Having a blog as a student can be an amazing hobby, which, eventually, might grow into a full-on source of income. Putting your thoughts on paper is very therapeutic, even if those thoughts do not pertain directly to your life. Training your writing skills will benefit your education, your eloquence in speech, and your perspective on the world.
But before you start making money by advertising writing services on your blog, you must determine what it is that you want to write about. In this article, we will give you some tips on how to find your niche and where to source information for your blog.
Find what you care about
If you choose a topic for your blog relying on current trends, you might find that with time, you stop caring about that. So, our first piece of advice would be to determine what it is that you personally want to write about.
If you go the trend route, your texts will reflect that soon enough. It might bring you some instant validation or traffic if you start highlighting some current celebrity gossip. But if you don’t care about that, you might quickly burn out and lose interest in your own blog.
Instead, find something that you truly care about and write about that. If you like traveling locally, write about how to find interesting destinations. If you like shopping, you can write about how to make the most of your money and how to shop on sales. If you like reading, you can analyze books or write reviews of the books you’ve read recently. It will keep them fresh in your memory and also improve your analytical skills.
Determine what your audience wants
Try to find out why your followers started reading the blog and what made them stay. Frequently analyze how your posts perform to see which ones your audience prefers. That will give you insight into what they like and what you can work on.
In terms of SEO, look up keywords that users often look for together with the ones used in your texts. For example, if you have a travel blog, look for related searches through Google Search Console or Google Analytics. That performance analysis may tell you that your readers are also looking for affordable luggage. This gives you a new topic to write on, as well as a brand deal opportunity. Reach out to your favorite suitcase brand and offer them to work together!
Analyzing your audience can be beneficial not only for your blog’s performance. Those analytical skills are also very important in college, especially when you have to write a big paper like coursework. However, if you feel like you are not ready to write one yet, you don’t know how to start or what sources to use, you can get some help. Hire a coursework writer and outsource your paper to them. This will not only allow you ample time to focus on your blog but also give you a perfect coursework sample that you can use for reference later.
Don’t be afraid of trends
Yes, we did make an argument against following trends all the time at the beginning of the article. But there’s nothing wrong with being aware of trends and reporting on interesting ones every once in a while. This will help you understand the reasons behind some peculiar events or people’s behaviors that seem strange. Why did green suddenly become so popular? You would know if you kept track of the current trends!
Google Trends is a great tool for that. You can see trending Google searches for today and what has been trending over the past months or a certain period of time. You can also research how a certain request’s relevance changes over time.
Social media is another powerful tool in researching relevant topics. Obviously, to be aware of all the trends, you must be chronically online. Not every student has enough time for that. But looking up hashtags, what’s trending and what your followers are interested in is essential if you want to stay in the loop.
Following a few trusted, relevant news sites is also important to be aware of what’s going on in the world. You might not want to write about elections per say, but being aware of what’s happening is important for a writer and a blog owner.
Reading student forums or Reddit is also important. Those resources will give you the most relevant information on what’s trending among your audience. Assuming your audience is students, of course. Read your college’s forum, see what people are discussing and propose your perspective on the topic on your blog. You may even promote your blog on these forums or subreddits.
Analyze competitors
You don’t have to be competitive. You might just be blogging for fun, to have a creative outlet. However, reading what similar bloggers have to say can be a productive way to engage in the discussion. You may agree or disagree with their posts, write replies or simply get inspired by their writing.
Tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush are useful for deeper keyword analysis. It can give you an idea about what topics or articles are trending among your competitors. You can then write about adjacent topics or give commentary on their articles. If you’re interested in ranking higher on Google, Ahrefs and SEMrush are the way to go.
Write for fun
Don’t forget that the current audience, especially students, are looking for authenticity first of all. If you get lost in highlighting trends and researching competitors, you might lose what you wanted to do initially. So, remember to always write for your pleasure and stay true to yourself. You don’t have to write about a topic just because it’s trending. Highlight the topics you care about instead, and the readers will follow.
Wrapping up
Writing a blog can be an amazing creative outlet. It can improve your writing and critical thinking skills, as well as make you a better researcher. Analyze your audience, your competitors and the current trends. But remember to write about topics that you care about first and the trends second.
