In the past I have done several posts on finding niches and what niches tend to be profitable. You can even find 50 niches to get you started as well as easy ways to find profitable niches. Since I have been around this Internet marketing game for several years now I decided to change the way I choose my niches. I definitely still recommend that beginners to marketing online use these techniques to finding niches, but since I already have 80 domain names I won’t be looking for any new niches any time soon! (Yes, you saw that right, 80 domain names)
I set some huge goals for 2012 especially when it comes to the amount of words that I want to publish. Before the New Year started I was all excited about writing and even made a schedule for the whole month of January of what sites I was going to work on. 
Let me just tell you that January 1, that schedule got thrown into the garbage. It wasn’t because I don’t like being organized and on task but it was because it was holding me back. There was no way I was going to accomplish my goals if I followed that schedule.
How Turned Procrastination Into Productivity
The first website that I had listed to work on was one that had 3 posts on it (selling Amazon items) and I had planned on expanding the site to at least 20 posts. But, the thing is that the site is about the most boring items ever and I simply couldn’t bring myself to write a review of the product.
On January 1, which was supposed to be the start of my super productive year, I sat there staring at a blank page and then at Facebook and then at my email and then at The Pond and then back to a blank page. This actually happened several times during the day until it got to be late at night and came to be my real working time when the kids were sleeping.
It was procrastination at its finest. But the thing is that 2012 is supposed to be different. I have to be super productive and take massive action but I was already failing on the first day.
I thought about it and the only reason why I was procrastinating was because I didn’t want to write that stinking boring review of the product. I was wasting my day away all because of that one product review that was on my schedule to write. I had no interest in this product and truthfully haven’t even used one of them before.
Right then and there I changed my tune for the year because I couldn’t continue to keep wasting time. I would never reach my goals that way. I decided I wasn’t going to let profitability or how much money I could make with this popular niche decide what type on website I worked on.
Instead, the niches I am going to focus on this year are ones that I have an interest in. The ones that I have actually used the products. The ones were it doesn’t take me 3 hours to write a review because I know nothing about the product and find it completely boring.
After letting myself off the hook for the review I was able to write almost 3,000 words for one of my other websites. I turned my procrastination into productivity with one simple switch of my business plan.
This may not work for everyone and some people actually enjoy the challenge of writing on things they aren’t familiar with. But for me, I have plenty of websites that can make a great deal of money and they are in niches that I don’t find completely boring and can easily write on.
That is what I love about internet marketing that there are no straight guidelines or rules that you have to follow to grow your business. I want to be productive and make my income goals and for me that means concentrating on the niches I enjoy. Otherwise I would most likely find myself sitting there staring at the blank page or Facebook or watching TV instead.
Now that I have done what is best for my business, I am being productive and am motivated once again to reach my goals and succeed beyond my wildest dreams this year.
Do you concentrate on niches you enjoy or know about or you the type of person that goes for any niche no matter how boring?
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I love the way you described what was causing your procrastination. I’ve often wasted entire days to avoid doing one thing that I feel I need to do before I do anything else, but when it comes to doing that one thing, I do my absolute best to avoid it at all costs.
There have been so many times when I could have saved myself a lot of valuable time if I’d just chucked it and decided I was going to move on without doing it a lot sooner than I actually did (because yes, most of the time I did finally decide not to do it). Maybe it’s a case of not trusting my gut to tell me when something needs to be ignored or left alone, or than I’m just not the person for the job.
That’s not to say there haven’t been times when I’ve put off something that I really do have to do, and that all I gained myself was a few days or weeks of anxiety filled hours of not doing something that I eventually had to do anyway, but those aren’t the majority.
Thanks for the great reminder that sometimes it’s smarter to just make a decision to skip something and go with it.
I tend to write about things I enjoy. Like you, when I don’t, I end up doing less all around.
I used to start websites, just because the “keyword research” told me they had great potential. I have started plenty that way and every single is now gathering dust, simply because the topic itself does not interest me one single bit.
It wasn´t until I started a website last year, in my own interest, in my own language (which makes for much easier and faster content creation) that things really started picking up. I so agree with you.
If you have no interest in a topic, it is so much harder to focus and get the work done, unless of course, money is your motivation and the site becomes profitable from the get go!
So right now, for 2012, I am only going to work on sites I really enjoy, or that really motivate me because they have already gone over a certain amount of income!
I am so with you on this. I had plan for January 1st that also involved a site that I need to write some reviews for however honestly I’m not all the interested in it. I have another site that I am just starting and I am very excited about writing products and info pages for – it is also a niche I enjoy personally so find writing about it much easier as I actually know what I am talking about. After my first day of ‘planned super productivity’ for the new year failed, I realized that I too needed to adjust my written to-do-list because nothing would be getting done if I tried to follow it.
I am with you on this one. I am so much more productive if I either like a subject or know it well so why fight it?
Long term I hope to grow out sites that I don’t mind writing about but for now I just need to stick with what is earning as I don’t have enough sites to be picky. Outsourcing the content on the boring niches is another option but I find the content is never up to my standards. Oh well.
Lynn – I am the same way. I knew this website wasn’t a must-do kind of thing and I had plenty of other sites that can make me money, so why dwell on it any longer.
Mirjam – I was the same way which explains why I have over 80 domains. I think we are on the right track with finding profitable niches which we enjoy.
Tammy – At least we learned our lesson early and didn’t waste too much time. Good luck on your new site.
Carrie – With over 80 registered domains I can be pretty picky about what ones I actually build now. I’m sure you will raise your earnings soon enough so you can concentrate only on the sites you like writing about. I am the same way on outsourcing. I tend to only outsource backlink articles and no on site content.
Recently, I finally dumped a couple of sites that I only created to make money with, but had no real interest in the subject matter. These were sites that sat mostly collecting dust, except for the occasional Wordpress updates, etc.
I kept only the sites that I LOVE to write for and that I already have a passion for……to the point that I will likely never run out of things to write about on them. These sites will make money and so it is just better for me to concentrate on them. What is the point of working for myself if I dislike what I do? I might as well enjoy the subject matter that I write about and this in turn will come out to my readers as true, authentic passion for the subject.
I hear you Tiffany! I am like you, I think I faced the same situations on numerous occassions last year, for me unfortunately I chose one of the most boring topics ever for one of my sites – Table Tennis. Who would have guess there would be over 200 different bloody table tennis bats! I found it so hard to write about a product review on something as boring as that. I have literally given up on this boring topic, but the funny thing is … the less I write on it the more money it makes! Go Figure!
However the one thing that kept me motivated from procrastination is, if I dont write = no content = no traffic = no money. I write for a living! Having tonnes of websites with no content is a waste of my efforts.
This year I am doing what exactly what you doing, working on topics of interest, I have chosen 3 niches in which to build 50 websites. The niches are very broad and have alot of synergies which allows me to leverage off each other. I think overtime having the ability leverage is very important.
Good luck on your endeavours
Norm
L.M – I did the same thing and plan on continuing to dump sites that I have no interest with. Unless a site is making me decent money or is about something I enjoy to write about I’m not bothering with it this year. I actually just let 6 domains expire and 2 of them had sites on them. They were only 5 pages and were very, very boring topics and they just sat there b/c I couldn’t work up the energy to write any more on the topic. Good luck!
Norm – I don’t know how you could write more than one review on table tennis… def a boring topic
Good luck with your sites this year.