This post is part 2 of How to choose a theme without failing.
If you haven't seen part 1 yet, please go ahead and check it out!
In the first part, you will learn the following three things
- 1. Find the "Seed" of your blog theme
- 2. Think about how to "Grow" your blog theme
- 3. Think about the "Fruit" of your blog theme
Please follow the steps in 「3 Practical Tips for Choosing a Theme」 to decide on a theme for your blog.
If you want to start a blog but wonder what kind of theme you should use.
Please read this post to the end and take your first step as a blogger!
1. Find the "Seed" of your blog theme
- Q1. Is it challenging to write a blog without specialized knowledge?
- Q2. I can't think of anything I like or am good at, but can I find a theme?
- Q3. What is essential in "choosing a blog theme"?
2. Think about how to "Grow" your blog theme
- Q4. Why is it important to choose a blog theme in the first place?
- Q5. Is it wrong to use a variety of themes like a diary?
- Q6. Are there any "target" themes that are easy to make money from, even for a beginner blogger?
4. Summary
1. Find the "Seed" of your blog theme
Q. Is it challenging to write a blog without specialized knowledge?
Many people feel that writing a blog without specialized knowledge is difficult.
It may indeed be challenging to write a blog from a state of complete ignorance, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you need specialized knowledge.
There are probably fewer people who have specialized knowledge.
But even if you don't have the expertise, everyone has stories and experiences that can be used as a theme for a blog.
First of all, I recommend that you update your blog with your own experiences and the knowledge you have.
What have you been working hard for, what do you do every day in your life now, and what do you want to be in five or ten years?
To put it in a slightly more complicated way, looking for a blog theme is sometimes called "taking stock of your life.
Q2. I can't think of anything I like or am good at, but can I find a theme?
Even if you don't have any special skills, there must be one hobby or something you are currently doing.
For example, if you're a dieter, you could use one of the things you've done and failed at or succeeded as your theme.
Q3. What is essential in "choosing a theme for your blog"?
As I wrote many times in the first part of this post, choosing a theme that suits you is most important.
The most important thing is to choose a theme that suits you.
The theme that suits you is based on what you spend your time on (or want to spend your time on).
In blogging, it is essential to "communicate to your past self.
In the same way, you would write about your failures.
It would help if you also wrote to people who are currently struggling, saying things like, "I was careful about these things," or "Now that I've analyzed it," I think I should make these moves.
In addition to talking about the past, you can also talk about the future by thinking about what you are doing now and what you want to do in the future.
2. Think about how to "Grow" your blog theme
While narrowing down the seeds of your theme, think about your blog's target audience and how to convey and cut information.
Q4. Why is it important to choose a blog theme in the first place?
Because the theme is the purpose of the blog.
The primary purpose of writing a blog is to send out helpful information to others.
In return, you can earn advertising revenue.
The reason why you need a theme is a little easier to understand: if you study without a purpose, it's hard to learn, and if you do business without a goal, it's okay.
However, when it comes to blogging, many people suddenly start blogging without a sense of purpose, and if they do, the blog will not be read by people.
If you come to a bakery and all they have today is Chinese food, you won't go there anymore.
Therefore, it is essential to decide on a purpose and focus on a theme to develop your blog to be sought after by readers.
3. Think about the "Fruit" of your blog theme
If your theme is dieting, the following is one example.
＜How to grow＞
- Target: Women who want to lose weight.
- How to convey information: "Easy" dieting methods require little effort.
People who are not motivated to maintain the status quo can use a dieting method.
＜Fruits＞
How to monetize: Sales of diet-related supplements and products or affiliate marketing of diet-related services.
Other than monetization: you can deepen your knowledge of dieting.
Q5. Is it wrong to use various themes like a diary?
Not at all.
There is a genre of blogs called ransom note.
Even if it's your specialty or something you've experienced, if you don't have enough posts to write about it, you can broaden the scope of the theme or make it multiple.
I also like themes that I have no experience in, like this one, and am just starting.
You don't have to narrow down the themes, but even on a random note, I'd recommend narrowing it down to about three or four basic themes with a similar readership.
It's not easy to get people to visit your blog from a search, and if the content is too miscellaneous, you want the readers who visit your blog to read a lot, but they won't read your other posts.
This is where categories become essential.
If the categories are easy to understand and created from the readers' perspective, they will find related posts by looking at the categories.
For example, it is not bad for a bakery to serve Chinese food.
Still, if the signboard says "bakery," but only sells ramen, or if the menu is a mixture of bread and ramen that is difficult to understand, the customers who come to the store will not be satisfied and will not want to go back.
If you are selling this Chinese food, you need to ensure that your customers are satisfied.
If you want to make a bakery that sells popular Chinese food, you need to prepare both bread and Chinese food that are delicious, separate the menu for bread and Chinese food, and make sure that the bread does not smell like ramen.
This is how you can have a bakery that serves Chinese food.
It's not because it's a specialized blog that it succeeds, and it's not because it's the random note that it fails.
The advantage of a random note with multiple themes is that it is much harder to run out of material.
The only caveat is that many readers tend to leave a random note because they don't feel it is specialized.
Q6. Are there any "target" themes that are easy to make money from, even for a beginner blogger?
I don't recommend it, but I'd be lying if I said that there are no easy themes to make money from.
If the product or service you introduce has a high commission rate, it is an excellent theme to make money.
But those genres are already being used by companies and individual affiliates who have been doing it for a long time, so it's tough for beginners to make money.
It's a little challenging to say, but financial and beauty-related fields have many rivals.
They also fall under Google's YMYL page category, which means that Google pays particular attention to posts in these fields.
It's challenging to get the top rankings, and even if you do, it's not uncommon to get kicked out of the search results due to updates.
Therefore, it is recommended to introduce products and services that are compatible with the theme of your blog, rather than aiming for a theme that is easy to make money.
3. Summary
I have found that deciding on a theme that suits you is essential for eventual monetization.
Thank you for reading to the end!
To learn more about blogging, check out the post below.
