To start off, I will talk about the single biggest mistake bloggers make. It’s a mistake that all (existing and new) bloggers must avoid if they want to become successful.

It’s also probably the hardest part to building a successful blog. What I am talking about is choosing the right blog topic.

The thing is, if you choose the wrong topic then you begin walking down the wrong path and it might be weeks or even months before your realize your mistake and change direction.

Here are the most common mistakes people make when choosing a topic to write a blog about:

- They choose a subject just because they see other people make money writing about it

- They choose a topic that they are very passionate about, only to realize that few people are actually passionate about it

- They choose a topic they know little about or have minimal experience in

- They write about a wide range of topics in one blogs instead of keeping a focus on one topic

So the question remains, how should I choose a topic to write about? Simple answer: see what the market wants.

Remember, it’s not what you want. It’s what the market wants that counts. And it’s what the market wants that will get you traffic and $$$$.

So how do I find out what the market wants? One word: research.

There are many tools out there to help you do research nowadays.

- WordTracker (wordtracker.com) - great keyword search tool, it basically tells you how many times a certain keyword has been in the last month. There is both a paid and free version available.

- Keyword Elite (keywordelite.com) - popular keyword research software. It does pretty much the same thing as WordTracker, however it has more options and can give you more data.

My personal favourite and the one I regularly use to find my target keywords for my blogs is Micro Niche Finder. The reason why it’s my favourite is because it has a user-friendly layout which means anyone can master the program in no time. And its features are not too bad either.

After typing a search term at the top of the screen, the search results are divided into 6 very useful columns. Here’s a quick rundown:

- Phrase - these are basically terms that are closely associated with the term searched. For example, if you search the word “sports”, then you will get terms such as “athletics”, “fitness” and “espn” come up.

- Search Count - this is the number of estimated searches performed for each given phrase per month.

- Broad Match Count - this is the number of web pages indexed in Google for the given broad match phrase. This is directly sourced from Google and is the count returned when searching the phrase without quotes.

- Exact Phrase Count - this is the number of web pages indexed in Google for the given exact phrase. This is directly sourced from Google and is the count returned when searching the phrase with quotes. This is a powerful tool to test the viability of a niche market.

- Ad Cost - this basically shows the approximate cost for the top ad position in Google Adwords for a given keyword phrase.

- SOC - is an estimate of how strong the existing competition is for an existing keyword phrase. A red coloured indicator means that competition is fierce and it will hard to rank on Google, a yellow coloured indicator means that competition is moderate with some work needed to rank on Google, while a green coloured indicator means that it should be relatively easy on Google with this search term.

Please note that SOC, Exact Phrase Count and Search Count should be used together in order to precisely determine the viability of a niche market.

Pretty handy, huh? Check it out for yourself at MicroNicheFinder.

You may now be thinking, why am I saying “good competition.” Of course, in an ideal world, you would prefer to have no competition in your category as this would ensure that you become the dominant leader.

However, on the Internet, having no competition may be a serious disadvantage. Why?

Firstly, it probably means that either there’s no market or there’s no money to be made in such a category. Whenever you find no or very little competition in a certain category, you should not get over excited. Instead, you should be suspicious about such a situation.

This, however, is not the main disadvantage of having no competition. The main disadvantage is that without a bit of competition, the “new” category you’re trying to dominate online will not be creating enough “noise” in cyberspace and hence very little traffic and interest will be generated.

A prime example is the arrival of MySpace and Facebook in cyberspace in the last couple of years. The noise created by these websites, not to mention other similar sites, such as Bebo, was so much that a lot of interest was generated from the general populace, both offline and online. For this reason, social networking took off and a day hardly goes by without hearing or reading the words MySpace and Facebook.

It was good competition that led to the rise of social networking as well as the success of its leaders. What should we learn from this?

Basically, it is much easier to achieve success in a “new” category where there are other competitors which can assist in creating “noise”, traffic and ultimately interest in what your online business offers.

Moving onto some of the visual aspects of building a killer online brand. It is important that your online brand is both visible as well as memorable as possible in order to leverage the power of your brand.

The main focus for all things visual for your online brand is the logotype. What is a logotype?

A logotype of a combination of a trademark, which is a visual symbol of the brand, and the name of the brand set in distinctive type. Logotypes come in many shapes and it is this shape which has the greatest impact on the consumer. Much like in the offline world, it is important to create a distinct, unique and memorable logotype in order to firstly get well-known and then, use the brand name to denote quality and reliability.

Research shows the most effective logotypes are ones that measure 1 unit high by 2 and 1/4 units wide. Hence, the ideal shape for a logotype is horizontal. The more vertical you go, the less chance that brand will be remembered.

Sometimes you will get tempted to create a logotype that is “extreme” in order to generate attention and curiosity from potential clients. However, this may not payoff especially if this leads to your logotype becoming less eligible.

It is no coincidence that the most recognised brands, both in the online and offline world are also the most simplest. Take for example, Google. Its logotype is probably one of the simplest ever created, making it easier to remember, and easier to leverage it.

Another example, albeit less well-known is Armand Morin’s online products. Armand Morin is one of the world’s leading internet marketers and is famous for his Generator Software range of products. All of his products incorporate the word “Generator” and this way he has been able to build a well-known online brand and been able to leverage on whatever products he creates.

This is something that all online brands should strive for.

You’d be hard pressed to meet someone who hasn’t heard about Paypal today. It plays such an intrinsic and important role in our daily lives that we don’t know how we could do without it.

But guess what?

Paypal cheated. What I mean is that they were never meant to become the powerhouse online brand they are today.

Now maybe I’m being a bit unfair but the truth is that Paypal used an online branding strategy like no other. And they pretty much killed off the competition.

How did they do this?

One word: contraction. Yes, Paypal’s hugely successful brand strategy can be summarized with this one word.

So what is contraction?

It’s basically narrowing the focus of your online business to just 1 service or 1 product. The golden rule is that the narrower the focus, the stronger the brand.

Just as the saying goes, you can’t be everything to everyone. However, you can be something to everyone.

And this is exactly what Paypal did by focusing its resources to offer a high quality and highly secured payment service to everyone. That’s all it still offers. And boy, has it become something to everyone.

Now, who’s to say that your online business cannot become the next colossus online brand?

By just looking at the most well-known sites on the Internet, it can be seen that all of them successfully used contraction to become the powerhouse they are today. Facebook, MySpace, Google, eBay, Amazon, you name it, all used contraction.

Coincidence?

No, absolutely not. And the best news is that there are many niche categories out there yet to be exploited and it all starts with using the right online branding strategy.

The worst decision you could make is to pick a category where there are already well-known and established online brands such as Paypal.

It would be a waste of money, a waste of resources, and ultimately, a big waste of time.

And time is money, right?

The days when Paypal was established, the Internet was a very different world. People were crying out for an easy-to-use, highly secured and reliable online payment system.

And Paypal responded in emphatic fashion. They saw the gap and filled it like no other had done before.

The best decision you could make is to pick a niche category, or a category within a category.

This way, you will also be filling gaps whilst setting your online business on the road to becoming a colossus online brand.