I have been blogging for years. Professionally since 2013. I have created countless blogs on a wide range of niches but since 2019 I have focused on blogging about WordPress.
I have some personal reasons why I finally settled on this niche. First, I love the software and the impact it has made. WordPress has allowed anyone with an internet connection, including those who don’t know how to code, to build their home on the internet– their website.
With WordPress, you can create any type of website without being locked out on a closed platform. You have full control over your website.
Second, I want to give back to WordPress according to what I am capable of: educating. I do so by providing useful content on this blog which can be accessed for free by anyone who wants to learn WordPress.
On my channels (social media and newsletter), I also urge anyone to build their blog with WordPress. Be it for a business purpose or just for fun.
For anyone wanting to create a WordPress blog for a business purpose, I have created a comprehensive guide accessible for free. In the guide, I have covered everything you need to start a blog business, including how to monetize your blog.
However, I really understand that not everyone may be interested in starting a blog on the niche of WordPress. That’s why I decided to write this post, which will guide you how to find a niche for your new blog.
The focus of this guide to find a blog niche that is possible to build MRR via affiliate marketing.
Shortcuts ⤵️
- What is a niche?
- Does a niche really matter?
- Crucial thing to notice
- Recommended niches to build MRR
- 2 questions to answer
- Summary
What is a Niche and Why Does it Matter?
Since you want to create a business-oriented blog, you need to define your niche first before getting started.
What is a niche?
In a broader definition in the marketing world, a niche is a specific group of people with the same characteristics and preferences. These people are the ones you want to target with your product or service.
In the context of blogging, a niche is a specific topic you will write about on your blog.
The problem is that everyone may have their own perspective regarding the word “specific”.
For instance, I blog about WordPress. It is (WordPress) my niche. In my perspective, WordPress is a specific enough topic because there are many software with the same functionality. Such as Drupal, Joomla, Ghost, etc.
But others consider that WordPress is a too broad topic because there are many sub-topics like security, performance, design, e-commerce and so on.
So, everything depends on how you define specificity in the end. I give you the above images to make it easy to understand what a niche is so you can pick one better.
Does a Niche Really Matter?
In short, yes.
Niche matters for all business types, not just blogging. In fact, it is the very first thing you need to think of if you want to start a new business.
Trying to sell to everyone is the biggest mistake that most people make when starting a new business.
Without a niche, it will be impossible to create targeted campaigns that convert.
If your blog has a specific niche, it will be much easier for you to craft blog post ideas for a certain goal (to generate affiliate sales, for instance). It is also useful to set priorities if you have too many blog post ideas to be executed.
A niche can also be helpful to build a loyal reader base. If you write random topics on your blog, I am not sure that you can build a reader base.
However, you also need to understand that a niche is not someone you are married to. Over time, you can write blog posts on broader topics too — as long as you are not out of your main track.
If you blog about photography, for instance, you can also write about image editing or content creation are these two topics are still related to photohraphy.
Conversely, you should not write about insurance, law, or health. These topics are out of the photography track.
Crucial Thing to Notice When Picking a Niche for Your Blog
Most revenue of this blog comes from affiliate marketing. And just like most bloggers, I used to rely on traffic from Google to generate affiliate sales.
But since the HCU update in 2023, I started to realize that overly relying on Google is a big mistake. Once Google plays its game (updates its algorithm) and your blog gets impacted, it can lead to revenue drop.
That’s exactly what I (and many other bloggers) experienced since the HCU update.
And everything is getting worse in the zero-click searches era as a result of AI Mode and AI Overviews applied by Google on its search engine.
Google is still (and will always be) the main traffic source for bloggers. But you can’t overly rely on it.
If you want to build a sustainable business with your blog, I strongly recommend you to pick a niche where you can build an MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue) or ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue).
To be able to build MRR and ARR with your blog, you can join affiliate programs that offer recurring commissions.
The problem is that not all niches may offer an opportunity to build MRR because recurring affiliate programs are usually offered by software and web hosting companies.
So, if you truly want to build MRR (which I strongly recommend due to high Google search ranking volatility which can affect your traffic) you can pick a niche where it is possible for you to recommend/promote a certain software type to your readers.
For instance, a logical software type you can promote/recommend if you blog about photography is an image editing software.
List of Recommended Niches to Build MRR
I have spent some time putting together niches that you can choose if you truly want to build MRR with your blog.
Here is the list:
| Productivity | Shopify |
| Email marketing | Web hosting |
| SEO and SEM | B2B marketing |
| Office suite | SMB |
| Blogging | Online security |
| Photography | Linux |
| iPhone photography | Freelancing |
| Photoshop/image editing | WordPress |
| VPN | WooCommerce |
| Online marketing | Laravel |
| E-commerce | HR |
| Social media marketing | Graphic design |
| Remote working | Solopreneur |
| Project management | Divi |
| Web design | SaaS |
| Creator economy | No-code app development |
| Web development | Software review |
| Affiliate marketing | Site optimization |
| System administration |
Picking the Right Niche for Your Blog
WordPress is a great niche to get into to build MRR via blog because you can join affiliate programs of web hosting services and plugin/theme developer companies.
There are many hosting providers and plugin/theme developer companies in the WordPress space that offer recurring commissions.
But again, I really get it if you are not interested in this niche.
If you still want to get into this niche, I strongly recommend you to pick a super specific niche like site performance, security or even design like I did with WPPagebulders.
You can then gradually broaden your topics over time as your blog grows.
What if you prefer to start a blog outside the WordPress niche?
2 Crucial Questions to Answer
Blogging is part of the creator economy. In the creator economy, people make money by sharing their knowledge.
As a blogger, you share your knowledge in the form of blog posts on your blog. So ideally, you blog according to your background because you already have the knowledge to share with your readers if you blog about your background.
If you are a project manager, for instance, you can blog about project management. If you are passionate about social media, you can blog about social media marketing.
Or if you are a programmer, you can blog about programming. And so on.
Alternatively, you can also blog about your hobby. If you love to take photos in your spare time, you can blog about photography.
If you love exploring new software, you can start a new blog dedicated to reviewing software.
But before you register a new domain to start your blog, make sure to answer the following questions first:
1. Are You Willing to Learn More About the Niche?
As I said above, the essence of blogging is to share knowledge so that you need to learn more about a particular topic before you write it and publish it as a blog post.
Just because I said this, it doesn’t mean that you have to be super knowledgeable. A mindset like this will stop you from growing.
Instead of being super knowledgeable, all you need is to be one chapter ahead of whom you write the blog post to.
After all, people will likely find your blog posts via search engines. So, if what you write gets their problem solved, you are making it.
However, you need to answer the following question if you want to last long with your blog and be a leader in your niche.
Are you willing to learn more about the niche?
When I started this blog in 2019, I only knew a little about WordPress. I didn’t even know what a custom field was and how to use it.
But since I was so passionate about WordPress, I learned — and still learning.
The willingness to learn is the key to growing your blog (or business in general).
Naturally, people are willing to learn if they are passionate about something. That’s why I strongly recommend you to start a blog based on your background or hobby.
2. Is it Possible to Create a Funnel to Promote a Certain Affiliate Product?
If you further explore this blog, you will find a fact that I added a link to this post on the header, the homepage, footer and several other areas.
Can you guess why?
Because I treat the post as a sales funnel where I promote Cloudways and Divi.
FYI. I also actively promote this post using paid ads on Facebook. My main goal with the post is to help anyone to create a blog with WordPress while also building both MRR and ARR via Cloudways affiliate program and Elegant Themes affiliate program.
To fund the ads on Facebook, I install display ads (Google AdSense in this case). I use the money I get from Google AdSense to run the ads.
The money I get from Cloudways and Elegant Themes is pure profit.
🚨 I have created exclusive content if you want to learn more how I do this.
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So, another question you need to answer before you start a blog on a particular niche is:
Is it possible to create a funnel to promote a certain affiliate product or two?
Ideally, before you start a blog on a particular niche, you conduct a research to validate whether or not the niche is profitable. This step is a bit tricky and time-consuming. That’s why I created this list to save you time.
You can simply pick a niche closest to your interest.
Once your blog has gone live, you can create a long-form post (like mine) and treat it as a sales funnel. You can plug your affiliate links to the content.
Make sure that your post spots a specific problem and you recommend your affiliate product as the solution. This way, your affiliate sales conversion will be high.
Or you can create content that transforms.
For instance, if you blog about image editing, you can create long-form content to boost productivity which involves a certain software (e.g., Remove.bg).
You can join the affiliate program of the software and plug your affiliate link into the post.
I have crafted this list of affiliate programs that offer recurring commissions. When picking a niche for your blog, you can take a look at the list while thinking of the suited content (funnel) for the affiliate product you want to promote via the content.
Summary
If you want to start a new blog and make money out of it, then it’s super crucial to arrange a solid strategy. Picking a niche should be a part of your strategy.
You can blog on random niches, of course. But I can guarantee that your blog won’t last longer than a year.
Trying to sell to everyone is the worst mistake you need to avoid if you want to start a new business. Blogging is no exception.
Based on my experience with the Google HCU update in 2023 (and now the zero-click searches era), I strongly recommend you to pick a niche in which it is possible for you to build MRR or ARR.
As a blogger, you can build MRR by joining affiliate programs that offer recurring commissions. Only this way you won’t lose your revenue on traffic drop caused by a Google algorithm update.
🚨 If you are interested in learning more how to build MRR with your blog via affiliate marketing, I have crafted exclusive content which you can access below.
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