Picking the right niche (s)
Picking a niche is one of the very first suggestions brought to the attention of newcomers to Wealthy Affiliate (WA). Sometimes the new member knows about niches and sometimes not.
In relation to online business a niche denotes a product, a service, or an area of interest that appeals to an individual. In this case the individual is you.
Why do you need to select a niche?
People usually seek an online presence to sell a product, a service, to promote a cause or share information. In case you had not thought this through earlier, it is not a problem because you are not bound to stick to a specific niche. You get to decide what niche to focus on and when to do it. Nevertheless, it is important to be aware of a few things when you choose a niche.
1 - The need for passion
Quality content is very important for your site to appear in search engine rankings. Search engines look for relevant content on specific areas of interest.
Relevant content is content that covers an area of interest comprehensively. Unless you are passionate about something it will be difficult for you to write extensively about it.
Content is essentially the text that makes up a web page. But content is not limited to textual writings, it also includes images, animations, sound and video. You can make use of all the latter to convey your thoughts and ideas on a website. Whenever you use images, animations, sound or video be cautious, because these can slow down the speed at which your pages load online.
How do you know you are truly passionate about something?
Think of things that you can talk about endlessly without getting bored. What are those subjects that you can narrate all day long if given the opportunity?
Friends and family may help you if you are not sure what your passion is. Those who have a close relationship with you can tell you the subjects you talk about vividly.
Ask yourself if you can write at least 50 pages on the subject. This is the typical amount of text to expect on a site that comprehensively covers a matter.
Are you passionate about many things? Then try to prioritize them from the highest to the lowest. Remember you will be able to design multiple websites on Wealthy Affiliate (WA), meaning you can have sites that deal with multiple areas of interest.
2 - The need for knowledge
Search engines look for authoritative content. Authoritative content is content that is accurate to the point and well presented. It is writing from an expert's viewpoint.
Unless you are knowledgeable about something it will be difficult for you to write authoritatively about it. In case you are not a real expert in a certain area, this should not put you off.
If you are passionate about something you will be able to carry out adequate research on the matter and gain the knowledge needed to write about it from an expert's standpoint, using your own words. You can do your research on the Internet, or if you have access to a public library pick from there as many relevant books as possible to get the most accurate and up to date information.
Never copy and paste information from other sites. Rewrite in your own words what you got from the pages you refer to. The same applies to books that you use. Write abstracts of what you read. Copying and pasting from other people’s sites can get your site marked for plagiarism. It is important to know that search engines are designed to find and detect word for word plagiarism. Therefore, this is something you really want to avoid.
3 – Time to Make your Pick(s)
The above suggestions should not intimidate you in any way. In case you are afraid to get overwhelmed, remember that your skills will improve gradually as you write. On the other hand, there is an abundance of resources on WA that you can draw on to work on your content writing skills. A wealth of training material is available on this platform, and you can also rely on the support of the entire WA community to help you achieve your writing objectives. Now is a good time to pick your niche(s) and get into action!
Recent Comments
4
This is such an excellent post-Hakiza and my word did you cover some stuff here
Niche-picking can troublesome people so I hope new members come and check this post out as it will really help them a lot
And passion must drive you as this will keep you moving forward
Thank you so much for this post
Keep on building
Vicki
Some of the people I introduced to WA seemed to get confused about niches, so I decided to write something. Thanks for your comments.
Such good advice and information! Someone was asking about this in chat yesterday, so I am sure they will be very please you answered their question. : ))
See more comments
Great post Hakiza. Thanks for sharing.