Are You Following Your Passion?

blog cover image
38
9.1K followers

There is a lot of talk here on Wealthy Affiliate about choosing a niche. And one piece of advice that is offered by many — myself included — is to choose a niche based on passion.

Sure, you can follow more traditional business advice and research the market, identify gaps, and develop products and services to meet demand. As a guy with a business degree and over 30+ years in management, I can attest to the effectiveness of such a process under normal circumstances.

As a writer, however, I can also confidently say that it does not work so well in the realm of affiliate marketing. Here’s why…

Our business model is based on creative content. We write articles, record audio podcasts, and create videos that deliver information that our audience is searching for.

The challenge is that creativity requires a TON of energy; much more than just heading to the office, sitting behind a desk, and overseeing the production of widgets. The point being that if you are chasing the latest fad, or going after something just for the money, you will likely burn out long before you ever get enough content out there to be successful.

Let’s face it. This business takes time. It takes time to create enough content to really get noticed by Google, and it takes time to rank and start drawing an audience. You won’t do it in a month, and you won’t do it with a handful of articles. You have to create and create and create. That’s where the passion comes in.

There is no such thing as the perfect niche. There is, however, very much a perfect niche for you.

You want to choose a niche that you are so passionate about that you would gladly create content for the rest of your life even if you weren’t getting paid for it.

You want to choose a niche that you are so excited about that you would talk all day to the dog if they would sit still and listen.

You want to choose a niche that you are so fervid for that your friends and family literally have to tell you to shut up whenever you talk about it… which is always.

Here is perhaps the simplest test I know to determine the level of a person’s passion:

Are your more excited to jump out of bed and get to work on a Monday morning than you are to get off work on a Friday night?

If you are, then you are following your passion. Passion is one of the primary keys to success. And as the saying goes, if you follow your passion, you won’t work a day in your life.

Please share your passion with your fellow WA members below.

Login
Create Your Free Wealthy Affiliate Account Today!
icon
4-Steps to Success Class
icon
One Profit Ready Website
icon
Market Research & Analysis Tools
icon
Millionaire Mentorship
icon
Core “Business Start Up” Training

Recent Comments

25

Great post AJ. And I would say timely as well. It reinforced a quote I heard just this afternoon - "Life without passion is no life at all" (Cardinal Dolan).
Even in traditional business as well as an online business without passion you never really learn out to live. But with passion, life and business is extremely rewarding in itself.
Blessings
Ray

That's a great quote. Thanks for sharing :-)

How can you be working when you are doing something you love?!!!!!

Exactly!!! :-)

I chose the wrong niche then lol. Glad that my feelings are somewhat justified by this article. Early in the training here it was recommended to chose any niche. I did the business thing like you said and found some powerful keywords and gaps in a niche I at least had some background in, so it felt like a good start.

And they say you can become passionate about something, I have yet to learn how, which makes writing content all the more difficult. I know what my passion is, but I dont want to drop all the hard work I have done so far to change topics.

Should I continue on with what I got? I know the niche, home security, quite well, so I can write good technical articles, but it isn't something I enjoy.

I could talk about homesteading and shtf prepping all day every day for the rest of my life though. Thats the fun stuff.

No worries. So, there are basically two ways to look at it. You are quite knowledgeable about home security, which is good, but it sounds like your heart really isn't in it, which is not so good.

On the other hand, you may not be AS knowledgeable about homesteading or prepping, but it sounds like you would be happy shouting it from the rooftops even if it didn't pay a dime.

It's your decision, of course; but based on my post, I'm pretty sure you can guess which way I would go :-)

You are exactly right. Sometimes I feel you just have to knuckle down and do what's right.

Perhaps prepping could be a form of home/family security? ;)

I will give home security a run at it though, give it the attention it needs. If it dont work out, I know what to turn to!

Now that actually is an idea that hadn't occurred to me. I admit I am not what you would call a huge "prepper", but I do find the field fascinating and have watched many YouTube videos and such on it.

It totally makes sense, given the premise, that home security might be a part of it. Traditional alarm systems would probably be a non-starter, as I'm assuming in a SHTF moment the power grid would be wonky at best anyway, but that actually opens the door for ideas regarding alternative solutions when an alarm wouldn't work.

You may be on to something there, my friend :-)

I was joking at first, but you brought up an extremely valid point! You just helped me expand the niche even further. You rock AJ! Thank you!

Hahaha... thanks. Glad I could help :-)

My passion is helping others where I can, so I always jump out of bed but more slowly these days.

Derek

Me, too. Not quite as spry as I used to be. lol

Thanks for sharing, Derek.

Good afternoon RJ, I got to tell you you gave some outstanding advice, especially to all the newbies. Because if you follow your passion you will be into it, for real, not always searching for something to say. May you have a most outstanding week my friend.

Thank you. You, too :-)

Hi, AJ,
funnily enough I didn't have a passion. Not one I could shout about. I know that may seem odd.

I was sitting for a very long time thinking what I could write about when I first started.

In the end I went on a whole new direction and that was Local Marketing. It has served me well. :)

However, you are a million percent right having that passion that you love and you want to tell everyone about it is an awesome way to go. I just wished I had that.

Just in case those that don't there are other avenues one could take at Wealthy Affiliate and that is brilliant for people like me.

Yes if you have a passion it just doesn't seem like you are working at all.

Awesome post thank you AJ. :))
Debs :)

Great point. I'm willing to bet that there was something that appealed to you about local marketing, though. You may not have immediately identified it as a "passion", but consider what drew you to it in the first place. Being your own boss. Working with struggling businesses. Helping people. Etc. Whether we give it a name or not, I have found that most of the time we do things that make us feel good on some level.

Then again, every time I preach this message I am reminded of Jay's football snack helmets... so what the hell do I know? lol

You are probabaly right. I suppose mine was I am not sure if you could call it a passion more a goal. I wanted my own website.
Wealthy affiliate filled that goal for me. That was my passion I would say for sure. :))
Yes you are right also I like to help always if I can. :))
Haha sorry I have to update the comment.

I have to admit now I know more also I could tap into things I like.
Like clothes and all girly stuff etc. :))
I would love a pink fluffy website that would be great to build that kind of site. :))

My passion is ... a world without worthless paper called ..money

Hahaha... I get it. But it probably really isn't. Money is just a tool. If your passion was really "money" then you would be happiest just accumulating it and never doing anything with it. My guess, however, is that you only want money to buy things you don't have. What are those things? That's probably where your true passions lie. Just a thought :-)

I was serious about money...money is a scam...money is a debt..." "They" can print money out of a thin air...so why we are working if they can print it
??

Okay. Let's say I go along with your premise. How does that help?

Philosophically I get what you're saying. And I don't necessarily disagree. But, regardless of whether "they" can print it or not, we still need money to exist in a modern society, do we not? What's the alternative? What solution(s) do you propose that would make things better?

Sure, you could move to the forest and live completely off the land. But if that is your intention, I assume you would not be here right now spending... ahem... money to be a Premium member. So, again, how does your premise help?

The solution is a sharing world...resource-based economy...not capitalism.

Ah... okay. I see where this is going.

Consider this: You're taking advantage of capitalism right now. Kyle and Carson used capitalism to start a business that you now participate in. And most of us are here to build an affiliate business -- a business, by the way, that is the very definition of the principles of capitalism. Soooo....????

Zeitgeist. Unfortunately, short of a global cataclysmic event that wipes out humanity to near-complete extinction, that's not going to happen. Nothing short of a complete reset will ever accomplish instituting a resource-based economy and that too will be only temporary.

Whether it's money, marbles, water, or air, there will always be those who have the inclination or desire to have more and will manipulate or exploit those who don't. Yes, we will always be cursed with politicians.

There will always be greed regardless of the system in place. Its simply human nature...always has been, always will be until we are assimilated by the Borg. ;-)

Not gonna lie... the Borg were my all-time favorite characters on TNG. lol

See more comments

Login
Create Your Free Wealthy Affiliate Account Today!
icon
4-Steps to Success Class
icon
One Profit Ready Website
icon
Market Research & Analysis Tools
icon
Millionaire Mentorship
icon
Core “Business Start Up” Training