I struggled for a long time to choose a niche for my blog.

As I was reading everything about starting a blog, one thing was obvious: you have to choose a specific niche.

That gave me quite a bit of anxiety as there were so many things I wanted to write about.

I found sports and the outdoors interesting, but that is too broad.

Technology, in general, is something I am curious about, but that is too broad as well.

Also, well-being, home, family, and everything between those and work-life balance are close to my heart as well.

Choosing a specific one from all those exciting topics I wanted to write about was an impossible task, so I finally decided not to go with the general consensus of choosing a single niche to focus on.

I decided to create a very old-school personal blog where I can write about almost anything I want.

If it comes at the cost of lacking reader authority, SEO authority, clear vision, or topics to cover, then so be it.

Before choosing a niche, ask yourself these questions

I went back and forth between choosing a niche or not; it almost drove me crazy.

Even to this day, I still keep doubting myself if I should or shouldn’t have chosen the path of creating a personal blog or not.

However, when I find myself fighting with this question, it is more than enough when I write a single post about a topic I am thinking of choosing as a niche for a new blog.

For example, sometimes I am thinking if I should start a hiking blog because I have a lot of great hiking stories to tell, lots of experience with hiking gear, and many ideas about hiking in general.

Usually, the urge and the feeling of starting a blog for only the hiking niche goes away when I get to write a very detailed and well-thought-out post about it.

Then afterward, I am happy again that I still have the option to move on to technology, home, or family niche.

Anyway, here are a few things I consider essential questions to ask when struggling with choosing a niche.

Are you planning to sell your blog?

Many people start their blogs with the sole purpose of selling them in the future.

If your long-term goal is to sell your blog in the future, then you might want to choose a particular niche so you will be able to build a loyal audience around that specific niche.

Do you want to blog as a person or a business?

Putting your face on everything you write makes you vulnerable.

It also makes you more reliable and relatable.

It is a double-edged sword.

Are you willing to put yourself behind all your words, or do you want the protection that blogging as a business or as an anonymous person gives you?

I struggled to choose a specific niche for my blog, so I created a personal blog instead.

Do you want to cover multiple topics or just one?

How open do you want to keep your options when writing your blog?

Take an example, hiking.

Many experts would say hiking as a niche is too broad, and you should focus only on hiking gear.

That might be too broad, and maybe you should focus only on hiking shoes.

That could be too broad, so maybe focus on maintaining hiking shoes. With organic substances only?

Or maybe you want to one day write about hiking, and the next day about something completely different, like technology.

Where do you see yourself in 2, 5, or 10 years with your blog?

Are you building something for the long term, or are you looking to cash out when you hit a certain number of page views per month?

Do you see yourself writing the same blog ten years from now?

Who are you writing for?

How much of your writing is for your readers, and how much of it is for yourself?

Take me, for example; I am writing for both.

I enjoy writing for myself, and I get a lot out of it, but I am also looking to share helpful information with my readers.

Are you writing for search engines, maybe?

The problem of choosing a specific niche

For me, the problem lies in the who.

Who is selling this idea of choosing a particular niche?

Usually, people and businesses are doing it for the money.

I haven’t yet found a person who writes because they like to write and say to choose a specific niche.

Also, I always find things hard to digest when they are considered the obvious choice by almost everyone you ask.

Call me a contrarian, but when everyone thinks the same, someone is not thinking.

Running multiple blogs with different niches

This is another option to consider, but this has some downsides as well.

This option doesn’t suit me because I cannot fully engage in multiple projects.

I have learned over the years, that focusing on one thing at a time is the way to go.

Say if I were running a hiking blog and a technology blog.

I can say with certainty that I would not be able to give my 100% effort to both blogs.

I would struggle to treat both blogs as equals and would be scared of having to decide to shut down the other once they start getting traffic.

Maybe I could hire writers to do the writing for these blogs?

Well, then it has become a business, and I am not looking to do that because I want to write a blog for the sake of writing.

How to start a niche blog?

Everyone has their way of treating writing and blogging.

Having a personal lifestyle blog as I do might not be the best option for everyone.

While I would recommend that anyone who is just getting started with blogging and is considering whether they should start a personal lifestyle blog or a focused niche blog, go with a personal lifestyle blog, as you’ll have more freedom to get more experience with writing content. You’ll most likely find your niche by writing great content.

After a couple of years of writing my personal lifestyle blog, I started experimenting with building another blog, this time a more focused niche blog, on the side of my own blog.