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Creating a new blog about self dev't. Questions...

by kardesh10
18 replies
I'm very passionate and knowledgeable about self development. I want to create a blog about it and post there regularly. Here are my questions.

1. Is it ok to have your domain name as your full name? (e.g, stevepavlina(dot)com)

2. Do you think it's still a profitable niche?

3. Do I need to be focused on a very specific sub niche? (e.g. time management as opposed to self development in general)

Thanks

edit: This is something that I want to be doing for several years, maybe the rest of my life, so if I focus on a specific sub niche, then there's only so many articles you could write about it.
#blog #creating #devt #questions
  • Profile picture of the author AvusBlue
    This is just me but I rarely ever put my full name on the internet. I usually go by an alias. Maybe it is just because I am paranoid lol.

    But if you want to make a career out of it I would think that it would look more professional if you have your full name
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  • Profile picture of the author travlinguy
    Personal Development is a market not a niche. Time management would be a niche.

    You already know it's profitable, massively profitable.

    Your name .com would be fine.

    Regardless of the actual niche you choose the number of articles you can write/post is virtually endless.

    I'm in personal development and have more than 15 1000+ word articles sitting on my hard drive right now waiting to be posted. The material comes to me endlessly. I don't have time to write about all the topics that come to mind, all within a single niche.

    Jump in and just do it. Make it your goal to create a thriving community where people are so excited about your blog/content that they tell their friends. It's good that you've committed to several years because that's what it will take, commitment. Stay with it. Good luck.
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    • Profile picture of the author Taniwha
      Originally Posted by travlinguy View Post

      I'm in personal development and have more than 15 1000+ word articles sitting on my hard drive right now waiting to be posted.
      May I ask why? Article syndication reasons?
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      • Profile picture of the author travlinguy
        Originally Posted by Taniwha View Post

        May I ask why? Article syndication reasons?
        Not really but it does help in that regard. Mainly because it's hard to deliver quality info in 300, 500, 700-word "articles." The whole idea of providing great content is about delivering information people want and need. To do that you need to first introduce then develop a concept and explain it properly. You close by recapping. Tell 'em you're going to tell 'em, tell 'em, then tell 'em you've told 'em.

        Rarely can you accomplish that with fewer than 1000 words. I've got to laugh at people calling 300 or 500 words an article. That's hardly enough to write a decent intro to a real article.
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  • Profile picture of the author IamBaksi
    Originally Posted by kardesh10 View Post

    I'm very passionate and knowledgeable about self development. I want to create a blog about it and post there regularly. Here are my questions.

    1. Is it ok to have your domain name as your full name? (e.g, stevepavlina(dot)com)

    2. Do you think it's still a profitable niche?

    3. Do I need to be focused on a very specific sub niche? (e.g. time management as opposed to self development in general)

    Thanks

    edit: This is something that I want to be doing for several years, maybe the rest of my life, so if I focus on a specific sub niche, then there's only so many articles you could write about it.
    1.Use a pen name. But if you want to use your own name, go ahead

    2. It's a 12 Billion Dollars Industry.

    3. That would be Ideal. There are many self-dev blogs out there and if you're going to do something like general self dev or 'how to be happy', you're going to face a lot of competition. Besides if you go for very specific sub niches your keywords are long-tailed giving you a better chance to rank in google.

    Have a great day ahead!

    Caleb Prince
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    • Profile picture of the author kardesh10
      Originally Posted by IamBaksi View Post

      3. That would be Ideal. There are many self-dev blogs out there and if you're going to do something like general self dev or 'how to be happy', you're going to face a lot of competition. Besides if you go for very specific sub niches your keywords are long-tailed giving you a better chance to rank in google.


      Caleb Prince
      Thanks. My concern is that if I just talk about time management, I could only write so many articles about it. I have lots of knowledge on different aspects of self development. If I keep it specific, I wouldn't be posting regularly about it for a decade.

      Whereas if I keep it general, there's so many topics I could write about and I would not have a hard time continuously posting for a decade. I hope that makes sense.

      For example, if my niche is productivity, maybe I could post 5-7 articles per week on the subject for about a year, then run out of things to write about.

      But if I keep it general, I could write about most aspects of self development for a decade or more.
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      • Profile picture of the author IamBaksi
        Originally Posted by kardesh10 View Post

        Thanks. My concern is that if I just talk about time management, I could only write so many articles about it. I have lots of knowledge on different aspects of self development. If I keep it specific, I wouldn't be posting regularly about it for a decade.

        Whereas if I keep it general, there's so many topics I could write about and I would not have a hard time continuously posting for a decade. I hope that makes sense.

        For example, if my niche is productivity, maybe I could post 5-7 articles per week on the subject for about a year, then run out of things to write about.

        But if I keep it general, I could write about most aspects of self development for a decade or more.
        Hey Man!

        Sure you could go for a broader topic. However if your plan is to get traffic to your blog Via SEO then that would be tougher. Whereas if you go for a sub-niche it's easier to get ranked for it. If you want to do a broader topic however, you need to think of your traffic strategy first before jumping into it.

        You seem like an ambitious dude! Also you seem very passionate about self-development. With your knowledge on self-dev I'm sure you can position yourself as an expert and get a large viewership pretty soon Before aiming to post stuff for 10 years, try 1 year first. No point posting stuff for 10 when no one reads it.

        If you need help just PM me or reply to this Post

        All The Best! Have a great day

        Caleb
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        • Profile picture of the author Simon Farmer
          Hey man,

          I was seriously considering getting into the personal development market earlier this year (I already have a product in a smaller niche related to personal development) so here's the direction tht I was going to take.

          1. Is it ok to have your domain name as your full name? (e.g, stevepavlina(dot)com)

          Yes it's ok to have your name as the domain, but is it the best option for you? Personally these days I take the brandable domain name approach. In my case I was really into the film "Limitless" with Bradley Cooper. I liked the idea of becoming your best self and this was going to be my approach for my personal development site. (How to be more confident, How to improve IQ, How to dress better etc)

          So with regards to the domain name I was thinking something like: Becomelimitless(dot)com, Limitlesslifestyle(dot)com, Livelimitless(dot)com.

          You speak about maybe doing this for the rest of your life, so this could become a huge brand for you even to the extent of you creating T shirts or something along those lines that people would actually want to buy. If that's the case then a brandable name would probably be the better option. I mean I would rather wear an awesome looking T Shirt with Livelimitless(dot)com on the back then someguysname(dot)com.

          Anyway, just some things to think about.

          2. Do you think it's still a profitable niche?

          Yes, massively profitable. With personal development you have an insane amount of options you could take. Just look at stevepavlina(dot)com, he writes about so many different topics at different ends of the spectrum. He writes about Internet Marketing/Make money online and then he writes about sleeping with multiple women (or something along those lines... it's was ages ago when I read it.)

          3. Do I need to be focused on a very specific sub niche? (e.g. time management as opposed to self development in general)

          I wouldn't say you need to focus on a specific sub niche. Again, as you've said you might be doing this for the rest of your life then why not just leave your options open. I don't have a clue how old you are but let's say you've got at least 20 years of good writing left in you first of all you don't want to run out of things to write about and secondly you don't want to get bored.

          So I say keep your options open and write about what inspires you.

          I have a few more ideas I was going to use for my personal development site and I have no problem sharing them with you if you need inspiration. Just let me know.

          Anyway, I hope this helps buddy.

          Simon.
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  • Profile picture of the author ahmadraza82
    I think you have to choose some other domain name.
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    Originally Posted by kardesh10 View Post

    1. Is it ok to have your domain name as your full name? (e.g, stevepavlina(dot)com)

    2. Do you think it's still a profitable niche?

    3. Do I need to be focused on a very specific sub niche? (e.g. time management as opposed to self development in general)
    1) It's cool to have your full name as your domain name. YOU make the site successful... site name doesn't make you successful.

    2) I honestly think this is a super broad niche.

    3) Yes, focus on a specific sub niche... like "organization techniques".
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  • Profile picture of the author writeaway
    If you want to walk in Steve Pavlina's footsteps, you need to study how he succeeded.

    His biggest product is NOT self-development but HIS PERSONA. *HE* is the product.

    There are, of course, disadvantages and advantages to this. They are quite obvious.

    The bottom line is you have to be able to WALK YOUR TALK.

    If it was up to me, I would focus on the MECHANICS of self-improvement and slowly ramp up.


    As for your other question, YES, there's space in that niche. It's EVERGREEN and it is HUGE.
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  • Profile picture of the author mikelmraz
    Originally Posted by kardesh10 View Post

    I'm very passionate and knowledgeable about self development. I want to create a blog about it and post there regularly. Here are my questions.

    1. Is it ok to have your domain name as your full name? (e.g, stevepavlina(dot)com)
    I think having a brand name is better than your real name. Basically, you can sell the site off in the future if it is a brand name, but will be a tough sell if it is your real name.
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    • Profile picture of the author Simon Farmer
      Originally Posted by mikelmraz View Post

      I think having a brand name is better than your real name. Basically, you can sell the site off in the future if it is a brand name, but will be a tough sell if it is your real name.
      Another very good point about creating a brand name rather than using yourname(dot)com
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  • Profile picture of the author jimmyvanilla
    Go for it! I think you should use your name and then make a name for yourself.
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  • Profile picture of the author jlongoria
    Go with your name as your brand. It is a huge market and a very profitable one.
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  • Profile picture of the author tiroberts
    Firstly, congrats on your new blog venture!

    Since self development is something you're passionate about I don't believe that you should limit yourself, especially since this is something that you could potentially be doing for years. Writing diverse content that covers a variety of areas will be very enjoyable to you so I say go for it!

    As far as having your name as your domain name, I don't really see a problem with it. My blog domain is my name. I guess it would depend on whether you care about search engine rankings or about branding yourself more (I care more about the latter).

    In my opinion, I think that branding yourself is better. It helps you build a loyal audience and following that could turn into a raving fan base which will get you a ton of exposure over time. Everyone in your niche will know your name and who you are so there are a lot of benefits to have a self named domain name.

    I do believe that your niche is profitable but what really matters is that you're passionate about it and as long as you are and produce great content the income will inevitably follow. I suggest you get into creating your own products asap, possibly an ebook, video course, or membership site. I'd strongly recommend the membership site because of the built in residual income.

    I hope these suggestion help you and good luck!

    Ti
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  • Profile picture of the author Maverick062178
    Using your full name in a domain name is fine but I suggest you must choose something that tells what your site is all about for your domain name, I guess that would be better.

    Personal Development is applicable to all other fields of disciplines so one has to expect from it to generate huge revenues for your site.

    Niche blog makes you an expert while a general topic blog makes you popular. The tension between getting too focused and deviating a bit is, for me, ideal as your blog matures.
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  • Profile picture of the author Moneymaker2012
    That is a huge market.
    It is always better to pick a name that suits your niche the best way, cause this will help you in many ways.
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