You have been told over and over to get into a niche or market that you are passionate about. But do you have to be passionate about your niche in order to succeed online? Whether you plan on making an income from affiliate marketing or selling your own products and services, do you really have to be passionate about your niche in order to be successful?
The short answer is no … and yes. Here is what we mean.
If you are passionate about your niche, you enjoy working on it. This means that creating blog posts and information products is fun. You enjoy what you are doing, and you cannot wait to get to work every single day.
This “I love what I am doing” attitude spills over into your writing, video production and product creation, and you may find success quicker than someone who is not emotionally involved with their web presence. You’ll never struggle to find things to write about and writers block generally won’t affect you.
But passion can also be a bad thing for the small business owner online. There is so much for you to do. Marketing, product and content creation, social networking, outsourcing, website and blog development are just a few of the many tasks you handle on an everyday basis as an online marketer. And this is where passion can get in your way.
Passion is defined as a “strong and barely controllable emotion.” This means that your love for your niche may make it difficult to tear yourself away from creating a blog post or digital product. You are so attached to your marketplace that you do not spend the time necessary for business building tasks like creating quality backlinks, studying website analytics and developing a sensible SEO plan for your blog or site.
Yes, you have great focus but what about all the other bits needed for building a successful online business?
On the one hand, people passionate about a certain topic are usually very well informed concerning that niche. This means less time spent researching and verifying facts and information. So passion for your market is positive in that regard.
On the other hand, if you are passionate about the 15 to 20 hour a day sleeping patterns of the 2 toed sloth, you may find it very difficult to monetize the interest that you love so dearly. This is why some online blog and site owners would prefer to market to people that are passionate about a certain topic or problem, rather than trying to pursue their own hobbies or interests.
Being passionate and emotionally involved is not necessary if you want to make a very good living online. And it is not a hindrance either. Some very successful and wealthy blog and website owners really do love the niche they are involved in. And others do not, they look for trending niches and run with it. The choice is yours.
Whether passionate, mildly attached or totally uninterested in a particular niche or field, you still have to put in the required work and research that solves your customer’s problems before you can ever become a success.