Finding Your Niche as a Web Content Writer
January 21, 2008
Depending on where you are coming from with your writing career, you may not have the luxury to pick a niche. You may be motivated to take any and all jobs that come your way (within reason). But as soon as you can, it’s a good idea to find a niche and stick with it.
Finding your niche as a writer makes your job easier for several reasons. First, you can streamline your jobs so that your work flows more easily. If you know that are focused on writing articles, then you can work on writing great articles. The same goes for ebooks or blog posts.
You can also market yourself better as “The Parenting Writer” or “The Finance Writer.” When someone needs to have content written on a specific topic, you’ll be the first person they think of. This can help you get more projects and more new clients. This will also help you reduce the amount of research that you need to complete for each project. If you know the topic well, you may not have to do any research at all.
Finding your niche can mean that you target your projects on a specific type of project (like ebooks or reports), or that you create a client list that needs content on a specific subject. I know one writer who has developed a steady stream of business just writing e-mail autoresponder messages. She has branded herself as the go-to person for quality e-mail messages.
Narrowing your focus as a writer and finding your niche doesn’t mean that you won’t get requests for other subjects or other types of content. Once someone likes your writing, they may want you to write all of their content, whether or not it’s part of your niche. But it can help you market yourself better and help you stand out among other web content writers.
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January 21st, 2008 at 2:33 pm
You know, I was so afraid to associate myself with any one niche. I was afraid I’d ruin my chances of getting work if I did that. And yes, it does narrow the field, but in a good way. Generalists tend to land more work, but are also more stressed and stretched thin. Specialists take on targeted jobs, and in many cases, tend to make more money because they are constantly honing their writing skills within that niche. Great post, Courtney!
January 21st, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Great post - this is good advice for me, because I’m just starting out. I’ll be sure to keep this in mind in the future!
January 22nd, 2008 at 3:29 pm
For new writers, I wouldn’t worry too much about finding the perfect niche right away. I think it will find you soon enough, as you’ll discover you’re more acclimated to certain projects.
January 29th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
I agree, awesome post!
For a long time, I was “The Fertility and Pregnancy Writer.” I probably put out more than 3,000 articles related to those two topics for my biggest client. I was grateful for the work, and I found out that i was good at it, but it got old, and I got burt out.
I’ve become more of a generalist, though. I’ve got several different niche ideas I dabble with, some of which turn out OK, and others… not so much.
February 27th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
This is a great post! I agree that for the most part finding a specific niche makes it easier to get work sometimes, and the work is not as stressful because you already know much of what you would normally have to research. I have to also say that Sophia has a very good point that isn’t heard too often. Writing 100% of the time, over a long period of time, about the same subject can become monotonous.
April 8th, 2008 at 4:58 am
Great info, i appreciate your creative way of writing