Choosing Your Freelance Writing Niche: The Ultimate Guide You’re ready to become a freelance writer, but what should you write about? Choosing your freelance writing niche isn’t easy when you’re first starting out. Some new writers get far too stuck on choosing a freelance writing niche. Spending too much time worrying bout your writing niche might lead to never getting started. There are certain things you should consider when choosing a writing niche, but you don’t want to spend days or weeks worrying about it. I am here to answer some of your pressing questions and help you choose the right freelance writing niche for you quickly.
Table of Contents
What is a niche in freelance writing? How do you find a niche for a freelance writer? How do I find my niche as a freelance writer? What freelance writing niches are profitable? My 3 Quick Tips for Choosing a Freelance Writing Niche
What is a niche in freelance writing?
Before we go any further, it’s important to define what a niche is in freelance writing. Dictonary.com defines a niche as “a distinct segment of a market.” When it comes to freelance writing, this definition should certainly be taken into consideration. A freelance writing niche is simply the specialty you choose for your writing. For example, if you’ve spent a large portion of your working life in finance, you may choose to become a freelance finance writer. With freelance writing, you actually have to ways you can define a niche. You can define it using the example above and choose an industry to specialize in, or you can choose a type of writing. Some of the common types of writing you can choose as a niche include:
SEO (search engine optimization) writing B2B (business-to-business) writing B2C (business-to-consumer) writing Press Release writing White Paper writing Blog writing Website Content writing
These are the main freelance writing niche choices and they can even be put together with a specialty. Building on the example I used above, you could define your freelance writing niche as one of the following:
SEO Finance Writer B2B Finance Writer B2C Finance Writer Finance Blog Writer
There are many ways to go about choosing your freelance writing niche and it can certainly become a combination of a type of writing and a specialty.
How do you find a niche for a freelance writer? You don’t really have to go out and find a niche for a freelance writer. Instead, think about what you already know or what you might want to learn. Too many writers think they have to be absolute experts in an area to write about it. When I started my freelance writing career, I had very little experience in life. I wrote in many niches before starting to narrow down the list. Even later in my career, while I had specialized in a few industries and SEO writing, I still wrote about nearly anything a client needed. Yes, finding a niche can help as a freelance writer, but you don’t have to specialize to make money as a freelance writer. If you want to find a good niche for a freelance writer, just think about the types of companies currently using online content for marketing. Many industries use content for marketing purposes and any industry can become your niche. Of course, if you have experience in a specific industry, it will help. If not, create a few excellent samples for the industry and use those to show your expertise.
How do I find my niche as a freelance writer? Figuring out your niche is one of those steps that trips up new writers. I recommend spending less than 5 hours thinking about your niche and choosing your freelance writing niche. Entrepreneur.com published an article from Thomas Smale talking about the steps you can take to figure out your niche. It’s geared towards bloggers and website owners, but the steps still work pretty well for freelance writers.
What freelance writing niches are profitable? You may be wondering which writing niches are most profitable. If you’re driven by money (who isn’t) and you want to ensure you make plenty of cash as a freelance writer, consider one of the following profitable freelance writing niches:
Long-Form Blog Posts Email Funnels Case Studies Video Scrips Sales Pages White Papers Marketing Blog Posts Book Ghostwriting
These niches are all types of content you can write for clients. While short-form blog posts can still make you money, the longer the content, the more you will make per piece. Along with these freelance writing niches, choosing the right specialty will provide a boost to your income. Some of the top niche industries for freelance writers right now include:
Finance
Cryptocurrency Cannabis and CBD SaaS or Software as a Service Technology Travel (will probably be HUGE once Covid-19 is in the past) Digital Marketing Education Alternative Health Food & Wine
All of these industries use content like crazy. Many will survive the Covid-19 outbreak and many will come back even stronger. Some are even looking for freelance writers during the Covid-19 issues we are all dealing with.
My 3 Quick Tips for Choosing a Freelance Writing Niche
We’ve covered quite a bit when it comes to choosing a freelance writing niche. You’re faced with an endless number of possibilities and it can be overwhelming.
My three quick tips for choosing a freelance writing niche will make things super simple. However, you have to stick with them or you’ll end up over-analyzing and becoming paralyzed by choice.
Tip #1 – List your Passions and Expertise Take about 30 minutes to write a list of passions and expertise unfiltered. Don’t overthink anything in this exercise. JUST WRITE! Create one column for passions and one for expertise. If something fits in both categories, add it to both. I don’t want you to list what you think other people may think is an expertise or passion of yours. I also don’t want you to list out the jobs you’ve worked or regurgitate your resume. Write out anything you enjoy, love doing, or have enjoyed in the past (even as a child). Include everything you have knowledge of, even if it seems obscure, strange, or uninteresting to others. You’d be surprised! Add anything you’ve held a curiosity about for many years to the list. If you’ve always wanted to learn how to ski, add it to the list. This list should be rather long by the time you’re done.
Tip #2 – Organize Your List Now, you want to take your list and organize it into the top choices. Look for overlaps between the columns and note anything you’re passionate about and also have some expert knowledge of.
During this exercise, you can also cross out anything from the expertise column you’re simply not interested in or excited to write about. Everything else should be organized into your top 5, next 5, and final 5 options. The top 5 (in no particular order) should be the potential niches you’re most excited about.
Tip #3 – Finish Your Research The final tip I have when it comes to choosing your freelance writing niche is finishing your research. Look closely at the top 5 possibilities and do some research. Google is your friend and you can probably just plug in the potential niche with “freelance writing” or “freelance writing salary” or “freelance writing jobs” to figure out if it’s a good choice. The key to choosing a freelance writing niche you’ll love is simple. You need: 1. A Niche You’re Passionate or Curious About 2. To Choose a Niche You have Expert Knowledge of or want to Become an Expert in 3. A Niche with plenty of Writing Work Available When you find a writing niche from your list fitting these three criteria, you’re in business. Stop thinking and start looking for work!
Copyright 2018 Benjamin Ehinger | All Rights Reserved
