How To Pick A Blog Niche (Free Checklist)

Building a niche site is a great way to generate passive income and live your life the way you want. There’s a right way and a wrong way to do things. Successful bloggers are the ones who know how to pick a blog niche the right way.

In this post, I’ll show you how to do it.

It’s not enough to pick something you like and write about it. If you’re ready to learn how to pick a blog niche and build an evergreen website, then let’s get into it.

Blog Niche Checklist

If you choose a niche that fits every point on this checklist, you can build your new blog on a solid foundation.

First, you should brainstorm every possible niche you can think of. Then run through our niche-picking checklist and cross off the niches that don’t qualify.

#1 – Do You Have Experience, Knowledge, or Interest In The Niche?

The first point, and we’re already into controversy. But I promise I’m not gatekeeping.

I’m not saying you couldn’t be successful in a niche you know nothing about. But you’ll be at a considerable disadvantage.

Any niche worth your time will have bloggers with experience who already have a head-start on you. How will your content compete with theirs if you don’t know what you’re talking about?

Pick a niche you already know something about. If you can’t do that, then at least choose a niche you’ve always wanted to know more about. Otherwise, it’s not the right niche for you.

#2 – Is There Money To Be Made?

Many niches have high-traffic keywords, but there’s no money to be made. Think about all the “how tall is this actor” or “celebrity net worth” sites.

The three Ps of online business are “Products, Passions, and Problems.”

If you pick a niche that revolves around one of those, you should be safe.

Then, you need to evaluate how much money there is to be made and weigh it against how much work it’ll take. 

There’s a lot more money to be made in personal finance than pets, but it’s going to be a lot more challenging to establish yourself as an authority in the personal finance industry.

#3 – Is The Niche Trending Upward?

Niches are either growing, shrinking, or staying the same. Only one of those is a good thing.

Obviously, you shouldn’t start a site in a dying niche. That’s just bad business. 

But starting a site in a stagnant niche isn’t ideal, either. The longer an industry is coasting, the more ingrained the established authorities will be. 

When you find a niche that’s steadily growing, that means new opportunities are available. There’s money to be made now, and there’ll be more in the future. 

#4 – Does The Niche Require An Expert?

With the incredible advances recently made with AI content writers, it’s going to be easier than ever for new marketers to create competition in basic niches. 

That’s why it’s preferable to choose a niche that requires an expert and to do anything you can to become that expert. 

Anybody can write about pets, especially with AI tools. But AI can’t write about current sporting events, DIY, or how to repair classic cars (at least, not with any accuracy).

Choosing a niche that requires an expert will protect your site from AI competition and Google’s scrutiny that’ll come with it.

#5 – Are There Gaps To Fill?

Now that you’ve narrowed down your list, it’s time to dig deeper into the specific topics you’re still considering. 

First, look at your competitors, and try to identify areas they’re lacking. 

It might be a content silo, or maybe some competitors do some things, and others do other things, but nobody does everything. 

This competitor research will help you carve a place for yourself in the niche and will also help you develop a content strategy.

#6 – Identify Keyword Clusters

After identifying the holes you can fill in a niche, you need to find related keywords. 

Using a keyword research tool like Ahrefs or Semrush, find keywords that:

1. Have decent search volume
2. Are low-competition enough that you have a realistic chance of ranking

When you start a new site, it’ll probably take a lot of time to see any organic traffic. You can shorten that runway by finding low-competition high-traffic keywords. 

#7 – Can You Actually Make Content for This Niche?

There are a lot of potential niches out there that meet every criterion so far on our list but are still terrible. That’s usually because they require some type of license or certification.

You can’t ethically start a health blog if you aren’t a doctor. You may have had a severe diagnosis and feel like you have experience with it, but you’re still not a doctor. 

The same goes for law, financial planning, or anything else that requires a license in the real world. 

If you can’t legally do the job in real life, you can’t write about it online. 

Bonus – Stay Local

Here’s a bonus tip many Lasso customers have succeeded with: stay local.

There are a lot of location-based keywords that are great for narrowing down a niche and creating unique content.

Camping is a very broad niche. But camping in Minnesota is more narrow, and camping in Minnesota is subtly different than camping anywhere else.

If you created a site about camping in Minnesota, you’d dominate those local search keywords, and your target audience would be more engaged with your content.

Blog Niche FAQs

Which Blog Niches Are the Most Profitable?

The most profitable blog niches are the ones readers are passionate about and where they make recurring purchases. 

The perfect niche would be one where readers need to come to you every time they make a purchase, but you don’t need to update the content often. If you find a niche topic like that, you’ve struck a gold mine.

What is the Most Important Part of Picking a Profitable Blog Niche

The most important part of picking a blog niche is finding a niche where you have a realistic chance of competing.

The internet is currently dominated by huge media companies targeting every keyword. If they’ve captured all the keywords in your specific niche, choose something else from your list of blog niche ideas.

What is the Most Difficult Part of Blogging?

The most difficult part of blogging is coming up with great blog post ideas. When you start a blog, you’ll have a list of great keywords. But trust me, that list runs out fast.

Click here for a list of great blog post ideas.

How Do I Start a Successful Blog?

Once you’ve chosen a great niche, you need to know about everything else that goes into it, like buying a domain name and hosting, installing WordPress, SEO, and publishing blog content.

If you’re a new blogger and you want to start a successful blog, click here to read our affiliate marketing beginner’s guide.

Picking a Blog Niche | Final Thoughts

That is our checklist for picking a profitable blog niche. If you follow this framework, you can’t go wrong. 

My final tip: don’t use this process as an excuse to procrastinate. If you’ve been researching niches for more than a week, it’s time to pick the best one on your list and get started. 

Speaking of which, this article will tell you everything you need to know about how to start your first blog.