I’ve been blogging and content-creating for years. It’s never been consistently under a specific name or brand, but I’ve been writing, producing, and flipping (occasionally) as a method of creative exploration and monetisation.
Some ideas I’ve built out into monetised businesses and others not.
In today’s post, I want to take you on a short journey to see the potential in quirky and oftentimes overlooked topics that could be turned into fruitful businesses.
Now, as the series unfolds, you might think the ideas are brilliant or outright ridiculous. I’m expecting some aghast reactions.
But, stay with me, because part of the point is to illustrate how grey and ‘fudged’ the lines have become for interpretation and acceptability in the online space. And it’ll get worse as we humans run out of ideas.
As Seth Godin says “Don’t be original” or it’s at least trying to say ‘don’t try to be original’.
There are many antidotes to create for that, but my personal favourite and one I’m advocating here, is to, never stop being creative – search in the overlooked details for innovation. In other words, aim for a fresh take.
Reinvention is the new original. That one’s me, not Mr Godin.
Side-note: As with everything on NBL – niche blog lab – most businesses are explored as online entities, but there’s no reason it can’t be interpreted as an in-person venture. It all depends on your creativity and willingness to keep an open mind.
Innovation as an act of creativity
Creation was always on my agenda, but specifically writing. I naturally gravitate toward what I do not have enough of. I’m always searching for things outside the visual because I experience that in heaps at my day job as a designer.
My happy place is in ideas using words as my master tool – always has been since childhood actually; my first win was for copywriting the headline on a poster rather than for the drawing itself.
So, naturally as a creator and blogger – because bloggers are business owners – I come up with blog brand ideas all the time. But, here’s the interesting part – these are not always meant to be businesses per se.
What happens is that I’ll have ideas I think I could build out into businesses. Except, I never really had any intention to. My groove is in ideas.
Related: How to define your product: You’ll have one when you know what you stand for
Writers and content creators often lament the effect of burnout caused by overwhelm. And that was one of the reasons I wasn’t building these ‘businesses’ in the first place.
So instead, I claimed the name – encapsulated as a possible domain – and decided to make it freely available here as a series of posts.
This sounds like I’m giving away free business ideas and you’re probably thinking “Well, why would she do that?”. The answer is in that sentence – it’s just an idea.
The difference between ideation and concept
Ideas are not concepts, but they could become that. An idea could and should be taken to the next stage of conceptualisation and then strategy, before becoming a business.
Ideation precedes everything.
Idea, concept, and strategy are separate stages and you’d be forgiven for thinking they’re all rolled into one.
Ideation is the raw stage of brainstorming, word associations, free wordplay, loose thoughts, spiralling, and discovery.
Proper ideation is done without judgment.
So, here is the first in a series of posts about potential (ideas) blog brands or business concepts (conceptualisation + strategy) that I know I’m not going to build.
But, it might (and I hope it will) inspire you to either create content around it or execute that very idea into an online business yourself.
By the way, the ‘41’ has no significance, it was just a first list of ideas I had for a particular type of business model. 😄
What’s the connection between this post and niche blogging?
Here’s where the real inspiration came from a couple of years ago while trying to strategise (was putting the ‘cart-before-the-horse’) another content site, and here it is:
The ubiquitous line that all aspiring content creators are flogged with – pick a niche! Content creators, not so much bloggers (who write exclusively) will always tell you that the first thing you need to do is “pick a niche!”.
That was all I was hearing.
While this is mostly true if you want to build a content-style blog, that action is not as simple as it sounds.
You see, a blog – and I use the term on this blog mainly to describe a website (essentially) that holds or espouses a recurrent theme whether that’s logging journal entries (because that was what a blog was way back in 2006/7/8 in the digital space) or publishing long-form articles under a brand or personal name – for the former and the latter, either way, it is a business, and that is the spin I want to put on ‘picking a niche’ in this blog post.
Today’s brand, blog, or business idea:
‘Eating for your chakras’
Possible domain = eatingforyourchakras.com
I know this domain sounds cheesy, but stay with me in the ideating mindset.
This name is not ‘etched in stone’, it’s just an idea, so I want you to think of it this way:
- Domains that are simple by way of their descriptiveness are just as effective as those elusively clever ones – the ones that are elegant, short, simple, and highly conceptual; the ones you wish you’d thought of. But, that’s how those domains ‘pull it off’.
- The name is so straightforward that it speaks to search intent and even search-optimised keywords, eg. ‘chakras’. So, if you can target a great keyword, one worth investing in (one that isn’t highly competitive or has low search volume), grab it and insert it into your domain. Just make sure that it makes sense as part of the name. Don’t throw words together or insert a keyword thinking that it may help you rank. Focus on sincerity and authenticity, instead of provocation and SEO hype – it’s good to concept (strategy stage) with SEO in mind, but at the ideation stage, put it on the back-burner.
Now, back to the above example.
How to discover potential topics by analysing the business name or domain
Break up the phrase into its key words:
– eating (eat, survival)
– for your (yours, my own, mine)
– chakras (the body, body as temple, metaphysics, primal, holistic, health).
For example, the word eating/eat can be cascaded into all kinds of wonderful topics, themes, and connotations, such as:
- food traditions, cultures, heritage,
- nutrition value and science
- interpretations of wellbeing
- Recipes and innovation
- Cooking methodologies
- Food science
- Ways of eating a.k.a eating styles
- Food styling
- Food genres
- Food Technology
- Growing your food
- Colour in food
- Food textures
- Types of food, food groups
- Culinary Nutrition
- Meal prepping techniques for certain health condiitons
- Self-nourishment – a new form of self-care
And so forth. I’ll allow you to get creative with the rest – that is precisely the mindset you need to embrace at this pre-concept stage.
The ideation phase doesn’t command perfection, incisiveness, decision-making, or any pressure to strategise.
This is the innovation playground, not the ‘design’ one, yet.
You might say, “Well, what’s the big deal, it all sounds like niches.”
They are. But, they are also topics, as I mentioned before.
Topics are exactly that, but when put into the context of writing, you’re looking at potential titles for blog posts or articles, newsletters, gated content, vlogging screenplays, podcast episodes, and more.
Better yet, say hello(!) to future cascading content.
How to cascade niche content
- Written content – Ask yourself: Could you write blogs, articles, screenplays, vlogs, podcast episodes, or build collaborations around the topic?
- Marketing content – Think about whether it has the potential to scale into multiple, repurposable, cascading content
- Audio content – Could you create an intimate listening experience about it for your ideal audience and build loyalty that way?
- Video content – Remember that there are various interpretations of what it means to ‘perform’, for the camera, that is. Think along the lines of: How could you entertain or build a narrative or story world around it?
- Email content – What kind of narrative or story could you build over a long period?
- Product content – all bloggers sooner or later want to monetise. After all, why not? You invest so much physical energy and mental effort into showing up in public, why not get paid for it? But, here’s where bloggers often get stuck: What could you sell (physical or digital) or offer, even for free?
TIP: A lead magnet is a great example of a legitimate product you can give away for free, which goes hand-in-hand with the topic of email above
- Service-based content – This can be a lucrative funnel if you have the personality. Think about what you could offer to teach, advise, coach, etc
See what I mean about potential?
All of this from a single seed — Eating for Your Chakras. Maybe I’ll never build it. But perhaps you will.
Final Thought
Blogging and monetized blogging are not all ‘business’. The compulsion to make money is often coupled with something we already like doing, if not love.
Whether you’re a yoga practitioner or someone who loves exploring healthy living or metaphysical topics, a business like this is a great inspiration point from which to see that potential business opportunities can be found and interpreted in multiple, unexpected ways.
Related reading: Niche Blog strategies for 2025:
In Conclusion
This series is not a How-To.
It’s not for perfectionists nor for people who need a proven template.
This is for the ones who know they’re creatives, but don’t want to build something traditionally.
But if anything in this sparked something in you —
Grab it. Run with it. Call it yours.
If you’re still in experimental mode, join me for the next business idea in the series. Perhaps something in that one will spark or fuel you? If you’re keen, subscribe below to get the update delivered straight to your inbox. If you’re hesitant, rest assured I don’t indulge spam, not at any level. So, feel free to opt out at any time.
Another note on research and exploration:
You don’t need to be in “monk mode” to go deep. You need to permit yourself not to act on every idea. That liminal space — between an idea and execution — is where the richest insights live.
I’m sharing mine. Feel free to take one, build on it, or let it spark your own.
I’ve already moved on to the next one.
PS> If, by any chance, you are vacillating between starting a niche blog or a personal brand one, why don’t you try my free workbook? It’s an editable PDF, making it easy to download and type straight into it. I guarantee it will not only inspire you, but help you answer a few critical questions about who you are as a person both introspectively (think: what drives me) and publicly (think: persona) – insights that are beneficial for structuring a successful blog. It’s simple but thought-provoking enough to stir something 🙂 Download it below and if you prefer, feel free to unsubscribe after you’ve received it to remove your email – sometimes you need your privacy. I completely get that.
