Learn how to find the main theme of your blog before you start a blog.
Finding Your Blogging Purpose Before You Start a Blog
What inspired you to start a blog? Was it the idea of sharing useful tips and tricks with the world? Was it because you love to write? Was it because you discovered that you could make money by blogging?
In my 8+ years of being a blogger, I have found that many people start a blog just for the sole intent of earning money. While that is perfectly fine, it often stunts the growth of a blog, potentially keeping the blogger from reaching her or his true potential.
Trust me. For a while I chased the money dream without staying true to my original purpose, and it stunted my growth. Once I sat back and took a few blogging courses to realign my goals (yes, experienced bloggers take courses too!), I rediscovered my ‘why’ for blogging and started to see evergreen results that help my blog to earn money consistently.
So let’s find your blogging purpose.
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What Should I Blog About?
Step 1: Think about What You Know
Get Your Free Printable Worksheet Here!
You gotta fill your blog with something, right? Let’s work with what you know and what you’re passionate about.
On your worksheet, (or in a document on your computer or in a notebook), make a list of topics that you feel knowledgeable about.
I like to write about these topics on my other site Mommy Knows What’s Best:
- parenting tips
- family fun
- babywearing
- baby gear
- recipes
- preschool/elementary school tips
- pregnancy issues
- health and wellness
- mom life
- and more.
(Take a look at the example below in Step 2, specifically the first section.)
What topics do you know a lot about? What topics are you passionate about? You can be as specific or broad as you like (ie growing pumpkins vs gardening). This list will help you determine what kind of blog you can develop.
This part may take some time, which is totally okay. Fill in some of the worksheet now, and come back to it in a few hours or even tomorrow.
Give yourself a chance to think about every possible thing. Take inspiration from your daily life. Ask a family member or friend what they think you know a lot about.
When you have a pretty good list, move on to Step 2.
Step 2: What Kind of Blog Will It Be?
Okay, so you have a list of topics you know a lot about or are passionate about.
Now what?
Before you can start a blog or think about blog posts to write, you have to narrow down the main focus of your blog. In the blogging world, we call this finding your niche.
There are many different types of blogs out there, including:
- Parenting/Family Blogs
- Lifestyle Blogs
- Fashion Blogs
- Review Blogs
- How to Make Money Blogs
- Food Blogs
- Health and Fitness Blogs
- Technology Blogs
- DIY/ Craft Blogs
- and more.
Why can’t you just create a blog and talk about everything or anything? Well, you could, except that most of your readers may only visit once for one topic but then never return. You want readers who are going to stay on your blog or come back again because they find you to be the source of information for a certain topic or niche.
You want readers who are going to stay on your blog or come back again because they find you to be the source of information for a certain topic or niche. #blogging101 #bloggingtips Click To TweetSome people recommend really narrowing down your niche, as in a blog for Landscapers in the Philadelphia Area, Gluten-Free Recipes, or Moms of Triplets. While there is certainly an audience for all of those and you’ll get pageviews from those people who search specifically for those topics, you may limit yourself in terms of audience and topics to write about.
I prefer a slightly broad niche that gives me space to grow. Mommy Knows What’s Best is in the parenting/family niche. I focus on parenting topics that matter to me, while being able to write about other family friendly topics, as you can see in my list above.
On your worksheet, take a look at your list. What do the topics have in common? Are there any that you can group together into one niche? In the second box, make a new list of topics you can group together, taking topics from the first list to make the new one.
Take a look at this example.
You can see this person is really into crafting and DIY topics, but also gardening, raising chickens, and flea markets. All of the DIY and crafting topics made it into the second list, putting the blog into a craft/DIY niche. This person further narrowed it down to Upcycled Crafting (optional).
Does this mean she can’t ever blog about gardening, raising chickens, or getting the best deals at flea markets? No. In fact, later on these topics can make great blog posts, but they just won’t be part of the main focus of the blog. They can certainly support the main topics in a way, though!
Take some time to work on your lists. Don’t be afraid of leaving out some of your interests to favor others that go along with a main theme. Later on you can revisit them. For now, build up a main theme so that your readers know what your blog is about.
What’s next? Learn how to find blog post topics to write about.
What Are You Blogging About?
Did this help you decide what you can blog about? Are you ready to start a blog now? What is the main theme of your blog? Share below in the comments, or ask any questions you may have!
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