1000 USD 2011 Best Guest Blogger Contest Article Approved
The Internet is over-saturated with blogs. Just starting a blog is not very difficult. If you just want to have a generic online presence, your initial blogging process can remain unimaginative.
Readers want to get information, advice, and updates from the experts of their field. In the process of establishing your expertise in your niche, you actually have to have an expertise in the niche (there is no shortcut). Of course, the process of establishing said expertise could not occur overnight.
Start with a simple and most striking decision; choose to blog about what you know. The topic that you choose should be your primary interest, enough for you to strive to know the latest, the best, and the most on this area.
Analysis of your stand
Analyze your priorities. Start by figuring out the main purpose for your blog. What do you want from you blog:
- Online marketing for your products/services.
- To start an income from the blog itself.
- To establish an online presence with an option to economize your blog in the future.
- Simply, because you love to write and extremely interested in a particular topic.
It is not imperative that your purpose be isolated within just these options. You can relate to more than one option here. However, it is important to figure your stand in the game.
Standards by which you measure your topic selection
The wrong blog topic choice can actually go so far as to ruin your chances to achieve your blogging purpose. Alternatively, you could get results but they are a fraction of what you could achieve with the right topic.
- Do not blog about a subject just because the A-listers of that niche are making heaps of money with it. In no way, will that influence your blogging process or outcome. Blog on the topic where you have an exceptional grasp of the subject and you think you can bring innovative and unprecedented concepts on the table.
- Contrarily, you might be very passionate about some subject but the niche audience group is too tight to create a large following. Definitely you can blog about the subject but integrate it with a related sub-topic that might not have such a selective target audience group.
Aim to find the balance between your passion and creativity with the commercial aspects of your blog.
Advantages of blogging about what you know
Blogging will get stressful if you are floundering for your next post inspiration, all the time. When you blog about what you know, you already know the subject’s best areas. Hence, you can be more creative with your posts. It makes sense that you might have more ideas to update posts on your blog regularly since what you write is what you know to be the hottest point of interest in your zone.
Analysis of your blog’s income potential is important. The range of authentic ideas and information that you put on your blog affects your readership. Your grasp on what you blog about will translate in to a strategy unto itself into attracting more followers.
A wider blog niche can be a disadvantage when you cannot manage your time to juggle all the aspects. Narrow the blog down to concentrate more on your main subject of expertise. You can develop the blog in time when you have a better management process.
Follow your competitor blogs and keep track of the topics or ideas that they might have ignored. The advantage here is that you can regroup these ‘gaps’ in the ideas and fill them with your creative take. However, to grasp these neglected details, keep yourself up to date on the latest in your subject.
Final step to compliment your blog posts
Promote your posts to get maximum exposure. Your niche has so many blog options for the readers. Unfortunately, just writing about what you know might not be enough, market this fact (and your blog) to your audience. Social media sites are a boon to this age of bloggers, make maximum use of these sites.
Some good and reasonable (if not professional) SEO for your posts will take you up in the search engine charts effortlessly establishing your expertise without compromising your post integrity.
When you pair effective marketing with your undeniable interest in your own blog topic, it will not fail to impress the readers. However, follow it up by cultivating readership with efficient networking.
What are your thoughts?
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Twitter: Mazzastick
Hi Jane,
I have seen many blogs that have been started by people who are just not ready to blog about the niche that they chose. Generally they are interested in the niche but don’t have the knowledge or experience to effectively blog about it.
I would tell new bloggers to pick a niche that they know a lot about and earn money doing it, then they can choose other niche’s to learn and grow with. I see too many new bloggers aggravated by the almost zero results monetarily and that is because they are not yet an expert.
Take Care…
Justin | Personal Growth recently posted..How to Turn your Passion to Fulfill your Dreams
It is true that following someone in the line of blogging will not yield result. A successful blog will make a difference in the reader’s life. That makes the reader visit your future blogs and refer your blog to their friends. Hence, adding value through a blog is more important! Understanding the tools, technology, reader’s tastes, lifestyles and broadminded approach of the blogger will lead to success.
Twitter: bobandrosemary
Hey Jane, this is a solid post outlining exactly what it takes to become a successful blogger. I love the part about there being no shortcuts to becoming an “expert” in something.
While it may be true that you don’t need to be the foremost authority on a subject to consider yourself an expert, you at least need to put in the time and energy to become more knowledgable than most. People are always looking for shortcuts, and in most areas of business there are none.
Thanks for this important information. Good luck in your contest!
Twitter: bloggingmentor
You have to know and love it. That’s the key to being able to blog about a topic week after week and year after year.
Annabel Candy, Successful Blogging recently posted..CASH GIVEAWAY! Who Else Wants Cash for Blogging?
Twitter: abundantjourney
Thank you for the post. For nearly a year I floundered around trying to figure out my focus. Finally, when I decided to write about something I was passionate about and could do without much chagrin I noticed an immediate spike in my blogs traffic. Picking a niche was definitely the changer for me.
Shonda recently posted..A Rough Guide to Tuscany
Twitter: kikolani
You definitely have to blog about what you know or what you are passionate about (or preferably both) if you want to succeed in marketing. I feel like the reader knows when you are excited about a topic vs. when you are writing about it just to get rankings, traffic, etc.
Kristi Hines recently posted..How to Win a Blogging Contest
Twitter: ForteProperties
This is an excellent post. I have been a firm believer from day 1 that the first step to being a good blogger is to blog about what you know. This is awesome… Thanks for sharing!!
Chris recently posted..Austin Home Search The Easy Way
Twitter: MavisNong
Hi Jane,
This is an excellent post explaining what it takes to become a successful blogger. It all starts with having a passion for blogging and writing about what you love and know.
Thanks for sharing. All the best with the contest!
Mavis
Mavis Nong recently posted..It’s the Top 50 MLM Blogs Contest Time – Please Help Me Win it!
Twitter: blogsnewsreview
I find it much more interesting to write about what I don’t know. Sure it’s wrong but I learn so much from the comments! Seriously, “write what you know” is classic writing advice. In fact, if your article contains the appropriate vocabulary, it is going to naturally rank better for SEO. Yes, you can write about camping and target a couple of keywords, but when you really know your stuff, words like “tent” ground cloth” “guyline” “condensation” “fly” “tent peg” etc. are going to naturally find their way into your article. When you write about what you know, it shows. And the search engines notice.
Astro Gremlin recently posted..How to Build a Campfire
Twitter: ITSergioFelix
Hey Jane,
I completely agree on writing about what you like!
Particularly because we tend to read a LOT going from article to article.
That translates into having this kind of “higher perception” of things…
So whenever someone is actually writing for anything but his or her passions, we (sadly) can notice it and it’s almost a sure bet we won’t be coming back to that place.
A bit harsh yes, but true, nevertheless.
Sergio
Sergio Felix recently posted..Overcoming Fear Of Video Creation: 7-Day Challenge Summary
Yes, yes, yes. About what you know AND about what you are passionate about. You should never have to worry about writers block or not knowing what to write about. You should only be writing when there is something inside you, something just bursting to get out!
David Leonhardt recently posted..Canadians Ready to Spend More this Holiday Season
Hi, thanks for writing such an informative article. I’ve been writing many blogs for the past three years about various topics like SEO, blogging tips etc, but I was not successful. Now I understand what my mistake was. I should have blogged about what I know.Thank you once more for this inspiring blog.
Jaison Saji recently posted..Funny Mr Bean