Choosing a Topic for a Website or Blog

If you are creating a website for a business, you can skip this article because you already have your topic ready.

The first thing that happens when people learn they can actually make money on the internet is they rush to create a site.  This is of course very reasonable especially considering how easy most marketers make it sound to make money.

The result is people end up writing about a saturated topic that they don’t know about and don’t like.  This too is also reasonable; most people learn how to get started on the web from "gurus" that teach success on the web.  It is no wonder that many beginners go into saturated niches.

Choosing a topic that you are passionate about and that you are knowledgeable about will allow you to produce quality content while staying interested in a topic.  Think about it: if you are bored with a topic will you be able to write about it daily for years; and if you don’t know about a subject how will you write about it, and how will compete with other websites.

If you create a topic about -say… sewing, you will be much more successful then going into the "make money online" topic.  It doesn’t matter how small your crowd may seem, they will come, and you will have a better chance of becoming a leader in your topic.

Remember that you are creating a website — something that can be accessed by the entire web.  A small amount of people that are interested in a topic will still be quite a few.

 Choosing a topic is simple:  choose what is closest to your heart; don’t worry about what anyone else is doing.  No matter what topic you choose, you will be able to build traffic and monetize your website or blog.

Specialization

Another mistake beginning webmasters make is they take on too many topics per website.  The websites that become leaders in their topics are specialized narrowed topics.  Having a website that covers video games, football, and chess will leave visitors confused, and they will often leave because the website isn’t on the topic that they want.  Search engines also rank websites that focus on one topic higher.

I’m not saying that if you choose "soccer" as your subject that you need to focus on one aspect of soccer such as "soccer shooting; i’m saying that you should only focus on one category of soccer.  Your website could be about soccer news, or soccer help, or soccer pictures for instance.

Why is Your Site Different

Before you start working on a topic, you need to find your competitive edge- the thing that separates you from similar sites.  If all the websites that are on you chosen topic were put out in front of the visitor, what would make him/her choose your website?

It could be your content writing, it could be your great design, but it has to be a combination.  You need to find weaknesses in your topic and attack them; to be truly successful you need to create the best website on your topic.

If you can’t answer the question honestly, then move on to another topic.  You are just wasting your time if you don’t provide quality.

photo credit: suzannelong

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