What should you write about?

If you are about to start a blog, the first decision you have to make is the selection of the topic. If your objective is to make money, picking the right topic is a key factor to your success and the financial success of your blog.

What should you write about?

The first thing to check is what are the most profitable blogs about? Every year, a slew of lists of 'top earning blogs' are published  throughout the web. These ranking lists are generally based on revenue estimates built from traffic statistics.

First tip: Blogs that make the most money

The following list of 10 top blogs was published in 2014 on 21stcenturyenetwork.com:

1. The Huffington Post 
2. Mashable  
3. Perez Hilton
4. Techcrunch
5. Smashing Magazine 
6. Timothy Sykes
7. Gothamist
8. Tuts Plus
9. Car Advice
10. Venture Beat

According to this ranking (and many others), the topic that attracts the most readers is 'technology'. Actually half of the top ten blogs are about technology (techcrunch, smashing magazine, gothamist, tuts plus, venture beast). Then we have 'news' , 'stars', 'money' and 'cars'.

Supporting this conclusion is the fact that, according to a 2012 study (see /www.webershandwick.com/uploads/news/files/ReviewsSurveyReportFINAL.pdf) 74% of US consumers search for reviews online about consumer electronics products they are considering purchasing.

Second tip: Expensive key-words

 Writing about technology, electronics or the web is then the best way to make money? Don't be so sure. A 2011 study (see http://www.wordstream.com/articles/most-expensive-keywords) about the Google adWords most expensive key words paints a very different picture. Here are the top 10 key words:

1. Insurance
2. Loans
3. Mortgage
4. Attorney
5. Credit
6. Lawyer
7. Donate
8. Degree
9. Hosting
10. Claim

Here the topics that brings money are: 'insurance' and 'money'. The first technology related key word (hosting) comes 9th.

Last tip: Google Trends

One last thing you could check if you are trying to pick a topic for your future blog, is Google Trends (http://www.google.com/trends/). Here are the world top 5 searches in 2014 :

1. Robin Williams
2. World Cup
3. Ebola
4. Malaysia Airlines
5. ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

There is nothing about technology or insurance in this list. The most popular searches are about current events.


Three different approaches give three (very) different results to the question 'What should you write about?'. There is no good answer to this question.

 
Good blogging