How many times have you heard people advise you to write about your passion? Loads I expect. And it is good advice. Problem is there might well be a gulf between your “love niche” and any chance of turning a profit. What can you do?
There are two quick solutions to this little pickle. Make your passion more profitable or get some passion about a more profitable niche! In this post I will deal with the first option, squeeze that bit more income out of your labour of love.
Turning a labour of love into a profitable niche
Not wanting to get your hopes up too much but you might be able to take a mediocre-earning niche and make some profit out of it just by tweaking your approach somewhat. It all depends on your niche but many niches have hidden revenue potential if you can only find it.
Let’s think of some topics and audiences that at first seem less obvious in their revenue potential. How about Charities, religion, trash, politics, you think of some more. Now think about your topics again and think who might want to sell to them or earn from each. Charities have companies and consultants selling them services in marketing, design, tax, funding, etc. Churches, at least in the UK, always need builders, tradespeople and architects for restoration. For trash, well there is a lot of money to be made in recycling. Politics, just think of the lobbyists.
There will be more than likely a money angle in most niches, but you might not want to “go there” as it were. That’s fine, this is just an exercise in thinking differently, how far you go is entirely up to you and what your audience will tolerate!
How much revenue is present in a niche depends on several factors, and they include the effects of your competition, but for this discussion you need to look at products, services, audience and advertisers.
Advertisers are willing to pay more to find good audiences for their products and services. If they find a way of selling those goods and services they will pump money into it and so will their competitors. The reverse is also true, they are not willing to pay to watch their money go down a drain for so long, despite how it might seem.
The immediate things you can do are
- Keywords – Write more posts on the profitable keywords, either through research or buying lists
- Stats – Find your most profitable posts using adsense stats scripts and write more on those topics
- Affiliates – Research your niche and allied topics for products and services
- Audience – Think of products that your audience might be interested in that are not directly related to your niche, eg. If your niche is popular with parents, consider holidays, photographs, days out .. think like a TV advertiser
- Fat Cats – Consider who makes money in your niche and how then muscle in. For example if it is a collecting hobby, auction organisers make a great deal of money even if the auction itself does not
- Embrace – be willing to accept the “dirty cash”, the materialistic aspect of your niche. It could be your own prejudices are holding you back. You and your audience need to understand it is not wrong or dirty to earn an honest income from blogging!
Summary
You need not be stuck with a non-profitable niche that you love writing about but can’t make pay. With a bit of creativity and just a touch of research you might be able to earn from your labour of love. Maybe not a fortune but more than you are now. Wouldn’t that be nice, profit and passion?