The first thing you need to do before starting

a blog is finding a niche that you would like to

write about.

A niche is a targeted, focused topic that a specific

target group are found in. This could be a wide range

topics like internet marketing or less common ones

like weight loss through lemon juice diets.

Some niches can be further separated into sub-niches, for

example, weight loss into atkins diet, lemon juice

diets etc.

What you can do is jot down a list of topics you want

to pursue. Preferably, you should have a passion for it,

because there is no point doing something you hate. If

you're having trouble thinking of topics or have not much

information about them, you'll have to do some research.

Starting with stuff you have some interest in, maybe weight

loss, visit popular forums and discussion boards and pay

attention to what is being talked about. You can also watch &

listen to the news, read popular newspapers and magazines

for ideas.

I would like to suggest some tools here, starting with  Google

Zeitgeist -You can use it to find out search patterns, trends,

and the fastest rising search queries.

Then there's Yahoo Buzz to explore many different topics and

see what the current "buzz" is. Yahoo also has a site called

yahoo answers where you can ask a question and get loads of

answers from people interested in that niche.

Last but not least, there's eBay Pulse which provides current

trends and popular searches in the different eBay markets.

You can use this tool to find hot topics to blog about.

Find out after this if the niche you selected is a golden egg or

a lemon...

To your blogging profits,

Gary