Can you still earn money with a blog in 2020?

The good news is that it’s possible to turn blogging into a profitable business.

But if you pick the wrong niche, you are doomed to fail.

Read on to find out which topics are still trending!

1. Parenting

Pregnant women and new moms constantly need advice. They move from one little crisis to another, and every day brings a new difficult situation they can’t solve alone. In the past, women turned to their mothers or perhaps books, but now it’s mommy blogs. As a parenting blogger, you’ll always have a huge and engaged potential audience.

Another great thing about this niche is that there are so many products that you can endorse—clothes, cosmetics, toys, books, prams, healthcare – you name it. Babies need an enormous amount of stuff – and for you, that means infinite affiliate marketing opportunities.

The downside is that there are thousands of mommy bloggers. So you’ll need to find an exciting angle to stand out. Here are a few examples;

• Attractive parenting style or method (like Montessori or attachment parenting)
• In-depth product reviews with great pictures;
• Focus on an aspect of raising kids – such as emotional development, healthy food, or travel with kids:
• Original tone of voice – try to be different from all those overly sweet, adoring moms;
• Particular audience – why not address dads instead of moms, for example?

You need to have a baby to write a parenting blog. But you don’t have to be a perfect parent. On the contrary: if you are honest about your failures and imperfections, readers will empathize with you more.

Popular blogs for inspiration are Momastery, Lucie’s List, and Free-Range Kids.

2. Lifestyle

Lifestyle bloggers address a very specific audience: people like themselves. For example, if you are a new mom and an online entrepreneur, that will be your target reader, too. The best lifestyle blogs have a very loyal following based on the emotional connections they build – the feeling of being alike.

In this niche, you can cover a lot of topics based on your everyday life. Cooking, fitness, fashion, movies, travel, crafts, your city – everything goes. Just make sure that the subject of each post is interesting to your audience.

The good thing about lifestyle blogging is that you can get affiliate deals in different segments. You can endorse clothes, makeup, baby products, restaurants, books, and so forth.

But why stop at just reviewing products when you can sell them yourself? Many lifestyle blogs have shops attached. It’s a great way to combine two businesses: blogging and e-commerce.

The downside is that you’ll need to work hard to find your voice. It doesn’t have to be fancy or elaborate. But you’ll need to sound honest, relatable, and trustworthy.

Remember: you need to build an emotional connection with your audience. Look at this example from Cupcakes and Cashmere:

Popular blogs to inspire you: Cupcakes and Cashmere, Barefoot Blonde, A Beautiful Mess.

3. Tech

This niche can be divided into two broad sub-niches:

• Hardware: laptops, smartphones, drones, tablets, etc. Famous bloggers get new models straight from the manufacturers for review. But if you don’t have many readers yet, you’ll need to procure devices yourself or find another angle at first.
• Software & services: apps, platforms, games, and so on. If you want to make money with your blog through affiliate marketing, this is the easier option. The developer will provide you with a special affiliate link. When visitors download the app using your link, you’ll earn a small commission.

There are too many different kinds of tech to cover in one blog, so you’ll need to choose a subtopic. It has to be something you know well, but also something that’s trending. Some of the hottest topics in 2020 are decentralized finance (Defi), hosting providers, digital banking apps, and blockchain platforms.  Before choose hosting, check hrank.com for more information.

Keep in mind that tech blogging requires a lot of additional learning, even if you know a lot about gadgets and apps. To write reviews of online services, you’ll need a good understanding of UX and UI design. It will help you formulate your opinion in a more authoritative and ‘technical’ manner.

The largest tech blogs are collective affairs – they bring together lots of independent writers.

Examples are TechCrunch, Engadget, and Gizmodo. You can study their reviews before you write your own.

Also, consider starting a vlog on YouTube. Video is an excellent medium for tech reviews. For example, check out Lewis Hilsenteger’s Unbox Therapy, Marques Brownlee, or Linus Sebastian.

4. Pets

Over 50% of US households own pets, so you’ll have a broad audience. Just as importantly, people spend lots of money on their pets. Toys, food, cute clothes, training, dog-sitters, grooming. And you can promote all those products!

At the same time, this niche isn’t as overcrowded as blogging about babies. Pet owners need advice just as much as moms, but you’ll have much less competition. Plus, there are many interesting angles you could focus one:

• A specific breed: this should be the dog or cat breed that you have at home.
• Other pet animals: fish, birds, guinea pigs, etc.;
• Travel with pets: many owners are reluctant to leave their precious pets at home. They want to discover pet-friendly places to stay and visit.
• Health: vets are expensive. An average US dog owner spends over $400 a year on vet visits. So pet owners are eager to prevent their fur baby from getting sick.

To blog about pets, it’s not enough to love your cat or dog. You need theoretical knowledge, too – and that means a lot of additional research. Be prepared to read a lot about animal physiology, diseases, psychology, and so forth.

Popular blogs for inspiration are Pawsitively Pets, The Conscious Cat, and Oh My Dog.

It’s not just about the niche

There’s much more to a successful blog than a trending topic.

If you look at the most popular bloggers in different niches, you’ll see that they have three things in common. They are knowledgeable, engaging, and work hard on their SEO.

These are the three golden rules you’ll have to follow if you want your blog to become popular:

• Know what you write about. You don’t need an MBA in finance to write about investments, but you need both practical experience and a lot of knowledge about your subject. This means that some hot blogging topics won’t be available to you. But on the other hand, you surely have some unique expertise and experience that others don’t!
• Write for your readers, not yourself. Yes, you can blog about your life and work AND make money. But a blog isn’t a diary. Everything you write has to be valuable and relevant to your target audience.
• Optimize, optimize, optimize. You’ll only make money if your blog attracts a lot of readers. And to achieve that, you need to rank well on Google. Blogging is only half creative writing – the other half is SEO. This includes keyword research, meta descriptions, rich snippets, image optimization, backlinks, and many other things. It’s quite a learning curve – see this guide to get you started.

Picking a lucrative niche doesn’t guarantee success. You’ll need to produce valuable, in-depth, engaging content. Moreover, you’ll need to work hard on your rankings. That’s what all popular blogs have in common. And If you want to match their success, you’ll have to follow their example.