It is the end of week two already for February Fundamentals. I have been having so much fun sharing all the knowledge in my Facebook group, Becoming the Blogger Within.

Last week we covered five key pieces to your blogging foundation. For a look back on what we talked about, grab the blog post. This week we are breaking down your niche.

I absolutely LOVE helping women narrow their niche down. Helping them to discover how their expertise and passion can collide to create a blog and even a business of their dreams. Most of the women that I have helped start blogging, didn’t have a business before working with me. However, during our time working together, they were able to see the ways that they could monetize their blog and create a business.

These businesses have been a combination of their passions, their past stories, and their expertise.

I know, right now you are thinking in your head, “I am no expert.” I am here to tell you that you are wrong. We are all an expert in something and that is why I love helping women discover this as part of their blogging journey.

Blogging really is about more than just putting words on a page. It is all about creating relationships and connections, building trust, and being able to teach based on your life experiences. There is nothing better than knowing your stories, your past is going to have an impact on someone else.

THE SECOND FUNDAMENTAL OF BLOGGING

Your niche is one of the most important things to figure out when you are blogging. As I have said in the past, my niche has changed over my years of blogging. I started as a mental health and self-love blogger. I am now a blogging blogger. Well, in reality, I consider myself a combination of mental health blogger, self-love blogger, blogging blogger, and storytelling blogger. All of these pieces are part of my blogging journey and will continue to be. I can’t separate them. Believe me, I have been told I need to and so I have tried.

Just like week one, week two covers ONLY five pieces. There are so many more pieces to your niche but for February Fundamentals, this is all that we are covering.

Are you ready to jump in and learn about the five key pieces to your niche foundation that we are covering this week?

FIVE PIECES OF YOUR BLOGGING NICHE

Let’s dive into one of the most asked topics in blogging. Your niche. What exactly is your niche? In simple terms, it is the category of your expertise.

NARROWING YOUR NICHE

One of the most asked questions when it comes to blogging is if you need to have a niche when you start blogging. The easy answer is yes but of course, like most things, it is much more complicated than that.

There are ways that can help you narrow down your niche. There are five lists that I have created that will help you narrow your niche down if you are stuck. Here is the simplified version of the list.

1. Write down everything that you are passionate about.
2. What topics from list one do you know the best?
3. Take your top five and break them up into categories.
4. What can you teach your readers about these topics?
5. All about the research.

You can even reach out to close friends and family and ask them. Sometimes we are blind to our own strengths. Even think about what friends or family come to you for help. This is a great place to start and you can add it to your first list.

YOUR EXPERTISE

I laughed when someone first called me a professional blogger. Laughed on a podcast because I had never been called that before. Others saw me as a professional blogger but it took me much longer to see myself as that.

I didn’t start blogging to teach others to blog. I started blogging to heal. It took me on another journey and has led me to start teaching people how to blog. Sometimes our expertise is so easily seen by others while we sit in denial. I was that person.

Expertise is built by our experiences and the lessons that we learned through those experiences. That’s what becomes our teachable moments. Samantha

Look back at all of the things you have gone through in your life or even are currently going through. Your expertise is a compilation of all of these moments in time. You may not feel like an expert but I guarantee that you are.

Using your expertise to share and teach is critical to blogging. It allows you to make deeper connections, build trust and authority in your niche, and continue to learn and grow.

CREATE A PLAN TO SHARE YOUR EXPERTISE

This can be scary to think about. I wish that someone would have told me sooner that I needed to do more than just post on my blog. I needed to do outreach and build a community with the help of other bloggers and social media platforms.

I want you to think about where you are going to show up online. Start engaging on social media and reaching out to those in your niche and those in your shoulder niches to get your name out there.

One of the best ways to build your expertise is to share it with already established bloggers, podcasters, and more. You can even go live with other people on Facebook and Instagram. Start writing guest blog posts the instant you start your own blog.

It will help to build up your expertise, your trust, and your authority and your SEO will improve. To learn more on this topic, read my blog post that gives you 11 ways to become an expert in your niche.

COMING UP WITH KEYWORDS

Keywords play a huge role in your niche. What is a keyword and how do you choose it?

The BIGGEST thing I want you to remember when it comes to your keywords is knowing your audience. If you do not know them, you are not going to be able to use the language that they use. In simple terms, that means that they won’t find you.

You need to know how they talk so that you know what words to use.

This is more important than just sticking with a keyword and putting it everywhere.

Think about the words and phrases that your ideal reader is putting into Google or any other search engine that they are using.

Once you have some keyword ideas, use a keyword tool to help you search them. These tools will not only give you the search numbers of a particular word or phrase but will also give you other suggestions that have been used related to that search.

Two of my favorite keyword tools are Keyword Chef and Ubersuggest.

YOUR BLOGGING CATEGORIES

A great way to show readers who are new to your site what you talk about in your niche is through your blogging categories. Your blogging categories will show up on your blog page. With these, you can categorize your blog posts.

I suggest using your main keywords and topics that you cover under your niche for your blogging categories. This is a great way to break up your niche in ways that your ideal reader will know where to find the information that they are looking for.

Remember, you are only going to want a maximum of ten blogging categories. Any more than that and you are going to confuse your reader as to what your blog is about.

Those are the five pieces of your niche foundation that we are covering this week. I am excited for next week as we are going to cover your content foundation.

If you are looking for help with starting your blog, I have space for 1:1 blog coaching. Please reach out and let me help you begin your blog.