7 blog niches that drive traffic and make money

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Let's talk, blog niches.

It may not be the most glamorous topic of the blogging world but, it needs to be discussed.

The general advice that is given about finding your blog niche is to niche down. And then niche down again, oh and agian…and again. Essentially just keep niching down and you'll find your audience.

Right, we've all heard it.

Heck, I've even said it. But here's the thing about blog niches, the “best practices” of blogging are going to be different depending on what stage you are in your blogging journey.

So, to keep this post short and relevant I'm going to stick with advice for new bloggers.

First things first, you don't need to niche down. Not right away. 

When you first start a blog, you probably don't know who your audience is just yet. You're not sure what posts are doing the best, you don't have anything to compare them to.

So, when you first start out, go broader then reevaluate when you have a nice selection of blog posts and niche down a bit.

Which blog posts are working? Which ones aren't? Write more of what is and less of what isn't. 

Okay, now that we got all that out of the way, there are generally two main reasons for blogging, to make an income/living and to help others.

The goal of most blogs is to do both and this is where blogging niches come in. It all comes down to what the people want.

What are they going to find interesting? Helpful? Just because you like flip-flops and army pants doesn't mean everyone else likes flip-flops and army pants.

The point is to create a blog that people come back to time and time again because it's helpful, inspiring, entertaining, makes them a better person. You get the idea.

In order to make a profit, we need traffic. And in order to get traffic, we need to be solving a problem. 

I'm going to be focusing the top 7 blogging niches that drive traffic and make money and as I said, there are no hard and fast rules in blogging but these are the tried and true niches that get good traffic and make any money because they HELP people.

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links and I may receive a small commission if you choose to use my link. 

>> learn how to start a blog for less than $4 a month and check out my resources page <<

 

1. Personal Finance

Personal finance is a broader category because you can talk about budgeting, frugal living, minimalist living, basically anything that revolves around saving money and/or making money.

This niche is helpful because people want to know how to save more money in their day to day lives. Heck, we all know we were obsessed with that extreme couponing show. How can I spend 5 cents on a $300 grocery bill?

Not only that, learning to budget is a really great skill to have so people will come back for more. 

This niche can also be a subcategory of the “making money” niche which we'll talk about later. You could blog about ways to make extra money or ways your kids could make extra money.

Really the possibilities are endless.

The idea here is to cast a wider net and see which posts are resonating with your audience the best then keep writing what's working!

To make money from this blog you can easily create workbooks on budgeting, budget grocery lists, ebooks and even courses on how to make extra income while also staying within your budget.

 

2. Food

Who doesn't love food, am I right? 

Food blogging is a big one right now and has been for quite a while. The key here is to figure out which recipes are getting the most engagement.

Vegan and keto recipes (keto more so) are doing really well on both Pinterest and Google search engines so let your creativity fly with each of these.

You could also write about living a keto or vegan lifestyle along with recipes but the main focus should on recipes.

You can also write about budget-friendly meals to make or focus in on meals that save time and so on.

Again, the possibilities are endless with this niche and it all comes down to going broad at first, then analyzing your posts to see which are doing the best.

The easiest way to make an income from the food niche is to use ads or affiliate links to products you personally use in the kitchen.

Remember, if you go the affiliate link route to only recommend products you actually use, that save you time and money.

Another way to make money from this niche is to write an eBook. 

50 Meals under $10

Top 20 Keto Comfort Foods that Take Less than 30 Minutes to Make

It's all about saving your audience time and money and giving them valuable recipes that they can take home along the way.

 

3. Health and Fitness

Health and fitness are again a broad category but easy to niche down once you get the ball rolling.

You can start with healthy morning routines, recipes, gym workouts, the best foods to eat for recovery, 10 minute at home workouts and niche down from there.

Health and fitness are an extremely important part of a lot of people's lives and this niche does very well with traffic but it can be a little tricky to monetize.

Of course, the easiest way to monetize health and fitness would be to add affiliate links to exercise products you use, foods/supplements you use and so on.

This niche is fun because you get a little bit of everything rolled into one. 

It's up to your audience which direction you take with this niche but weight loss, healthy recipes and “short on time” workouts are great places to start.

 

4. Personal Development

Personal development is a bit of a different niche because this is a niche that you do actually need to niche down a bit first.

People need to know what the blog is about in order for it to really help them.

You can focus on organization, daily motivation, manifestation.

The point with this niche is to actually niche down a bit and really focus in on one to two topics that go together.

Because this niche is just so broad and can go in so many different directions, you really want to be targeting a specific group of people to really nail down what they need help with.

This way it will give you a better idea of how to actually help them with your posts.

 

5. Beauty and Fashion

This niche not only drives a ton of traffic, and makes good money but if you play your cards right you can be invited to events, to make your own makeup lines and so on.

Beauty and fashion rely heavily on showcasing your personality, sticking to trends and really be on point with upcoming events.

Being an influencer in this niche means staying ahead of the curve which can be a lot of work.

This niche can also turn into a “lifestyleish” niche because you can talk about budget-friendly fashion, what types of looks to wear to certain events, make-up looks for date night.

You really can make this niche whatever you want it to be and get as specific or as broad as you want as long as your personality really shines.

 

6. Lifestyle

Oh, the good old lifestyle niche.

The biggest misconception with this niche is that you can write about whatever the heck you want or simply write about your life.

But that's not really helping anyone in the long run.

Yes, even in the lifestyle niche you need to be solving a problem.

Similar to the personal development niche I do think it's important to niche down just a bit because if you're too all over the place it can get confusing to your audience and it makes it much more difficult to monetize.

This means picking topics like gardening, DIY/home decor, travel, organization, homesteading.

While these sub-niches are broader, they are a bit more specific than just a general blog about everything and anything.

Like every other niche, what's going to work is what your audience wants.

So, write a couple of posts on different lifestyle topics and see which ones are doing the best.

Picking topics that naturally go together like gardening and natural living or budget decor and DIYs can make your blog look and feel more cohesive.

 

7. Making Money/How to Make Money

This is probably the most well-known niche because it seems like everyone and their dog is writing about making money.

I honestly left this one for the end because I wanted to show you that yes, you can indeed make an income from blogs that are not talking about making money.

Now, on the other hand, this is a profitable niche and can be really helpful for people.

Who doesn't want to learn how to make some extra cash here and there? 

This niche can be quite similar to the personal finance niche and you can blog about similar topics with a heavier emphasis on making money, passive income and diversifying your revenue streams.

With this niche, you can be broader and talk about all the different ways to make money whether you are a college student looking to pay off loans or kid looking to buy that expensive toy you've always wanted.

There's something for everybody in this niche, you just have to find that sweet spot.

The biggest thing to remember here is to write based on actual experience.

If you are a brand new blogger you probably shouldn't be writing about how to make money blogging.

But maybe you know how to make an extra 1000 bucks a month doing a side job like mowing lawns, walking dogs or painting.

Just remember, you don't need to write about making money to actually make money. 

 

Think Big, Analyze, then Niche Down

There you have it, 7 blog niches that drive traffic and make money.

Are there blog niches that aren't on this list that people are making money from?

Of course.

As I always say, there are no hard and fast rules to blogging but, these are the niches that are working right now.

You don't have to reinvent the wheel when what's working is right in front of you.

The point is to pick a niche that is doing well, you know some things about and you can see yourself writing about. Then look at what's working and write more of that.

I know, it sounds simple and most things in blogging are not, but when it comes to picking a niche, it actually is!

You can check out my resources page for all of the essential tools and resources I recommend for bloggers.

When you first start blogging, the easiest way to make money is through affiliate marketing.

You can share products you already use and share them with your audience.

The key is to know your audience and know which products they will find the most useful.

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