Raise your hand if you have gone through this – Performed keyword research, found a profitable niche and starting a blog with that niche topic just to realize that after 3 months of hard work, you are no where near success.
You have carefully crafted the best blog posts (ever) but yet, the blog barely able to attract 1,000 or maybe even 100 traffic a day.
Demotivated, despair, frustrated and tired, you decided to quit that niche.
Without knowing, you started over a dozen blogs and yet, you are earning pennies.
And one day, you call it quit.
You join the thousands who started blogging with the hopes of making money only to discover the ugly truth in blogging; it is harder to make money online that you can ever image.
I bet the above sounds familiar. I’ve been there myself; failing over a dozen times and making pennies from my blog. Lucky for me, I learned my lessons.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m no millionaire. I’m just an average dude who learned from my mistakes and makes enough to sustain a good life with my blog.
The lesson that you’ll learn today on Blogging University is how to start a blog. To be exact, how to start a successful niche blog, minus the failures.
For those who believe that niche blogging is dead, they’re extremely wrong. It’s just harder to earn money even if you’ve found a profitable niche idea.
Putting aside all those negativity, let’s kick start our lesson plan for the day and the biggest question to you is “Are you ready to make some serious money from blogging?”
What you will learn in this blogging lesson?
- What is the definition of a profitable niche?
- How to find profitable niche ideas?
- How to monetize a blog with specific niche?
The definition of profitable niche ideas
Blogging with a profitable niche means money. Two important key points to consider when you are finding profitable niches are:
- The number of traffic
- Cost per bid
In terms of traffic, general keywords such as ‘blogging’ would have a larger search value while long tail keywords such as ‘blog listings’ has lower search value. See the image below:
Do you think that the keyword ‘blogging’ is a good niche choice? With over 14,800 searches monthly and RM 6.08 (approx USD $1.85), it is a no brainer that it’s a good keyword to start with right?
Hell no! You’re wrong.
Choosing keywords like ‘blogging’ as a niche topic would be insane. If you are starting a blog, you’ll face enormous competitions from authority sites like Wikipedia and WPBeginner.
On the other hand, you might consider the keyword ‘blog listings’ as a good niche. With a small number of searches of 40 monthly, you could probably make a good living out of it right?
Again, you’re wrong.
From the image above, suggested bid shows nil (-) because there are no competition. While this could be a good sign, there is also very real possibilities that there is no bidders going for this niche.
In finding profitable niche, no bidder means close to zero chance of making a living out of Adsense or affiliate marketing (More information – Everything About Affiliate Marketing).
Actionable blogging tips: Finding a keyword which moderate number of searches and cost per bid would lead to a much better monetization.
Tools used to find a niche
Niche blogging is all about the right research and using the right keyword research tools will help you to find excellent niche ideas.
When it comes to keyword research, there are only two tools that really make the cut which are:
- Google Keyword Planner
- Long Tail Pro
While you are not obligated to use both, you would be able to find even better keywords faster and more accurate using both. More on this below.
Google Keyword Planner (free)
GKP in short, this is Google’s flagship and is definitely one of the most used tool in the world.
Advantages using Google Keyword Planner:
- Fast
- Accurate
- Did I mentioned absolutely free?
Disadvantages using Google Keyword Planner:
- Doesn’t show competition level and chance of ranking
As you can see above, GKP is a godly tool when it comes to finding profitable niche keywords. However, the downside is that it is not able to calculate the possibilities of fast ranking and the competition level.
Here’s a video tutorial on how you use Google Keyword Planner (read more):
Long Tail Pro (starts from $77)
LTP in short, this is one of the fastest keyword research tool that I have ever used to date.
Long Tail Pro makes the process of finding profitable niche in blogging as easy as 1, 2 and 3.
Advantages using Long Tail Pro:
- Detailed stats and results
- Multiple searches (up to 10 keywords at one time)
- Generate search volume, competition level and ranking opportunity under 3 minutes
- Extra $20 discount when you use this link
Disadvantages using Long Tail Pro:
- Long Tail Pro trial last for 7 days only
And here’s what it looks like on Long Tail Pro back end:
In just 3 simple steps, you will be able to find the right niche ideas for blogging.
So tell me. Is it a no-brainer that Long Tail Pro is a great tool?
Read my Long Tail Pro review or try it for free now. Download here.
How to make money blogging with the right keywords?
So, how do you really find a niche?
From the above, you’ve learn how to generate niche market ideas with both Google Keyword Planner and Long Tail Pro.
The process of finding niche market ideas consists of:
- The volume of search per month
- Specific geo-location
- Estimated cost per click
- Article writing
Volume of search per month
This is one process many bloggers do not take into consideration when it comes to searching for the right niche ideas.
Banging your luck on low search volume would easily affect your earnings while trying to rank on competitive keywords could easily land yourself in a pool dominated by the big boys.
Here are some guidelines which are best to incorporate with your niche blogging strategy:
- Search or keyword phrase lesser than 500 searches a month
- Competition for the specific keyword is low (competitors have lower PageRank and number of backlinks)
Specific geo-location targeting
One of the biggest mistakes done when it comes to finding a niche is everyone (yes, literally everyone) are targeting visitors from the United States.
Do you know that there are many locations which you target and still make a very decent earning from your niche blog?
While the earnings generated from United States bound traffic are good, there are others which you can monetize easier due to lower competition or challenge.
To name a few:
- United Kingdom
- Parts of Europe
- Australia
- Singapore
Debunking the myth of cost of click
Personally, I wouldn’t go for a niche or keyword which has less than $0.50 per click. If you’re planning to start a blog focusing on specific niche, make sure you’re targeting moderate to high paying keywords.
Here’s the deal:
- Minimum cost per click is $0.50
- Minimum traffic per month is 500
Let’s take math for a ride, shall we?
Assuming that you are getting 150 traffic per month and 85 (of the 150) would click on the ads, you’ll would probably be getting approximately $40 per month.
Make no mistake; the above is just an example.
When it comes to niche blogging, there are two ways you can go; high traffic and low cost per click (CPC) or low traffic and high cost per click.
Either way, there isn’t any basic instruction as it varies between niches, keywords, industry etc.
Just keep a mind on the above rule and you would easily make more money from your blogs.
Quality articles versus sheer numbers
Niche blogging is all about quality. Compared to the normal blogs, blogs on specific niches need to be more outstanding and informatics to ensure that you’re ranking well on search engines and readers will come back for more.
Finding niche market ideas is worth nothing if you’re not able to make money from it.
Once you have selected a good niche, start blogging constantly and find ways to build traffic.
Yes, not ways to make money but instead, building quality blog traffic. It is only possible to make money when you have sufficient traffic.
To give you an idea on the meaning of quality articles, here are some examples:
- Keywords are included in the title
- Keywords are used in the beginning and ending of the paragraph
- Keyword density is below 3% (this varies depending on self preference)
- Focus on facts only as informatics posts do get more traffic
Can you really make money online with niche blogging?
The short answer, yes! The longer answer would be, yes but with the right blogging strategy.
Through my experience, finding profitable niche blogging ideas is easy when you are using the right tools. The most challenging part is to develop the website and grow it into a huge success.
Before we wrap this up, here are some question for you:
- Have you tried specific niche blogging?
- If yes, how was it? If not, why are you not trying?
Use the comment form below and let’s discuss it further!
Smart tips Reginald! Putting deep thought into why and how you’re approaching your niche eases the transition. Fools dive in with no plan. You’ve detailed a smart plan, from using the right tools, and adopting the right mindset, to rock out your niche. Thanks dude 🙂
Hi Ryan,
Thanks for that! No plan is bad. I did that and lost many great niche because of that. So, let’s hope the rest isn’t doing the same mistake too! 😀
I have tried niche blogging and I can say that its been an awesome experience.Doing a proper keyword research by analyzing the competition is critical to success in niche blogging.
More so, the blogger must never forget the need to create and promote valuable content consistently!
I have left this comment in kingged – the content syndication and social marketing platform for Internet marketers, where this post was shared.
Sunday – kingged contributor
Hi Sunday,
You nailed them! From research to quality, you’re absolutely right. Passion is important too. No passion would lead to many quick downfalls (if you get what I mean) 😀
The whole blogging community is divided on the issue of picking a niche. Some says it must be a profitable niche and some others say it should be your favorite niche. Some saner group of people advise to pick the mix of a niche that should be profitable and favorite both. But this is an ideal situation because mostly a profitable niche may not be your favorite one and your favorite one may not be salable in market.
So here you need to decide what you want to do. If you basic blogging goal is to earn money so you need to give more vote to profitable niche. If you want to blog just to get fame or express your views then you must opt your favorite niche.
Thanks a lot for sharing such a wonderful post.
Hey Muba,
For me, I always believe that good paying job aren’t your most favorite job. Yes, you may find maybe one out of a thousand but seriously? The odds are just too low for that.
If you want to make money blogging, choose a super profitable niche (takes time). If you want blogging with passion, do it the right way and you’ll still reach stardom. Just that it takes some time 😀
You are awesome Reginald! Epic and job well done for this
article about “Lesson 3: How To Find Profitable Niche Ideas For
Blogging”.
I must remark, researching related markets and finding
keywords target is essential. I must say, if you’re committed to building a well-liked
and money-spinning site, you’ll have to write, read, and talk about your topic
almost every day for the next several years.
I found this post shared on Kingged, the Internet marketing social networking site, and I “kingged” it and left this comment.
Hey Metz,
You nailed it! I totally agree that making money from blog isn’t a one day thing. Not even close to a week or a month.
You need tons of patience, luck and of course, determination. Only with that, you will have a chance of being successful.
Thanks for commenting!
Hi, this post is really helpful and clears the concept of niche blogging to make money.
Most of the people know about niche blogging but plays wrong.
I highly recommend my newbie blogger students to read this post and get some great idea shared and do necessary implementation.
Thanks mate 🙂
Hey Ankit,
Thanks for leaving your comment on Kingged. I hope you liked the writing and thanks for the kind recommendation too!
Do come back for more blogging tips 😀
Realistically profitable and blogging can’t stand in one sentence. It is a fact that under 1% of bloggers make living through blogging.
It really depends Kaloyan but you are pretty right. Not many make big money.
I would say less than 10% make over $1,000 a month while less than 5% make it $10,000. The rest? History 🙂
Thanks for commenting!
You have put blogging in the right perspective. Anyone thinking of starting a blog MUST read this to clear the clouds of easy money and quick success. As it is with other fields, it takes a lot of hard work to make money in blogging and it should never be taken for granted which a lot of us do. Good one mate!
Hi Preeti,
Thanks for commenting! I would say making money online or through blogging is really underrated. There are so many things you NEED to do nowadays to stand out of the crowd.
Glad you find this useful and looking forward to see you around here even more!
“Right blogging strategy” like you said is the major concern for getting success with niche blogging. Keyword planner is a good tool to analyze and plan for best niche topics to be selected. Of course Long Tail Pro is a new platform for me and I might be trying that in the future. Thank you bringing these information. This article was information and well versed too 🙂
Hey Bhanu,
Thanks for commenting. Glad you liked it mate. Long Tail Pro is good and simple. However, just like any other tools, you need to spend time playing with it and you need your own research ‘method’.
These are just guidelines and hey, check out my latest article on the niche blogging case study. You might find it interesting too!
Have a great weekend mate~
Sure, Will check your posts mate. I already bookmarked your site ! Great weekend to you too Reginald 🙂
You too Bhanu!
Hi there, Reginald! 🙂
This is such an epic post. Your subject is interesting, I must say.
You’re right that a profitable blog niche plainly means money. You can possibly earn real cash from a niche blog if you only know the right approach to do it.
As what I’ve learned here, you can use useful and effective tools like a Google Keyword Planner and Long Tail Pro to do the right research of finding the best niche ideas that can bring you profits.
You’ve also shared us your knowledge on how to earn money from blogging with the right keywords, and that is really helpful and valuable.
This is indeed an informative article. Thanks for the shared knowledge! 🙂
Best,
Ann07
Hi Ann,
Thanks for commenting. Make money blogging is easy. All you need is a little luck BUT tons of research.
Once the right research is done, the rest is pretty clear cut 🙂
Feel free to come back for more ya!
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