Many people starting off blogging have the same question in mind, “What exactly should I blog about?”
By far the most common question I am asked from
someone new to blogging is –
“What topic should I write about?”
This is the first big decision and the first point
where everything can go wrong.
If you choose the wrong topic then you begin
walking down the wrong path and it might be months
before you even realize it and change direction.
Here’s some common mistakes people make when
choosing a topic to write a blog about:
– Don’t pick a subject just because you see
others make money writing about it
– Avoid writing about something you are passionate
about, but very few other people are
– Don’t base a blog on a topic you know little
about or have minimal practical experience in
– Be careful not to write about too diverse a
range of subjects, your blog must have a focus
WHAT IF YOU HAVE NO IDEAS AT ALL?
For people who have no idea what to blog about I
tell them to write down a list of their hobbies,
passions, experiences, education and skills in all
areas of life and then take that list and derive
blog topics.
In almost all cases it’s easier to start a blog
from something you have an interest in, so I try
and steer people in that direction rather than get
too caught up in the potential to make money.
I honestly believe that if you have traffic you
can make money, and it’s traffic that is hard to
generate. The money comes easily enough once the
traffic is in place, so it’s better to seek
topics you have the most potential to build an
audience from.
For people who struggle to choose between a range
of ideas I suggest picking one and devoting a
serious amount of time to it. You have to really
“throw it against the wall and see if it sticks”
before you really know whether a blog topic will
work.
Sometimes no amount of research, self reflection,
internal or external analysis will give you an
answer. Only the MARKET can give you a definite
result. You have to set a blog up and just start
writing and see what happens. You can always make
adjustments as you go along.
It’s crucial to pick just ONE idea and not
attempt to start a blog about every topic you have
an interest in. If you spend your energy and time
across three blogs you will end up with three
average blogs. If you pour 100% of your effort
into just one blog, you give it the best chance of
success.
At the end of a three month trial period of
focusing on just one blog you at least have a
conclusive outcome, whether successful or not.
There is no ambiguity about whether you worked
hard enough and you can honestly say you gave it
your best shot. You can continue with the blog if
it appears to be gaining traction or move on to a
different topic if it didn’t.
At the end of three months of consistent blogging
you also have an ASSET. Even if your blog doesn’t
have much traffic, it does have three months of
content in it, so worse comes to worst, you can
sell your blog and recoup a few hundred dollars
and then take your experience with you into your
next blog project.
There is no such thing as failure if you actually
put something out there and learn from the
experience and sometimes the only way to really
know whether a topic has potential is to test it
on a real live blog.
CASE STUDY
My friend Alborz began blogging by creating three
blogs on subjects he enjoyed and believed had
potential to become successful. He chose –
1. Cars
2. Going out in his hometown of Brisbane
3. Windows Vista (when it was in prelaunch)
He ended up writing one post a month to the Vista
blog, one post a week to the Brisbane blog and one
post a day to the car blog.
You won’t have any problems guessing which blog
took off.
Yep, the car blog.
Alborz eventually dropped the other two blogs and
focused his energy on his one main blog, which
became a massive success (last I heard he was
making over $40,000 a month from it!).
All of the topics he chose had potential and he
had interest in, but only one came out on top
because of two reasons –
1. He found he was most passionate about cars,
so much so that he enjoyed writing one or more
articles per day to his blog
2. The car blog received the best response from
the market – he built an audience
Sometimes you can’t make concrete decisions until
you actually test your topic ideas.
I suggest you narrow down your topic list and then
start writing. If you have no trouble producing
one new post a day, then do it for three months
and see whether people like your work.
No one can tell you what to blog about, it’s up
to you to decide. Just don’t stay suspended in
limbo due to decision-paralysis. Nothing will
feel 100% right until you actually start doing
it.
Here’s to your blogging success
