Most people who have a solid grasp on the English language, and an internet connection, have probably toyed with the idea of becoming a blogger at some point in the past few years. From the outside, it looks like a dream job. You get paid to write about things you’re interested in, people send you free stuff, and your favorite band ends up becoming your sponsor. Better than that, people hang off your every word, and you get to feel a little bit like you’re famous without the inconvenience of being photographed by paparazzi every time you leave the house to buy milk. In extreme cases, people are earning seven figures a year from blogging.
All of the above is only applicable to the very brightest and best in the blogging world, though. The majority of people who start blogs never make enough from them to consider it as a full-time idea. There are a million reasons why a blog might fail to attract eyeballs, but one of them occurs more frequently than all the others; the wrong choice of blog.
We’re several years into the era of blogging now, and the popular subjects are well and truly saturated. If you’re considering starting a blog about fashion or make-up, forget that idea completely. Even professional journalists can’t get a successful fashion blog off the ground anymore; there are simply too many of them. Instead, pick a niche interest of yours, and go with that. If you don’t have a niche interest, get one. Where there’s less noise, there’s more chance of your voice being heard. Here are a few areas where we’ve identified a shortage of bloggers.
- Popular (but non-mainstream) Sports
There are thousands of popular blogs on football (both actual football and the American variant), and basketball, and baseball. There are plenty of blogs about boxing, just about enough about MMA, and a surprisingly high number covering professional wrestling. Your best bet for a sporting blog is picking a sport that has a large following, but a reduced media profile. Cricket would be a great choice – millions of people all over the world watch cricket (especially in India and Pakistan), but it gets far less coverage than football in Europe, and almost none at all in the USA. Motorsports also don’t seem to be a popular topic among bloggers, and bizarrely ice hockey also isn’t all that well-represented. If you could come up with a funny and informative blog about one of these sports, you’d stand a good chance of being found by its fans.
- Rock Music
This one is absolutely astonishing, but there’s a real shortage of blogs about rock music. It was once the most popular form of music in the world, but in recent years it’s been completely replaced by mainstream pop, dance, and hip hop. When’s the last time you saw a rock band break through and make it really big? When’s the last time you saw a new name take a headline slot at a rock festival? It’s been years. That’s because there are no bands breaking through. It’s not that the bands aren’t out there – there are thousands of them – it’s that nobody knows where to find them. If you’re into rock music and you like going to gigs featuring unknown bands, you could become an online musical gateway. Also, your tickets would probably be free. Double win!
- Gambling
Many people fancy themselves as a gambler, but few of them really know how to go about it. If you’re a skilled gambler, sharing your tips would probably win you a lot of readers quite quickly. If you’re not, your journey from beginner to becoming a skilled player would be a fascinating read. Mobile slots would be a good place to start with this – they’re currently the most popular type of slot gaming. As technology has progressed, playing mobile slots on a handheld device as replaced playing online slots sat a computer as the most popular way to engage with the hobby. As mobile slots players are, by default, internet savvy, finding your blog should be no problem for them. Also, hundreds of new mobile slots are released to online casinos and their sister sites every month. Someone has to review them, so players know what to play and what to avoid in related casinos. Why can’t you be that person?
- Space
Show us someone who’s never looked up at the stars and wondered whether we’re alone in the universe, and we’ll show you a liar. Outer space has long been one of humanity’s greatest fascinations, but generally isn’t something we spend a lot of time discussing with our friends. Very few people are talking about it online, either. Whenever space-related news turns up – for example, the discovery of an Earth-like planet being found around an alien star, or a new set of pictures received from a space telescope, we tend to get the news straight from NASA or the European Space Agency. The language used in those reports is often cold and scientific. If you could relate it in layman’s terms and make it entertaining, people would probably much rather get their news from you. You might need to develop a scientific mind for this idea if you don’t have one already, though.
- Humor
Almost every blog seems to want to teach us something. Even the other ideas we’ve looked at above involve imparting knowledge. The majority of blogs are either informational or promotional, and it shouldn’t be that way. Sometimes – and especially in the times we’re currently living in – people just want to be able to log onto the internet and laugh. If you can make people laugh, your audience will soon come and find you. Do you have funny stories from work? Tell people. Tell people the most embarrassing thing that happened to you. Tell people about the funniest thing you ever saw. Share funny things you find on the internet. They can be big laughs or little laughs – so long as they’re funny people will appreciate them, and they’ll appreciate you. This could also include reviews of your favorite comedians and comic films. You’d be surprised by how many reviews you see online are actually paid for by the people being reviewed, and a blog like this would be a pleasant way of finding out.
In all of the above, originality is a good foundation stone, and personality is key. Speak in your own unique voice, and you’ll find that it resonates with people. Happy blogging!