Anyone who has decided to pursue freelance writing has had to answer this question: what should my freelance writing niche be?
Recently I wrote about how to get started in freelance writing.
In that post I gave a lot of advice for getting started in freelance writing, but I only briefly mentioned starting a blog in the niche of your choice. Starting a blog isn’t the only way to get started in freelance writing, but it is an approach where you have the most control. There are many writers who have never started a blog.
Regardless of whether you start a blog or get established in a niche some other way, you still need to decide what your niche will be.
What Niche Should I Choose?
I’ve recently been looking for more freelance writing jobs and have seen a wide variety of freelance jobs out there. What I’ve noticed is that people who are looking to hire are typically either looking for a very general “writer” or a very specific type of writer.
I started my blogging “career” as a political blogger. I had my own blog as well as a group blog that I wrote for. I chose this niche for one very simple reason: I liked politics. It was interesting to me. If I had to define my niche, it would be “libertarian blogger.” I kept up on things like the liberty movement and Ron Paul. I wrote multiple times a week on both my website and the group blog.
Political blogging became a labor of love and I eventually quit due to time constraints. I started Young Adult Money a couple years later and have been working on it 10-30 hours a week ever since.
I chose personal finance because I had some exposure to the niche and knew there was money to be made. After all, during college I worked for a personal finance blog and did marketing and SEO for them. I knew for a fact they were making a decent side income from it, so I figured why not start one myself? I also was a finance major in college so it went hand-in-hand.
While I’ve been more successful as a personal finance blogger than a political blogger, I chalk that up to experience. The longer you are in the blogging/freelance writing game, the more you learn. Even the past few months I feel my content is leagues ahead of my content from the early days of Y.A.M.
When it comes to choosing a niche I will say this much: pick something you actually enjoy. Ideally you’d already have some background in the niche so that you can save yourself some research time. Establishing yourself in a niche will take a long time and you will end up writing hundreds of posts in the niche, especially if you succeed. So pick something you enjoy; there is demand for literally every niche imaginable.
How General Should My Niche Be?
If I had to define my niche as a writer I would have to define it as a “personal finance” writer. The benefit of that niche is that it’s very broad so I could potentially write about a large variety of topics. The flip side of that is others who have a more concentrated niche like “stock investing” or “paying down debt” are more likely to land jobs than I am.
When I roam the freelance writing job boards I see people looking for very specific writers. For example:
- Golf writer who lives in the Fort Worth area and can cover events and write content about courses in the area
- Poker writer/blogger who can cover live events at the Borgata for a 20-day period of time
- Food/Restaurant writer/blogger in the San Francisco area
- Writer who has worked in the marijuana dispensary business
- Writer who has background on recent Medicaid expansion and how it impacts provider groups in New York
- Interior design writer who is keeps up-to-date on trends in interior design
This is just a tiny sampling of the jobs available and what people are looking for. As you can see, the more focused your niche is the more likely you are to land specific jobs.
Of course there is always the chance that there is no “perfect” candidate for the job. In this case the hiring manager is likely to go with someone who has some sort of track record in freelance writing, ideally in the same niche or a niche that is close to the one they are hiring for.
So how general should your niche be? There’s pros and cons to both the specific and broad approach. There is one alternative, though…
What about Focusing on More than One Niche
Every writer at one point or another thinks about getting into a second niche. Lots of personal finance bloggers move into the travel niche or something else that is loosely related to finances.
I think sometimes focusing on more than one niche can be counter-productive because you stretch yourself too thin trying to keep up with news and developments in each niche. At the same time, it can be fun to go outside of your main niche and write about something different.
I have a couple tips for people who are looking to get started in freelance writing:
- Pick something general to start – Picking something general when you first get started may sound counter-intuitive, but I think it makes a lot of sense. Especially if you are starting a blog, you may have trouble writing about the same narrow topic day-after-day or week-after-week. Instead pick something general until you know what part of that broader niche you really enjoy.
- Establish yourself in one niche before looking for a second – Becoming well-established in one niche before moving into another one helps writers avoid burnout and being stretched too thin. You’ll want to be a subject matter expert in one area before venturing into something totally different. This is especially true for people who are only looking to write “on the side” and do not have plans of making a career out of it.
Hopefully you found this article helpful. There is no easy answer to “what should my freelance writing niche be?” The answer to that question will be different for each person depending on interests and goals.
I still think starting a blog is the best way to get established in a niche, so consider launching a blog if you want to really establish yourself in a specific niche. You’ll be surprised at how people will actually find you and offer you work instead of the other way around.
What niche do you want to write in? For those who already are freelance writers, how did you pick your niche? Also please share if you have had a good (or bad) experience having more than one niche.
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I was a finance major in college, too :) This niche was easy for me, but you are right – almost every single job I’ve seen either wants a super specific writer or a general one. I was editor for a health site for a few years, so I have health under my belt too, but I would pick finance over that in a heartbeat!
Good advice, per usual! I agree with you that starting a blog is a wonderful way to not only discover your niche but also improve your writing. The more I write, the faster I get. Speed has always been my problem.. I used to be a sloooooow writer, but once I realized how long it was taking me to write each post, I taught myself to hurry it up!
What I’ve also realized is that if I don’t feel motivated or excited to write, then I’m not on the right topic. I had a blog on a completely different topic in the past and it was a struggle for me to find the inspiration for each post. But now, I know I’m in my niche because I can’t wait to write every single day!
I fell into the personal finance niche as a way to make some extra money due to our being in debt, and the route we chose to get out of debt (through our debt relief company). But what I’d really like to do is start a BBQ website. Trying out new recipes, techniques and products…..one day I will make that transition….
I don’t land a ton of gigs, so I have no wisdom to offer. However, the articles I’ve been paid for range from everything to personal finance to working mother. They are sort of in one niche – career and work life balance broadly fit into the PF niche. But I try not to do too much writing on “just” finance topics. I feel like I don’t have much to say there – I can go on and on about career, leadership, being a working parent, women’s issues in the workplace, etc.
Good tips DC! I ended up in PF largely because I worked in various roles within the finance industry and it just made the most sense. That helps me have a general focus when need be or focus on something specific if I like. With our business though, I could be writing on pretty much anything – just depends on the client. That can take some time getting used to and writing on but has been a huge help to me as a writer and helps us when we hire others so we can communicate what exactly is needed.
I decided to dive in because it seemed like the best way to combine several of my passions and my finance & accounting experience. Writing, money, & helping people are all things I enjoy. PF is still pretty broad though, I’m toying with the idea of a suzuki violin blog (which I know nothing about but I do have an expert in the house), but I think it might be too niche.
DebtChronicles Just seeing the word BBQ made me excited. Let me know when you do it.
I write about all sorts of things- a few jobs are under a pen name! I don’t like to box myself in too much. I’m interested in too many things to limit myself.
I write for mainly just finance and travel websites. I do know a bit about both, so it makes it easy to write in, while not being stuck in just one niche.
I love the generality of personal finance, but I also love how specific I can get with it too. Personal finance from an New York actress’ perspective on my blog, personal finance from a frugality expert on another, and personal finance from a credit background on another.
I think it’s always tricky because if you specialize in a particular niche, you may run out of stuff to talk about more quickly, but if you are more broad you won’t, but on the other hand it may be ‘just another blog.” I’m still opting for option 2 but I like to think mine has a slant in being the “touchy feely side of personal finance.” My tagline now even says that. Meaning you probably won’t see me writing about stocks or investing unless there is an emotional, human twist on it. It suits me the best.
Good tips. I think as long as it a topic you have some interest in, it should help the writing come a bit easier.
Sarah Brooks Always happy to know of other finance majors ;) It’s really interesting to read what people are looking for in freelancers. I don’t think it’s bad when websites look for very specific writers, I just wonder how often they find the “perfect” candidate to fill the job.
Mrs. Frugalwoods Thanks for the kind words! I have found that I can write posts a lot quicker when I have a general outline to go off of. Because of that I spend a lot of time trying to think of topics and writing up outlines, but it makes the actual writing process much quicker.
Great to hear that you’ve found a niche that excites you. I think that is definitely an important aspect of blogging or freelancing.
Mark@BareBudgetGuy DebtChronicles I can’t wait to see the BBQ site too! Especially as an absolute noob (and I mean NOOB) when it comes to grilling, I need some good advice. Seeing the BBQ pics Travis posts on Facebook makes me confident his site would be extremely popular!
indebtedmom I really like to write about careers and side hustles because that is where a lot of my focus is these days. It directly relates to personal finance and I think most 20-somethings are looking more to those topics than investing or other topics of what to do ONCE you have money in the bank. I think you are smart to diversify into some of those other topics; they certainly are popular.
FrugalRules I’ve kind of got into the mindset of “I can write about anything,” but I certainly can see where experience can help make writing quicker, easier, and higher quality. For example if someone wanted me to start writing about, say, the Professional Mexico soccer league, I have no doubt I could put together some good content. It would take me a lot longer to research and write the posts, though, than if you asked me to write about the Minnesota Vikings.
Mark@BareBudgetGuy Hmmm the violin blog might be a really great website, actually. You could easily dominate the traffic on that topic and potentially make a boatload in affiliate revenue. I’d go for it!
Holly at ClubThrifty I think writing about a wide variety of topics can keep you, as a writer, excited to write. I know writing about Daily Fantasy Sports (however briefly haha) was fun and exciting for me.
SenseofCents Those are two great niches. I think having a deep background in a couple niches is the ideal way to go. That way the writing is “easy” because of your knowledge on the topic but you can still cover a huge variety of topics under the two niches.
brokeandbeau As a reader of your blog for a couple years now I’ve noticed that you like to go pretty specific on certain topics but also go broad on personal finance topics. It really is a great thing about personal finance blogs.
Beachbudget I agree, there is a tough balance between being too general and being too specific. If you go too far either way you limit or lose readers. Sometimes it doesn’t matter, though, because you pick up enough search engine traffic on those “specific” posts to make up for any loss of readership.
DebtDiscipline Thanks! I agree that it has to be something you have at least a little bit of interest in.
I enjoy writing about a couple different topics. Like many of the others before me have said, it helps to keep you from running out of things to say.
I am a personal finance blogger generally but I think my niches are saving money and side hustles, particularly mystery shopping. I like to write about my niche topics but also enjoy the flexibility of the wide world of personal finance.
Can you share some of the freelance writing boards you were referring to? I would love to get more writing jobs!
“Having a niche” sounds too much like “having an itch”. I don’t know why I can’t stop focusing on that! :P I know that when I had my last website, I felt kind of hemmed in, like I had to put a frugal angle on everything. I feel much freer in this one. I really enjoy writing about minimalism, organization, and just general weird stuff off the top of my head. However, I’m not a freelancer, soooooo … there ya go! Great article for people wanting to get into it, DC. Super helpful, as always! :)
I’d love to write about sports, fitness etc, I feel it’s important to at least have an interest in what you are writing about but this is probably true about most things in life.. The more interested you are, likely the more successful you’ll be :)
Found this one particularly interesting as well haha
“Writer who has worked in the marijuana dispensary business”
Wouldn’t this be slightly illegal, then again, there is medicinal variety from what I understand, still a bit left-field ;)
Are you tired of personal finance? You have a large portfolio so it might be easier than you think to get jobs in personal finance. It seems like general bloggers do get paid a bit less than niche bloggers. You can write to the edges of a niche to slowly build up a variety of topics.
Jason @ The Butler Journal That’s a great point. I’m amazed at the “super-niche” bloggers who blog about, say, 401ks. How the heck do you have a blog that only produces content about 401ks? Incredible.
Alice @ Earning My Two Cents I agree, personal finance blogs offer the best of both worlds. You have the opportunity to be as “nichey” as you want but also have room to write about a very wide variety of topics.
The one I check daily is Freelancewritinggigs.
kay ~ lifestylevoices.com Organization and minimalism go hand-in-hand with frugality so I’m glad you have the space/freedom to dive into those categories on your new blog! I appreciate the kind words : )
mycareercrusade Actually marijuana has been legalized in a few states here, with more to come. Colorado is gaining a lot of attention since legalizing marijuana and a lot of other states are finally seeing enough support to legalize it. So it’s a big industry and they are in need of writers!
pfjenna I’m really not tired of personal finance, I just sometimes struggle to think of topics as quickly as I used to. Once I have a topic and an outline the actual writing of a post goes really quick. I do think I have way more opportunities in personal finance than other areas because of my track record in the personal finance space.
Apparently it is in CA as well? I won’t comment on my thoughts, although I’ll say they are quite liberal on that, they may incrminate me though :) ha