Picking the topic of your blog is just about the most important decision you’ll have to make in this entire process. First and foremost, you’ve got to select a theme that you actually care about if you want to have any drive to write about it. A hot topic on the search radar won’t mean anything for you if you don’t care passionately about it.

When the cell phone market went crazy for the next great iPhone killer I decided to try and cash in on it with a site for iClones. I spent several weeks collecting reviews, leaks, rumors, and any other kind of news on the iClone market. But then the initial rush wore off and I was left with mild traffic and a topic I didn’t truly care about. There was nothing left to motivate me to keep going and build up the traffic and content. After a few months I officially pulled the plug on the site.

Compare that with some of the reality television sites I started. After having watched several of these shows for years and years I realized I could capture an audience with the same passion for the topic that I had. I knew the topics as well or better than anyone else I knew. It was a perfect fit. Through the first year of covering the shows I kept up the effort even under sometimes frustrating traffic because it was a labor of love. Today I’m a very top ranker across all the major search engines and bring in tens of thousands of readers every single day. My enthusiasm for the topic paid off in spades.

The difference here is your passion for the subject and your ability to carry the initial burden of hard work during potentially low returns with the understanding that your site can and will grow. You have to be willing to keep at it as a labor of love and the only way you’ll do that is with a deep interest in the topic. Pick something you know well and could sit down and discuss for hours on end without being bored. If you do that I promise you’ll be making your first step down the path to online success.

Read the next step, registering your domain, in the 5 steps to getting started guide.

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