Blog about something you are good at to give you that advantage

I started dabbling into my own sites and blogs since 2002 till now. Throughout the years, I’ve learned to observe who has the staying power and what type of blogs drives traffic.

Everyone is dabbling into blogging nowadays and jumping into the bandwagon. But you need to love to write and share what you know- else, you will be discourage with the rise and fall in traffic and earnings.  And you will not be able to stay blogging for long.

If you want to blog, then blog about something that you are good at

Niche blogs usually fare better than general blogs. It’s something that I’ve learnt to observe through starting and running multiple blogs. Niche blogs drive targeted traffic- and the longer the blog exists, the blog tends to get indexed provided you make it a point to update the blog once a while.

Find a topic that you are good at- and you will find that many people may be looking for the type of information that you are offering. You may underestimate your interest and think that no one will bother to read what you know- but if you never write, you’ll never know, rite?

Give it a try and give yourself a chance.

For example, in my Creative Blog, initially I wrote posts about other creative crafters and artists. The blog, because it was talking bout creativity, arts and crafts, beading, etc, tends to attract visitors that were specifically searching for that topic.

But I had forgotten about myself. For many years, I’ve always been a hobby crafter- I work with beads and satin ribbons and made mostly hair accessories. In pursuit of my hobby, I’ve spent years and lots of money sourcing for good supplies, getting new ideas as well as making mistakes. I’ve never thought about sharing my own personal trial and errors with others out there who are starting out until I had an unusual dream indicating that I should be sharing what that used to be my inspiration and motivation.

As I retrieve containers after containers of craft supplies and finished products that I’ve packed aside, I recalled so many things and skills that I’ve learned on my own. Things that may benefit others. So, I took them out, took pictures and will be gradually writing about them in my Creative blog.

It’s the same for you- think of all the knowledge that you’ve acquired over time about something- like, how to juggle studies with social life, how to raise a kid, how to repair electrical products, how to modify your cars on a budget, etc etc.

In the beginning, you may write probably about 10 posts and then find you have nothing to write. If you are really passionate about the topic, you can connect to others who shared similar interests or forums of those who are discussing the topic or looking for solutions that you could offer. From there, you will find inspiration to write more posts.

Once you built enough traffic, then you can consider monetizing the site.

Income from blogging tends to fluctuate and if you are in it just to make a quick buck, you may tend to give up quickly (like how many people got in to direct selling and give up after a short while). If you genuinely love to write and share, then you will still do it even though you do not earn a cent.

Most readers can sense the sincerity and enthusiasm of the bloggers- and tend to go back again and again to blogs whereby the authors are there to guide and motivate others.

On the contrary, if you want to just make a quick hit, scrap contents of others and plaster on your blogs hoping to earn money while you are out there partying or sleeping, then in the long run, search engines may see through your tricks stop delivering traffic to your site. Eventually, you may find it difficult to even meet your hosting fees.