How To Choose A Profitable Blog Niche As A Beginner (2023)

Starting a blog is more than just a hobby. It’s a business venture that has the potential to transform your life. 

By choosing the right niche, you’re setting a solid foundation for your blogging success.

You see, finding the right niche as a beginner is not easy. It’s where your passion and profit meet. 

But here’s the catch, passion alone might not sustain your blog in the long run. While it’s important to choose a niche that sparks your interest, profitability should also be a key factor in your decision-making process.

Think about it this way, your passion is the fuel that keeps you going when times get tough. It’s what motivates you to create amazing content and connect with your audience. 

However, if your blog isn’t making money even after years of hard work, that passion may begin to fade away. That’s why we need to find a balance between passion and profitability.

What is a blog niche

A blog niche is a specific topic or subject area that a blogger focuses on to create content and attract a specific target audience. 

It helps establish the blog’s identity, positioning, and expertise while increasing the chances of building a loyal readership and monetizing the blog effectively.

Different Types of Niches

When it comes to niches, there are two main types: broad niches and micro niches.

1. Broad niches

When it comes to broad niches, there are four major industries that are highly profitable.

Blogs that talk about finance, health, leisure and relationships generate a lot of money.

For example, a finance blog can focus on topics like budgeting, loans, investment, entrepreneurship and so on.

These industries are packed with potential, but keep in mind that broad niches often come with fierce competition.

2. Micro niches

If you’re just starting out, I highly recommend targeting micro niches. 

Micro niches offer several advantages, especially for beginners. Firstly, they are less crowded and competitive, giving your small blog a chance to grow fast.

Secondly, micro niches help search engines like Google understand your site better, leading to increased visibility.

By focusing on a specific sub-topic like in finance you can choose to only write about loans. You can address topics like student loans, corporate loans, business loans and so on.

How to find a profitable blog niche

When you search the term “how to find a profitable blog niche” in Google or Youtube. You will see countless articles and videos about these search queries.

But the honest truth is that some of the contents you discover might not provide the proper steps in finding a profitable blog niche for beginners.

I will provide the best step by step to follow when finding a profitable niche for your blog.

Let’s say you’ve started doing some research, exploring various niches that catch your interest. For instance, imagine you’re an expert in digital art and you search for “best digital art tools”. 

However, the search results you come across don’t quite align with your expert opinion. 

You know there’s a better way to approach this topic, and that’s where your opportunity lies.

Now let’s focus on the step by step process for choosing a blog niche.

1. Professional Knowledge & Experience

What unique knowledge and experiences do you possess that could captivate an audience?

Take, for instance, you know everything there is to know about coffee beans, brewing techniques, and the process of creating a perfect cup of coffee. 

You can start a blog dedicated to all things coffee, and you can earn a substantial income from it.

Whether you’re a fitness enthusiast, a master at DIY home renovations, or an expert in creating unique cocktail recipes, your passion and expertise can be transformed into a thriving blog.

2. Personal Experience

Think about those moments when you’ve had to make significant purchases – the ones that required thorough research and careful consideration. 

Maybe it was finding the perfect apartment on a budget, selecting a high-quality camera for your photography passion, or even choosing the best yoga mat for your daily practice. 

Your expertise in these areas is valuable, and there are people out there eagerly searching for the insights and tips on such topics.

3. Brainstorming ideas

One important thing I want to highlight about brainstorming blog niche ideas is that sometimes you might stumble upon an area that truly catches your interest, but you find yourself knowing nothing about it. 

So, when you come across such niches, it’s time to ask yourself a crucial question: how fast can you attain that knowledge?

For example, you are interested in law, criminal law in particular. But you know that lawyers spend years learning before practicing. 

So as an absolute beginner starting a blog in this niche will be difficult to grow because you know nothing about law.

But let’s say you choose to blog about barbecue, it will be easy for you to grow fast because the learning curve is not hard. Within a few weeks or months you can acquire the knowledge of making and processing barbecue.

If you choose to venture into random niches is okay but make sure it is something you can write about.

4. Based on Products

When searching for niches, start by visiting popular e-commerce platforms like Amazon. Take a stroll through their product categories, keeping an eye out for anything that captures your interest. 

Browse through your own Amazon browsing history – who knows, those products you’ve explored might inspire a niche idea that excites you.

Sign up for an affiliate account on platforms like Impact, where countless companies are eager to partner with affiliates. 

Explore the vast array of products available for promotion. You never know, while browsing through those products, you might stumble upon a niche idea that aligns perfectly with your passions.

5. Sites On Sale

When it comes to finding lucrative niches, there are two amazing platforms that can be your secret weapons: Flippa and Empire Flippers. There are many websites on sales in their marketplace.

Take your time to navigate through the various niches listed and pay close attention to their monthly revenue.

Remember, we’re on the hunt for profitability, so keep your eyes peeled for niches that show consistent income potential.

What’s fascinating about these platforms is that each site on sale represents a profitable niche.

As you explore, you’ll begin to get a feel for the types of niches that are thriving in the online world.

6. Use Site Aggregators

When it comes to exploring niche ideas, I have a fantastic resource that I can’t wait to share with you. 

You know, sometimes it can be challenging to brainstorm fresh and unique blog niche ideas, But visiting websites aggregators like Feedspot you can discover dozens of niche websites.

Feedspot is a hub of diverse blog categories that can spark your creativity and lead you to your perfect niche.

What makes Feedspot even more interesting is that some blogs pay to be listed as top sites within their respective categories. This means you’ll find curated content that has been vetted and recognized for its quality. 

Niche Validation

Before we get started, let’s organize our thoughts. I want you to take a moment and create a simple table in Google spreadsheet. 

It’s going to be the backbone of our niche validation process, helping us make informed decisions about the niches we explore.

Create five columns, and the number of rows will depend on the number of niche ideas you have.

Now, let’s dive into what each column represents.

Column number one ( niche ideas ). 

This is where you’ll jot down all those innovative, unique, and exciting niches that you’ve been pondering.

Column number two ( search volume ).

Here, we want to determine if there is a high search volume for your chosen niche. After all, we want to make sure that people are actively searching for the content you’ll be offering.

Column number three ( profitability ). 

We want to evaluate whether your niche has the potential to generate income. This could be through affiliate marketing, product sales, sponsored posts, or any other monetization methods.

Column number four ( competition ).

This one is crucial because we need to assess if there is a chance for new sites to rank in your niche. Is the competition fierce and saturated, or are there untapped opportunities waiting for you to explore.

The fifth column (Your Money or Your Life).

We want to make sure that the niche you choose doesn’t fall into sensitive areas like health, finance, or legal matters without the necessary expertise. It’s essential to consider the potential impact your content may have on readers’ lives.

Now, let’s clarify what it means for a niche to be profitable.

It’s a combination of search volume, potential revenue streams, manageable competition, and ethical responsibility. 

Each time you put a niche idea through this validation process and it passes the test, put a satisfying tick in the box.

1. Search Volume

Let’s consider you choose to be in the barbecue niche.

To begin, all you need to do is perform a quick Google search for the “best barbecue blogs”. This search will present you with numerous recommendations, including websites like Feedspot. 

Click on Feedspot from the search result to land on the page that will present you with up to 100 blogs talking about barbecue.

Now, let’s take a closer look at the sites to determine their potential.

For instance, let’s check out heygrillhey.com from the Feedspot list. As you explore the site, browse through several articles to know if it is content-heavy.

Meaning it primarily focuses on providing valuable content rather than selling products. By doing so, we can confirm if the site aligns with our search volume goals.

Moving on, let’s examine another site called “barbecuebible” As the name suggests, this site is undoubtedly content-heavy, with its front page and blog categories entirely dedicated to barbecue.

Now, it’s time to check the site’s traffic.

To accomplish this, we’ll turn to a handy tool called SimilarWeb. I know some experts might argue its accuracy, but for our purpose of checking the blogs organic traffic, it serves our needs just fine. 

Simply copy the domain name of the site you’re analyzing, head over to SimilarWeb, paste it into the search bar, and hit enter.

The tool will provide you with valuable insights. Look for the total visits, which indicates the site’s overall traffic.

As you scroll down, you’ll also find traffic trends over the past three months.

If you keep scrolling, you’ll even discover other sites competing in the same niche. Pay close attention to domains that focus solely on your micro niche.

Such as Girlscangrill, and Jesspryles. Observe the monthly visits column, as this will help you identify high-traffic and relevant sites.

To expand your research further, return to your initial search and repeat the process. By identifying two or more content-heavy sites with high search volume specific to your micro niche, you can confidently mark that niche in the search volume column on your spreadsheet.

The main purpose of looking for a dedicated niche site with high organic traffic is to find out if people are really searching for topics related to that niche.

2. Profitability

When it comes to monetizing a blog, there are various income streams you can explore. One popular option is affiliate marketing.

Where you recommend products to your readers and earn a commission when they make a purchase through your recommendation.

Another way to monetize your blog is through advertising. By partnering with ad networks like Google AdSense, you can display ads on your site and earn money whenever those ads are clicked or viewed.

But how do you know if a niche is profitable? 

Well, one clue is the availability of products you can promote. If you’re struggling to find products or services in your niche, it might be a sign that it’s not very lucrative. 

So, make sure there’s a wide range of products or services you can recommend to your audience.

So, you start by researching barbecue products like “Best BBQ grills”, “BBQ sauce brands”, or “BBQ grill cleaning products”. If you find an abundance of products in this niche, it’s a good indicator that it has profit potential.

To dig even deeper into the profitability of a niche, you can use Google’s Keyword Planner tool. 

Select the “Discover New Keywords” option and brainstorm some keywords that reflect buying intent in your niche. 

After adding the keywords, change the location to your preferred choice.

If there’s a high demand for these keywords and advertisers are willing to pay for them, it means there’s money to be made through ad revenue.

To determine the profitability of your chosen niche, it’s essential to visit multiple high-traffic sites in that niche. 

Look for signs of monetization through advertising and affiliate marketing. If you see that most sites are leveraging these two methods, it’s a clear indication that the niche holds great potential for making money.

3. Competition

Now it’s time to determine if you have what it takes to enter a niche as a beginner.

First things first, I want you to install a fantastic free Chrome extension called “Ubersuggest” and open up a browser with Google Trends. Trust me, we’ll need these tools to analyze some captivating topics.

Click here to see how to install and use Ubersuggest

Now, I need you to unleash your creativity and start brainstorming a list of blog topics that are laser-focused on your micro niche. Think about subjects that would capture the interest of your target audience. 

For example, in the barbecue niche you could consider topics like “Barbecue sauce recipes”, “Grilling accessories”, “BBQ grilling techniques”, or “BBQ cooking tips”.

Once you have an extensive list of keywords, it’s time to put them to the test using Google Trends. 

Let’s take one of our keywords as an example: “Barbecue sauce recipes”, enter the keyword in Google trend and change the location to “Worldwide”.

You’ll notice a graph with data in every card, indicating a healthy amount of searches per month. This makes it a promising keyword worth considering

Now, to check the competition for this keyword, let’s do a quick Google search.

Thanks to the Ubersuggest extension, it will display some insightful data right on the search results page. If you hit the “Show Volume” button, it will reveal the search volume. 

Remember, no tool can perfectly predict the exact number of searches per month, but Google Trends comes closest, so let’s rely on that for our data.

While we’re at it, we also want to check the domain authority of the top-ranking results for our chosen keyword. 

For that, we’ll use Ubersuggest again. We want to ensure that the search results aren’t dominated solely by high domain authority sites. 

It’s essential to find a mix of both low and high authority sites. Low authority sites are those with a domain authority below 30.

Take a look at the search results for “BBQ grilling techniques”. See how we have a blend of low domain authority sites.

This means that new sites like yours have a chance to rank among them, which is fantastic.

Alternatively, if you stumble upon a keyword where all the top results are from high authority sites.

It might be harder to break through the competition. You want to avoid those situations.

Keep an eye out for low authority sites paired with popular forums like Reddit or Quora—they can indicate an opportunity for your blog to rank fast. 

However, if you spot high authority sites alongside government websites, it’s a sign that the keyword might not be suitable for your new blog.

4. YMYL Topics

So, what exactly is YMYL?

YMYL stands for “Your Money Your Life”

It refers to those critical topics that have the potential to significantly affect people’s future, happiness, health, financial stability, or safety. 

These are the topics that demand utmost expertise and credibility, and as bloggers, we need to tread carefully when dealing with them.

Because Google deployed sophisticated algorithms to analyze content in such a niche to determine which websites to rank first.

Now, why should we avoid entering a niche dominated by YMYL topics, especially as beginners? 

The answer lies in how search engines like Google determine the credibility of content. They look for signals of expertise and authority, such as the writer’s presence in reputable blogs, appearances on relevant podcasts, or interviews in the field. 

Building this “street cred” takes time and effort, and unless you already possess a solid reputation, it can be challenging to rank your blog in YMYL-dominated niches.

So, how do you know if a niche deserves a green light or a red flag in the YMYL department?

It’s all about analyzing the majority of topics within that niche. 

If most of them fall under the YMYL umbrella, it’s wise to proceed with caution.

As a beginner blogger, it’s essential to choose a niche that allows you to grow, learn, and build authority gradually.

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