Help Selecting a Website Niche or Blog Topic
by Warren
(NY)
Research
Research is the first approach that comes to mind. Each day you should check for the most popular topics on several search sites. When tailored properly, these topics can be used to drive traffic to your site. Every day spend 30 minutes reviewing the most popular searched terms at the search sites. After your review has been completed just create a quick post. You should be able to generate traffic from the mere fact that people are still searching for more information on this topic. By researching first what is hot in terms of a topic you are gearing your blog post towards what your readers what to see/read. Now it may take a little time but the benefits (traffic) definitely outweighs the costs.
Friendly Recommendation
Now most people that have been blogging or generating their own content for a while, at some points will run low on ideas. You start to feel like there isn’t anything left to write about. Some call it writers block and some just call it a bump in the road. We all at some point go through this period and we must all come out of it. If you find yourself stuck at a road block don’t hesitate to reach out for help. Talk to people at work, family, and friends. Ask for blog suggestions, topics they find interesting. You will be surprised at some of the suggestion that you receive. If you would rather be more subtle in your approach consider simply bouncing topics off friends. A casual question such as “did you hear about(topic), what you think about it?” will usually elicit some great responses. These ideas are potentially great posts.
The News
The news is also a great place to gather information for a topic. It does not matter whether the local news, local paper or radio is used. Most news topics have been thoroughly researched and investigated prior to release to the public. As long as you are follow a similar path on the topic you can benefit from their investigations. Keep in mind, you are not using their ideas exactly, you are commenting/blogging about it. You are sharing your own personal opinion on a topic. For example, if there are new smoking laws affecting your city, you might blog about the benefits to the restaurant industry in your opinion. You would be surprised at how many people are interested in your point of view.
Other Blogs
If you are still in need for topics, consider reading a few other blogs. What are they talking about? It is a safe bet that your views on the same topic will be different. Create a post for your blog stating your opinion. Don’t steal their ideas. The purpose of the visit is to help generate a few ideas of your own. Sometimes all we need is a though provoking conversation to jump start a few ideas of our own. Visiting a few others blogs should help with this jump start.
Come Back To It Tomorrow
Worst case scenario, come back to it tomorrow. Relax, watch the football game, have a beer. When you come back to the task at hand your mind will be more relaxed and your outlook fresh. In addition, once you are away from the stresses of coming up with a topic, something may pop in your head.
Research Tools
Finally, you could consider using any one of a number of niche research tools on the market today. I’ve been using Market Samurai for my website research and Micro Niche Finder for my blogs however both tools are great and can be used interchangeably.
If you have been thinking about starting your website or blog, let’s get started now. If you have a topic in mind, great! If not and you need help, check out the above tool links. As I mentioned already I use both tools and highly recommend them. Lets not waste another minutes, you can get started today.
