How Niching Down Can Help You Grow & Monetize Your Blog [Ep. 58]
Maybe you’ve heard niching down is a smart blogging strategy, but you’re struggling to doit?
If you’re nodding along then you’re in luck, as in this episode of The Profitable Travel Blogger Podcast, our special guest Alex Schnee of Alex on the Map will be sharing exactly how to niche down as a blogger.
By the end of this episode, you’ll understand:
- the benefits of creating a niche brand as a blogger
- how to niche down when you’re having trouble deciding on a topic
- tips for creating a niche blog content plan and social media strategy
- how niching down can help bloggers monetize more easily
- and more!
Note: This episode on how to define a niche for your blog contains affiliate links to trusted partners!
How Niching Down Can Help You Grow Your Blog [Podcast Episode Audio]
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Free Travel Blogger Resource Library
I’ve got a free gift for you!
To help you really jumpstart your blogging success, I’ve added 55+ blogging resources like printables, video tutorials, and workbooks into a FREE resource library for travel bloggers.
These resources are meant to help you grow your traffic, community, and income faster and with less overwhelm!
Powerful Tools For Creating A Niche Business As A Blogger
The following tools can help you define your niche target market and create a niche targeting strategy:
Keysearch (snag 30% off with code “jessieonajourney30”). Whether you need to do keyword research, are looking for a niche research tool, or simply want enough information to rank your content in search results, Keysearch can help. It’s the tool I personally use for all of the above, and more!
Bonus: It can help you explore niche markets by seeing what keywords people are truly searching and what topics people want to know about.
Social Media Planner. Social schedulers like Later, Buffer, MeetEdgar, and Publer allow you to visually and strategically plan out your content to better meet the needs of your niche audience.
Hubspot’s Free Blog Topic Generator. While this fun tool is really more for getting blog post ideas, it can still help you gain some clarity into what sorts of topics you might like to cover indefinitely.
What Is A Niche?
For anyone that needs a quick definitition on what we’re discussing when we say “niching down”, it means choosing a specific topic and target audience.
So, “travel” is a niche, but it’s very broad. “Solo travel” is more niche, though “solo female travel” is even more niche. To niche down further, you could cover “Black solo female travel” where you empower Black women to confidently travel solo.
Just keep in mind that if you want to monetize your travel blog, you want to make sure there are enough people researching your niche and enough travel blog post topics to cover to make it worth your while.
Niche Brand Examples For Travel Bloggers
“What is your niche?” can be a tough questin to answer. Personally, I love visuals and examples, so here are a few niche travel blogs to help get you inspired:
Solo Women RV empowers women to travel solo in an RV
Miss Adventure Pants helps adventure lovers build endurance for hiking, backpacking, and mountaineering trips
The Nomadic Vegan shows people just how fun and fulfilling vegan travel can be
World Adventure Divers helps scuba divers discover the underwater world in various locations
Mad or Nomad shares guides, tips, and stories on motorcycle travel
Curb Free with Cory Lee shares why and how to travel the world as a wheelchair user
Uncovering PA shares travel guides and tips specifically focused on Pennsylvania
How To Niche Down As A Blogger [Episode Transcript]
*Note: This is the edited down and paraphrased version of the episode. For the full episode, listen to the audio version linked above.
You’ve probably heard it before: niching down can help you grow your blog. But, why is this? And how do you actually go about niching down?
If you’re struggling with this, I want you to know you are not alone. I run an online school with thousands of bloggers, and can say that this is one of the biggest challenges students face.
But also realize that if you do niche down, it can really help you grow much easier – and today’s special guest, Alex Schnee of Alex on the Map, is proof of this.
Alex is actually a member of my Travel Blog Prosperity membership community, and I still remember when she decided to niche down and seeing the positive effects this had on her blogging business.
In this episode, she’ll be sharing tips for niching down – even when you’re struggling to do so – and how to use your niche to grow & monetize your blog.
Free Travel Blogger Resource Library
But first, before we dive into how to niche down your business, I want to direct your attention to the show notes, where I’ve shared a link to my free Travel Blogger Resource Library.
Or, if you’re in the US or Canada, you can text the word “blogger” to 1-833-818-0342 to have it sent to you by text message. Again, you can text the word “blogger” to 1-833-818-0342.
Inside you’ll snag access to 45+ resources from cheat sheets to workbooks to workshops to video tutorials that can help truly turn your blog into a profitable business. In fact, the library includes in-depth workbooks on creating a profitable blog brand, content strategy, business plan, and more. You’ll even find a giveaway outreach template in there to help you see success with this episode’s strategy.
I’m all about implementation and I really want to make sure you don’t just listen to the episode and forget about it, but that you actually use what I share to make your blogging life easier.
Feel free to even pause this episode to go grab those resources.
You back? Then let’s dive in!
1. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your tips on niching down! To start, can you tell us more about yourself and your blogging business?
Absolutely! Thanks for having me, Jessie; you have been such a great mentor to me all this time so I really appreciate talking to you.
I’m Alex from Alex on the Map. I started out blogging about a whole bunch of different things related to travel; but now I really focus on national parks, outdoor adventure, and hiking.
We have a whole bunch of fun communities online focused on that niche, too, which has really been helpful for growing my business — and niching down has really been the factor that has allowed it to grow as quickly as it has.
2. Niching down is a struggle for many bloggers. Can you share a bit about your story and how you ultimately were able to choose a specific niche for you blog?
When you’re just starting your blog, you have so many new ideas you’re wanting to cover.
I was the same. Actually, I have an editorial background where I was managing a team of writers and we covered everything from food to adventure travel to cultural travel.
So when I started my blog, I also wanted to cover all of these topics, because I also enjoyed them.
It wasn’t until I started wondering what people were coming to me for advice on that I landed on a niche.
Jessie, I remember you and I were on the subway talking about the struggles of niching down and you mentioned that you saw me as someone who was always traveling outdoors and hiking. This is when I realized I do gravitate toward outdoor adventure.
I also realized it’s what people were coming to me for. My readers would ask me questions on hiking Everest Base Camp and visiting national parks.
That really made it clear to me what problems and pain points my audience had, and how I could provide information to help them.
3. How do you deal with travel experiences that may not fit into the outdoor niche?
If something is travel-related by outside of my outdoor travel niche, I usually share it on social media.
That being said, I’m mainly sharing about outdoor travel across my blog and social media.
For instance, I share a lot of outdoor travel infographics on my social media channels. Then when it comes to my annual blog content plan, the posts are all related to the outdoors so people know what I do.
4. What benefits have you seen from niching down?
Mainly, it comes down to the relationships I’ve built with people coming to me for help with outdoor travel planning.
For instance, I started offering custom national park itineraries, which people have asked me for because they know that is my niche. So that’s money just coming in because they know what I do and how I can help them.
Niching down also helps you feel less overwhelmed as a blogger, because you know exactly what content to create, what digital products to offer, what affiliate marketing partners to promote, what brands to pitch, what affiliate links to include when making a free resources page, etc.
5. Now that you have a defined niche, how do you go about planning your blog, social, and email content?
Because this niche is so seasonal — people mostly visit national parks in the summer — I create a content calendar based on this.
I have an outdoor jobs community group where people can find work outside, but I really start pushing that content in January because that’s when people need to start looking and applying.
Also, the national parks now have a new reservations system, which you have to plan in advance for, so that is a Quarter 2 content focus.
When we transition into summer, I focus more on sharing tips about actually visiting the parks — like places to go, hiking trails, and where to eat.
And then at the end of the year, I promote visiting the national parks during the off-season and why that can be beneficial.
Now, other blog niches will look different. For instance, if you cover museums you can do that any time of year.
But, once you’ve found your niche, you’ll realize the great thing about niching down is it can help you naturally shape your content calendar.
6. What advice would you give someone struggling to niche down?
Don’t discard those other blog niche ideas that you have.
If you have a specific niche that you’re kind of leaning more toward now, go with that. You always have the opportunity to create another niche business or blog down the line.
So you can try this niche out to see if you like it or not. Give it a few months and if it’s not your thing then you can always move on to another idea.
Also, I recommend trying to build a community around your blog brand, as it helps to really keep you passionate about your niche.
7. How can people use their niche to make their blog more profitable?
A defined niche makes it clear who you help and how. You’ll know your target audience’s problems and pain points and can create solutions through products, affiliate offers, brand campaigns, and even your blog content (which you can monetize with ads).
Personally, I put out a poll in my outdoor jobs and national parks groups asking people what they were really struggling with.
I thought the responses would mainly be about the new and confusing reservation systems; however, I also got a lot of people needing help finding dietary-specific food near national parks, visiting national parks as part of a larger road trip, and which hikes to do.
This information is valuable because it helps me create the content, products, and services that truly help my audience.
8. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom! Before we sign off, can you let everyone know where they can find you?
Alright, now I hope you enjoyed this episode. I hope you feel inspired and empowered to niche down to more easily grow your blog.
Don’t forget to grab access to the free travel blogging resource library.
Or, if you’re in the US or Canada, you can text the word “blogger” to 1-833-818-0342 to have it sent to you by text message.
There are a ton of resources in there on growing your community and increasing your blogging profits.
And of course, make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes sharing these bite-sized strategies for bloggers who want to turn their blogs into profitable full-time businesses.
Happy blogging!
Create A Niche Business As A Blogger With These Past Helpful Episodes:
6 Steps To Choosing A Blog Niche & Pinpointing Its Purpose
How To Create A Profitable Blog Brand
How To Start, Grow & Monetize A Successful Facebook Group
White Label Affiliate Programs: How To Use Them To Grow Your Blog
How To Come Up With Blog Post Ideas People Actually Read
12-Step Content Creation Checklist For Bloggers
7-Step Content Promotion Checklist For Bloggers
Use This Content Planner Template To Create A Blogging Calendar
Grow Your Blog Fast: 12 Quick Wins For More Traffic & Income
14 Best Digital Products To Sell Online As A Travel Blogger
How To Pitch A Brand Collaboration Proposal With Confidence
How To Enjoy Social Media & Grow Your Channels
Connect With The Profitable Travel Blogger Podcast
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