How to Choose the Niche that Will Make the Most Money

The very first step to becoming a blogger is to figure out what you want to blog about.

This is often referred to as picking your “niche”.

Even if you know what that means (and many don’t) the decision can be a challenge because you realize it’s a critical juncture that will either set you up for success or cause you lots of wasted time.

What if you pick a niche that doesn’t have a big audience? What if there are too many competing blogs about the same subject?

For some, a bigger concern is that they might choose a subject that can’t generate any money.

There’s a lot of bad advice out there, too.

Some “experts” will tell you to target a specific niche simply because they made money in that same one so then you should be able to do the same.

That’s the absolute wrong way to go about making this choice!

If you don’t have any knowledge about that niche then how are you going to create content around that topic?

It’s going to be a struggle that will eventually lead to you pulling away from your site and giving up.

If you want to put yourself on the best path to success then follow the steps in this guide to wisely pick the best website niche that offers you the best possible potential.

What is a Niche?

Targeting an audience or a topic

The easy answer is that a niche is the topic of your website. It’s the subject around which you are going to create your written content.

Let’s look at the dictionary definition:

There are two definitions that apply here. The first is: a place, employment, status, or activity for which a person or thing is best fitted.

If you are in the perfect job that best matches your skill set then people say “you’ve found your niche”.

When you’re doing something that is an ideal fit for you that is when you really shine! Everything is easier because you and the activity fit like a glove.

While that is not the definition that is referred to when talking about a niche in relation to blogging I think it’s important because you ARE a part of the success equation.

The second definition that matters here is: a specialized market.

Businesses often carve out a subsection of an industry in which to specialize because it allows them a better opportunity to dominate and lessens their competition.

A lamp retailer might focus only on selling lamps for children because that’s the piece of the lamp industry where they believe they can best compete based on their experience and resources.

You’re trying to do the same thing when you choose a niche for your website. You want to find the subject around which you can perform best.

Why Your Choice Makes a Financial Difference

Wandering aimlessly is a time waster

Choosing a niche just because you’ve heard that other people have made money in that niche is the wrong way to go.

It doesn’t satisfy the goal of finding the subject around which YOU can best compete.

Going after a niche that someone else is good at doesn’t mean you will be good at that niche.

You’re going to have to create content for that niche and if you don’t know anything about the subject, have no experience from which to draw, or don’t plan on becoming an expert in some way then your audience is not going to relate well to your content.

They’re going to spot you as a fake a mile away.

Not only that but you’ll have a hard time getting traffic from search engines because you’re not going to know enough to use terminology that is specific to the niche.

If Google can’t tell you’re not really familiar with the subject of your site, your readers certainly will.

I like to crochet and have for years. I know what a “foundation chain” is, what it means to “frog a project”, and the definition of a “yarn stash”.

If you had no experience with crocheting but you decided to choose that as your niche how would you know to use those phrases that all other crocheters are used to seeing?

Google’s program is smart enough to know that content about a certain subject should include certain words and phrases.

Using the right terminology when writing about a niche is one way you establish trust with your target audience and having that trust can help affiliates generate more sales and earn more commissions.

Therefore, choosing a profitable niche where YOU have the most interest and experience is a smart choice.

How to Come Up with Ideas

Brainstorming helps

So, you get the concept that your best chances of success are picking a niche that best matches your unique skills and experiences but now you’re stuck for ideas.

For whatever reason, it’s really common to struggle coming up with potential niches to target.

I’ve had people who are incredibly talented in a field or hobby neglect to list that field or hobby as a possible niche idea for their own website.

Only when I poke, prod, and ask a set of questions does the idea come up so I’ve created a list of questions to help you uncover great niche ideas that are hiding in your head.

It might be that people don’t realize what topics can work as a niche or that they think a niche must be only one or two words long.

That is not true.

Another way to describe a niche is to state the audience you want to target with your website and that might make it easier for you to recognize potential niche ideas.

Someone creating a site that focuses on kitchen products could be targeting people who like to cook and bake while a site about baking is targeting people who like to bake.

It is absolutely acceptable to phrase your niche (target audience) in any of the following (and similar) ways:

• People who like [fill in the blank]
• People who like to [fill in the blank]
• People who want to buy [fill in the blank]
• People who want to learn how to [fill in the blank]
• People who make [fill in the blank]
• People who suffer from [fill in the blank]
• People who own [fill in the blank]
• People who work as [fill in the blank]
• People who are studying [fill in the blank]
• People who want to be [fill in the blank]
• People who want a [fill in the blank]

Now, if someone asks you what your niche is you could always shorten the answer to “baking” or “cooking and baking” but the action of selecting a niche is only done so that you carve out a topic you are going to write about on your site. You can phrase it however you like so that it makes sense to you.

When you define your niche by outlining your target audience it makes it easy to decide what you should and should not write about when creating posts or articles for your site.

You only need to ask yourself “would my target audience be interested in this subject” and if the answer is yes then you know the topic fits your site and that you should go ahead and content about that subject to your site.

As a result, all of the following examples would work as a niche for bloggers even though some are short phrases and some are long:

To find your best niche ideas pull out a piece of paper or a blank document on your computer and note your answers to these eight questions:

• # 1 – Have you created a blog before?  If so, what was the topic of your blog?

• # 2 – Do you know what you’d like to blog about?  List as many ideas here as you have.

• # 3 – What hobbies and interests do you have?

• # 4 – What three things would you do every day if someone would let you?

• #5 – Describe your typical day – what do you do every morning, afternoon, evening and weekend?

Those things that you do everyday could be great niche ideas!

You might think your life is so typical that no one would want to read about it but you’d be amazed at the degree to which that is not true.

I’ve spent COUNTLESS hours in the past year trying to help my 22 year old son get off the ground and into adulthood.  If I weren’t an internet marketer I’d completely miss that idea as a possible topic for my blog but based on experience I know that would make an excellent subject. 

• # 6 – What’s your favorite holiday?

Maybe your whole year is organized around getting ready for Valentine’s Day.  If you are that into a holiday, write about it!

• # 7 – What kind of work do you (or have you) done?

Writing about the work you do or the industry you’re in could be boring for some but, at the same time, it might be the thing you know best which would make the writing come more easily. 

If you sell insurance, there is certainly an audience of people who would love advice on the subject! You never know where that could take you. 

• # 8 – What was the last thing you researched heavily before you bought that cost more than $100?

Next, add four columns to the right of each idea – one for Passionate, Knowledgeable, Comfortable, and Total like this:

Score your ideas like this:

• In the Passionate column put a number from 1-5 (5 being the highest) that describes your true level of interest in that niche
• In the Knowledgeable column put a number from 1-5 (5 being the highest) that describes your true level of knowledge in that niche
• In the Comfortable column put a number from 1-5 (5 being the highest) that describes your level of comfort in writing about that niche

For each idea on your list, add the numbers in the Passionate, Knowledgeable, and Comfortable columns and put the sum in the Total column.

The niche ideas with the highest scores are the ones that could be the most profitable for you.

Going Broad Doesn’t Always Mean More Sales

You can think big but start small

I think we naturally assume that things that are bigger are better and so picking a bigger – or broader – niche is the best way to make more money.

Instead of choosing something like how to create cool children’s bedrooms as a niche it’s not uncommon to think you’d do better by writing about all home decor. There are more products and the audience is larger.

While that’s true (a larger site with more content could earn more money than a smaller site) there’s a long road ahead of you before you can dominate a broad niche.

A new site is going to be a small grain of sand on the beach that is Google.

Google’s job is to provide the best search results to searchers and if you set out to be all things to all people then you’re really going to have very little of any value for anyone.

Think about it this way….suppose you have time in the next three months to create 30 posts for your website.

If your niche is “how to create cool bedrooms for children” then you’d have 30 posts about that one subject.

If your niche is all of home decor you might have two posts about sofas, two about chairs, two about kitchen tables, two about vases, etc.

If someone does a search in Google about vases and you only have two posts on the subject, Google isn’t going to see you as a good site to show to searchers because if those one or two posts don’t deliver exactly what the searcher is looking for there isn’t much else on your site that will help them. Your posts on sofas, chairs and kitchen tables aren’t going to help the searcher find a vase.

However, the site with 30 posts about children’s rooms has a lot to work with and Google is more likely to show that site in search results because it has more to offer the searcher.

That doesn’t mean you can’t think big and eventually have a site that covers all home decor related topics. It only means that you when you’re first starting out you might choose a subniche that falls under the larger niche as the first subject of focus for a new site.

Once you’re seeing success in that subniche you can expand your site into a second, related subniche.

Related content located on the same site will keep your site visitors on the site for longer because they’ll find other posts that interest them beyond the one that might have brought them to your site.

Studies show that the longer you can keep someone on your site the higher your chances of making a sale.

Therefore, keeping content closely related is a plus so even if you’ve chosen a broad niche you might start writing only about a subniche first to build a cluster of content that Google and your site visitors will find useful.

What to Research Before You Choose

Check these few things first

At this stage you’ve identified a list of niche ideas and you’ve thought about the question of broad reach or narrow reach.

Before you make a final decision you still want to make sure you choose a niche that has the best potential for making sales.

Some niches have more products and services available for affiliates to promote than others.

You need to get a feel for the overall landscape of products you could promote.

If your niche has a lot of related physical products (like home decor) go to Amazon and browse through the departments.

If they have a lot of products related to your niche then you have a lot of product variety to work with on your site. Plus, that usually means there are plenty of other retailers offering those kinds of products that also have an affiliate program.

If you don’t find a lot of related products on Amazon, try this search in Google:

“[your niche]” + “affiliate”

For example, if you are researching the “personal finance” niche your search in Google would look like this:

The search results will show you sites that mention the words you use to describe your niche plus the word “affiliate” and can help you find related affiliate programs.

Bring up each of the search results to get a feel for how many affiliate programs and products could be promoted on your website.

Making Your Final Decision

Time to pick one, get going and don’t look back

You’ve listed ideas, you’ve scored them based on how well they suit you, and you’ve made sure there is a good supply of related products you can promote.

Now, it’s time to choose one of the highest scoring ideas that has the best number and variety of products to promote as an affiliate.

By following these steps you’ll have chosen based on logic and potential over hearsay and you’ll see far more success as a result.

When you’re ready to move forward go here: How to Choose a Domain Name.