It makes good business sense to find your niche as a professional writer. Specializing in a particular niche is common in other professional fields such as law or medicine. When you focus your content writing into a well-defined niche, you can establish yourself as an expert in that field and it opens the door to further your writing career.
Why is finding your content writing niche so important? It boils down to income. A professional writer who specializes in producing specific types of content will command much higher rates than one who is a jack-of-all-trades. Your writing will not fit the needs of every person out there. Finding your niche helps you target specific clients and meet their needs. It translates into steady work and earning good income.
You can discover the content niche that fits your writing best by examining a few specific elements:
- Work Experience – Your employment history can be a useful resource in furthering your writing career. Skills acquired through a past job can be funneled into content writing projects. A writer who used to work as a teacher can find steady work creating educational materials. A lawyer who turns to writing can find plenty of work creating content for legal websites and legal blogs. Professional experience can offer a good starting point on what you should write.
- Writing Style – How you write defines what content niche will work best for you. Some clients want a writer who can write in a conversational tone. Others prefer a writer who is well-versed in technical or academic language. Play to your strengths as a writer and it will focus your self-marketing efforts in the right direction.
- Audience – Who is your target audience? Look at the demographics of the people you want to target with your writing. What is their profession? Income level? Geographic location? Knowing more about your intended audience enables you to write content that zeros in on their needs.
- Interests – Writers create the best content when they tackle subject matter that stimulates their interest. You produce better content when you are already interested in the topic at hand. Content that aligns with your interests will experience a bump in quality. There are several reasons why this happens. You approach the content with greater enthusiasm. You possess in-depth knowledge on the subject matter and infuse it into the content. You get a better read on what your audience wants and needs. It all adds up marketable content – which is harder to produce while writing on subject matter where you have no interest or expertise.
- Potential Income – Making a living as a content writer means following the money. Pay attention to what sells and tailor your content offerings to make it more marketable. Showing flexibility in what you will write can help you target a niche that will boost your income instead of limiting it.
Defining your niche breeds success as a content writer. Clients will flock to a writer who establishes themselves as an expert in a particular subject matter area.
John C is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments.
