New Blogger Question

[Strickland]

I'm new to blogging, I've been messing around with stuff just to get my feet wet but nothing serious.

I want to learn more so I'm going to start a blog and see if I can get it ranked in google. My goal here is to learn I'm not focused too much on the money side of things right now. Although I have thought about how I can monetize each niche.

My question is this, should I start a blog in a niche that has high, or low competition?

I love electric cars and solar energy. Both have alot of competition

I also love bird houses and feeders. Both have low competition

Which niche do you think will have the most beneficial learning curve?

 

[thelegend]

Forget about seo ! Many people start with blogging with the wrong mindset .They write 2 or 3 articles and then they focus so much on ranking these articles that they forget about the purpose of blogs .The purpose of blogs its to give to people content that serves them .If you serve people then SEO will follow and will give you what you deserve .I dont say that trying to rank its wrong but the most importnt thing its to try to create content that its valuable and bring value to people .If people loves your content be sure that search engines will love you also

 

[bruce bates]

Ooooo weeeee I love this question.

I have an insane amount to say about it.

The simple answer is, whatever you can continuously pump the most posts about. Personally I would likely pick the bird-feeders. Why? Because on a day when I have nothing to type, its all to easy to grab the phone, walk outside, find a bird, and take a picture, post it with a good caption and boom post done.

Something tells me you want a bit more detail though.

I like small volume niches. They are so incredibly easy to target, you have no one else competing with you, and grabbing traffic for niches isn't about volumes - its about passion.

Its easy to become an authority on small volume niches. Its not just about the blogging, its about then entire marketing of a small niche. You have less facebook groups to compete with. You will get noticed more on niche based forums when you join and engage. Its easy to stand out on small niches. In fact, some of the best marketers that exist got started finding high demand niches that no one was fulfilling a need for.

In that respect, don't assume a low level competitive niche means there is not a high demand for it. Researching search terms can help you determine exactly what the search volume is for any niche. See how many people look up bird feeders each day. Compare that to how many sites exist to fulfill the need. Do the same thing with electric cars and compare the results.

I know a LOT about marketing blogs, so I would completely disagree with @thelegend on what he said relating to SEO HOWEVER I fully understand why he said it and his reasoning is justified.

When you create a blog, you need to keep every detail of your blog in mind. The title of the blog that is on every page, the tag lines that appear on each and every page, the sidebar and what you show and where you link to - everything matters.

You should create your blog so the tagline and title are not overwhelmed with keywords - but rather your blog title should BE the MAIN keyword you want to rank for. The tagline should describe how your blog relates to that keyword. Each post you make should be a subtopic of that keyword and should be created to rank for that subtopic - not the main topic. Your posts should always link to 2 external sources that are not affiliate links. You sidebar should be filled with links to related sites. Your affiliate links should ALWAYS be no follow. You should reference posts from each other as often as possible.

Don't be afraid to monetize. The focus of a blog should almost never be about you making money, but if you are truly passionate about a topic, recommending things within your article will come naturally in the way of examples, comparisons, and the likes.

Also ALWAYS create 2 lists on a blog - one email list and one subscriber list. Email list should be a form that pops up asking them for their email address to receive more information about said niche and said niche products. Make it clear this list is NOT subscribing to your blog. The other list should be y our "subscribe to this blog" list. You can offer email as an option their also but there are a lot of ways for users to subscribe to blogs using an rss feed.

Now all that said, don't discredit or avoid the more popular niches if thats where your true passion lies. Blogs have a funny way of taking on a life of their own, and your audience is your audience no one elses.

My friend Marcus Sheridan (the sales lion) started a blog to help promote his swimming pool installation business (I believe that's what it was its been a long long time since then). Within a couple years he was one of the top inbound marketing bloggers. Today he is an author, public speaker, inbound marketer, and a leader in the field. All because of a blog taking on a life of its own.

So if you are reading this and feeling slight disappointment hoping to get the opposite reply because you REALLY wanted to blog about electric cars and solar energy,, then run with that. There are no rules that are absolute in this situation because as I said, you build your audience so every subscriber to your blog - is someone who wants to hear what you have to say about the topic. The niche matters not - its the audience that matters.

Hopefully my tips about questions you never asked, as well as my confusing contradictory answers to your questions help in some way.

 

[T J Tutor]

Especially for beginners, HIGH COMPETITION!

 

[Strickland]

thank you @thelegend and @bruce bates ,despite your different opinions on seo your reasons for blogging are remarkable similar, which is a massive help.

Bruce bates thanks for taking the time to give such a detailed reply.

Hopefully my tips about questions you never asked, as well as my confusing contradictory answers to your questions help in some way.

Seriously, more helpfull than you imagine

Cheers @T J Tutor life would be boring if everything was straight forward

I'm off to do some research