May
8
Photography: purple passion FSOD by PinkMoose…
I opened my feed reader the other day and was greeted by yet another article on choosing a topic for your blog. Choosing an appropriate topic is crucial if you want to be successful but my complaint is about the advice that I see given in almost everyone of these articles.
Passion is almost always trumpeted as being the most important factor in choosing a topic. I disagree with this assumption. I don’t know about you, but I can be passionate about something one week and be burned out before you know it.
Don’t get me wrong, it is important but in order to succeed as a blogger you must have a better than average knowledge of your chosen topic.
What Do You Know?
With that in mind, don’t choose a topic that you know very little about. First of all, learning about your topic as you go will only alienate your potential readers. Second, if you don’t know anything about your topic now chances are your current enthusiasm will diminish, and you’ll be left with another blog that’s a chore to update. I’ve been there and I bet you have too.
If you are not already an expert in any particular field, choose an area you believe you may like and buy some books, subscribe to the leading blogs, and visit the established forums for that topic. After you have immersed yourself in your topic of choice for a few weeks you’ll have a good idea whether you have found a winner. If nothing else, you will be more well read and have a better grasp of your topic than most of your competition.
Check Out the Competition
You also need to get a lay of the land before jumping into a new topic. Spend some time studying the competition… Observe their writing styles, make notes of their strengths and weaknesses, see how they interact with their readers. Learn from their mistakes and try to develop a new approach or try to cover the topic in a new and entertaining way.
Even if the topic is crowded, a creative approach could allow you to create sufficient traffic and build a strong base of readers. On the other hand, if after studying the competition you feel there is nothing new or innovative you can contribute, your time would probably be better spent elsewhere.
Take a Look Ahead
Before you decide to tackle a particular topic, stop to realize that whatever topic you choose will become a focal point of your every day. Your interest in and knowledge of the topic will need to be strong enough to get you through times when you aren’t sure you can bring yourself to read or write another word on the subject.
Consider this fact carefully because you don’t want to be stuck with a topic you can’t stand and blog you hate. That would be too much like a job, and I bet you don’t want another one of those.
I had to smile at this one - I am so tired of hearing about passion!
While trying to help me find my passion a well-meaning friend told me that to find passion I must figure out what I would do even if you didn’t get paid for it. With a bit a sarcasm, I replied that I found the answer: No one pays me to tie my shoes, but I do it anyway. By his definition, I must be really passionate about that!
Somewhat more helpful in defining interests, rather than full-blow passions, was the tip of asking yourself what section you hit first in a bookstore or a library.
I think knowledge trumps passion every time. Passion is fine to have, but if you don’t know what you are talking about, people will see right through you. Focus on substance first, then worry about your style.
I couldn’t agree with you more! I’ve turned down a couple writing gigs because they wanted me to write a variety of articles on topics I knew nothing about and didn’t have a passion for. If I had went ahead and wrote on those topics, the lack of knowledge would’ve shown in my writing, and I would have probably burnt out quickly, or worse, developed a case of writer’s block. Like they say, “Write what you know.”
That’s a good article. And I agree with it. Really, as the author says:
“Even if the topic is crowded, a creative approach could allow you to create sufficient traffic and build a strong base of readers”
And it’s not only about blogging! Use this rule in the dayly life. Be creative!
[...] Culpepper of PureBlogging recently asked whether passion is really as important in choosing a blog topic as everyone seems to think. Passion [...]
Passion is the Number 1 reason on the list at all times. If your not passionate about what you do … normally you don’t do it … or your just turned off after a while … PASSION is what makes us all tick!
Great Advice!
Darin