Tuesday, December 25, 2007

How to Choose a Topic for your Blog

This article is part of How2Blogger’s Super Sexy Holiday ‘How To’ Contest which you can see at How2Blogger’s ‘How To’ site. There are already thousands of blogs in the blogosphere that discusses several topics ranging from a personal biography to astrology and everyday activities. But if you want your blog to stand out, be noticed, and possibly even earn from it, your blog has to have the it factor to succeed. Generating traffic is just a slice of the cake, but content is what will keep readers coming back to your site for more.

If you've already decided on starting up a blog, you might want to consider what your blog will be about. I've made a list of some of the most important things you should take into consideration when choosing a topic for your blog.

1. Write about what interests you.
It's hard to write about travel when you're not a traveler or the farthest destination you've been to is just a bus ride away, or photography when you're not really into taking pictures. If you're hobby is cross-stitching or other crafts, blog about that. Or if you read a lot, why not start a blog about the books you've read or blog about a book you've read daily? It's hard to fake something that you're not interested in, and your readers will feel it too.

2. Write about something that you enjoy.
Blogging is a serious task which is going to require commitment and effort on your part. Aside from writing about something that you're interested in, you should also enjoy it to the point that you're willing to write about it on a regular basis. For example, you may have decided to start a movie blog since you like watching movies, but there are only a few movies you like or actors you enjoy watching. That's not going to provide variety for your readers, unless you are starting a Brad Pitt blog.

3. Think about what other people are interested in.
I honestly only agree with this at a certain point, unless your goal is to make money from your blog. To blog about something popular or what the current "fad" is maybe suicide in itself - your blog may lose its audience just as fast as the fad is replaces with a new one. It would be nice to take into consideration what people are interested in so that you'll have your own audience and enjoy a constant stream of traffic. But honestly, I'd still write about what I like, I'd be the one who'll visit my blog the most and I'll be its biggest fan anyway. For as long as it's not offensive or discriminatory in any way, just go with your guts and blog about it.

4. Think about the content you'll be able to put in your blog.
As I mentioned earlier, it's hard to fake a topic you're not really interested in, or is something you're not well-versed with. Your blog's topic has to be something you're passionate with, otherwise you may experience blogger's block (if there is such a thing already) wherein you'll run out of things to say or ideas to write about. Think about whether you as the blogger will be able to provide enough content, or if you'll have easy and fast access to other resources for your topic to supplement your writing.

5. Determine whether your blog's topic is here to stay.
Some topics only last for so long, like American Idol for instance. The show is popular when it's on, but not so hot during season breaks. If you're going to start a blog about American Idol, expect that you'll receive heavy traffic when the show is aired and not so much visitors when it's not. One thing you may want to keep in mind is that it's easy to determine if a topic is just a phase or if it's here to stay, like base it on conversations you have with friends, newspapers, magazines, and even the Internet.

How you decide on a topic for your blog is really up to you. It's your blog after all, and you're ultimately the one person who gets to decide what it'll be.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Choosing a topic for your blog is all about supply and demand, as highlighted in this blog post…

http://unboggling-blogging.blogspot.com/2008/01/choosing-topic-for-your-blog_21.html

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