Do you need to focus on a niche?

For monetization I was thinking just standard google adsense and amazon affiliate links to products that I will review ocassionally that revolve around the niche. But I will think more about the money after I have the work and traffic If theres one thing I've learned, if you go into a project only caring about the money, your (or at least my) quality of work will go down. So for now I will just have fun doing it, writing about stuff that interests me and I enjoy and hopefully after a year or two I might have a good following. We can talk about the monetization then

I suppose for hosting I will use bluehost again as I love there services.
Thanks for bringing this up jbSmith, it helps me cover everything that I haven't thought of yet.

Seth,

I believe when you try to appeal to everyone, it usually backfires and you appeal to no one. Who doesn't skim and surf these days to find things that specifically interest them? Everyone does it.

Unless you are a very talented writer and can generate a loyal following because you write extremely well (or are funny, or controversial, or informative), it's going to be difficult to find and keep an audience.

If this is a hobby . . . then fine. But if you plan to monetize your blog, I think it's much easier and smarter to focus on a niche that you create so you have an audience of prospects that want the subject matter that comes from your blog. Your subscribers will want the subject and they will want to hear from you.

If you write about "everything" there will be a large portion of your audience on any given blog post that won't be interested. When this happens over and over you're going to lose these folks.

The very best to you,

Steve

If I may add my 5c in here (inflation).

I've been working my one blog for almost five years in the wiiide open area of working from home including online marketing and network marketing. Last week, with help from Yaro Starak's Blog Profit Blueprint and Frank Kern's video, I FINALLY found my passion and I've refocused my niche and target market.

It didn't happen overnight. I watched Kern's video five times and listened to Yaro's audio book three times, then mulled it all over for a week before the light bulb went on. (I can be a slow learner).

Fortunately I don't have to start a brand new blog; I can simply archive unnecessary posts and focus on my core specialty.

I must echo everyone else's opinions here about finding your passion and carving out a niche. It's pretty much going to be the only way to make any real money with your blog. AdSense just isn't working anymore. I removed all of my AdSense ads from my blogs. I do make a couple bucks here and there with Amazon links, but I'm more focused on creating content now and in time creating my own products.

But seriously, do yourself a big, huge favor and (1) get Yaro's free ebook and training. It's priceless: How To Make $10,000 Per Month, 'Working' On Your Blog Only 2 Hours Per Day (This is NOT an affiliate link)

(2) Watch Frank Kern's Core Influence video:
These two resources will help you get your new blog started off on the right foot!

Good luck!!

That's an interesting opinion; but it's not based on anything that's truly data-driven is it?

There are websites that provide entertainment and content in a certain way, then there are websites that designed specifically to obtain a specific response, which ultimately leads to the sale or some other specific action.

In studying the most successful marketers over the past 15 plus years and having left my job almost two decades ago, I can tell you it's much easier and much more profitable if you're focusing on a specific niche if that's what the business model entails.

Are there exceptions? Of course there are. There are also some business models (think Amazon, eBay, Fry's Electronics, etc.) that aren't geared to be niche-specific.

But for a budding entrepreneur who is starting a business online that isn't one of those exceptions, it makes more sense to start off with one niche.

Here's another exception: affiliate or CPA marketing.

Think about it, if you're not creating your own product and just want to drive traffic to other people's offers, well then....you're not limited to just one niche are you? When I was driving over a million visitors a month to a wide variety of offers, at one point I was selling products and services in well over two dozen different niches. I was also testing anywhere from 10 to 20 offers during any given 30 day period.

But when I wanted to create an information-based business in the dating advice market, I decided to focus on one niche, under the "dating" market at a time. The general approach didn't work for me and had far better conversions by focusing on a specific demographic with a very specific need.

So it really depends on whether or not you should focus on one niche. But in general, I would say the answer is yes, that is, if it makes sense for your business model.

RoD

I usually start with my passions, hobbies, interests, etc. first when I'm deciding on a niche.

Sometimes the niches that are profitable are right in front of us and we don't even realize it.

I got started in the dating advice for men niche about ten years ago because I had a friend who had gotten divorced and came to me for some basic advice. He was using Match.com and wasn't getting anywhere. He came to me for advice because I was good with women and he always wondered how come I was always dating different women.

So my initial intention was to make him a 1-2 page outline on how to maximize using Match.com.

Well, that 1-2 page outline turned into a 7 to 8 page document with a lot of instructions on what to do, how to get the phone number, how to get her to meet you in a public place, what to say, what were some good first date ideas, etc.

He met his next wife on Match.com and when he called me up to thank me, he told me I should write a book. From there I wrote an ebook and then I began researching other dating information websites to see what they offered.

I joined all their newsletters, I joined their affiliate programs, I purchased their products, I attended THEIR seminars, etc.

In other words, I immersed myself as both a customer and a potential competitor.

I made copious notes on how they did things, I wrote down where they excelled and in areas that I knew I could either beat them at or compete in.

When I've exhausted my list of interests and passions, I look at niches or topics that I'd like to learn. Can I learn something and turn it around for profit?

You also want to think about what business model interests you. Do you want to sell a product or a service? Or both? Don't want to get your hands dirty and just send traffic to websites and earn commissions? That's another one. Do you want to set up a business and make money per transaction? (Think Clickbank, Paypal, providing some type of service, etc.).

A quick and dirty way of getting niche ideas is surfing the internet and paying close attention to the advertising that you're seeing. Start typing in keywords into Google, Bing, Copernic, DogPile, whatever and start paying attention to the paid ads. What are people selling?

Start reading business news. After all these years I still subscribe to magazines like FastCompany, Enterpreneur, etc. because I get business and niche ideas from them.

RoD

I think I will start with a blog. The blog site can technically be an entertainment site on based on it's niche. So I have settled on starting a blog. Thanks