I was talking to a friend who visited my blog and got excited about the idea of making a blog himself. These were his words:
“I am sure your blog will help. I have not blogged before but know lots of stuff about online and marketing. But I just need a topic! This is the hard part!”
Find your passion
Most people have passion for something in their lives, most people spend a lot of their free time on their passion but most people also tend not to take it any further than that.
Internet, blogging and social media have made it possible for people to share their interests and their passion, and to do what most people do not: turn their passion into a personal brand and make a living from it.
Turning your passion into a blog
The playing field has been leveled, influence has been democratized. Anyone who is willing to invest time sharing their passion and knowledge online, can establish themselves without much risk.
Starting a blog, publishing your knowledge and experience, and slowly building your name and readership is what it takes.
My experience
First website I started was about my favorite music band. I loved the band, listened to it daily, and spent a lot of time and money buying their music, reading about them, going to their concerts and interacting with other fans.
This was a topic I loved, knew much about and had passion for. And one way or another I tried the new Internet thingy and started a website about the band. This was in late 1990’s.
How to get inspired to find your blog topic?
These are the questions I told my friend to answer.
First priority questions:
- What makes you come alive?
- What do you like to do in your life?
- What do you know a lot about?
- What can you write a lot about?
Second priority questions:
- Is there an audience and is there interest for that topic?
- Is there too much competition?
- If yes, can you provide a different take on it?
- Can the topic be monetized?
What is the next step?
When you have your topic, get yourself a domain name / hosting and install a WordPress.org blogging platform. I have several tips on customization of your blog and adjustments of WordPress blog settings.
You are ready to blog as soon as you have your WordPress installed. Start writing quality articles. Join social media like Stumblepon and Twitter and find your audience there. Keep doing this regularly and you will soon find yourself with an influential blog and a growing blog readership.
Image by Pink Moose.
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{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
I like your set of first- and second-priority questions. I wonder if the “monetized” question should be moved to third-priority, though. Everyone should consider blogging about their passion, whether or not there is money to be made from doing so, imho.
I’d like to hear even more advice on “finding your passion.” A lot of people blog about blogging and social media, but is that really their passion or just a current way of focusing a deeper passion? A lot of us are still trying to work out what our passions are, and any good guidance on that would surely be a shot in the arm to the blogosphere.
@Daniel – So I started this music site in 1998, and that turned me onto marketing and I went to study marketing first in high-school and then marketing management at university in 2002 or so. I specialized in e-marketing at university, which turned me onto blogs and social media. Then I transfered my music site onto WordPress in 2006 and that gave me insight into how blogs are run and that is how I got the passion to make a “how to blog” blog some 2 years after. So what I am trying to say is that you live, you experience, you learn, you get new ideas, you develop passions over time…
These tips are very useful for all blogger beginners and webmaster amateurs!
Very well written!
I recently started my blog for passion and have loved writing about something that really grabs me.
I believe that one definitely has to be passionate about thei topic for any blog to be successful. For me this was a no brainer since I started my SEO/SEM, design business several years back based on my passion .
Thanks for this simple yet very helpful post Marko.
I just want to ask..What if you have several interests or passions? Is it better to concentrate on one niche? Or would it better to have a mixed bag, but categorized properly?
Thanks very much!
Regards,
JeD Chan
Thanks for all comments!
@JeD Chan – I would definitely recommend one topic per blog, it will help both attracting visitors and being attractive to search engines. What I would do is I would take them one at a time. Build a blog around one passion, slowly grow it, build readership… hen when you feel that you have enough time, start another one around another passion.
@T Edwards – It is always best to start a blog without thinking about earning money from it. If you love what you do, love to write about it, then it will be easier to be original and spend a lot of time and effort on it. If you just start a blog because you want to make money, it is much harder to stay motivated and much harder to stay on course when your blog doesn’t get many visits, clicks, sales etc.
@Santosh Puthran – Why not? Write a kind of a personal diary blog. Put your lyrics there, guitar tabs, meaning of songs, your inspiration, videos of songs etc. A blog can be just another platform to get your music out there and get new fans.
Marko,
Badda-BING! Exactly right with this one. A very nice succinct guide to getting up and making it happen. I hope if someone was considering getting into blogging they would come across this early on in their search.
Cheers
George
I would like to learn more about effectively blogging in your passion from a monetizing perspective. Great basic tips here, though!
T
Passion – I could not agree more. If you are not interested in your subject, you may as well just go find some job to go to instead.
Ben
Some people don’t even like to blog, but are looking to make money. They end up blogging frequently for the first month or two in hopes to make couple thousands of dollars per month. Then they stop blogging because they are not getting any traffic or money.
Good article, and something I’m struggling with by having 3 – 5 blogs but working full time elsewhere. Its hard to determine between interests and passions sometimes.
Hey
Thats a nice article….which also tells what i am doing and its really encouragement to new bloggers like me(i myself call me as blogger
-)
Cheers
Suresh.ks
What you said is so important,i have never thought about it.
What’s my passion?
May be i need to ask myself.