Seven Ways to Find Your Writing Niche
Posted April 28, 2010 in Marketing, Writing
Having a well-defined niche is one of the best ways to become a profitable freelance writer. Instead of trying to cater to every possible client, you’ll have a laser-focused package of services for an equally specific target market. As a result, you can command higher fees than the writer who writes anything for everyone.
Need convincing that niching is best for you? Consider the medical field. Generalist doctors don’t command as high a fee as specialists, even though the specialists may have fewer patients.
We accept this discrepancy because, after all, the specialist has more training and experience in a particular field. As a result, the specialist can help particular types of patients whom the generalist cannot.
It works similarly in writing and other services. The particular type and style of writing you provide won’t be the best fit for every client who needs writing–and that’s a good thing. You want to find the perfect fit so you and your client can have a win-win relationship.
What Is a “Niche”?
Dictionary.com defines a niche as “a distinct segment of a market.”
Therefore, defining your writing niche means choosing which corner of the writing sky you would like to occupy. Moreover, your niche should be distinct and suitable to you.
How can you find your writing niche? Here are just a few areas you can look at and consider.
Seven Areas to Help You Find Your Writing Niche
Here are seven areas to consider when you are looking for your writing niche:
- Type of Writing. The most obvious starting point, of course, is to choose the type of writing you want to do. For example, some writers specialize in writing for the web. Others specialize in writing eBooks, articles, white papers or case studies. And yet that can still be broken down further. If you’re a web writer, you have the choice of writing sales web pages, ecommerce sites, search engine writing, online video, and autoresponders.
- Combination of Services. Your niche can also be defined by a unique combination of services you provide. Perhaps you offer all the copywriting a client needs to launch a product, from affiliate emails to promotional autoresponders, sales pages, thank-you pages, and follow-up autoresponders. Or, you could be the writer who does both SEO article writing and creating backlinks for your clients’ pages. Another good combination is a web copywriter who also provides graphic design–web headers, eCovers, logos, buttons and social media profiles. Look at the skills you have and see if you can combine other services with your writing to carve your special niche.
- Writing Style. Your writing style also defines your niche, whether you like it or not. Are you better at writing in a conversational tone or a more academic style of writing? Or, maybe you’re good at putting technical language into layman’s terms. High-energy, cutting-edge, warm and friendly, authoritative, feminine… find the best way to describe your writing style–and own it.
- How You Work. The way you work can help define your niche. For example, do you have a money-back guarantee? Are you super fast and reliable? You’ll be surprised how many other freelancers flake out on their clients, so being able to deliver on or ahead of schedule and to your clients’ satisfaction is an important way of differentiating yourself. You can find your niche using this angle by asking, “What do my clients hate about the other freelance writer?” Then offer the opposite. Now it’s time to define your niche by looking at your clients.
- Business-to-Business vs Business-to-Customers. Will you work with businesses that target other businesses (B2B) or those who market to consumers (B2C)? Your answer to this one question makes a significant impact on your niche. However, even within either the B2B or B2C space, you still have plenty of room to further specialize, such as…
- Industry. You can define your niche by choosing a specific industry. For example, some B2B writers specialize in either finance or health. Other web copywriters only work with B2C clients in personal development, Internet marketing or weight loss. You could choose a group of related industries to specialize in.
- Demographics. Another way you can further niche down your target clients is through demographics, such as their income level, company size, geographical location, expertise (coaches vs authors vs speakers, for example), and even gender.
Define Your Niche
These seven factors will help you define a very specific niche for your freelance writing business. Of course, it’s possible to over-niche yourself, by choosing a segment of the market where there are very few prospects, or where the prospects can’t afford your services, or don’t want them. Consider these as well when formulating your niche.
Anything Else?
Are there other areas you can think of to help writers define a niche? What have I missed? Which area did you focus on to find your niche? Do share by posting a comment below.
Image by Richard0
Related posts:
- 67 Freelance Niche Writing Markets You May Have Never Considered
- 7 Can’t-Miss Ways To Kick-Start The Writing Habit
- Five Ways To Find Revenue Sharing Opportunities
- No Tech Skills? Give Freelance Writing A Try
- 7 Unmissable Tips For Writing Great Content For The Web
About the author: Lexi Rodrigo is the creator of The Savvy Freelancer, a blog that's all about achieving creative and financial freedom through freelancing. Check out Lexi's free guide, 31 Days to Start Your Freelancing Business (or Make Yours A Better One).
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32 Comments
Jordan Walker
April 28th, 2010 at 8:44 amI am not really a freelance writer, but can vouch for finding a niche and the importance it has on your career.
Also, Lexi the Pomodoro Technique was not a huge success over the weekend. Too many distractions. It is some thing to work on however.
Lexi Rodrigo
April 28th, 2010 at 9:44 am@Jordan – You’re right, having a niche is a must for any business, not just freelance writing. Oh and sorry to hear about your experience with the Pomodoro Technique. I hope you’ll be able to try it “for real” soon. :-)
Chris Mower
April 28th, 2010 at 10:26 amI agree that having a niche is important, especially because it helps you focus and increase your skills in a particular area. If you’re a freelancer, you have the benefit of changing your niche if you decide you don’t like it, which is nice (though I wouldn’t recommend doing it if you can help it).
Lexi Rodrigo
April 28th, 2010 at 10:36 am@Chris – Good point! It is possible to change your niche, of course. It’s not set in stone. In fact, I heard a business expert say you should review your niche every six months. It’s a good exercise to review whether that niche is as profitable as you thought it would be, and if you’re still happy serving that niche.
Thanks for the comment!
Cook
April 28th, 2010 at 12:34 pmlovely post….well written
Houston ER
April 28th, 2010 at 2:23 pmYou’ve given more criteria than I originally could have thought of to define one’s “writing niche”. Writing voice seems like it could be an important thing to think about to.
LaTara Ham-Ying
April 28th, 2010 at 4:12 pmGood stuff Lexi! When I first started out as a freelance writer I found that I really was all over the place with writing on so many topics. I did not know how to focus on one niche and say “no” too the rest. I ended up feeling burdened and overwhelmed. I was that writer who would flake out and I did it mostly out of being just plain tired! So I scaled back and then stopped for about a two year period!
I started taking new clients but I have a specific niche and even client that I will do work for. My life is so much easier.
Matt Pritchett
April 28th, 2010 at 10:12 pmGreat post Lexi!
As a designer/developer who is wanting to break into writing more, this article could not have come at a better time! Very informative and to the point!
Stephanie
April 29th, 2010 at 4:50 amThis is a really great post Lexi! I tried thinking of a niche to specialize in but couldn’t come up with anything yet. Maybe it’s because I’m still starting out as a freelance writer… well, hopefully with experience I’ll be able to finally specialize and enjoy the work even more.
Lou Storiale
April 29th, 2010 at 8:23 pmLaTara Ham-Ying, apparently that is a niche that has worse English skills than you do.
LaTara Ham-Ying
April 29th, 2010 at 8:44 pmWOW Lou was that called for! I made an error. Goodness man! That was not a cool comment.
Angelee
May 1st, 2010 at 5:05 amIt is rather easy when you specialise on something than generalising. One has to think better before starting a business whether traditional or online. A lot more factors should be considered like ‘Would it work or not? For how long should you wait until the full blast?’ and yada yada yada…
I’ve been following articles here and they’re so worth it. Aside from it is work-related, hmmmm its encouraging me to do more things (knowledgable!)…
Great work again, Lexi!
Mike
May 6th, 2010 at 10:33 amI have seen freelance writer which can write on any subject but sometimes like SEO subjects etc, you need to have expert writers…..Being a niche writer can give you good work chances
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Phil
July 31st, 2010 at 6:55 amNice post. I really was all over the place with writing on so many topics. you need to have expert writers….. I did not know how to focus on one niche and say “no” too the rest.
This is a really great post .
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