Finding Your Niche Topic is Not Just a Cliche’
May 2, 2008 by Deb
Filed under Freelance Writing
By Matt Finley, A Musing Scribe
I know, I know; you’ve heard it all before: You have to have a niche topic to be a successful Freelance Writer.
Well, there’s a real good reason people keep telling you to get a niche topic. It’s not just a cliche’ or talking point. It’s not just something people say to try to sound like they know what they’re talking about. It’s a foundation. It’s one of the essential building blocks of any successful professional writer and to try to become a profitable Freelance Writer without it will be difficult at best.
You Don’t Pick a Niche Topic, It Picks You
To find your niche topic, find something you enjoy writing about and start writing about it, expanding to other sub-topics. You’ll either work your way in to a niche, or realize that you need to find a different topic.
For me it was easy to pick a topic to start on because my wife and I just had kids. I wrote a poem talking about the losses we endured to have the kids, and my father in law, a retired San Diego Union Tribune reporter, encouraged me to write more. I, like many before me, started blogging about my kids and family.
As I started networking with other bloggers I quickly found a parenting blog that was part of a network looking for other bloggers. Since the network already had a parenting blog, I offered to blog about motorcycles and ATVs with a family/safety twist, and started blogging “professionally” late in 2006.
Fine Tuning Your Niche Topic
As I got more work from popular (and not so popular) places that many of us have probably been to, I got to be a better writer and more confident. The pay wasn’t always good, but I built a portfolio and decided to query an eZine. I got accepted as a “Freelance Journalist” where I can write up to two articles a month.
After a solid year of blogging and writing articles about motorsports, mostly All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) and motorcycles I volunteered for the Press Release Committee for an off road (sand) advocacy group, where I can use my writing to both help expose groups that abuse safety and environmental statistics by leaving out critical data or simply lying about it all together in order to push their agenda, and to help educate other off roaders that they need to be respectful and educated if they want to continue to have places to ride.
Getting Your Big Break
There will come a time when everything comes together. That time hasn’t happened for me yet, but it’s close. I can smell it. With the three steady gigs I have right now I will be making well over $20k part time this year. My intentions when I started writing “for money” was to make a hundred bucks or so a month to buy myself some goodies.
I never even remotely considered quitting my day job as a CNC Programmer so I could write full time. I never thought I could make the same money. Now that I look at it more closely, I can easily see myself making much more than I’m making now, which is a fairly decent wage for living in the always over-priced San Diego.
My normal blogging gig at Under My Helmet pays very little compared to writing magazine quality articles, but it has turned in to a passion for me and I don’t see myself letting it go any time soon.
I may, however, consider converting my portfolio web site, A Musing Scribe, to a freelancer’s resource site, because I would like to give back to the community that has helped me create and realize a dream that could very well cut my ties with the corporate world.
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How very true….
As a nurse, my 15 years in healthcare has provided me with a HUGE platform from which to write. My niche can be serious, humerous or plain old informative but it has gotton me where I am as a writer today and without that niche I don’t think I would have been half as successful.
I started out writing about women’s reproductive health, based on my grad school research. Although I now write about a lot of other topics, that niche got me encyclopedia articles and other impressive resume building material.
I’m like Lynsey – I’ve been a nurse for over 25 years (that sounds like forever!) so my niche was decided for me and it’s done me very, very well.
I think I’m still trying to find my niche, but I’ve narrowed it down to travel and fashion. I love fashion, and my roommate and I were talking about starting a blog about it, which made me think, “hmm…” and start looking for fashion positions.
As for travel, after a major in French which included a six-month study abroad experience in Paris (and visits to other near-bye places), I was hooked. I have a natural curiosity, and a knack for getting into trouble, which often results in things like turning down a side street and being asked, “Are you working?” from a man in the process of unzipping his pants…
Let’s face it guy’s we ALL have something in our dim and distant past, or our present lives that we can share with others.
Even tho the nursing works for me I too have experienced things in life for which writing is based:
Divorce, two premature births, serious ill health, a disabled child, debt…. you name it, we have all had something like that happen to us.
Get out there and write about it, that’s how I started off really, writing articles on ‘Triond’ and realizing that people really liked them! And all I was writing about was life…..
@ Lynsey – I think you’re so very right! The key to finding the niche is to cull our lives and figure out what’s been interesting and what’s interested us. When I really thought about my niche, I tried to focus on what I’d be doing if I had nothing else going on. Being able to take that ultimate “fun” thing for you and turn it into work – how fantastic!
@ Matt – Thanks for sharing your experience finding a niche. I’m always interested to know how other writers got into whatever it is they’re covering. I believe we really can learn from each others’ experiences.
Brandi
@ Brandi – I am totally with you on that Brandi! I mean for years I was ashamed that I had been married and divorced twice by the age of 31, but when I realized that people actually really wanted to hear about it I suddenly acquired a huge fan-base! I helped them out by reassuring and it helped me get over my stigma – BINGO!
@Lynsey – It’s sometimes your most difficult experiences that give you the most direction. I had postpartum depression twice with PMDD (Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder) twice – that’s nearly 3 1/2 years of depression. And I’m a counselor, too!
I still want to find a way to write about that more, but it’s helped me shape my counseling work. I started a personal blog a while ago, but haven’t kept it up. However, I’ve found some other niches that have expanded, so I’m sure I’ll come across (or create!) the right opportunity to really use that experience for good.
The internet seems to have a nearly endless audience. Once you can kind of “move past yourself” you can really do a lot of good!!
@ Erika – Indeed Erika, “move past yourself” great way of putting it.
I am a much more rounded and open person since my writing allowed me to vent a few of life’s issues! Its almost been like a personal form of counseling having the writing outlet.
The best buzz is getting good feedback and knowing you’ve touched someone, somewhere….even if it’s just one person.
Nice article, Matt. I agree, your niche just finds you somehow. That is how it happened to me. I got one medical writing client and now I have several (10 years later). I too, like giving back to those who have helped me out.
Linsey nailed it:
Get out there and write about it
What ever it is, just start writing. You’ll work your way in to a niche.
Brandi, I am still not convinced I’ve found my final niche because I’m still very new and simply haven’t touched that many subjects. I think I’m close, but there are still several topics that I am very active about on forums but don’t write about them professionally.
I recently got permission (and encouragement) to post on 5 different topics across 20 different blogs with Creative Weblogging, the company that I blog at Under My Helmet for. It will be a good experience for sure.
(Sorry, Lynsey
)
My niche certainly did find me, and I was very surprised when I realized what it was. I’ve moved into writing about green living which is not at all what I thought my specialty would be when I began to write. It’s a nice surprise when you come to the realization that “this is it! I know what direction I’m headed in now.”
Of course, there is always room to write outside your niche if the money is good. I just finished up a website edit for a vending company. Taking a really good paying job outside of my niche every now and then allows me to accept a lower paying job inside my niche if it’s one I really want.
So, keep searching for your niche if you haven’t found it yet, but don’t burn your bridges with other clients.
Matt,
While I agree with most aspects, it is important not to define a niche too narrowly or to find a couple that are complimentary.
I’m a reformed sportswriter. For years I was pigeonholed there. Then it was business, then banking. While I can still write on any of those three and still write a smattering of business and banking, I also write a ton of technology items, a little bit of PR, and other items from time to time.
Niche writing can also hurt if your niche goes south…I used to have a ton more work in banking before the banks started to merge with a vengence. Mortgage writers are seeing much the same issue now (I’ve done some writing there, too).
Just a suggestion – if the guest blogger this month has a link to his/her own blog or site, click on it and check it out. I just checked out Matt’s and found that his writing may be of my husband’s liking so I plan on telling him about it. (And yes, I do have a guest blog coming up sometime this month so this is a little self-centered, but I think it would be great if our support of each other reached beyond this particular blog once in a while).
Robin, thanks for passing it along to your SO.
With your green blog and my passion for OHV, you might not think we could see eye to eye on much.
Fact is, I’m very green in my actions, but I don’t subscribe to the hype that humans are the main cause of Global Warming. My passion comes from a pollution standpoint, which we ARE 100% responsible for. That and saving a buck.
You might enjoy some of the stuff I did about an electrically powered ATV from Barefoot Motors. Very promising. I have an article pending in a national print magazine about this, which may be my “big break”
Phil,
Niche writing can also hurt if your niche goes south
Excellent point! Hopefully, if you’re active in the topic, you’ll be able to see it going south, and jump to something else in time.
I have moved from direct marketing copywriting (Garden Way, Scholastic, Grey Advertising) to web usability analysis to my current obsession: online music marketing.
While I’m interested in many aspects of advertising, marketing, PR, sales, and internet technologies, I have decided my great loves of social media and music all converge in online music marketing.
I advise clients to put lots of free mp3s and videos online, and to do live streaming video shows, which complement or supplant live real world venues.
Anyway, I agree that finding and specializing in a not just a niche, but a niche you naturally already love, or are very interested in learning more about, is the way to go.
Thanks for the great insights.
My own personal techno music page is:
http://myspace.com/thestr8sounds
It is amazing sometimes what our niche ends up being. I also think that it may vary along the way as our life experiences grow, so will our writing. We may all have some pleasant surprises in our writing in a few years.
Thanks for the post Matt and sharing your experiences with us.
Matt, I started writing about cars and safety from a mom’s perspective. And then I’ve moved into another couple of niches from there. Also doing this part-time, but I’m doing what I can to build it up to full time. And I’m loving it.
Oh, and also a San Diegan. I hear you about the prices, man. I cry every time I have to open my wallet.
Having a niche is definitely nice, but along the lines of what Phil wrote above, I think it’s also important to not let it stop you from branching out as well.
I’m lucky to have a built-in niche because I’m an attorney, but that’s not *all* that interests me; it’s easy (read: comfortable), though, to fall into only writing in your niche without exploring new options.
So I’m constantly on the look-out for new niches so to speak
Great post Matt, and I look forward to seeing your revamped website!
I have found when I stray from what really interests me, whether we call that our niche, or not, it isn’t much fun. In fact, that is why I am reading this today – I am procrasting something that just wasn’t my thing! Ya know? I, too, and looking forward to your site!
Sometimes it’s just as difficult to find a niche as trying to go the other way. I’m a technical writer, which is quite niche-y, however I’d like to be able to generalize my writing as well, so while my blogging & work revolves around tech writing, I’m also looking at expanding to some more generalized web writing thru blogs, articles and so on. So as being a computer geek & writer lead me to technical writing, I’m hoping that the tech writing will lead me to general writing gigs.
I dont think you need a ‘niche’ personally to be a successful writer.
Sometimes your niche doesn’t come from your current interests, but from an area you didn’t even know exists /could interest you.
Ididn’t know I would enjoy writing about telecoms when I first started; it was a regular, well-paying gig, and I was going to suffer through it for the money.
Strangely, the subject and the people involved in the business fascinated me.
Four years later, I still have a lot to write about, and it’s mostly a pleasure.
I also look for new areas to write about, and accept/discard depending on how interested I am in learning more about it.