It's probably the most important decision you can make as a publisher...
What are you going to create a website about?
So much depends on your choice:
The value of your ads.
The pleasure you get out of writing your content.
The length of time you think you can keep writing about it.
And yet it's such an easy decision to make.
Just ask yourself what you did last weekend.
What you do in your spare time -- not what you like to do but what you actually do -- are the things that you're most interested in. Even if it's sitting in front of the tv and watching sports or playing in the yard with your kids, that's what you give up your free time to do.
It's what you choose to do when you can choose to do anything at all.
And it's what you're going to enjoy writing about the most. It's what you're most interested in and probably something that you know a great deal about too.
If you can create a website about a topic you know you enjoy, you'll have got your first -- and most important -- publishing decision right.
It's Del.icio.us!
Furl It!
September 16, 2008 01:47 PM
Joel,
That is an awesome take on it. My first blog I started was one of the many inspired by Steve Pavlina's success as a blogger. Problem is, I am not in line with what I blogged about. So inspiration dried up instantly.
The few articles/posts I wrote were thought out through the lens of my interests, so a few of those do "well" even today.
What did I do last weekend? I worked, then came home and played with Market Samurai, and found a way to use mail merge in Excel and Word to create boilerplate blog posts. Not very useful, but still fun.
September 17, 2008 12:41 AM
Agreed,
This is the way the blog/website began... not with the idea of capitalizing on some high paying keyword, but to get the most out of what I really enjoy.
Doing this has enabled to push through a period where I was seeing virtually no earnings at all. I love the topic I based my site on, and because of that I was able to ignore defeat and continue writing and testing.
Just recently, things have begun to pick up. I'm sure that I would have packed up long ago had it not been for the fact that I am constantly involved in what my site is about and I always have more to write about.
September 17, 2008 04:50 AM
Thanks
September 17, 2008 12:36 PM
You are 100% right, Joel. Unless one writes about what fascinates or interests him, it is going to end up as a short term activity. My passion is online marketing / internet marketing. Hence I am into creating email marketing software, providing internet lead management services and, of course, blogging about internet entrepreneurs, success stories and product reviews. It is not only satisfying, but also brings food to the table. Keep it up.
Regards
Paddu, www.LeadPro247.Com
September 19, 2008 11:07 PM
Yeps! I'm sure using my time right on the topics that interests me as I write on my website.
Yeah and you guys should come over and check mine up too ;)
Daniel
http://winningeveryone.com/
September 20, 2008 03:44 AM
If you have a passion about anything the words just flow when you are starting to talk about it - and the same goes when you start typing about it!
Focusing on one niche and building traffic by blog posting and traffic generation activities is what I would suggest to anyone starting out new.
Activity creating content is maybe the most important, if you are not looking at the fact that you may have one page of content that outranks bigger content sites using incoming backlinks alone. What do you say, Joel?
September 23, 2008 12:03 PM
When I think of it that way, I can write a blog about what I do most weekends: get out and experience the out doors. Great post. Thanks.