The Art of Finding Your Niche as a Professional Writer
As someone who’s new in the world of writing for a living, I’ve found out how important it is to find your niche. Let’s talk about that.
Hi, I’m Rasmus. Found of Clickidy working as a freelance designer and content writer. I’ve been writing for years on my personal blog about pretty much anything. But now it’s time to focus on writing “grown-up” content for people to read and that’s why I’m here — so thanks for being here.
Jack of all trades, master of none
When I tell people that I’m a writer they look at me with crazy eyes. Then they ask me what I write about. At first, I’d reply; “Anything that pays the rent”.
One of the biggest mistakes I’ve ever made was to think that I could write about anything. I mean, it worked out for a while but I quickly found out that I needed a niche to specialize in and write about.
Not having a full understanding of one subject means you have to do even more research when writing about subjects you don’t know much about.
That’s why it’s important to find one or two niches to focus on. Doing so it’ll allow you to really stand out in your field and write quality content for your current and future clients.
How to pick your niche
It’s not easy to pick your niche. I’ve just been through the process of doing so and I don’t think I’ll ever settle. Sounds a bit contradicting but as much as you want to pick your niche, you need to be able to adapt and position yourself on the market.
But how do you find your niche? There are a couple of ways of doing so.
- You can write about your interests
- You can specialize in fields that require specialist knowledge
- You can try to read the market and write about what’s “new”
Surely, there are a lot of ways of doing it but these are some of the most common ones that I’ve heard of.
Writing about your interests
Writing about your interests is a way for you to instantly be a ‘master’ of that niche. If you write about something you’re truly interested in it makes it so much easier. The fact that you don’t have to research everything is a big reason to write about your interests and hobbies.
There might be a lot of people writing about the same stuff, so this is where you need to really stand out.
Become a specialist
Specializing in fields that require specialist knowledge, e.g. banking, investing, high-tech, and AI is another way of finding your niche. It might not be something you’re passionate about but it can make a big difference in pay.
Imagine if you’re able to write about things the average joe can’t write about?
Read the market and find what’s new
It’s hard to point out something that’s new because the world is changing at a rapid speed. Looking back this could be subjects like NFT’s or cryptocurrency.
You can make a great career by being able to quickly adapt and be the front-runner for new markets.
Markets you can specialize in and write about
There are some overall markets you can write about. If you decide to pick one of them you can research sub-specialties to broaden your skillset.
Here’s the list:
- Marketing and Business
- Finance and Money
- Health and Wellness
- Travel
- Technology
- Education
- Books
- Sports
- Lifestyle
I’ve probably forgotten some but this is a good start.
Content types you can focus on
Once you’ve found your market, you can find the overall content type you want to focus on.
Here’s the list:
- Video Scripts
- White Papers
- Press Releases
- Speech Writing
- Email Marketing
- Case Studies
- Landing Pages
- News Articles
- Interviews
- Blog Posts
And so much more. You’re only limited by your imagination.
Wrapping up this first post
It’s so important to find your niche and remember you can always change it along the way. If you get comfortable writing about one or more subjects, you can always expand your market or content type.
Just remember to never take on more than you can actually take. You want to be able to stay up-to-date on the market and what’s going on ‘out there’.
Personally, I write blog posts and case studies. And I love to write about travels, lifestyle, and tech. I’ve picked three markets because they’re all markets I’m super interested in.
I’ve lived in four countries, I’ve worked for the biggest tech companies in the world such as Google and Microsoft, so it feels natural when I’m writing about these things.
Thanks for reading.
