Discovering Your Blogging Passion!

March 11th 2019

So you’ve set up a blog and you’re all ready to get started, but what do you want to write?

I have received quite a few messages in the past couple of years from aspiring or new bloggers who are struggling to find their niche. They want to have a central focus to their blog that is true to themselves, but don’t know where to start.

When people ask me what I tend to write about, I usually just say that I write about what inspires me. But if I had to sit down and narrow it down to my niche, I would say that personal growth and self-help are really my realm of focus. I like reading personal growth books and I find that I am on a constant quest for self-improvement and learning through experiencing life.

However, that content doesn’t always come natural for everyone, or may just not be something that interests people in the same way that it interests me. That is why I consider it to be rather niche. Because there is definitely a community of writers that focus on the same types of topics that I do, but not all bloggers fall under the type of content I produce.

So, what is the first step of discovering your niche? Well, the first step is answering this one question: “why are you starting a blog?”

For some people, this question is really easy to answer. If you’re an artist or photographer, you may start a blog because you want to share your work on a platform for others to view. Or maybe you like to bake and you want to share recipes with people. Situations like that are simple because your niche is pretty much laid out for you art the start. However, this isn’t as cut and dry for some people.

Maybe you just like writing and that is why you want to start a blog. In that case, you need to go beyond that first question and dig deeper by asking yourself a few more questions:

1. What do you like to read?
2. What do you like to write?
3. Who do you want to reach?
4. How are you going to reach them?

These 4 questions are necessary in determining your real niche. When I started my blog, I didn’t have any idea what I wanted it to be. I just knew I wanted a place to write and express myself to either a mass audience or just for myself. So, when I decided to take on the blog more seriously, I shifted my attention from writing random posts to figuring out a more clear-cut niche. Here are my answers to the 4 questions above.

1. I love to read self-help content. Anything about personal growth and becoming a better version of yourself really resonates with me. I also love reading about travel, mental health, and wellness because they are things that I put a lot of emphasis on in my personal life.
2. I love to write personal pieces with positive messages and advice for people who may need it. I also like writing about my experiences as a means of documenting my growth through the things I experience.
3. I want to reach young people who are interested in lifestyle content, self-help, personal growth, and those who are trying to learn more about themselves and life.
4. I am going to reach them by creating content that offers room for discussion and by offering a variety of content that appeals to all different types of people, while still having the goal of personal betterment in mind.

In just 4 questions, I laid out a framework for what I hope to accomplish through blogging. I didn’t just write “My niche will be personal growth”, instead, I wrote that I want to show people how much you can grow through experience by documenting my own experience and lessons learned.

Discovering your niche isn’t always as simple as saying “I am going to start a fashion blog”, sometimes it take a little bit of work and digging before you find a real niche that resonates with you. For example, you may want to start a fashion blog, but what are you posting?

You could post OOTD and trend reports if keeping up with the latest fashion is something you’re passionate about. However, maybe sustainable fashion is your passion. Being a sustainable fashion blogger is a different niche than being a trendy fashion blogger. Sure, there is overlap, but they are technically different niches.

That is what I mean when I say that finding your niche isn’t always something that is super cut and dry. However, the cool part about it is that your blog is something that can constantly evolve and you can change and reinvent your interests whenever you see it fit. Finding a niche is really just a good way to get yourself started and create a list of ideas to work off of until you’re more comfortable and can branch out.

When I first narrowed my focus, I exclusively wrote self-help content. Until, one day I decided I wanted to incorporate series into my posting schedule. Now, I write about self- help but also fashion, travel, mental health related content, tarot reading, reviews, yoga posts and more! But the common theme of growth through experience always rings true and that is the voice I hope to maintain in my blogging into the future!

So my biggest piece of advice about finding your niche is to just go for it. You don’t need a perfect plan or idea. Just trust your gut and write what feels authentic to who you are. That is the best niche of all.

Jess~