There are three different ways you can niche down, and you can combine any of these three to niche down even further.
1. Niche Down by Topic or Industry/Be a Subject Matter Expert
The first way to niche down is by topic or industry. For example, you could specialize in writing about education. You could specialize in writing about apps, technology, WordPress, or SAAS (software as a service). You could mainly write for the medical technology field, the finance industry, health, or manufacturing.
This kind of niching can be very helpful when you’re looking for work because you know what kind of companies to target and you know what to offer them. It gives you a little bit of scope in your client search.
If you write about one topic or for one field for a while, you may start to get recognized as being a subject matter expert. Of course, you have to write well and know what you’re writing about. But if you do, and if your name begins to be associated with a certain topic and/or industry, clients could seek you out.
2. Niche Down by Service
The second way to niche down is by service. What does this mean?
Niching down by service means that your service is writing blog posts, or writing emails. Your service could be writing sales copy, sales pages and funnel copy, or webinars. Your service could be writing books.
Of course you can offer more than one service. It just depends how much you want to niche down.
When you offer a specific service, you can combine it with a specific industry. So, you could say, “I write blog posts for mommy bloggers,” or “I write case studies for software companies,” or “I do email marketing for eCommerce businesses,” etc.
3. Niche Down by Type of Client or Business
The third way to niche down is by the type of client or business. A type of client could be internet marketers, course creators, mommy bloggers, or just bloggers in general if you’re ghost writing blog posts. I was a blog post ghostwriter for a really long time. And when I write books, they tend to be for internet marketers.
A type of business might be startups, universities, or academic journals. You could write for small businesses or big corporations. For this kind of niching, you don’t really narrow down what you write by subject matter or by service.
For example, if you want to be a startup’s copywriter, then you might be writing emails. You might be writing sales pages and landing pages. You might be putting together white papers that become eBooks, and then serve as a lead magnet. You might be writing social media captions, etc. You’re doing all these writing services, but you’re doing it for one type, a startup.
I just shared 3 great ways to niche down as a freelance writer. I think at least one of them will work for you. BUT, I want to stress that you shouldn’t stress about finding a niche immediately. Let your niche unfold. It can develop, and shift. You can abandon a niche if you don’t like it anymore. That’s one of the beauties of being a freelance writer.
Questions?
If you have questions about any of this, come join my free Facebook Group, The Ink Well Guild. You can request to join if you’re not already in, and then post your questions, ask for clarification, get some feedback, get some advice, and cheer on your fellow writers, because we’re all in this together. We’re all doing different stuff. We’re not competitors. We are colleagues and ideally we can become friends.
Clips Camp
If you need help getting great writing samples for your portfolio, I have a course called Clips Camp.
It’s a three-week course for new and advanced new freelance writers who want to get started with high-paid client work. If you’re on Upwork or Fiverr and miserable, if you haven’t even done anything to get started and you don’t know what the first step is, then Clips Camp is for you.
I teach you how to put together a solid portfolio of writing samples that position you as the kind of awesome writer that awesome clients want to hire. If you want in on that or you just want more information, go to clipscamp.com, and I will see you on the inside!
