Best niches to blog, did you say?

I will assume that since are using the term "niches", you actually want to learn which are the best subjects that you can earn money blogging about.

Well, look around the internet even for a few minutes, and you will come across blogs on every conceivable subject. There are blogs which are personal diaries, which explain the innermost thoughts of the blogger. In some very oppressive regimes, such as Iran and North korea, people are using blogs to express dissidence against authorities. Then there are unapologetically commercial ones, geared towards earning money. In fact, the current buzz about blogging is very much due to the fact that people are actually making money by blogging.

Talking of niches, there are a whole lot of niches which you can use to earn money on the internet. Before we proceed any further, let us understand what exactly a "niche" is.

A niche (pronounced “nitch”or “neesh”) is commonly defined as a position suited for the person occupying it. In the context of blogging, a niche can be defined as a topic aimed at a specialist group or market.

So, what is a "niche blog"?

A niche blog is a blog, which caters to the interest of a specialized group of audience or readers. This group of people is looking for and seeking information related to their particular field of interest.

Now that we have defined the niche bog, let us have a look at how you can identify that a blog is a niche blog. In other words, let us have a look at the primary characteristics of a niche blog. The main characteristics of a niche blog are as follows:

• Focused Topic: The blog will be centered on a particular topic or a central theme.
• Focused Audience: The blog will have a focused readership. The readership of successful niche blogs tends to be captive. The readers keep returning to the blog to learn and read more. The readers of niche blogs keep up with the blog by subscribing to the RSS feeds or the e-mail alerts.
• Useful and Valuable Content: A successful niche blog will invariably offer highly valuable and useful content to its readers. The content is substantially original. The readers and subscribers therefore, place a premium on the blog, and value it highly.
• Relevant and Unique Content: This is almost a corollary of the above point. The content of the blog is highly relevant to what its audience seek. It is also unique, that is, the information on the blog is not easily available on the internet. Unique content also means that it can just provide a different or fresh perspective on a common topic.
• Traffic: A successful blog will get a good amount of traffic on the internet. This means that it will have a healthy number of new and returning visitors to the blog site. Though the amount of traffic will widely vary from one niche to another, even smaller niches get a reasonable amount of traffic.

The following points explain the advantages of niche blogging:

• Committed Readers: The niche blogs usually enjoy a committed readership. These readers keep coming back looking for more content and information.
• High Credibility for the Author/Blogger: If the content of the blog is relevant and unique, niche blogging can quickly elevate the author of the blog to the status of an "expert".
• Search Engines Love Niche Blogs: If the content of the blog is unique, fresh and tightly centered around the principal topic, search engines give it a high priority. There is a greater possibility of ranking in the top 10 or 20 results for the keywords, especially if sufficient numbers of searches are made for the related keywords.
• SEO Friendly: SEO stands for search engine optimization. Niche blogs can be easily optimized for search engines. This is due to the blog being focused around a highly related set of keywords, unique and fresh content, good quality and quantity of relevant backlinks and targeted readership.
• Advertiser Interest: If the niche blog becomes successful in getting a critical mass of readership, it is much easier to attract paying advertisers. Therefore, it easier to monetize a niche blog more profitably.

Every coin has two faces. Likewise, niche blogging has some downsides also. The few critical disadvantages of niche blogging are as follows:

• Smaller Audience, hence fewer potential Customers: A niche blog by its very definition has focused audience. Hence, fewer people visit a niche blog, meaning fewer potential customers for any services or products that the blog offers.
• Delayed Search Engine Traffic: Search Engine traffic takes time to build up for a niche blog. It takes time to get out of the Google sandbox, and for the search engines to start trusting the niche blog.
• Fewer Affiliate Programs: The more focused a niche blog becomes, the fewer is the number of affiliate programs that are suited to the blog. This makes monetization more difficult.
• Lesser Contextual Advertisements: If the primary business model for blog monetization is through contextual advertisements like Adsense, Yahoo Ads or Adbrite, it becomes difficult to get suitable ads for some tightly focused niches. Again, this may affect the proper and successful monetization of the blog.
• Suitable Content: It is always a challenge to get good quality content, more so if you are catering to a focused audience. Even if you are an established expert in the niche of your choice, it is an intellectual challenge to keep up a constant supply of fresh, unique and relevant content.

So, you have decided that you will create a blog on the the area of your interest, that is, you have chosen a niche. But wait, how did you reach this decision? Have you made the right choice? In other words, you should keep the following points in mind while selecting a niche for blogging:

• Do you have sufficient interest and passion in the topic? The readers are intelligent enough to see and judge if the writer has sufficient interest in the topic that he/she is writing about. If you are passionate about the topic, it shows in your writing.
• What is the interest level in the topic of your choice? If the niche is so highly focused that it has only a few hundred searches per month on Google, it is difficult to convert this into likely traffic.
• What is the trend regarding the niche? Is the interest level in the niche growing, or is the interest level declining? Is the niche seasonal, so that the interest level spikes during some time, while it remains low for the rest of the period?
• What is the competition that you are likely to face in the niche, at present and in the near, foreseeable future? Are your competitors established giants in the field, with many years of presence on the internet?
• Do you have anything new and fresh to say on the topic? Is there something that the current competition is neglecting that you can talk about?
• Will you be able to supply a healthy stream of fresh, original, unique and relevant content for a long, long time? Will you be able to do it on your own, or can you catch hold of someone to do it well for you?
• Last, but obviously, not the least, can the niche be successfully monetized, whether from advertisements, affiliate programs or through a contextual ads?

The following is brief list of the most successful, best performing and evergreen niches, which can be used to create a successful blog:

Politics

Sports

Business

Make/Save Money

Travel

Photography

Designing and Art

Gossip

Spirituality

Technology

Gadgets

Careers.

Writing and Blogging

Cooking and Recipes.

While choosing the right and the best niche to create a blog, keep all the characteristics, pros and cons of niche blogging, and the criteria for choosing the right niche in your mind. It is also absolutely important to maintain a right balance between your passion for the topic and its profitability. And do not forget to promote your niche blog extensively!

As already mentioned above, the success with a niche will depend on many factors, such as the total interest in the niche (what is the monthly search volume for that niche), the total number of websites and blogs that are already serving in that niche, and whether that niche can be monetized at all. For example, "making money online" itself is a very popular niche. but just google that term, and you will be overwhelmed with the number of results. Again, "weight loss" is another good niche, but then again, it is very difficult for a newcomer to rank well for this niche.

Even with the above subjects, you will have to further discover a sub-niche to be successful. For example, career advice is a very popular subject, but there are a lot of websites in this very field. This means more competition. But you may chose to blog about a vey specialized sub-niche in this area, for example, writing resumes for IT experts. The more specialized a sub-niche, the more will be your chances to see any success in your blogging venture.