You’re wondering … Is your niche the reason why you are not making money online yet? Sometimes, a niche can seem right because it ticks the right boxes:
- Good keyword research results: high to medium searches per month with medium to low competition.
- It was a niche that you were passionate about.
All in all it looked like a sound investment. So, you spent time writing good content to attract visitors into becoming readers and buying your product. But now this niche isn’t looking so good, is it …?
- Low (or non-existent) traffic figures.
- Few, if any, comments.
- No tweets or retweets on Twitter.
- No likes on Facebook.
- Worst still, you’re losing interest and lacking focus.
You’re wondering if continuing on with blogging is worth it. Asking yourself if you should carry on. Should you hang in there a few months more just in case things pick up? Or will you still be frustrated and feeling invisible 3 months … 6 months … a year down the line? Does this sound familiar? If it does, there are 3 simple steps you can take to turn your blog around. But first, you need to find out if your niche is the problem. Sometimes, it’s obvious. Sometimes less obvious. Sometimes you just need a little help to see what’s working and what isn’t. So, let’s take a look at 11 of the most common warning signs that you picked the wrong niche.
Do You Recognise Any Of These Warning Signs?
Warning Sign #1: You don’t get m(any) comments
You’re not connecting with anyone. You’re not saying anything people can identify with. You’re not writing anything that’s new, or that challenges their current thinking. To be successful and make money your blog has to make people think:
- “Wow! That’s just what I’ve been thinking. Maybe I should read more.”
- “This is just what I’ve been searching for.”
- “I never even thought of that before!”
Unless, enough people share your love for your niche no one will care. No one will read your blog.
“The only reason people read any blog is because of the value that they get from it.” – Glen Allsopp
Warning sign #2: No one shares your content on Facebook or Twitter
This is a sure sign no one shares your love for the niche you picked. So, nothing you writes interests them. They’ve heard it all before and it doesn’t excite them any more.
Warning sign #3: You’ve got no focus
To blog successfully you have to focus on what your readers actually want – not what you “think“ they want. Then you have to give it to them. So many bloggers start off blogging from the wrong angle. They focus on: What will make me money? Instead, you need to start by asking the question:
How can I give enough people what they want so that they feel so good about reading my blog AND keep reading it and tell other people to read it too?
Warning sign #4: You chose your niche because you felt passionate about it
Blogging is full of advice to “follow your passion” or “blog about what you love“. Unfortunately, this advice is misleading because the truth is that choosing a niche that you’re passionate about doesn’t actually mean that you’ll enjoy blogging about it (or building it into a profitable business).
“There are many ways that we find to make doing something we love become boring.” – Jonathan Mead
Warning sign #5: You picked a niche because you thought it would make you money
After all, that’s really why you’re blogging, right? It’s why we’re all blogging. But, the truth is …
You can only build a successful income online if you can connect your blog’s niche to what people actually want to know.
People want results. Can you give them those results? That’s all they want to know. If you can – Great! They’ll read your blog, subscribe to your email list and buy your products. If not. They won’t.
Warning sign #6: You used keyword research to pick your niche
Okay, so you think I’m crazy even suggesting keyword research could have anything to do with your niche’s failure. Keyword research won’t help you pick a niche that makes your blog successful. Not by itself. In fact, it’s only a small part of the equation. You have to:
- Choose the right audience,
- Create remarkable content to keep on attracting that audience to your blog.
“Write for people. Not Google” – Chris Garrett
If you don’t focus on choosing the right audience or creating remarkable content, no amount of keyword research in the world will make you niche work (or your blog successful). Google hinted at this when it introduced it’s Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird algorithms.
Warning sign #7: You’ve got no books on your bookshelf about your niche
“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” ― Stephen King
How many books do you own that talk about your niche? If you haven’t got any chances are it doesn’t interest you enough. Popular bloggers: Derek Halpern, Corbett Barr and Jon Morrow read outside, around and inside their topic. They keep ideas pounding away inside their heads. This keeps their topic fresh. In one month, I bought 12 books on Marketing. (And yes, I’m working my way through reading them all!) .
TIP: If you don’t think you’ve got time to read, listen to audiobooks. You can buy them from Audible.com, or Amazon.com. Or your favourite book shop. Or borrow them from your local library
Warning sign #8: No one’s spending money in your niche
Here are 3 simple ways to tell if they are:
- The advertisements on the blogs are for the blogger’s own products
- These bloggers talk proudly about their students success (or clients) as well as talking about the products they sell?
- They hold regular webinars, launches, etc to sell their products?
If not, chances are no one’s spending much (if any) money in this niche. A sure sign that you should steer clear and follow the 3 steps coming up for how to pick a niche that makes money.
Warning sign #9: You can’t find anything new to say about your niche
You should be stumbling over new and fresh ideas. Or at least, adding your opinions to the pot. Surely, there’s a trend, or a fad, that’s big at the moment in your niche that you disagree agree with? Or hold a different viewpoint about? Or maybe, you’ve got something to add? This doesn’t mean you need to be controversial. It just means you need to have ideas for content that says something fresh. Not finding it easy to write about your niche doesn’t bode well for your blog because you’ve got nothing to turn people’s heads. Nothing to make them think:
- “Wow! Didn’t expect anyone to say THAT!”
- “At last! Someone with the answer I’ve been looking for!”
- “That’s just what I’ve been thinking!”
Warning sign #10: You find yourself visiting other blogs for ideas for what to write about
No traffic, no readers, no money … You look at what popular bloggers in your niche are writing about. After all, people are reading their content, right? So, you find their popular posts and think: I’ll write about this topic on my blog. Then maybe I’ll get some readers too. Sorry, but … Why would people want to read content on your blog that they’ve already read on someone else’s blog? And can read on a hundred other blogs too?
Warning sign #11: You can’t think what to offer people as a free incentive for subscribing to your email address
It should be easy to decide what to offer. Easy because you know what your readers want. If you’re struggling to find an incentive to convince people to subscribe to your email list it’s a warning sign that you don’t know what they want or why they should buy anything from you.
Do You Recognise Any of These Warning Signs?
If so, should you give up? Not necessarily. You might look at this list of warning signs and you might recognise some, or all of them and you might get despondent and quit. And that would be a shame. The truth is, warning signs are just that – warning signs. They’re not sure-fire reasons why your niche isn’t working, or why your blog is failing, or a reason why you should quit. What is certain is that this list of warning signs is not reason alone to quit. There is hope. There are ways for you to save your blog.
The Simple 3-Step Plan For Picking A Profitable Niche (and Saving Your Blog)
It’s time to take a step back from your blog and look at what it takes to make a blog successful. What it takes to create a thriving audience who loves reading your content. An audience who shares your content on social media. An audience who buys your products. This step back from your blog lets you see it more clearly, and with fresh eyes. You get to see where your niche might be failing and how you can start to turn it around.
1. Forget Keyword Research. Find People With A Problem You Can Solve
Why did you choose your current niche? Because keyword research showed you that lot’s of people were searching for it online? Keyword research alone won’t help you pick a money-making niche. You need to find enough people who have the same problem and are willing to pay you for giving them real solutions. Can you adapt your current niche to give people what they actually want to:
- Spend time reading about on your blog?
- Share on Twitter and Facebook so other people read it too.
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2. Answer This Question: Why Will People Want To Read Your Blog?
To help you answer this question (and find real focus for your blog) you need to decide these 2 factors:
Factor 1: What end result do people get out reading my blog?
This end result needs to match up with what you know about your readers goals. For example …
- What do they want to know more about?
- What do they want to be able to do that they can’t do now (but will discover how to do by reading your blog)?
- What are they struggling with that you can help them overcome – what solutions or steps can you give them in the content you produce on your blog?
Factor 2: Is this end result one that excites you enough that you can …
- Create remarkable content that will help them achieve this end result?
- Keep on creating remarkable content using this cheat-sheet included here?
… Or, if you don’t already know the answers or steps to give them, you’re willing to go out and find these answers. Either by interviewing other people who know. Or by finding out yourself and writing about it.
3. Don’t Just Pick A Niche And Stop There
Look for end results that readers want but aren’t getting yet – Gaps in the information or steps that readers want filling (and then see if you can fill them). Match these gaps in information desired to what you know and can give them steps to filling these gaps.
TIP: Readers leave clues on other blogs for what they really want to know.
You can find these clues by reading the comments sections of blogs in a niche you’re thinking of blogging about. Comments are a good way of finding out what readers are looking to find out. Look for comments that contain questions. Questions that ask for more information like this …
Bottom Line: The easiest way to find the right niche is to find out what people are still looking for. Then you asking yourself if you’re prepared to give to them. Getting traffic, readers, subscribers and making money is a lot simpler and fun if you just fill in the gaps between what people want and what they’re not getting (yet). How?
- Reach out to people still struggling, still looking for answers, still trying to find out how to do things, or solve problems.
- Find them by reading the comments sections on popular blogs.
- If you can help, do so. If you can’t then spend some time trying to find someone else who can. Then introduce them to each other.
- Stand out as a good egg. Someone who wants to help.
There are still a lot of people who still need answers. They’re waiting. Waiting for someone to reach out and give them these answers. Are you ready to step up to the plate?
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