The success of your blog depends largely on you, its author.
It depends on the motivation and passion you invest in the blog and the value you can offer your readers.

If you want to create your own blog, you need to think carefully in advance what you want to write about and why you are doing it.
And that’s even before you register a domain, install WordPress or choose a theme!
Below you will find a list of 6 questions, which will help you to determine if you found the right niche.

How To Find Inspiration?

You probably haven’t accessed this article without having at least a vague idea of what you want to write about in the blog.
But if you don’t really have an idea, it can be useful to look at some of the most popular blogs and their topics. 

You will find topics like:

• Travel – Food – Photography
• Beauty – Lifestyle – Bricolaje 
• Technology – Family – Children Literature
• Fitness – Mode – Pets 
• Finances – Online marketing – Self-employment – E-commerce
• Do it yourself – Self Help

Of course you should not limit yourself to these questions, and can also start a blog on many other topics. But ….

How To Find Interesting Subjects?

Some topics are interesting in themselves. And others are not.
Topics like celebreties, Hollywood movies, gossip, love, sex or big sports events are interesting in themselves. They always evoke emotions.

Topics like screws, wood wallpaper or menhirs are less interesting. If you like to know something about these topics you could read Wikipedia articles or a simple guide article on these topics.
But as a niche or topic for a whole blog they are completely unsuitable. Or do you know many people who are passionate about screws, wooden wallpaper or menhirs?

Helpful Questions To Find Your Topic

Most bloggers drop out within the first year.
There can be many reasons for this. But one of the most common is you picked the wrong blog topic.
To avoid this, I have prepared a list of 7 questions for you. They will help you to judge if you really found the right blog topic or if you scrambling about.

First we start with brainstorming questions.

1. What Are You Are An Expert In?

You do not need to have written a doctoral thesis on your topic. You also do not need to have any work experience, a university degree or other qualifications relevant to your field.
You certainly would need to have more knowledge about your topic than your target audience.

So keep in mind, if your target audience are beginners, you need to be more advanced. 
If they are more advanced, you must be a professional. And if your target audience are professionals, you must be a master in your field.

Of course you can and will also grow with your blog and gradually acquire more knowledge and experience than your target audience. But it’s certainly easier if you already have a solid  basis.
It will keep motivating you and the writing will be easier. Your audience will value your input more if they feel you know what you are doing.

Now to start your brainstorming practice do the following:
Take 10 to 20 minutes (set a timer).
Write down any topics, interests or hobbies in which you know more than the average.
Then ask yourself:  

• What problems can I solve with my knowledge?
• What problems do I experience?
• What problems of others are the first point of contact for you?
• What are the biggest problems in your private or professional life that you could solve on your own?

2. What Are You Passionate About?

Are you interested enough in the topic that you are able to spend your time with it?
Be honest:
If so, you should be able to answer yes to at least two or three of the following questions:

• Do you read books on the topic of the blog?
• Do you read studies on the topic or do you regularly read news about it?
• Have you ever attended a seminar, conference or workshop on this topic?
• Would you yourself hold a seminar or workshop on this topic or give a lecture at a conference?
• Do you spend a lot of money on this topic?
• Have you ever travelled far for this topic or have you made other important efforts for it?
• Is the theme a constant in your life?
• When you talk to other people, do you always come back to the topic?
• Could you talk about it for hours without getting bored?
• Do you deal with the blog’s topic in any way on a daily basis?
• Would you start case studies or projects on this topic?

If you can’t answer yes to any of these questions, don’t bother, otherwise your blog won’t work and you’re wasting your time.

3. Can You Write 50 Posts On A Topic?

As a blogger you don’t become famous and successful overnight. Even if some self-proclaimed gurus tell you so.
It will probably take you about a year without any previous experience to make a living from a blog.

A blog is a lot of work in the beginning. So on the one hand, it is important that you have the stamina to write 50, 100 or even 200 blog entries until you see a visible success. If you’re not ready for that, you shouldn’t start blogging in the first place.

Of course, you don’t have to invent the content and titles of all your future blog posts right away, but try to think about the titles of 20 blog entries.  If you have difficulty putting together more than 10 ideas, you might want to rethink your topic.

4. Which Blog Topic Is Easy To Implement?

Look at your list of possible blog topics and ask yourself :
Which of these themes would be the easiest to implement?
The reason for this question is simple: If a topic is easy for you, you are probably an expert in the field, and you are passionate about it.

5. Are There Other Successful Blogs On This Topic?

Why reinvent the wheel and dive into an unknown market?
If there are other successful blogs on this topic, this is an indication that you can be successful with your blog.
The easiest way to find such blogs is a Google search (e.g. “top diy-blog”, “best cooking-blog”, etc.).
In order to be able to know if a blog is successful look at the following indicators:

• More than 5000 fans and followers on Instagram
• More than 2500 fans and followers on Twitter
• More than 10000 fans and followers on facebook
• High visibility on Google (more than 1,500 on Search-metrics)
• A high number of visitors such as more than 20,000 individual visitors
  or more than 25,000 page views per month
  (You can see the data in the media kit or on the “About us” page) 
• $1000 or more profit per month (only visible if the blogger has published it himself)
• More than 200 blog entries published
• It has existed for two years or more.

Of course, these are only rough guidelines and not all of them have to be followed for a blog to be considered successful.
In addition, the weighting of individual features is to a certain extent also in the eye of the beholder.  Some determine a blog successful depending on monthly profit other on traffic and reach. 

6.  Can You Earn Money With This Topic?

Yes, this question is important, but it should be secondary.

Because your visitors will notice if you just want to sell them something. It is like a red thread that runs through everything you write, and at some point your visitors will lose interest.
And you will notice it too, because writing about something for money is not very satisfying in the end.

When you feel really passionate about a topic, you will be successful with it. And if you have income strategies in place, then you will earn money with your blog automatically. 
Another point to consider is that you can make money on a lot of topics. The question is how much and how much effort do you have to put in for the money you can make.

Niches in which you can sell your own products or advertise the products of other companies are often easier to earn money in.

Here is a checklist to consider when you are looking at monetization: 

• Are there already many products or services related to the topic of your blog?
• What is the margin of the products?
• Are there any affiliate programs in the area and what are the rewards?
• Are there any companies that post sponsored posts on the topic?
• Are there many product-related keywords in the area on Google (you can check this with a keyword tool, for example)?
• Are there ads for these keywords?
• Would your target group pay money to solve a specific problem?

If you follow this guideline you will be successful with your blog.