Finding Your Niche As A Freelance Writer
Think outside the box
Niching down is one of the most common pieces of advice as a writer. A lot of people attribute your lack of a solid income to having no clear niche.
In a year, I went from B2B, B2C, SaaS, e-commerce, tech, and everything in between. From SEO blogs to articles for magazines, and now…copywriting.
With so industries out there, finding out what works for you isn’t all rainbows and unicorns, and that’s okay.
That’s why this guide will help you face the truth about niches, and how to find one that makes you spark.
But before you decide on what niche to delve into, there’s a myth we should bust…
Passion Isn’t Always Your Niche
I was an artist. I would make nice sketches of celebrities, cute puppies, and inanimate objects.
As an undergraduate, this often messed with my engineering studies by taking a chunk of my time. But I didn’t care much. It was my passion, the only thing I thought about after lectures. Every waking dawn, every night, art clouded my mind.
Eventually, I got noticed and got paid to draw my classmates and their friends. It was the first time I discovered how to make money by rendering a service or selling a product.
But that’s not all.
My IG feed became obsessively filled with expert drawings and paintings, and not engineering-related posts. It felt good to have a passion…or two for something, aside from studies.
Two because… I also loved programming a lot (thanks Tony Stark). More specifically, in the field of AI and Machine Learning.
At some point, I wondered why I studied production engineering even with so much diverse interest.
To change that narrative, I decided to focus on writing blogs specifically for tech publications.
Pithed a few, and even got hired for a ghostwriting gig.
But that didn’t sit well with me.
Each post felt off, and unnatural.
The flow, the rhythm…everything seemed off
I thought I was doing it all wrong because they said
Passion = niche
That didn’t seem like the case for me.
And I think I found out why.
Tech blogs are usually, well, technical. Most times, having a predefined structure that makes the readability less interesting. Most don’t portray an informal tone.
Instead, they get overly professional, use a lot of technical terms and get too formal.
In short, they weren’t Duolingo.
It wasn’t what I had hoped for, and definitely not what I wanted to continue, at least for now.
A Rule of Thumb
It was a fact for me. You don’t need to have passion for something in order to make it your niche.
Put better, your niche isn’t always something you have the most passion for.
A rule of thumb…
If writing about it feels stressful than actually doing it, it’s not for you.
I enjoyed tech, and still do.
Programming gives a subtle feeling and creating mini algorithms to solve a particular task is second to none.
It feels like playing CHESS.
Defeating the problem (King) through well-thought-out step-by-step strategies.
So if you’re unsure about how to niche down, don’t. At least not yet.
Explore your interests and settle (if you want to) for what excites you.
n’ What elevates you as you write.
n’ What feels like swimming in a sea of red roses when you type
n’ What feels like you’re solving problems for an audience without thinking too hard.
For me, it’s self-growth, copywriting, and marketing psychology.
Unlike before, it’s easier to write articles about art. But I still prefer more of coding and drawing to writing about it
How To Actually Find Your Niche.
This is simple.
Your niche is something you enjoy writing about, but it isn’t always your passion.
For starters, write down everything you’re passionate about (it’s usually at 5 maximum) and publish about them on Medium, or apply for jobs in any of those aspects.
See the one that resonates with you when you write, and that’s your niche.
I had no idea I was interested in self-growth and productivity at first. In fact, I hopped on it full-time when trying to build my copywriting business (I’m still building it) until I started doing and writing about it. That could be your case.
In reality, I’m not a big fan of niching down.
Sure, I can work with one type of brand more than others, but I love to spread my wings and take on projects that excite me, despite the industry.
But finding your niche is common advice among new writers (for good reason). So here it is.
You can’t find your niche by first exploring your interests and thinking outside the box.
Not all niches lie in your passion. Explore and see what works for you.
Your future self will thank you.
If this story helped you, then my mission is complete (sorry, Tom Cruise). If you want, you could discover my path to building a writing business on LinkedIn
PS: Want to share an opinion? I will read and respond to everything.
