Finding a Direction

[BruderChrist]

I joined this forum recently and have been reading through massive amounts of information and comprehending most of it. But as much as I absorb, I keep coming back to a seemingly simple question:

• What kind of website should I start?

I know this sounds like a really simple, novice-type question, but I truly feel somewhat stuck. I want to create a website that holds high potential to become lucrative, but I also want the website's impetus to revolve around something that is genuine and possesses legitimate purpose.

I realize there are different niches to choose from, but when I ask myself the question "What kind of website should I start?", I am not just contemplating what genre or topic -- I also ask 'what style'. To create a website where SEO techniques can be used to develop it into a financially positive digital destination, does the website have to be a blog? As I write all these questions out, they seem simpler and simpler. But I need some basic advice on how to commit to these first moves.

On a side note: I have website I've developed for my digital development company and my brother's band. The websites do not have a blog or anything, they are more used for interested parties we meet offline to get more information. With all this information I have been taking in, I keep wondering how I can incorporate some of these techniques/skills to elevate my existing websites. For instance, should I make a blog for them? They are built on Wordpress.

Anyways, any insight and/or advice pertaining to these mental barriers I have been working through would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[Zwielicht]

You're spending more time asking yourself questions instead of doing. Just think of a niche that interests you (this could be a hobby or a field that you have some expertise in), set up a website (it doesn't have to be a blog as you can start a forum as well) and see how you like running that type of website.

Find out what works for you and go in the right direction based on that information.

 

[BruderChrist]

You're spending more time asking yourself questions instead of doing... Find out what works for you and go in the right direction based on that information.

Thanks. I certainly agree with you. Do you think Health & Fitness is too broad of a topic? I feel it's something I've always been interested in and it have many sub-niche, which will never stop coming up with new products.

 

[subster]

It all depends, what your interest are. You are naturally gaining knowledge and are writing more motivated ad enthusiatic if you are on fire for that topic. My most successful blogs have been, that ones I built without financial interest in the first place, just writing out of passion.

 

[Blur0]

Yeah, I also suggest just taking action first and figure out what you need to when you face the problems. You can always switch to some different website format as well.

 

[eponus]

Thanks. I certainly agree with you. Do you think Health & Fitness is too broad of a topic? I feel it's something I've always been interested in and it have many sub-niche, which will never stop coming up with new products.

Its too broad if your goal is to solve a specific problem and try to build a dedicated audience of loyal fans.

If your goal is to build a publishing business than you can grow via multiple channels (SEO, social media etc), then no its definitely not too broad.

I know its cliche, but you just need to get started.

Setup a wordpress blog, take care of your basic on-page optimization, do keyword research, figure out what content works best for those keywords, create that content, build some links. Track everything. Rinse and repeat. See what works and see what doesn't work.

You can succeed or fail building a very broad health & fitness site, you can succeed or fail niching down and trying to solve a pain point for a very narrow audience, but you need to get started. Right now you're just dealing with analysis paralysis.

 

[Dreadnoughty]

Try and niche down as much as you can on something that you are interested in. You can always expand from there.

 

[Zwielicht]

Its too broad if your goal is to solve a specific problem and try to build a dedicated audience of loyal fans.

If your goal is to build a publishing business than you can grow via multiple channels (SEO, social media etc), then no its definitely not too broad.

I know its cliche, but you just need to get started.

Setup a wordpress blog, take care of your basic on-page optimization, do keyword research, figure out what content works best for those keywords, create that content, build some links. Track everything. Rinse and repeat. See what works and see what doesn't work.

You can succeed or fail building a very broad health & fitness site, you can succeed or fail niching down and trying to solve a pain point for a very narrow audience, but you need to get started. Right now you're just dealing with analysis paralysis.

I'm going to add to this a bit.

OP, if your goal is to solve a specific problem, then instead of looking into the health and fitness niche, try looking into a sub-niche of it (e.g., health and fitness for amputees).