Choose Your Subject (Your Niche)

Now that you have your objective, you need to define your subject matter—the topic or topics that you're going to create content about to achieve it.

There are two scenarios here, and we'll deal with each separately.

If You Have an Existing Product, Service or Business

Then your subject matter options will be more limited. In this case, you need to work outward from a narrow focus to a broader perspective.

Why? Ask yourself a question. How many people search for your specific product or service by name? Now ask yourself another question. How many people search for problems that your product or service is meant to solve? Or for the general category of subjects related to your offering?

Let's make that more concrete.

If you had a headache, would you search for "Tylenol"? Or would you search for "headache" or "headache remedy"? Even the people behind Tylenol know that you're more likely to search for "headache"—McNeil Pharmaceutical runs ads when people search for "headache" in Google.

So here's what you do:

  1. Take out a blank piece of paper and write your offering in the center of a circle. For example, if your offering were "Tylenol," write "Tylenol."
  2. Draw another circle around your initial circle. In this circle, name the category that contains your offering. For example, "headache remedies."
  3. Continue adding circles until you feel that you've become too unfocused. For example, "health products" might contain "headache remedies." But it wouldn't be a good subject for marketing Tylenol because it's far too broad.
  4. Once you've found a good containing subject, refine it as much as possible. Specifically, focus on problems that it's intended to solve. For example, "Remedies for headaches including migraines, cluster headaches and tension-type headaches."

At this point, you might be asking yourself: "Do I really want to talk about remedies other than my remedy?"

Well, that all depends on your objective. (See? Told you it was important.) If you just want to sell a few products, perhaps not. But if you want to build profitable long-term relationships, providing people with information they can likely find online anyway probably will do more good than harm. Especially if your offering truly provides value they can't get elsewhere.

If You're Starting Completely from Scratch

Then your subject matter is wide open.

In such a case, you'll want to choose a subject that strikes the greatest balance between being appealing to you (if you care about being happy in your work, that is) and appealing to a wide audience.

Here, you'll likely need to work from a broad perspective to a narrower focus.

Why? Ask yourself a question. How much competition do you think there is for a really broad subject like, say, "health?" Now ask yourself another question. How much competition do you think there is for a really focused subject like "health in retired athletes."

While there are far more people searching for the former, you have a far greater chance of dominating the market in the latter. And owning 100 percent (hey, why not be ambitious?) of that market could be far more rewarding—emotionally and financially—than owning 0.000001 percent (if you're lucky) of the former.

So, how do you choose a good focused subject? Here's what you do:

  1. Make it personal. What are your interests? What is your profession? What do you know a lot about? What information have you been unable to find online that you think others are also looking for?
  2. Take out a blank piece of paper and draw a large circle. Write your proposed subject on the outside of this circle.
  3. Search for the subject on Google or another search engine. Are there a lot of competitors? If so, you need to further focus. Draw a circle within your first and define a tighter subject. For example, if you chose "tennis," try "doubles tennis."
  4. Once you've found a good, focused subject, refine it further. Focus on people's related problems. For example, "Doubles tennis for people who want to go from beginner to court dominator."

If you're still having trouble finding a subject, and want some brainstorming assistance, try using Wikipedia. You can find a list of topics at the appropriately named "List of topics." From there, you can continue drilling down until you find a subject of interest. Then just follow the steps above to refine it.

Okay, got your subject? Write it down so you don't forget.

What's Next?

Once you've selected your subject, it's time to think about your target market.

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"I wouldn't change a word, and that is very unusual for me."—Heather MacKay, Sr. Project Manager, Enbridge Gas Distribution
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