Choosing a Blog Niche: Passion Or Profit?

Updated: Feb 14, 2023 @ 11:23 am

Choosing a blog niche can be really quite tricky, especially if you’re completely new to blogging. Some blog niches are more profitable than others. And some simply won’t make you any money at all.

So are you blogging for profit, or writing about your passion?

When I decided to name this blog Busy Being Mummy it was based on my target audience, rather than on the topic of the blog.

I already had my blog niche planned out. I knew it could be profitable. And blogging is something I know a lot about. I knew there was an engaged audience. And I was aware that this is already a crowded space.

You see this blog is all about helping other women start a blog.

My avatar (ideal reader) is a woman who had a career before having children, but has put her career on hold because she’s busy being mummy. That woman now either cannot – or doesn’t want to – return to her previous career. She’s looking for genuine ways to make an income from home around her family = i.e. start a blog.

I know I can write for this woman. And I know the sort of things she needs help with. Because this woman was me. She was me when I started my first blog, shortly after having my second baby.

So I know I can help solve her problems.

Over the last couple of years I’ve read a LOT of advice about blogging. And I’ve watched so many online tutorials. Not to mention the number of Facebook “lives” and webinars I’ve attended.

The advice to women who fit my avatar’s profile is usually the same: you have to be passionate about your blog niche.

And the message nearly always contains the false promise that you can start a blog and make money by writing about your passion. That you have to be passionate about your blog niche.

Related: discover why it’s important to choose your blog niche before you start a blog.

Choosing a Blog Niche: Passion

Now I’m here to burst that bubble busy mummy.

It is very unlikely that you will start a money making blog about your passion.

Blogs about passions generally fall under the lifestyle category of blogging. And lifestyle blogs are very difficult to monetise.

Why?

Because they’re generally a collection of unrelated – or loosely linked – topics where we basically write about ourselves and things we want to write about.

But we’re told that we need to be passionate about our blog niche, because otherwise we’ll lose interest and the whole thing will fizzle out and be a massive flop.

This is a half-truth.

Most blogs fizzle out and become a massive flop because lots of new bloggers listen to bad advice.

They are not fully prepared for just how difficult blogging is. And they don’t realise just how much new stuff they’re going to have to learn.

It is not because they lack passion for their blog niche.

These beginner bloggers have been mis-sold the dream that they can earn six figures a month from passive income generated by their blog.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s absolutely possible to earn six figures and more from a blog.

But it’s not passive. It’s not easy. And it won’t happen overnight. Or even in the first year, or longer.

Related: find out how to start a money making blog the RIGHT way

I cringe when I see people posting in the blogging Facebook groups I’m in, saying that they want to start a blog about their pregnancy, Latin American dancing, the keto diet and bullet journaling and they get lots of responses saying things like “it’s a great idea” and “I’d read your blog!”

Choose One Blog Niche

All I want to do is to scream at these people “CHOOSE ONE!”

Clearly they’re following the advice to be passionate about their blog niche. And, you know what? Maybe they have the magic skills to be able to make that lifestyle blog insanely profitable.

Or maybe they don’t want to make money from their blog. (But I know they do, because their follow up posts are usually along the lines of “how long before I make any money from my blog?” Or “I’ve been blogging for three months and I haven’t made any money yet.”)

It’s at this point that these new bloggers are told to learn SEO, Pinterest or Facebook ads. Or they’re placated with the reasoning that Google won’t rank new blogs because they need to gain trust.

All these things are valid.

But not if the blog niche isn’t a profitable one.

Writing about things you’re passionate about and calling it a lifestyle blog is the fast track to your blog fizzling out and being a massive flop.

So if you’ve read this far and you still want to write that pregnancy / Latin American dancing / keto / bullet journaling blog because those are things you’re passionate about, then do. It’s your blog. You can write about whatever you like. And, hey, if you enjoy writing and creating content then that’s reward enough.

But don’t expect to make much money.

And don’t feel bad if six months down the road you’ve stopped writing blog posts altogether because your blog isn’t gaining the traction you’d hoped it would.

Choosing a Blog Niche: Profit

Now I’m not here to try to put you off starting a blog. Quite the opposite actually. I want you to be a successful blogger.

So I want you to come into this with your eyes wide open!

Starting a blog takes a lot of hard work and determination. It’s difficult. And there’s a tonne of stuff to learn, most of which you only become aware of once you’ve started blogging.

It is entirely possible to start a profitable blog. You just need to be clear from the very beginning that you’re blogging for profit and not simply writing about your passion.

So it’s crucially important to decide on your blog niche before you spend weeks, months or even years working on your blog.

And you need to RESEARCH your chosen niche BEFORE you start your blog.

Related: 301 topics you could use to start your blog

Remember the jumbled assortment of blog topics I used as an example before? Any of those four separate topics have the potential to make a profitable blog. That is to say you could choose any one of those topics and begin niching down from there.

But before you rush off to start your “my pregnancy” blog, you need to research it first. As odd as it may seem, your profitable blog is not about you. It’s about your audience.

Do Your Research Before You Start A Blog

A simple Google search for “pregnancy blogs” will tell you if this is a profitable niche for your blog.

Find out who the top pregnancy bloggers are. What exactly do they blog about? How do they make money from their blog? Do they have a big social media following? Are there lots of recent articles ranking in the first couple of pages of Google’s search results?

Then head over to Google trends and search for pregnancy (or a pregnancy related topic) and filter the results for your country, region and then worldwide. Is this something people are searching for a lot? Are there lots of products for sale related to pregnancy? Any of those you could make yourself? Or could you market other people’s products through affiliate programs?

Do people have lots of questions related to pregnancy? And do you have a wealth of experience / knowledge that could really help them with their problems?

You might go through all this work and realise that, actually, you can’t create a profitable pregnancy blog. But isn’t it better to know this now, rather than six months down the road when you’re stressed, worn out and depressed that your blog is a massive flop?

If you do all the research before you start a blog, and decide that particular niche isn’t going to be profitable for you, then you can simply move onto the next idea and research that. Sure you’ve lost a few days, but you’ve saved yourself so much time, effort, stress and money.

My next piece of advice is not to worry if your chosen niche already seems crowded.

Like I said right at the beginning of this post, I knew that my chosen blog niche was a crowded space.

And I was encouraged by this knowledge!

It meant that there was a ready market and an established audience that I could tap right into.

To be successful in a crowded blog niche you just need to find a new angle. Or have a different voice to the rest of the noise to be able to stand out.

Choosing a Profitable Blog Niche: Not a Mommy Blog

I’ve described myself as a “mummy blogger” in the past.

My first blog was just that: a mummy blog. I’d write about my experiences of motherhood and about raising two girls. I had no plan. Nevertheless I gained a small tribe of followers, which meant that brands started showing an interest and wanted to work with me.

But, generally speaking, mummy blogs are not really taken very seriously by those outside of the mom blog world. When I became aware of this I tried to pivot my blog, and called it a “parenting and lifestyle blog.” A rather thinly disguised mom blog!

Now I know better, I’ve really niched down and only post about very specific topics that are linked directly to my blog niche. It’s given me so much more focus and it’s far easier to plan ahead now.

When I decided to start Busy Being Mummy – this site – I very purposefully wanted to target would-be-mummy-bloggers. Not because I want to encourage a horde of women to become mom bloggers. It’s because I want you to feel empowered to create a profitable blog in any niche, separate from your mummy role.

I’d like us to think more of ourselves as bloggers who are also mummies. And not necessarily mummy bloggers.

I think many mummies start out writing a mommy blog because it’s something safe and comfortable. It’s our life. And so it’s natural to want to talk about it and offer other mums advice on things we’ve struggled with.

But we had lives and identities before we had kids.

Many of us had careers. Some are highly skilled. And lucrative. And we are extremely knowledgeable in areas other than parenting and mom life.

It’s time for a shift away from the idea of the mompreneur. The term mompreneur is automatically devalued outside of the mommy blogger world. So let’s start calling ourselves what we are: entrepreneurs who also happen to have children and a family to take care of.

Related: here are 12 ways you can make money from your (mummy) blog

Mommy Blog?

You might be a mum with a blog, but that doesn’t mean you have to have a mommy blog.

Even if you decide that your chosen blog niche is linked to pregnancy motherhood or parenting, the key to success will be to narrow the focus of your niche, and to think of it as a business and not a mom blog.

Niche down to something very specific – or have a very targeted audience – and you’ll be able to start monetising your site far more quickly than if you tried to write about several different topics under one broad theme.

Let’s take the pregnancy idea for example.

This is a niche in its own right. But you’re going to want to tighten the focus even more. Maybe focus in on teen pregnancy, or pregnancy in over 40s, or pregnant and diabetic, or pregnancy with multiple babies, or single and pregnant.

In each of these examples the questions, pain points and struggles of the target audience are going to be quite different from one another.

You don’t need to worry about missing out on the broader pregnancy audience, because you’ll have very targeted traffic from readers who are looking for exactly what you write about.

Targeted readers are far more likely to convert into buyers. They’re searching for products, advice and solutions that you will provide for them in your very specific blog niche.

And this is how you create a profitable blog.

There are some very savvy digital marketers and content creators out there who are advocates of creating niche sites. And they choose their niche on its profitability, not on whether or not they are passionate about the topic.

When you’re done here, go check out Ryan Deiss from Digital Marketer, or Mike Pearson from Stupid Simple SEO. These guys are making serious money from creating niche sites. And you can too!

Choosing a Blog Niche: The Takeaway

To recap here are the big takeaways I’ve covered about choosing your blog niche in this article:

• Creating a blog about all the things you’re passionate about is unlikely to be profitable
• You do not need to be passionate about your blog niche for it to be successful and profitable
• It is possible to start a profitable blog
• Profitable blogs have a very clearly defined niche, or a highly targeted audience
• Savvy bloggers research potential blog niches before they launch their blog. If it doesn’t look profitable, they move on to the next idea
• Just because you have kids, doesn’t mean you’re a “mummy blogger”
• Lose the label mompreneur and start to think of yourself as an entrepreneur who also has children
• A very narrowly defined niche will be easier to monetise than a broad topic blog, or lifestyle blog

Of course there are exceptions – and there are some insanely profitable mommy blogs / lifestyle blogs. BUT these are created by seasoned bloggers. People who are not learning the ropes and just starting out on their blogging journey

Choose ONE thing to blog about. When you start to see some traction and growth you can think about adding a second – but highly related – topic.

The Most Important Thing To Remember:

A profitable blog is not about you. And it’s not for you. You will not make money from a vanity blog. A profitable blog is for your audience. It’s all about your audience and solving their problems.

What Next?

I share lots of high-value, useful and personalised hints, tips and advice in my Facebook community most of which I don’t share anywhere else. So don’t miss out! Come and join my community of busy mummies just like you who want to start a blog but don’t know how or where to start.

Or if Instagram is where you prefer to hang out, you can find me there too!

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Choosing a Blog Niche: Passion or Profit?

Did this post help you? If you have any questions about how to choose a profitable blog niche, just drop them in the comments below and I’ll happily get back to you!