Ask yourself whether you’re a founder or investor before you start a so-called blog.
Many aspiring bloggers buy into the idea that they’ll earn lots of money and possibly be able to quite their job by simply starting a blog and going through all the motions the successful ones tell them to do.
Fisrtly those ‘bloggers’ are not telling you everything, believe that. Here, I’m referring to all the nuances of the various software, tools, and other resources they claim contributes to their daily success.
Secondly, there’s a lot more than is obvious as you observe, via scrolling, their social media lives and reading their income bragging articles.
Thirdly, a lot of the successful bloggers (especially the lifestyle ones claiming to be earning 7 figures per annum) are clearly not writers. Some even lack basic eloquence and cs not even construct decent sentences. But, they’re super successful.
Why? Because their talent may not by in creative or journalistic writing, but they are business-savvy.
That’s a fantastic skill to have in niche blogging, whether you have a natural flair or instinct to see opportunities for monetization or simply taught yourself to become great at it.
Anything can be learnt online these days and ‘Amen’ to that.
Related reading:
How to start a niche blog – Step-by-Step for Beginners Who Want to Post ‘Something’
If you’ve been thinking about starting a niche blog, stop Googling “how to start” and follow this simple guide. I’ve stripped it down to the essentials so you can have your blog up and your first post live in a weekend — without getting stuck in ‘research’ or ‘do-it-yourself’ mode for six months. Step 1: Pick Your Niche in One Sitting Don’t spend weeks (or months or years) agonising over this. Pick a topic you can write about and iterate on at least 20 times without getting stuck = that’s your niche. Commit to it, and move on. Quick way to choose: Related Reading: 41 Niche Businesses I’ll Never Build (But Maybe You Will) Step 2: Buy a Domain and Hosting You can’t start a blog without an online “address”. That’s the definition of a domain name. If you’re only testing the waters and don’t want to commit money yet, start free with WordPress.com or Blogger — but know you’ll eventually want to buy a domain and a more robust content management system (CMS). TIP: When you use WordPress.org, you own your content 100%. In other words, you are not renting space from someone/something else – meaning, they can easily kick you and your content off their platform if and when necessary. Step 3: Choose and Install Your Blogging Platform The platform is the software that powers your blog. Here are four examples of well-known, traditional content management systems (CMS) used for blogging: Here are popular non-traditional CMS that can function as a blogging platform if you only want to focus on writing and logging posts. Related reading: The Complete Guide to Blogging Platforms for Beginner Niche Bloggers Step 4: Pick a Simple Theme and Don’t Overdesign Your first goal is not to “make it pretty” — it’s to make it functional. Pick a clean, free theme like Astra or GeneratePress, or try a free starter template from Kadence. Related Reading: How to Define Your Product: You’ll Have One When You Know What You Stand For Step 5: Write Your First 5 Posts Before You Launch Don’t launch with a single post. Try for at least 5 medium-length posts. If this feels like fleshing out four essays (daunting), then try a Listicle (list post) – these work well as ‘Ultimate top 10’ or ‘Best alternatives to___’ and are pretty easy to do with topics that you know a lot about or can easily research and list out in bullet or number point. Here’s how to do it: Short-form vs long-form: What’s the difference? Related Reading: Niche Blog Strategies for 2025 Step 6: Make It Easy for People to Find You Use one social platform to focus solely on promoting your posts. If you want search traffic fast, try Pinterest — it’s highly recommended for new blogs. TIP: Pinterest takes a couple of weeks to months to have your pins circulate and rank in the feeds. While that’s evolving, focus on Pinterest SEO – use keyphrases and search intent in the main search bar; check Pinterest trends for trending colours and other graphic cues – and create interesting and unique pins that best express your blog post. Go with the current, but let your unique point of view shine – it will make your pins stand out in a sea of ‘same-looking’ pins. Related Reading: Step 7: Post regularly (or here’s what happens If you don’t) Can you post when the mood strikes? Sure. But here’s the trade-off: inconsistent posting usually means inconsistent traffic resulting in a blog that never grows. Approach your blog like a business and post on a schedule — even when you’re not in the mood. If you approach it like a diary, you’ll only post when inspiration hits. Nothing wrong with that if your goal is personal expression rather than audience growth. Whichever you choose, be honest about ‘why’ you’re doing it. If you want readers and revenue, treat it like a business. Step 8: Think About Why You’re Blogging Before You Monetise Why are you here? To write? To communicate and connect? To build an audience and a following? Or purely to make money and possibly generate an income? If the goal is to build an income-generating publishing business, monetization should be your primary focus – and there’s nothing wrong with that. But for a first-time blogger, I recommend getting comfortable with long-form, written, content creation first, then layering in monetisation tactics. Here are a few low-barrier-to-entry monetisation options for beginners: Related Reading: Are you an investor or a founder? Step 9: Publish Now, Tweak Later The best way to start a blog is to simply start, no matter how unpolished your first post feels. It’s out there and it’s been said a ‘million’ times, but trust me on this one – it’s true. The more imperfect, the better. If you’re not ‘sold’, try this: Just be human – and that one’s been gaining traction as well. Here’s a tip: Write your idea, then flesh it out in your own words. If you must, allow AI to assist but then tweak in your own words. Never, and I do mean never, copy and paste. You can always edit and refine your writing later, even retrofit the SEO (though I don’t recommend it – pick one simple and meaningful keyphrase upfront and run with it). Also, pause on the branding till after your content is published. No one’s reading an unpublished blog. Bottom line and in this order: The “perfect blog” comes from posting, not from planning. TIP: Write raw, publish unpolished – give yourself permission to be edgy and experimental. In conclusion: Starting a niche blog for the first time This foundational post is brief and intentionally so. This guide should take the overwhelm out of starting a blog or content site, and hopefully, allow you to build an online presence as quickly as possible. Fuss-free. Would you like anything elaborated on? Let me know. If, by any chance, you are vacillating between starting a niche blog or a personal brand one, try the workbook below. 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. Disclosure: While this publication uses AI tools for data collection and analysis support, the research questions, hypotheses, and core insights are the human author’s original work. AI assists with information processing, but all conceptual thinking, interpretation, and conclusions reflect the human editor’s and human writer’s professional expertise.
What kind of founder or creator are you?
You’ll find more long-term value by asking yourself whether you’re a blogger (writer with any skill level, but must like writing) or are just in love with the idea of owning and making money from digital property.
Checklist for founder or creator types:
If you’re unsure, niche down (choose your topic or focus) and go through the following list of questions:
- do I like to write?
- do I love creative writing?
- do I prefer the facts?
- do I like fiction?
- do I like non-fiction?
- am I a list-maker?
- am I a researcher, do I scour the internet in my spare time?
- do people always ask me how to do things?
- do I like helping people, or do I prefer to be left alone?
- do I prefer online friends of real-life ones?
- do I like to explain or do I prefer to curate sources of information?
Related reading:
Niche Blog strategies for 2025:
Intro If you’ve considered starting a blog in 2025, you’ve probably wondered whether to start a personal or a niche blog. Whether you settle on a blog for personal expression or to start a side hustle or full-time business, it can be a powerful engine to take what you have to offer to the next level. More specifically, a niche blog is for those wanting to provide a service or product and monetize it. If you’re any one of the above, your first step is to choose what your niche will be. Even if you want to start a personal blog with no intention to monetize, you still need a niche or a purpose. Trust me, as someone who’s built blogs and as a branding designer, knowing what you stand for or what you have to offer a reader will increase your reach and your traffic. It will help someone understand who you are and what you have to offer them and ultimately help them decide whether they should stay on your blog or not. Readers don’t want to be confused about what they’re reading or visiting (your blog). So, don’t be shy about showing them the way. User Experience (UX) of your blog This is crucial for UX which I’m sure is a term you’ve heard before. It refers to user experience and knowing what type of information you will write about consistently will help improve the user’s experience of your site because they know what to expect and where to find it for example, having a navigation bar that points to sub-topics that relate to your main focus. When your user experience and offers are consistent, you will generate more traffic to your blog eventually. So, don’t be vague! Researching niche topics This article is for beginner bloggers or for anyone brainstorming and researching ideas for a niche blog to start. And it is targeted specifically at those wanting to monetize a blog. You can monetize a personal blog too, as long as you keep producing high-quality content that people will find useful. In other words, always make sure that your blog posts offer the reader something they can use or buy that will improve their lives. This is what people are consistently looking for. Whether in information or within a product or service. People want to know how they can make their lives better, even just on a day-to-day basis. This kind of information – even in tidbits – is more obsessive and easier to get hooked on. ie. how to improve my life or make it better. So, whatever you are offering whether as a hobby or monetized blog, get people hooked on your content by ensuring that they are improving their lives or simply their day in some way. It’s even easier to do with a niche blog because it targets a very specific topic that a certain reader (and you can scale that up to hundreds and thousands) is actively searching for. When you get this targeted you can focus your efforts on it as it does circumvent ending up appearing vague to your readers. Do readers read blogs or visit websites with blogs? The nature of blogging and blog-reading has changed over the last 5-10 years. Reading blogs is no longer about a certain degree of voyeurism into someone’s life or seeking inspiration. Researching inspiration is still relevant and part of a content creator and marketer’s strategy, but the intention has changed. With the advent of smarter technology and content creators having to compete with AI-generated content, readers are now looking for content that serves a purpose or they feel like they’re just wasting their time – content must help them in some way or they’ll leave and go somewhere else. The long and short of it is that readers can find generic information anywhere and fast. The best example of this is that you can simply type a question into Google and a summarised answer to that question will pop up in the SERP without having to click through to a website. So why bother writing about a solution in a blog, what could you have to offer someone? Well, this is how blogging has become more challenging. This is how the job has become a lot harder. But, it’s a great challenge nonetheless. It simply means that your content has to be unique and the one way you can target that is by selling your unique point of view. Readers have read and ‘heard’ it all before, but those who will be your followers want to read your interpretation of a ubiquitous topic or something they’ve read before. This is what you need to home in on. If it’s been done a thousand times before, that’s fine. Offer readers your original take on that thing that’s been done a thousand times before, but do it freshly so that it will delight them and make them come back for more. It’s the only tactic that will help you survive in organic searches as of 2025. Ranking has become more difficult and there are billions of pieces of content being pushed out every day, so make your content as fresh and unique as possible. Why Niche blogs are easier to monetize It’s easier to monetize a product that is recognizable in its physical shape and form or it’s direct relevance to a specific topic. Familiar products resonate with people. Whether it’s a product they already possess or one they desire to own, each has a common trait ie. it offers a solution to a problem they are experiencing. In other words, it solves a problem – one they are experiencing currently or one they perceive will solve the problem in an enhanced or improved manner, thereby elevating their life experience. So, it won’t only solve the problem categorically, it will enhance their life experience at the same time. A good example is products and services whose solution is packaged in a certain aesthetic and that aesthetic is made desirable through clever marketing tactics or more relevantly through influencer marketing. You get the idea. The point is that creating a niche blog that has a product or service offering specific to its topic will generate more traffic, and leads quicker than a personalized, hobby blog. Both of these can be monetized by simply generating lots of traffic to it. But, with a niche blog, you’re getting specific. And getting specific is where blogging success is headed in 2025. So, if you’re still excited to get into niche blogging in 2025, here are 10 ideas to help you get started. These are not prescriptive, but simply inspiration for your research into what the best umbrella topics are for your interests and how they could be packaged into a niche blog business. If you’re still at the research stage and not sure if you want to start a personal blog or a monetized one, you can use the below list as blogging topics for beginners too. 10 niche blog ideas you can monetize in 2025: Content Writing All of the above sub-niches are topics you can build out into a niche blog. Blogging requires a lot of effort, particularly writing as ‘content creation’, but there are solutions for that. Here are a few avenues to explore for content writing: Conclusion – niche blog strategies in 2025/2026 Blogging about a problem you are solving for yourself is a powerful engine for your monetized blog and should, I recommend, be the backbone of any niche blog brand. Whatever your purpose is, remember that building a successful niche blog is about offering a solution to a problem. The bloggers who gain a massive following are the ones who have solved a problem for themselves and offer that solution to others to help them improve their lives as well. Whether you charge for that solution is entirely up to you – you decide how to run your blog business. I’m just discussing the essence of what niche blogging has become and how it’s going to keep evolving in 2025. So, I hope these niche blog examples have inspired you to start a niche blog today! If you liked this post, you’ll love this article on How to define your product. Don’t forget to subscribe below. Disclosure: While this publication uses AI tools for data collection and analysis support, the research questions, hypotheses, and core insights are the human author’s original work. AI assists with information processing, but all conceptual thinking, interpretation, and conclusions reflect the human editor’s and human writer’s professional expertise.
What kind of an investor are you?
Are you the one more focused on how the content site or blog is going to earn money?
If you answered Yes!, then you’re most definitely an investor type. In other words, you care about monetisation.
You’ll know if you’ an investor if you don’t ‘care’ that much about writing, content creation or crafting as much as owning.
Checklist for investor types:
- you care about earning money from a content site
- you want to earn money from a blog-style website (personal, human-like style website)
- you want to generate a regular, passive income from a content site
- you’re not precious about a specific niche as long as it’s profitable
- you understand that websites are a form of digital property (digital real estate)
- you regard buying a website as an investment
- you are not interested in producing content yourself
- you are comfortable with outsourcing content writing and production
- you enjoy passive investment instead of active ‘hustling’ – in fact, you hate hustling
- you love ideas, brands, products but you have no desire to actually make them yourself
- you believe in building wealth over time and are not looking for a get-rich-quick scheme
Related reading:
- Stovetop Meals as a food niche: is this micro-niche actually viable?
- What users want versus what investors and creators define as ‘useful’ content
- Adding quizzes to your WordPress site without building an app
- Content site investments – what you need to know in 2026
- Non-designer careers: Where do they work? Industries, roles and strategic opportunities | Part 3
Something to help inspire, motivate or activate your thinking
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.
Personal Branding Guide & Workbook
An 18-page, self-guided tutorial for uncovering or rediscovering your unique message, tone, personality and values as it pertains to visual identity. This is a digital download, PDF ebook. Viewable on Acrobat, Canva, Kindle, Goodnotes, Google docs or Notion.
Disclosure: While this publication uses AI tools for data collection and analysis support, the research questions, hypotheses, and core insights are the human author’s original work. AI assists with information processing, but all conceptual thinking, interpretation, and conclusions reflect the human editor’s and human writer’s professional expertise.
