I had mentioned the other day that I was changing my SEO ways.  As Gab had correctly observed, I had spread myself too thin.

This week I’ve been doing an audit of each of my sites, looking at current rankings, traffic, etc, and looking at how competitive each niche area was.  The whole process got me thinking about how we select the niches that we’re in – and whether we’re in the right niche for us.

I put together this very simple and short guide to finding YOUR niche:

All of us can put the things that we do into three basic circles: things we like to do, things we are good at, and things that can make us money by doing them.

Step 1:  Make a List of the Things You Like to Do

The easiest way to do this is to take a look around your house at the books and magazines that you read, at the things you collect, at the photos of places you’ve been, etc. 

If you’re a person who doesn’t have many books or magazines in your house – look at your browser’s bookmarks or the blogs that you subscribe to.  Anything to help you verbalize and catalog your current interests.

For me – I am a bit of a book person.  My house is chock full of books and magazines.  This gave me a huge list of my interests.  It turns out I have an interest in a lot of things.  But just because I have an interest in something, doesn’t mean I am necessarily good at it.  That leads me to step 2…

Step 2:  Make a List of the Things You Are Good At

It is important to note here that unless you’re an abnormally boring person, this won’t be the same list as number 1.  First of all, there will be things you are interested in that you are not good at.  Second of all, there will be things you might be good at that you have very little interest in.

For instance, I am rather good at accounting.  But I don’t like doing it. 

How do you make an objective list at the things you are good at?  You listen to what your friends and family are asking you. I’ve been a fan of Tom Peters for about 20 years now.  One of the points he continually makes is that we should all have our own brand and be known for something.  In fact, most of us probably have a “brand” without even knowing it.

One way to determine what you are good at – or known for – is to pay attention when people come to you for advice. If your mom is always calling you about her wireless network, that counts.  If a person you used to work for is calling you with a wireless network question, that counts more. Maybe you’re the expert on video games in your little sphere of influence. Or you’re always the de facto bartender at all social functions. You might even be the guy that gets called whenever someone’s car breaks down. 

The point is, unless you’re utterly useless or a hermit or both, you probably get people calling you at least a few times a week asking you for advice.  To these people, you are the resident subject matter expert.  And unless you hang out with complete morons, you must have some authority on the subject.  You just need to highlight and build on this authority with your niche site or blog.  Then, start with your audience of a few friends and family and broaden it out to the world.

Now, if your goal is to make money doing this, or even to break even and cover your hosting and other expenses, you need to make one last list...

Step 3:  Make a List of the Things You Can Make Money Doing

This is the wonderful thing about the Internet.  With enough imagination and traffic you can monetize just about anything.  But in order to cover our bases in case we don’t get the traffic and to make this a more fruitful exercise, let's drill down deeper. 

In addition to the traditional forms of blog income (Adsense, affiliate sales, subscriptions, classified advertising, etc.), there is also the selling of products and services.  If you’re good at woodworking, maybe in addition to a blog about woodworking you could sell items you’ve made, or plans for projects.  If you have a scuba diving blog, you can partner up with a local travel agent to offer guided tours and trips to your favorite Carribbean dive spots.  And, of course, if you’re an SEO, you could sell services or an SEO book (although I think this has been done). 

For consultants, in addition to services, there are always e-books.  E-books get a bad rep in some segments, but they don’t all have to be crap.  And with a little extra effort you could make it a real book and just have it published on demand. 

The point is to look beyond the traditional forms of internet money making that rely on a lot of traffic.  Because, in some cases, depending on the niche, the traffic just ain’t going to be there, even if you're ranked #1 for every relevant keyword imaginable.

Step 4:  Find the sweet spots.

Now, if you take a look at your three lists you’ll see some areas where they overlap.  Ideally, you should pick a niche that covers at least two of the lists.  Maybe it is something you are good at and you’re interested in, but you can’t make any money at it.  And that doesn’t matter because you find it fun.  Or maybe you’re interested in it, and you can make money at it, but you might not be that good at it.  Then go for it, because you’re having fun doing it and you’re making a little bit of coin while you're getting experience, so it's all great.

And it could be something you’re good at and you make money doing it, but it bores you to death.  If this is what you came up with, give up now.  Even if it is a niche that is wildly popular on the web, just don’t do it.  A lot of people are already working in this area of their life, and it's called a 9-to-5 job.  Who wants that?  If it were me, I’d go with something I liked, even if I didn’t make as much money doing it.

Ideally, however, you’ll have one or two things where all three overlap:

You enjoy it, you’re good at it, and people are willing to give you money for it.

This, my friends, is when work no longer becomes work!

Good Luck!

Note:  If you’ve done all of the above and you think you have a good niche, go read Rand’s helpful post here and do a little sanity check.