How to choose what to blog about?

So you have finally decided to give the whole blogging thing a go. But it’s not that easy, is it? After all, you need to know what you want to write about. In fact, probably 80% of people don’t make it to their 3rd post after they realize they really have nothing to talk about on their blog. So how do you avoid that?

How to choose a topic for your blog:

• Choose wisely: Choosing a topic for your blog and settling on one is very similar to settling down in life. Basically, once you have chosen your topic, it’s very hard to go back and shift directions completely. You can start a new blog and let the old blog die, but you probably won’t have success making a sports blog to a political one after you have realized that sports is just not your thing.
• Choose a topic you are passionate about: I am going to use the same analogy that I used for the last point. Have you heard of people who get in real life relationships and get married and then they realize the like their partner a lot but they don’t love them? The same thing can happen if you don’t truly love blogging about the topic of your choosing. The first few weeks you maybe excited about the whole blogging experience thing, but once everything settles down, you are going to have a hard time motivating yourself to come up with unique original content for your blog. It is essential to follow your passions when blogging. Blogging never really gets easy. It can actually be a grind in the long run, but if you love what you are doing, it would make everything that much easier.
• Choose the right topic: what is the right topic? It’s the one that you love writing about and does have a potential to get you compensated for your troubles. In essence, you want to write about a topic that people want to read about. If you talk about an issue that nobody is interested in, you are going to have a hard time finding readers for your blog. Now if you are blogging to just raise awareness about an issue, then the whole deal might work out for you, but unless you are financially strong, I don’t recommend going after obscure topics.
• Research before commitment: do your research before making a commitment. Try resources such as Technorati, Google Blog Search, Google Trends, Youtube, and WordTracker before committing to a topic. Find out how many people search for the topic that you would like to go for. Figure out how many competitors you are going to have. Find out what works for them, and what you can do better.
• Find out your monetization options: it is nice to have the opportunity to blog about what you are passionate about. But you want to get paid for your efforts too. Blogging takes a lot of research and time, so if you are not getting some kind of compensation from blogging, then you are going to have trouble staying motivated down the road. Find out how you can monetize your blog before committing to a topic. Try CJ or LinkShare to see if anyone is offering an affiliate program on your favorite topic. You can also check ClickBank for more ideas.
• Find the unique spot in your niche: so you have found your favorite topic, and there are options to monetize it down the road. But how are you going to offer something unique in your market? After all, why should people come to you instead of going to your competitors like they have been doing so far? To be successful in any market, you need to find a unique need or want and satisfy it. If you are offering exactly what others are offering, then it’s going to be very difficult to succeed unless you had the first mover advantage. Find the unique angle and drive it home.

Settling on a topic for a blog is a commitment. Do your research, find the unique value that you can offer, and you’ll be fine. Good luck!