provides guidelines for learning programming to people who want to build web-based applications. There is a step-by-step guide to creating various applications that readers can copy so they can directly build their own applications from scratch. "

This sentence reflects your blog.

Always hold the principle that you wrote in the sentence when:

  1. Create new content
  2. Introducing and promoting your blog
  3. Introducing yourself (the sentence in stage # 4)

Never get out of the principle that you have made. For example, if your blog contains guidelines, don't just create news or entertainment articles.

That's how to differentiate.

So now our blog is not just a "learning programming blog" anymore. Instead, "blogs where people can learn to build their own applications".

Finally, this is your job:

If you are currently looking for a niche, please do it until the decision making matrix stage.

Then do differentiation.

Then, write your niche and its differentiation in the comments column below.

Whereas if you already have a blog, just do the differentiation then write the contents in the comments column.

I will help to judge.

(Don't worry, no one will steal your idea)

Comments