Should Writers Establish a Niche?
Hung up on finding the perfect niche? Don’t let it prevent you from getting work now.
From business coaches to prominent writing organizations, you’ve probably been told to establish your niche as a writer.
They said niche writing is important. They said to focus solely on 1-3 industries and to get really good at it. The best writing niches are profitable, and you sure as hell should enjoy writing about it... If this paragraph makes your stomach sink, this blog is for you!
In this post, we’ll take a closer look at establishing a niche as a writer to see if it’s the right answer for you.
Why Niche Writing Doesn’t Work for Everyone
If you get into some of the more profitable writing niches, and you love it, good for you. If it’s low competition because is super-niched, that’s great. If you find clients who are willing to pay you big bucks, score!
But when you’re just starting out as a writer or looking to pivot, the niche thing is a huge hurdle. So many writers stress about what writing niche to get into, that they waste time harping and researching (and freaking out).
If establishing a niche is delaying your start as a writer, forget the damn niche.
Read this: Major Drawbacks of Establishing a Writing Niche
Think Tailoring, Not Niching
Say you want to be a copywriter. You want to write website copy for clients. If you think you need to establish a niche, you look specifically into copywriting for tech companies, copywriting for health brands, copywriting for makeup brands, etc.
You can do that, but you’re limiting yourself.
You’re only offering copywriting services to a small sect of all the businesses out there. And even if there are 1000 makeup brands to work with, it doesn’t mean that you will work with all of them.
Instead, I’m all about tailoring your services. As a copywriter, you’re a marketing and messaging expert. Those skills are transferable to any business.
You can use the same toolbox of copywriting tactics for a SaaS company as you can for a sock company. For both brands, you’d want to resonate with the audience, be concise and lead them to the proper CTA.
When you’re able to tailor your writing to the client’s needs, you can work with nearly any client out there. As opposed to niching, which is you focusing solely on one type of client.
Okay, but Should You Establish a Writing Niche?
It’s a hard belief to break. Everyone says that the first thing to do to start any business is to niche, so no wonder you may be hesitant. Here is a bit more information about who should establish a writing niche and who doesn’t need to.
When Niche Writing Is Good
Like I mentioned before, if you love writing for a certain niche and it pays well, niche to your heart’s desire. If you are an expert or authority figure in a certain industry, niching may be a wise choice for you.
For example: A Registered Nurse is both a trusted authority and expert in the field of health, illness and wellness. Their license and expertise may be preferred by certain clients. Plus, if they are well versed in the topics, writing blog posts will be insanely easy for them.
Not to mention, an authority writer can demand much higher rates than a blogger with no education or experience in the field. So yeah, niching is not bad for the very focused writer.
Read this: Lucrative Benefits of Niche Writing
When Niche Writing Is Bad
What if you don’t really have an expert background in… anything? What if you just like to write but never went to college or never had a career in one field?
If you’ve been researching what writing niche to get into, and you’re lost, then niching is probably bad for you.
And if you’re a totally new writer, how do you know what type of writing niche you’d enjoy? That’s why pressuring new writers to establish a niche before they have a chance to work in the real world is BS.
Establishing your writing niche should not be the thing that holds you back from writing.
Read this: How to Find Work as a Nicheless Writer
What if You Hate Your Niche?
Another destructive component of establishing a niche as a writer is being stuck. What if you start working in a certain field and hate the work or the topics?
Maybe you networked for months as an “SEO writer for pet brands” and your portfolio messaging is all about one specific industry. Not to mention, all of your samples are pet brand-related.
Luckily, you can always pivot, but all your initial niching work may need to be modified.
That means you’ll have to rewrite your website and reconnect with contacts to let them know that you write for more than just pet brands. If you’re used to getting paid work, you may need to do some unpaid spec work to diversify your portfolio.
Even though pivoting is possible, it can be a lot of work.
To Niche or Not to Niche?
This remains the big question, but I hope I gave you a little more perspective, especially for the no-niching side.
In my case, I started out as a niched authority writer in the nutrition field. It was cool, but I soon found myself getting bored and feeling limited by what I could do.
I then pivoted into copywriting, and I was adamant on not establishing a niche. I’ve written copy for all sorts of brands including SaaS, real estate, law, coaching, B2B, B2C, marketing, beauty and more.
Compared to my previous “health article” portfolio, my no-niche copywriting portfolio is pretty impressive!
