Do What You Love or Do What Works?

This is one of the hardest decisions you need to make when it comes to starting an online business especially if you are thinking of going down the blogging route where you will need to create a lot of content.

Content creation is hard at the best of times, and if you want to build up an authority site where you require a lot of content then it can get really tough going, but if you are not in the best mood, tired or just feeling a ‘bit bored’ creating content will be the last thing on your mind.

If you are creating a blog based around a niche that you really love and enjoy then you can still write about something when the going gets rough, it might not be easy but it will be a lot easier than trying to write content about a niche that you are not passionate about or know very little about.

At least if you know about the subject something can ‘fall out’ of your brain, if you need to look information up and do research before you start creating content then it will be hard, very hard. And here lies the biggest debate in the blogging world, do you blog about what you love or do you blog about something that works?

You could do your research and find a niche that is popular and that has very little competition with some great products that you could become an affiliate for and with the possibility to create your own but it could very easily be in a niche that you know absolutely nothing about. If that is the case content creation is going to be hard.

If you have some funding behind you then it is possible to find a good content creator and outsource the work then it won’t matter if you are having an off day. If your content creator is having a bad day they have no choice but to work otherwise they do not get paid. They generally get paid per job and not on an hourly rate so if the work is not up to a standard you require then you do not accept it or pay for it.

Having someone else create the content for you is costly, so it is likely from the beginning you will no doubt be creating a lot of the content yourself. So it is advised that you find a niche that you really LOVE otherwise you can be dead in the water within a few weeks.

Try and remember when you were a child and you were told at school or by a parent to do something that you really didn’t like, it was hard wasn’t it? At that time you didn’t have a choice and wandering off to do something else just resulted in you getting in to some kind of trouble.

Now that you are an adult with the freedom of choice, your own house, car and T.V., when you suddenly become bored the opportunity to wander off and do something else more exciting and without punishment is great. I know, I do it regularly! J

It takes a lot of commitment and discipline to do something you do not like however if what you do is likely to make money quickly and it does, that early win can be the motivation required to put more effort in or evolve quicker into outsourcing the content creation and automating the process which in itself is a very attractive business model.

The way to find whether a niche is a good niche to get involved in you will need to do some research which usually involves a few keyword searches. For example if you go to Google’s Keyword Tool and did a search for Yoga Schools and Retreats and found that there were a lot of people searching for the keyword yet the competing websites in Google’s search results was minimal and that there were lots of school and retreats to promote along with Yoga DVDs and equipment then you know that you were onto a potentially profitable niche.

Even better if you love yoga with a passion, that way you will love creating the content for your website and building your online business.

What if you chose to work with a niche you don’t enjoy? What if you were into hardcore dance music but realised that the potential to make money less compared to other niches like ‘opera’. You would need to choose a niche that should give you a quick return or ‘early win’ as we like to call it.

Having an early win is often very important for new online businesses, if you love your niche and do a lot of the content creation yourself but your blog/business still hasn’t turned a profit, it is that love for the niche that can take you on further but only up to a point.

If after six months you have been beavering away and still not getting any favourable results you can become very demoralized. It is wise to plan out your new business venture so that you have an idea of where you are going and what you want to achieve so that can keep your mind focused and stop yourself becoming demoralized so quickly.

Depending on which method you use, blogging about what you love or blogging about a niche that you know that works, you should always have a plan. You wouldn’t leave your house knowing you had a 300 mile drive to a location you had never been before without a map would you? So why would you start a business without a map of where you want to end up and how you are going to get there?

So, you have to ask yourself which way are you going to go?  Decide then create that important plan, you do not want to be lost in the cyber wilderness trying to keep yourself motivated to produce a lot of content in a niche that either you do not love or does not bring in the rewards quickly enough.