BloggerDad

Here’s something you should know about me: my favorite part about blogging, SEO and content marketing, hands-down, is keyword research.

That’s not hyperbole – sometimes I’ll wake up in the middle of the night, go to the bathroom and write down keyword research ideas for the morning.

(You can ask my wife about this)

I once considered naming my child Ahrefs.

(Don’t ask my wife about this)

I’ve been doing keyword research for more than 10 years, ever since I started writing online, and my approach to keywords has evolved a lot over that time.

Today, I look at keywords more as topics than individual/specific searches, and I try to focus on the intent behind the search to produce content that matches the intent.

That sounds complicated, but really it’s just making sure you answer people’s questions.

If someone’s looking to fix a garbage disposal, make it as easy as possible – don’t spend unnecessary time explaining the history of disposals or something else irrelevant to the convo.

Just tell them how to fix a damn garbage disposal.

Let’s give it up for side hustles. They’re having a moment right now.

There are side hustle books. Podcasts. Pop sockets.

There are also big lists of side hustles!

Here’s a look at how the search term “side hustle” has changed over time in Google Trends.

One survey showed that nearly half of Millennial workers have a side hustle, and some predictions say that by 2020, 40% of all work will be done by remote contractors.

But there are also a lot of misconceptions.

One of the most important steps to growing a successful blog is choosing the right niche, or topic, for your site.

I’ve made just about all the mistakes you can in this area, from going too specific to starting too broad.

In general, here’s my advice:

• don’t choose a niche simply because it’s your passion
• don’t choose a niche simply because you can make more money
• choose a niche that has a ton of questions, problems and online searches
• choose a niche related to the group of people you want to help

Making your passion into a blog doesn’t guarantee success, and neither does following the money just to make money.

You need to choose a niche that has a lot of questions and problems so that you can answer those problems with your content.

What you should focus on: providing value to readers by solving even the smallest of problems.

What problems do you want to solve?

Whose questions do you want to answer?

That’s the best way to pick your niche.