What to blog about

amother

Bisque

Wed, Feb 08 2017, 12:36 pm

We're desperately in need of more income. I'm thinking of starting a monetized blog so I can make some money off my love of writing.

I keep reading other people's amazing blogging stories where half a year after they started blogging, they were making thousands of dollars and were able to quit their day jobs. I don't need to make thousands - even a few hundred bucks a month would make such a difference in our financial situation.

The problem is I can't think of a topic to blog about that people would be interested in reading, and that hasn't been said 100 times already.

Here are some things I'm passionate about (in no particular order):
Frugal living
Healthy/natural living
DIY
Living in Israel
Judaism
Organization
Cooking/baking
Writing and grammar

I'm not particularly talented or smart in any of the above topics; I just like thinking about them and writing about them. Who would want to read stuff from mediocre me?

amother

Seashell

Wed, Feb 08 2017, 12:48 pm

you make money by having affiliate links- if you mention a product that lets say amazon has you link it to amazon and if anyone clicks on that link and buys something from amazon you got paid something, you have adds on your website that pay you to have their adds, you get well known and then sell products...

agreer

Wed, Feb 08 2017, 2:47 pm

amother wrote:

I can tell from your initial post you're a good writer! Matters more than the topic!

Nope...you need a good, interesting topic/spin. The best writing style in the world won't matter if you have nothing good to talk about.

Why not start with some of the topics you listed and see what you have the most to talk about? See if you can get a few articles.

If you can't, it's not the right topic for your.

LisaS

Wed, Feb 08 2017, 3:07 pm

I'd be interested to read about frugal and/or natural living in Israel. There are many issues specific to living here that aren't addressed by other blogs. A humorous article now and then is nice, but what would bring me back often would be practical articles. E.g. gift ideas for teachers organized by vaad horim, what to do with kohlrabi, pros and cons of private dental care, etc.

I'd also be interested in what you have to say about grammar. I know that sounds nerdy :-)
I'd especially love to hear translations of idioms. Like what would be the equivalent of "rule of thumb" in Hebrew? What are common English grammar mistakes that children growing up in Israel are likely to make because of translating from Hebrew?

amother

Bisque

Thu, Feb 09 2017, 2:27 am

LisaS wrote:

Do you read kosherfrugal.com? It's the only blog I'm subscribed to. She posts deals, important food recall information, tax info, frugal recipes, etc. She actually has a kohlrabi quiche recipe Smile

(I tried it and it didn't go over so well here.)

I also like pennilessparenting.com. A lot of it is way out there, but I read it now and then, and it puts me in a frugal mindset.

I love your last idea! I don't know if I can build a whole blog on that, but if I end up blogging about Israel, that might get some posts. I always catch myself trying to translate idioms into Hebrew, and they just don't work. It would involve a lot of research, but it could be fun!

BatZion

Thu, Feb 09 2017, 4:48 am

OP- I totally hear you. In fact, I could have written your post Wink

And that's what stops me from starting a blog- I've played with the idea in the past but I just end up feeling that there are so many out there writing about all those topics too and what have I got to offer that is so different...

I read pennliessparenting, kosherfrugal, lifeinisrael, jewishmom, food.lizsteinberg.com and others.

I would love to do something with my writing but I don't want to start a blog on whim without direction for it to just get lost in the blogosphere...

Well, best of luck and maybe we'll come across each other's blogs some day Wink

amother

Mistyrose

Thu, Feb 09 2017, 5:20 am

While I live in Israel and would be interested in that, you are really limiting your audience when you pick something very specific. If you're targeting anglos in Israel, you're already dealing with a smaller audience. Now think...how many people living in Israel order regularly from Amazon? We either need to wait till we know someone coming in or have to keep our purchases to under $75 to avoid the taxes so you're already limiting your potential.

You want to reach the biggest demographic while sticking to something your passionate about and a target audience that clicks links and orders online.

queenert

Thu, Feb 09 2017, 2:29 pm

amother wrote:

How do you make money from blogging?

You can also make money by:
having ads
writing guest posts
writing sponsored posts
gaining awareness/business if you have one and your blog relates to it

You need to be pretty popular to get all but the last.
Affiliate links and gaining awareness/business can happen even if you're not popular and someone stumbles on your post from a web search. (So good SEO is important.)