How to Pick the Right Blog Topic (& Feel Confident About Your Choice)

Picking a blog topic is the first and most intimidating part of creating your own blog/business.

There are few people that know right off the bat, what they want to blog about. To some, it might be simple because they already have a topic that they’re passionate about or because they are an expert in a certain field. But not all of us are so lucky. Many of us come into this with a dream to be our own boss, to start a business that we love, to help others, to travel the world, whatever the reason, it may have started with a dream, but not a clear idea of how to get there. (If you haven’t read our blog: Stages of Successful Blogging (& Where Most Quit), then I suggest you read this and then come back here)

So, how do you pick a topic? What should you blog about?

We’re going to bring you through some exercises that will help you narrow down the best topic for you to consider for your big blogging business.

(Side note: You will notice that I say ‘blogging business’ a fair amount, this is because I’m subliminally trying to emphasize that to be successful you must treat your blog like a business, not a hobby. You will need to take it seriously as if you were starting any kind of business.)

Stages of Successful Blogging (& Where Most Quit)

How the Heck Do I Make Money on My Blog? (A Surprising # of Ways to Monetize)

How to Write Amazing Blog Posts & Capture Your Audience PART 1

• A few pieces of blank paper
• Pencil or pen
• A timer (even on your phone)
• Approximately an hour of uninterrupted time
• No Facebook or other social media distractions

Step #1: What You Enjoy

Take your first piece of paper and set your timer to 15 minutes. Within these 15 minutes I want you to write down, in no particular order, all the things that you enjoy. You don’t need to overthink this, you can even write down stuff that you know you wouldn’t want to write about.

This exercise opens your mind to think freely about what you enjoy and the more you write, the more that will come out.

My suggestion is to do this by scribbling all over the page, no list necessary. But I’m both a creative and an organizer. I find writing in all directions helps get my creative juices flowing and then later I could take my top 10 favourites and make them into a list.

Examples I might write down:

• Travel
• My kids
• Building websites
• Helping/Teaching others
• Art
• Face Painting
• Music

Step #2: What You Know/What You Are Good At

Take your second piece of paper and set your timer for 15 minutes. Within these 15 minutes I want you to write down, in no particular order, all the things that you know and are good at. This might be education you have, it might be work experience, other experiences you’ve had self-studied materials, talents you have, etc.

Examples I might write down:

• Play guitar
• Face Painting
• Hair styling
• Travel  
• Working overseas
• Travel with family
• 1 year of fashion design
• Mom of awesome boys
• Creating websites
• Teaching

Step #3: Compare and Contrast

Take both of these papers and circle everything that matches. Make a list of those things that match in the order of what most interests you to least. If there is anything you aren’t excited about cross it off the list. If you can narrow it down to the top 5, then that would be great.

Step #4: Wow Story

Now that you have a short list of things that you both know and love, then you need to figure out what is the best one to choose. This is where I think considering your ‘Wow Story(ies)’ is important. I haven’t seen many other bloggers suggest this, but when I decided on our own blog I considered which topics would have the best initial impact in story form.

Take another piece of paper and set your timer. Within these 15 minutes I want you to write down, in no particular order, all the ‘Wow Stories’ from your own life that you could pull from.

Examples I might write down:

• My 7 year old traveled to 8 countries in one year
• Worked overseas as a teacher in Middle East
• Got out of debt and saved money while working overseas
• Went to Disneyland Paris on Christmas day
• Our VW Road Trip

Step #5: Blog Title It

Now that you have that list written, I want you to take your best “Wow Stories” and make them into eye catching blog titles. You will be able to use these blog titles for great blogs of your own or to get yourself some great exposure on a bigger blog as a guest blogger.

Examples I might write down:

• Living in the Middle East: 10 Things that Make it Amazing & to be Aware of
• How the Heck Do I Make Money on My Blog? (A Surprising # of Ways to Monetize)
• Our VW Van Fail and How You Can Live the VW Dream

Once you’ve gotten your best and most exciting ‘Wow Stories’ and blog titles, then compare to your shortlist of topics to see where you will have the strongest start to your blog. Not everyone has the biggest Wow stories, but try to dig deep to find some of your best ideas.

This process also helps you to see where you could easily write a lot of blogs. You will need to be able to write lots of blogs and stay interested in the topic, so be sure you have a good number to get you started. 

Also, when you are picking your titles remember that your readers are looking for a title that stands out to them. As much as we may want to make this about ourselves, we need to always be thinking about how to make it about our readers. What do they want to know about? What will capture their attention? How to do I make the value of what I’m teaching shine through?

If at the end of this process you still have 2-3 topics that you are considering, then my suggestion is to take a step back and give your mind and heart a beat to consider it. Come back the next day to your list and see if one of the topics is tugging at your heart. A lot of the time we know what we want, but sometimes we are scared to commit.

Try not to let your fear stop you from making a decision. Pick one of your favourites and get started.

What did you decide? What topic are you getting started with?