This question came from Rachael, who is one of the beta testers for my DIY Web Design Course, and is all about picking website topics for your new online brand.

Question: “When making a choice [about your topics and site name] and you have narrowed them down to your top 5…then how can you make the best educated choice? What are several questions that I can ask myself, when eliminating 4 of my 5 main topics before I begin building my site. What categories fair better than others and how to make them translate so that others will be drawn in?”

Answer: This is a complicated question, and unfortunately there isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer. I can’t give you a mathematical formula.

What will make your topic translate so people are drawn in is by using the language they use and by solving a problem for them. This is why it’s very important to get clear on who your ideal reader is. What works for one audience won’t work for another, even if you’re in the same industry or are focused on the same general topic. It’s not the industry that governs the success of your site as much as the audience you’re attracting.

Sites that are successful — sites that get legitimate traction — are those that talk to their ideal reader and solve a problem for them.

Pick an ideal reader, decide what problem you want to solve, and pick your topics around that. And this works whether you’re developing a blog or a personal brand with yourself as the expert.

The problem you want to solve for your reader should be at the intersection of what your reader struggles with, what you are an expert in, and what you can talk about for weeks on end.

Let’s say you want to help busy moms. You know they struggle with keeping a tidy house, and you happen to be a kickass clutter conquerer. In this case, the problem you would be solving is the overwhelming clutter that seems to manifest and grow as their family grows.

Now within conquering clutter there are a lot of things you can talk about to make up additional website topics.

You can talk about how to keep the kitchen tidy, how to stay on top of laundry, how to get kids and husbands engaged in keeping the house tidy, what to do with the piles of paper that just appear out of nowhere. These are all subtopics of the main topic of handling clutter.

So what do you name that site? What do you name that site that is flexible enough to work as a blog or grow with your business if you decide to go into ecommerce?

You could be TheClutterlessMom.com

This name would be easy to remember how to spell, fairly easy to type. Your topic keyword is in the name (clutterless), as is your target audience, which is not a requirement but can be useful if you can pull it off.

If you think you may not want to work with only Mom’s long term but evolve into other demographics, you could CleanAndClutterless.com

(By the way, both of these sites I just made up off the top of my head. If you are actually a kickass clutter conquerer, go register these and start a site!)

Looking at other sites in your niche can be good inspiration, but what works for their audience may not work for your audience, and in fact, probably won’t work for our audience.

The problem 42Yogis solves is making yoga accessible to people who can’t afford to go to a studio, or may be embarrassed to do yoga in front of other people. This problem is addressed through our written content, but also through our curated video library. We make it possible for people who don’t want to go to a studio, or are in countries where yoga isn’t very accessible, to take advantage of the health benefits a yoga practice offers.

42Yogis and DoYouYoga are in the same industry, but we have very different audiences. What works for them does not work for my audience. Their audience tends to be younger people who really love yoga already, so they get to feed on that obsession and tailor their content accordingly.

My audience tends to be people with mobility issues or who are just getting started with yoga. My audience tends to be middle-aged professionals who are struggling with their health. I have readers who are struggling with injuries, chronic illness, and weight issues.

If I started churning out content like DoYouYoga’s posts, I would alienate part of my audience, just as DoYouYoga would alienate part of theirs if they had content like mine.

When you’re just starting out, your best option is to start observing people who are showing interest in your topic(s) already. What words are they using? What are they struggling with? Where are they hanging out?

Start taking note of these things, literally. Not in some abstract, “I’ll make a mental note” way, but actually write them down. Copy and paste them into a Google document.

Good places to look are Quora, Reddit, and Facebook groups.

When it comes to Facebook groups (so long as you’re keeping with group policies) throw up a post. “Hey, I’m curious to hear what are your struggles with _____.”

And then save all the answers. See if you can follow up with people for more information. You can never have too much data about an audience.

Something a lot of digital strategists don’t mention is ongoing maintenance of a website is equal measure content for the people you want to attract and content for the people you’ve already attracted.

What works for you in the first 90 days of a new site will not be what works for you 2 years later, and that’s good!

That means your business is growing and evolving. Things like your topics are easy to change; it’s your site name and domain that are harder to change (although not impossible).

There are just two questions you can ask yourself when picking your website topics (the rest of the research needs to come from people who are already showing interest in those topics).

1. Am I an expert in this topic? (If not, can I find people to write for me who are?)
2. Am I passionate enough I can write about this topic every single week?

So with all of this in mind, I would suggest starting with one main topic (you can always branch out later) that you won’t mind writing about every single week. And try to go with a broad topic so you have the ability to do subtopics.

To get traction you’ll have to have fresh content on a regular basis. If you get bored 3 weeks in, switching to another topic will confuse the readers you’ve just started to get.

But, do remember: you can always change your mind later! You can always decide you want to pivot your brand. You can axe topics, add topics. You could even rebrand your whole site if you wanted to. It’s not impossible.

That’s the beauty of this online business thing: if it isn’t working for you, you don’t have to pack up a brick and mortar store and move it to a different town to find a new audience. With a few clicks and a lot of typing, you can rebrand your entire business.