In my last post I said you either have to make your work of love pay or find a new “money niche”. I also said that you need to write with passion. How do you get passionate about a subject you don’t love?
Well of course the easy answer is to find a profitable niche that you love.
Problem solved.
OK, for most of us it is not that easy. My last post talked about how you can squeeze a bit more profitability out of your existing niche. This post is intended to help you get juicy about a dry but profitable topic. Not an easy task as any student will tell you.
Get interested fast
I am no expert, heck I find it hard to motivate myself sometimes about the subjects I do like when it comes to writing after a late night burning the candle at both ends.
- Show me the money – find a big enough pot of gold and you might not need any more motivation than that. When I started work I did some awfully boring jobs, just like most people, but the pay packet was enough to keep me going. I know that is no fun but paying bills or saving for a holiday might get you through it. Now if you discover you can make good money, well that might put a whole new complexion on it eh?
- Get stuck in – from the outside the topic might not light you up but after really getting stuck in things might change. There are tons of topics over the years I have thought boooriiing but once I have started talking to people and researching I found things that did interest me. Sometimes it only takes a lively conversation with someone who is enthusiastic or a really well written book or article to spark an interest.
- Pick a side – with a lot of things, from sport to politics, to really enjoy a subject you have to pick a side to root for. I can’t stand soccer but when the world cup comes round I do watch it because I have a team to support and it transforms the game. Sometimes people only find IT interesting when they are arguing about Linux versus Microsoft, perhaps there is an argument you can get involved in for your niche?
- Add human interest – people are interested in people. Find the human angle and you might get more out of your subject area.
- Get involved – standing on the sidelines is never as much fun as getting involved. Really get into the niches community, do something, produce something, become a name and a face. Once you get chatting and engaging with people things might look different.
- Discover the benefits – there has to be some benefits to being part of a niche. What do people get out of it? Find the joy. Discover the rewards.
- Find connections – if you have existing passions there might be overlap between this and what you already like. A niche about telegraph poles might enjoy photographs of antique telegraph poles … ok, maybe not but you get the idea!
- 80/20 it – you do not always have to talk about the dull stuff, one in five off topic posts might not hurt. Better to kind of stick on topic though.
- Get help – if you not enjoy the niche you might be able to rope in someone who does. Get them to post and share the revenue. You can edit, tidy up grammar, suggest topics, do the housekeeping etc, while your blogger writes.
- Fake it – if all else fails, fake it. Just remember that often fakes get found out and I believe you are more successful when you really have passion than when you pretend. Many many many people do get away with it though and most readers if they get the info they want don’t care. Just look how many books are ghost written in the real world ..
Many people say that money is enough motivation, perhaps you need a little more? What other ways do you know to help motivate us to write about topics we are not passionate about?