Starting a wellness blog can be a great way to share your passion for health and wellness with the world. However, creating a successful blog requires a lot of work and dedication.
In this article, we'll provide you with detailed instructions on how to start a wellness blog that focuses on a specific niche, establish topical authority and to profit.
How to pick a specific niche (Not the main category)
The first step in starting a wellness blog is to pick a specific niche that acts as an small entry ways into the bigger wellness niche. This goes around the big competition!
You want to focus on a specific topic instead of going after the entire wellness industry. Your job is to be the expert in that "one thing", and that one thing only. For this, we need to make a business decision based on data. Do not pick a niche without assessing the data first.
You can get these data from Ahrefs, Google Keyword Planner, SemRUSH, Google Trend. What we are looking at is keyword difficulty and volume. A niche that has indication of revenue generally shows high cost per click data, ads showing on search engine, existing forums, blogs, youtube content and products.
Inside the wellness industries, profitable niches are not very difficult to find.
Use ChatGPT To Brainstorm
The key is to go a step further and be super specific. This is where we highly recommend using ChatGPT to generate specific ideas in your niche into actionable things you can work on.
Use this prompt to extract specific ideas from the main "wellness" niche:
what are specific keywords people in the wellness niches search?
Here are some ideas to go with:
- Mindfulness and meditation: mindfulness techniques, guided meditation, stress relief, relaxation exercises, breathing exercises, meditation apps, mindfulness for beginners
- Yoga and flexibility training: yoga poses, yoga for flexibility, yoga for beginners, yoga classes, online yoga, yoga gear, yoga for stress relief
- Natural and holistic remedies: natural remedies, herbal medicine, essential oils, alternative medicine, homeopathy, holistic health, natural supplements
- Nutrition and healthy eating: healthy recipes, clean eating, plant-based diet, meal prep, weight loss, superfoods, nutrition tips
- Mental health and self-care: self-care ideas, mental health resources, anxiety relief, depression support, therapy options, mindfulness for mental health, self-help books
- Fitness and strength training: workout routines, at-home workouts, gym equipment, strength training for women, bodyweight exercises, cardio workouts, personal training
- Sleep and relaxation techniques: sleep aids, sleep tips, sleep hygiene, relaxation techniques, sleep disorders, sleep gadgets, meditation for sleep
- Women's health and wellness: women's health issues, reproductive health, menopause relief, breast cancer prevention, self-defense for women, prenatal care, postpartum wellness
- Alternative medicine and therapies: acupuncture, chiropractic care, massage therapy, reflexology, energy healing, aromatherapy, Reiki
- Environmental wellness and sustainability: sustainable living, zero waste lifestyle, eco-friendly products, green living, reducing carbon footprint, environmental activism, ethical fashion
- The plan here is to pick one thing very specific and be the expert in that one thing. For example, be the best expert blogger on aromatherpy, and zone in on every possible keywords related to aromatherpy. Instead of targeting "wellness", which is super competitive, people who are interested in aromatherpy is literally in the same market as "wellness"
Let that sink in!
How to pick a domain name for the blog
Once you've chosen your niche, the next step is to pick a domain name for your blog. Your domain name should be memorable, easy to spell, and relevant to your niche. Try to choose a name that is catchy and easy to remember.
Average cost for a new domain : $12/ year
Picking a branded domain is great to expand the niche in either direction when opportunities. However, to be specific, we recommend exact keyword domain.
For example, bestaromatherpy.com
Exact domain tells the visitor exactly what to expect and the search engine sees it too, to rank relevant content.
Domain Short Cut
Another way is to buy an expired domain with relevant keywords already ranking for the stuff you want to rank for. The advantage of buying an expired domain is that the website has already proven what works so the business owner doesn't have to invest into something that's a maybe.
The only requirement is that it may cost you capital investment. Some domains with existing traffic and authority can cost up to $30,000 and some cost as low as $600. You can go on Flippa.com, GoDaddy Auction or Odsy for deals like this.
How to get the hosting for the blog
There are many different hosting providers to choose from, such as Bluehost, WPX, SiteGround, and HostGator.
Average cost for annual hosting: $150/ year
We highly recommend WPX for its insanely fast speed, but for starters, we recommend Bluehost and it's a bit cheaper to lower your investment capital into your new blog website.
Some offer free domain when you sign up for hosting, please click here to check.
How to setup the website using WordPress
Once you've chosen your domain name and hosting provider, the next step is to set up your website using WordPress. WordPress is a popular platform for building websites and blogs because it's user-friendly and customizable.
To set up your website using WordPress, follow these steps:
- Install WordPress on your hosting provider.
- Choose a simple theme in the beginning for your website. There are many free and paid themes available that can be customized to fit your niche.
- Install plugins to add functionality to your website. For example, you might want to install a plugin to improve your website's SEO or to add social sharing buttons.
- Create pages and posts on your website to share your content.
Establish Topical Authority First
To establish topical authority in your niche, you need to conduct keyword research and gather all the keywords to make content with.
Keyword research involves identifying the words and phrases that people are searching for related to your niche.
To streamline this process, we highly recommend using Ahrefs and ChatGPT to get all the keywords relevant to aromatherpy. Also semantically related keywords.
The easiest way is to use this prompt inside ChatGPT:
give me # article titles, with informational search intent, that are highly relevant to "aromatherpy"
Provide # semantically related keywords to "aromatherpy" that address different search intent
Use these two prompts to dig out all the keywords relevant to your niche keywords, and this will generate a ton of ideas to get started, and you no longer have to procrastinate.
In this case we get these title ideas:
- "A Beginner's Guide to Aromatherapy: Everything You Need to Know"
- "The Health Benefits of Aromatherapy: An Evidence-Based Approach"
- "The Top 10 Essential Oils for Aromatherapy and Their Uses"
- "How to Incorporate Aromatherapy into Your Daily Routine"
- "Aromatherapy for Stress Relief: Which Scents Work Best?"
- "The History and Origins of Aromatherapy: An Overview"
- "The Science Behind Aromatherapy: How Essential Oils Affect the Brain"
- "Aromatherapy Massage: Techniques and Benefits"
- "DIY Aromatherapy: How to Make Your Own Essential Oil Blends"
- "Aromatherapy Safety: Precautions and Tips for Using Essential Oils"
Finding Keywords To Target
Find the the right keywords to target is the most important step when building a wellness blog. In this example, we will use the aromatherpy niche as an example to enter the wellness market.
The first thing to do is find all relevant keywords for aromatherpy such as:
- To reduce stress, anxiety, and depression
- To alleviate pain and discomfort
- To improve sleep
- To enhance mood
- To boost energy
- To alleviate symptoms of various medical conditions
- To promote overall well-being.
These are keywords involving why people use aromatherpy, and these will be the keywords you should target for content.
The biggest mistake a wellness blogger can make is to target the big keywords like "aromatherpy", which is super competitive and it's not very targeted.
By going after keywords related to armoatherpy, the site has a better chance to rank and also lead the visitor with the content to armoatherpy. Many people who are searching for armoatherpy may not know it exist, but they do know to search for something like: "improve sleep, alleviate symptoms, enhance mood"
Monetization
There are several monetization methods for a wellness niche blog, including:
- Affiliate marketing: promoting products or services from other companies and earning a commission on any resulting sales.
- Displayed Advertising: Earn ad money based on pageviews. Advertisers pay to show ads on your relevant content, and you get a cut
- Advertising: selling ad space on your blog to companies in your niche or using a service like Google AdSense to display ads on your site.
- Sponsored content: working with brands to create sponsored posts or reviews in exchange for payment.
- Online courses: creating and selling online courses related to your niche, such as a fitness program or a nutrition course.
- E-books: writing and selling e-books related to your niche, such as a healthy recipe book or a mindfulness guide.
- Membership site: creating a membership site that offers exclusive content, such as personalized coaching or access to a private community.
- Coaching or consulting: offering one-on-one coaching or consulting services related to your niche, this is very popular in the wellness niche.
- Product sales: creating and selling your own products related to your niche, such as natural skincare products or fitness equipment.
- Donations: allowing readers to make donations to support your blog through platforms like PayPal or Patreon.
- Events and workshops: hosting in-person or virtual events or workshops related to your niche, such as a yoga retreat or a wellness conference.
Practical steps to grow a blog the real world way
You are not going to target the entire wellness market, only a small part of it.
- Building a wellness blog is about building a content business that uses information as a bridge that lead to revenue.
- Publishing regular content one by one is the name of the game, and it takes discipline and a system. You can write them all by yourself, or outsource them and publish them consistently.
- Focus on providing valuable content to your audience means your content must meet the expectation of the visitor on the search engine.
- As more wellness related content are added to the website, whether be about yoga, anxiety relief, alternative medicine...etc The key is to lead with your content from different perspective to a solution for the visitor.
A visitor who searches for "aomatherpy" isn't there on your blog just to read. They are there to seek for a solution to a problem. If your content does the job targeting the right keywords, then lead your visitor to the solution and you get paid.
This process repeats itself to grow a wellness blog.
Here are expectations when building a wellness niche blog:
Massive Content Creation
A wellness niche blog involves written content and video content. This will take up most of your time when building up the blog within the first 6 - 12 months. SEO takes a long time unless you build the blog on a expired domain with existing rankings.
As more content gets published, the more relevance the blog shows to the search engine, the more traffic the blog will get. We highly recommend using ChatGPT to help assist you writing when you experience writer's block.
Constant Keyword Research
Keyword research will be an non stop effort to find new opportunities to target on your wellness blog. As the blog grows bigger and bigger, the keyword research strategies will evolve overtime to target higher competition keywords.
Relationship Building
A blog doesn't just become successful without relationship building. A wellness niche is in the business of helping people, and that involves much more interactions with people than just a blog.