This is a guest post by freelance writer Julia Turner. In this post, she shares tips on how you can choose the best topic for your blog.
Coming up with ideas for a blog post topic can be challenging and painful, especially if you are new to blogging. After a while, you will find that this process is much easier than it was at the start. But, until that point, you have to find a way to do this and do it well.
We are now pulling back the curtain on the relevance of a topic on blog posts. This article will teach you how and where to find the right topic for your blog. Because after all, the title is based on the topic, and this is the first thing the reader will see.
Factors to Consider
Building a good blog requires a commitment, skills and time. It is an exhausting process, but the results are always worthwhile. Every beginner blogger needs to get accustomed to the activities a good blog demands, as well as learn which factors to consider when it comes to writing content and selecting the topic.
Starting with the public interest in the length of your blog post – you need to consider it all. In the same time, you must study the competition to deliver unique and more engaging content, and use your knowledge in the process.
Before we even start sharing the tips on how to choose a topic, here is a list of factors you should consider:
- The audience: Are your skills sufficient to cater to such audience, and if not, what can you do to improve? ‘Bloggers who are most likely to fail are those who underestimate the importance of knowledge in the area. If you want to create a blog people will like, you need to really know what you are writing about’ – says Fred Jackson, content writing expert at Assignment Masters.
- The relevance: You can either use topics with the short-term or long-term appeal. The first will be very relevant and trendy at the moment, while the second will remain to be relevant for a long time. Both can bring you traffic and success in their own way, and it is up to you to determine what to do with the old posts.
- The material: If a topic is not exhaustive enough to make for a good blog, it is not worthy.
- The appeal: Don’t forget this part – the topic of a blog post is the part that absolutely MUST capture the reader’s attention. You may make a mistake with the design or multimedia, or even make mistakes throughout the post. In the end, it all comes down to how interesting your topic is.
Now, to make things even simpler for you, we will show you a step-by-step list of what to do to choose the right topic.
1. Know Your Target Audience
First things first – who are you writing for? When it comes to blogging, everything comes down to who will read your blogs. There is nothing more important to blogging success than knowing your target audience.
This gets much easier along the way. When you already have dozens of blog posts and readers, you can read and respond to their comments, communicate with the readers, and hear what they have to say. This will answer all your questions as to what your audience wants.
Until this point, you are all on your own. This means it is time to research the audience, check the competition for some inspiration, and test different topics to find the best possible ones.
It is not simple and it is not easy. Learning who your target audience is can take some time, but at the end, this is all you need to create a highly popular blog.
2. Focus on Relevancy
As soon as you learn what your audience wants, you need to focus on what is relevant. You can find topics that are ‘hot and viral’ right now and use them to attract the audience or go wider and select topics that never grow old. Whether you will use a current controversy or happening or a continuous problem and challenge, it is up to you.
Whatever you choose, it all comes down to relevancy. Relevancy is the content’s focus on the audience, the niche you are using, as well as your objectives.
If you find the right way to approach your audience, it is your content that will become the trend and go viral.
3. Steal from others.
This sounds terrible, but it is the biggest truth you will hear when it comes to blogging. Every good artist uses the competition to rise above them. It is absurd but very real.
Of course, as a professional blogger, you should strongly oppose to the actual stealing of any type of intellectual property, including content. This is not only bad for your reputation but also illegal. But, no one says anything about following others’ examples, especially if they are good ones.
Find the blogs that are most successful among your own target audience. Start writing down their topics and titles, and change and repurpose these by using your unique approach.
There is no reason why you cannot write a trending article that hasn’t been discussed by others. As long as yours is better than theirs, you are doing great. And since you are the second or hundredth using the same idea, you have examples of what to do and what not to do.
4. Use any tool you find helpful
In addition to checking other blogs’ posts, there are many other blogging tools you will find helpful. Check BuzzSumo to identify the trending topics in your niche, read tips from successful bloggers, and try out different strategies to get your posts to go viral.
In other words, keep digging. Know your audience so well that you start thinking like them, and the topics will just keep coming at you. Sooner than you think, you will struggle with narrowing down your ideas, not coming up with one.
Join the conversation
What are some things you do that work when choosing a topic for your blog posts? Let us know in the comments below.
Julia Turner
She is a contributor and a freelance writer who treasures freedom and initiative above anything else. She believes that people are strong, self-directed beings who can take charge of their own lives.