One of the most common confusions any new blogger asks themselves is… What should I blog about in order to make money?
Many of the times, the conclusion ends up as follows: The people making good money online are the ones who talk about making money online.
It leads to a huge catch-22. It leads to skepticism. But, is it true?
Why Its A Myth
In my opinion, it is a myth. My own experience tells me it is. I was making a six figure income as a blogger in the technology market – WELL before I ever uttered the first word about blogging for money.
The problem is that people looking to make money often have tunnel vision. Because they’re interested in making money, they read other blogs about making money. And who is going to talk about how much money they make? Yes, people trying to gain credibility in the market. It just makes sense.
I never talked about my income as a blogger until I decided to enter this market. Bloggers in other markets don’t go around talking about their incomes, so it never crosses anybody’s radar.
The whole thing leads to a false impression that only “make money” blogs have the potential to make money. It looks like circular logic, but it is only because those are the blogs you’re paying attention to – not because those are the only blogs making an income.
If you were interested in making money as a blogger, chances are you would never read PCMech.com. And that just proves my point. 
The Reason The Market Works
The “make money online” market is just one market of many. It happens to be a good one, however.
In the Six Figure Blogger Blueprint, I go into more detail about what makes a good market. In short, the criteria are:
- An emotional push/pull toward increased pleasure in life.
- An emotional pull away from a fear.
Any market with financial viability has to have core emotional drivers that will drive the prospect into action when it comes time to sell them something.
For all of us, making more money translates into freedom, power, ability to increase pleasure in our lives. It goes right to the heart of the matter in terms of a viable market. Same with markets like health (a pull away from the fear of having health issues), dating (the push toward a life partner, which is an emotional need), etc.
Many times, hobby markets can work well, too. Sometimes, the audience is smaller, but for people who practice the same hobby, there is an emotional desire to fulfill those goals.
News blogs don’t work because there isn’t an emotional need to help with them. Blogs on news, politics, celebrities – these types of things are inherently hard to monetize because they lack core emotional drivers into any item you can help them with.
Remember, a MARKET is any collective group of people, united by similar goals, who are looking for solutions, and are willing to pay for it.
So, it just so happens that “make money” is a good market for the same exact reasons any other market with core emotional drivers is a good market. But, it certainly isn’t exclusive.
Finding YOUR Market
Let’s look at that definition for a market one more time…
A MARKET is any collective group of people, united by similar goals, who are looking for solutions, and are willing to pay for it.
So, start out with a list of your passions, interests, areas of expertise. If you aren’t an expert in something, you can still enter the market if you are indeed highly interested in it. You will need the high level of interest to drive yourself to learning more as you go.
Now, with a prospective subject in mind, ask yourself:
- What are the goals/fears of this market?
- How can I help them with that?
- Are they looking for solutions?
- Are people buying solutions in this market?
The answers to these questions will be based on gut feelings mixed with your own research into the market.
The most common mistakes I see bloggers make is:
- Blogging about whatever is interesting to them and then looking to magically make money from it after the fact.
- Entering a market where there is some interest, but they’ve never evaluated whether the audience is looking for any kind of solution that they can provide.
- Looking for a market where there is nobody doing it. In reality, if there is nobody in the market, there is probably a reason for that. Having “competition” is a good thing.
Lastly, I’ll end off with this comment…
Do not get into a paralysis over this. Market selection is not an exact science. I’ve had people email me asking my opinion of a market, as if they think its going to result in a magic payday just because I say it would be a good idea. No!
You can enter a good market and still screw it up if you don’t do the right things to get off the ground. It is also very possible that you could enter a market and not totally know if it’ll work when you start out. The trick is to do SOMETHING. You judge the market with some of the above criteria, do some basic research, and if you think it might work, give it a try. You can always change your mind. It isn’t as if you’re stuck with any blog you start for the rest of your life!
But, if you are interested in making money as a blogger, begin to think of your topic selection as a MARKET. Judge it accordingly. You’ll get better results.
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