One of the easiest places to begin earning money online is through blogging. Virtually anyone with knowledge about any subject can begin a blog and through the proper promotion, can earn a decent income. However, one area in which beginners often have difficulty with is choosing a niche that will be profitable. Starting a blog and realizing there isn’t a potential audience for the topic can be downright demotivating.
Many internet marketers use complex techniques such as analyzing traffic data, average CPC, etc. for niche-related keywords. This can be daunting for a beginner and fortunately, there is an easier way.
There are two fundamental features of your niche that must be present in order for it to be profitable which are: a large audience and products related to the niche.
Follow the following four steps and you’ll be well on your way to knowing whether or not your potential niche can be profitable. The first two relate to your target market and the second two relate to monetization potential.
1. Look at Your Competitors’ Traffic
One of the first things to look at when determining if a niche will be profitable is your competition. Although some web developers prefer to choose niches where competition is scarce, generally these are less profitable. As such, take a look at how much traffic your competitors receive and how many subscribers they have. This can be a good indication of whether or not there is a large potential market for this niche.
2. Browse Niche-Related Forums
Another strategy to determine the size of your profitable niche is to browse forums related to your niche. There are huge forums out there related to everything from internet marketing to personal finance to pets. Chances are, if there’s a large and active forum related to your niche then there is profitability potential.
3. Examine Your Competitors’ Monetization
In order to create a profitable blog there has to be an income source. This may be through PPC sites like Google Adwords, or through affiliate sites like Amazon. Regardless, you’ll want to examine where your competitors are earning their money from. If they all have similar monetization (as can be seen from the ads on their site) then you’ll want to look into what the ads pay out and how they pay out. If on the other hand your competitors monetize through their own products then you may have a more difficult time earning income (unless you’re eager to develop your own product as well).
4. Decide If Your Niche Will Last
Another factor that will determine the profitability and monetization of your niche is whether or not it is a long-term topic (also known as “evergreen” in the internet marketing world). Evergreen topics include fitness and well-being, personal finance, dating and relationships etc.
Basically any niche that there will always be interest in. This is important to determine because if your niche is just a fad, your traffic will begin to dwindle and products related to your niche will begin to die off.
Once you’ve looked at the above four factors you should be well on your way to knowing if your niche will be profitable. If it is, the next step is to develop it and promote it. A good way to get started in the promotion of your site is to buy twitter followers, but that’s a topic for another post.