A lot is said that people who blog to monetize their blogs have to find a "profitable niche" or a "profitable topic" to write about. Either if it's superhigh paying AdSense Keywords or very specific content that drives tons of sales in affiliate programs... Where do you get your "inspiration" on which topics to blog about? Where do you look for ideas to write about something that will be profitable?
Sometimes it's trial and error. Trying three different topics and seeing which one does better. I really do not think that there is a secret formula to it, sometimes you just luck out with good content and a well developed website. Just slapping articles into a default template isn't that appealing, you know?
I suppose you could do a search to see what the most searched topics are on google. I have a feeling technology and entertainment are two popular and profitable niches. I would suggest blogging about something you're familiar with, the writing will be much easier.
never blog about entertainment its a very low paying niche. Think about subject and the use google adwords tool for estimating avg. PPC. Technology, business, finance, travel, health, insurance, computer, loan, debt, design, photoshop, graphics, marketing, webhosting are some high paying niche.
Sometimes I'll take a niche that is not profitable for adsense, in order to draw attention to something else. For instance, "Music" is a low paying keyword if you are blogging for adsense, but, DJ, Karaoke, and Professional Audio Equipment pay well if you are in an Ebay or Amazon affiliate program with an online store. The ads for that subject suck, but, the commission on the products in higher than most other because they are higher priced. You have to think about an overall picture and find little profitable opportunities. If you are just going to blog for adsnse, then you will need to stay with subjects (keywords and phrases) that will draw high paying ads. JMO
Thanks for the useful tips hmansfield. Good idea to write about high value items in Amazon or eBay affiliate programs rather than just books or CD' with much lower commissions
You can check out Google for the hot ones - http://www.google.com/trends However, it is hard to use Adsense and affiliate marketing at the same time especially if you are just starting. Adsense earners have ugly blogs that have tons of ads surrounding their blogs, while affiliate marketing needs a good writing and selling ability. If you use both, one can distract the other. So, I suggest you choose one first, and then the other if the first one is already a success. But again, it's hard to combine them. Inspiration? If you want to make money online, the best inspiration you can use is money. The others are only the reasons why you want money.
I blog about topics that interest me. These are also topics that I have information on and experience in. From there its easy to promote the site, increase traffic and sales. Its easier to blog about a topic that really interest you, instead of a topic your not really interested in. If you enjoy the topic, your more likely to put more time and effort into it. The more effort you put into your blog - the more traffic you will get - the more traffic you get the more money you can make.
You're very first blog should definitely be about something you know and are interested in. The reason I say this is that, if this is your first blog, you have a learning curve to face. Eliminating one of the tasks by blogging about something you are familiar with, frees up your time and mental capacity for the other things you need to learn, like ad tracking and social bookmarking, SEO and so forth. THEN, when you've got those techniques under your belt, go after subjects that are less familiar to you, but for which you know you can find plenty of information about which you can write. Having at least a modicum of interest is necessary here, as blogging about something for which you have absolutely zero interest in will lead to disaster. For instance, I am interested in martial arts. I took up Tae Kwan Do when I was in my 20's. Due to a messed up back, I can no longer participate, but I am keenly interested in martial arts. So I have started a blog on the art of Aikido. Not that I'm a practitioner, but I know others are. I can write with a certain amount of authority and then, when I'm ready, I'll sell the blog (it's almost ready now). On the other hand, I have zero interest in WWE (sorry, fans) and would have no way to know if what I might write about would carry any weight. So, I won't be building a blog about wrestling. ~kev~ is absolutely right about the more effort you put into your blog, the better... and if you have some kind of interest in the subject, you'll be able to put that extra effort in. I have a recommendation for a tool that does a lot of the niche and keyword work for you. If I owned this product, I'd sure give everyone here a discount (or even for free) but I don't own it. It's an affiliate product, so I'm going to give you 2 links--one with my affiliate code, one without. THAT'S HOW VALUABLE I THINK THIS TOOL IS FOR WHAT WE DO--I don't care if you buy it from me or not. It's THAT good! It's called MicroNiche Finder. I use it ALL the time. www.MicroNicheTool.com/profitstreams.html - takes you to the info page. Watch the videos here about what this product does! You can sign up from there. **EDITED** I just realized aff links not allowed in posts! Sorry! **EDITED** This is not meant as spam. I believe in sharing valuable tools. If I have offended anyone, please accept my apologies. ~cj
It is very hard to make a lot of money with adsense...I wouldn't build a site just around that. Use Amazon and Ebay!
@ Lakezilla - Would you choose Amazon and eBay even for a website with low treaffic (800 - 1000 visits per month) ??
Just like everyone else you have to do research to find a niche that you can capitalize on. It is not as easy as asking others "what should I write about ?". I will tell you this though..the days of throwing up a blog stuffed with keywords and phrases and plopping some adsense on it are over. Google is making sure of it. They are giving more preference to sites that encompass multi-media, information, and design. Adsense pays crap now, and you can make more through affiliate marketing for 90% of the popular terms out there. Legal and Insurance still pay well, but everyone and thier mother is trying to rank for those words and phrases. My advice to you would be not to chase adsense like the other 10,000,000 bloggers out there, but to make a site that is both entertaining and informative to build traffic and then you can sell what ever you want on it. So it really doesn't matter what you write about if all you are going to do is write.
Thanx for the advice hmansfield. It's more or less how I've started: first try to have quality content, usually writing about things you know or like and then traffic will come... Then you can sell whatever...
That's sort of how I started on my first blog. I wanted to write about House and Trance music, since I know it well, and then experimented on different ways to monetize it untillI found some programs and products that worked. Once you get going, other ideas will come that you didn't think about previously.