How to pick a freelance writing niche
What freelance writing niche should I pick? This question has been running through my head for several weeks now. All the experts emphasize the importance of finding a writing niche, of specializing and becoming an expert in a certain niche. Making money with freelance writing and blogging is highly influenced by the niche you pick. A tough decision to make! To help you come up with lots of great niche ideas, I’ll share some handy tips from writing experts that helped me to pick a niche.
Tips for finding freelance writing niches
For choosing a writing niche, I had some helpful tips from a few successful freelance writers:
- Jorden from Writing Revolt explains that you need to choose something that you’re knowledgeable about or are willing to learn a lot about.
- Jorden and Carol Tice (from Make a Living Writing) both agree that it’s best to choose one niche to focus your marketing strategy on but as a safeguard, it is better to have some secondary niches as well.
- Carol advises to just start writing on different topics. You’ll notice soon enough which topics you like. For coming up with potential niches, think about:
- Your hobbies (past and present)
- Subjects of your interest
- Jobs you have had in the past
- Subjects you have studied beyond high school level
- Unique experiences
- You can also specialize in different types of writing, such as web content and blogs, sales copy for websites, product descriptions, ebooks, technical manuals, white papers, case studies, annual reports, speeches and more.
- When coming up with blog niche ideas, Carol advises you to think of meeting the primal needs of your readers. Ask yourself if you want to help them a) save or make more money, b) be healthier, and c) feel happier. A combination of these three is also possible, of course.
What is your writing niche?
I have found that I enjoy helping people. I know everyone says this, but it is true to my passion. I am the one standing in a group conversation and someone is pouring their heart out about their problems. I’m like super girl to the rescue, I’m the last one to leave because I need to help this person get to a better place with their problem. And I don’t feel we need an audience to do this, just me and my person that is hurting. I can get so wrapped up in the solution to the persons problems, that it is of an importance to help them find the solution. Ok thats a bit wordy…..but that’s how passionate I am about helping others solve their problems. So finally…….the question ; how do I put this into a niche. I wouldn’t say I want to be a therapist, because when I’m in this bag, money has no value, I get my value from listening to the person and us together figuring out what can be done to make the situation better for them. Please if you could make a suggestion about a niche in this area it would be wonderful. Thank you, and most of the writers you named, including yourself, are great. I have been following you ladies since I have been trying to get into freelancing, and the information you provide is awesome.
Hi Rhonda,
Thank you for your response! You seem like a very noble person! When reading your comment, I immediately thought about a friend of mine who has a website about becoming confident. He had some bad experiences in the past and he attributed his problems to his lack of confidence. He started writing online about this and he now gives coaching sessions to help people become more confident.
Maybe you can draw upon your past experiences too? What life changing event had you on your knees for awhile? How did you cope? Has there been a life lesson you learned in the past that is so valuable and you therefore still use every day?
I’m sorry I cannot be more precise; in the end, you have to come up with a specific topic yourself. But hopefully, I gave you some direction with these questions.
Good luck! And if you’ve chosen a niche, please let me know how it turned out!