Niches For Freelancers: What, Why, When, Who, How?
by Andy Strote
If you’re a freelance writer, designer, or developer, you’ve heard others talking about niches.
What are niches? They’re focused areas of interest.
I look at niches in two ways: vertical niches and horizontal niches. Let’s review.
What are Vertical Niches?
Vertical niches concentrate on a subject matter. They apply primarily to writers. As a writer, growing a deeper understanding of a subject makes your job easier. (Usually, you don’t need such a deep understanding of a subject as a graphic designer or developer.)
So, you’ll find writers who focus on gardening, cars, finance, childcare, etc.
You can make the niche as narrow or broad as you like. For example, in gardening, it might only be flower gardening. In cars, only muscle cars. Or you may choose to keep it wide, covering many aspects of a broad subject.
But the point is, you’ll soon become an expert in that niche, and experts command higher rates.
What are Horizontal Niches?
Horizontal niches are common in tech. As a developer, you may exclusively program headless WordPress sites. You don’t care about the subject matter, your focus is the technology.
Or, your niche might be one brand of CRM or eCommerce platform. You become an expert on that platform.
Designers often fit in here too. They might focus on designing emails, landing pages, one-page sales websites, etc.
Why Develop Your Niche?
Most freelancers start as generalists. I think that’s a good idea. Try everything. Get broad experience. Learn how different industries and sectors work.
But, at some point, start to narrow your focus. This may happen organically. You’ll find that you’re better at some type of work. You’ll get more clients in one area than others. This often happens through referrals.
So, why develop a niche? Three reasons:
You’ll become better at it, perhaps to an expert level where you can act in a consulting role. You’ll understand the business, the acronyms, and the issues that the industry faces.
You’ll enjoy it more (we generally enjoy doing things we’re good at).
And most importantly, you can get paid more. Experts command higher fees—that’s been true forever.
When Should You Develop Your Niche?
There is no simple answer, but for many freelancers, the niche comes to them after a few years. Rather than trying to force a niche, it develops on its own. One client leads to another, and the next thing you know, you enjoy the work, and that’s your niche.
Other freelancers know right away. For example, Andy Wilcox is @gardenwriterguy. He knew he wanted to write about gardening, nothing else, and set about doing it.
Are You Worried About Not Having a Niche Yet?
Don’t be. Keep working. Find out what interests you and what you enjoy doing.
One tip: many freelancers wait for business to come to them, either through referrals or being found on social or on their website. It’s always good to be wanted, but it’s passive. You’re hoping someone else takes the first step.
My tip: once you find an area you’re interested in, start pursuing other potential clients in that sector. Social media has made it easier to find companies, organizations, and individuals. Go after them. Let them know about your experience and your expertise.
I wrote about how to pick a high-paying niche for copywriting, design, and programming here.
Who’s Found Their Niche? These 13 Freelancers…
On Twitter, I asked whether anyone wanted to be featured in this post. I was surprised by the variety. Everything from writing for ecom and tech to translation, creating podcast show notes, and even a story about switching niches. Let’s dig in…
Maria West @mariabestwest is a freelance writer for parenting brands in DTC, ecom, and tech. But, it took her a while. For eight years, she was “in content marketing all over the board in B2B and B2C.”
Now Maria works in parenting, often directly with founders of smaller companies who need a lot of hand-holding. In response, Maria has developed specialized services such as a 60-minute live copy session for a flat fee. That’s a great way to adapt to her niche!
Learn more at Maria’s site here: http://dtcmom.com. Her newsletter is here: https://theclusterfeed.substack.com
Sarah Heneck @sarah_heneck freelances for three podcasting companies, writing show notes and highlights, and pulling out key quotes. She listens to the episodes, then extracts the essential information. (Who knew this was a niche?)
She’s developing her business to focus on podcasts that align with her passions which include sustainability, social issues, the informal economy, and food security.
Sam Grover @sambgrover is a freelance copywriter working in a horizontal niche. After writing general copy and content, Sam decided to focus on writing landing pages.
That’s grown to include messaging, positioning consulting, and training. Sam finds this mix more natural and easier to manage than the previous generalised service offering.
Sam wrote about niching down once he decided to do it. Have a look. I think you’ll find it helpful if you’re wondering how to do the same.
Stephanie M. @thepracticalpen is a freelance content writer focusing on building materials, design, and real estate. Bylines: http://Homelight.com and http://Apartmenttherapy.com
Here’s her journey to finding her niche:
“I started writing about anything I could get paid for (affiliate posts for a beekeeping blog was one of my first projects). I kept working on what I wanted my niche to be, and I was having a hard time figuring out where my interests met my experience.
One project was writing property descriptions for a luxury property finder in Spain, and I loved it! Then, I saw a call for blog posts about countertops. I had worked in kitchen remodeling years before, so I figured it was something I had a little experience in.
I focused on building material clients and then worked my way into writing about real estate and design.”
Stephanie claims to get weirdly excited when she gets to write about composite roofing tiles or appraisal gaps. (Who knew, right?)
Shannon Houston @shannonahouston had developed her niche in communications for nonprofits. She went freelance after nearly 15 years working in-house in the same field.
Shannon is passionate about the role that storytelling and communications can play in advocating for societal change. She also appreciates that she can support nonprofit staff who are chronically swamped with work, often trying to do the job of two or three people.
Shannon is another example of working in a field where you have a massive personal interest. If you’re searching for your niche, this is worth consideration! Is your heart in it?
Learn more at shannonahouston.com.
ThatGardenWriterGuy @gardenwriterguy is Andy Wilcox, and surprise, he writes about gardening and horticulture. Andy is another example of a writer following their heart.
Note: I love when freelancers can align their niche with their identity. ThatGardenWriterGuy says it with a bit of humor thrown in.
Andy writes for blogs, websites, magazines, and newsletters. Being an avid gardener for many years, Andy decided he didn’t want to write about something he didn’t love. So, gardening it is.
Latest development? Many people have contacted Andy to write about cannabis, which he claims to know nothing about. Maybe he should? What do you think?
Get details about Andy and his gardening writing here: thatgardenwriterguy.com
Danielle Costello @typedreamswv works mainly in real estate (investing/development), health/wellness, and nonprofit.
The latter two make sense for Danielle because they align with her interests.
Here’s an interesting point: Danielle had no personal experience in real estate but stumbled into the segment. She’s now learning a lot and enjoying the work. Sometimes you get a lucky break. Be sure to take advantage of it when it happens.
Danielle writes blogs, social media, internal communications, web content, thought-leadership pieces, and copyediting.
Tracy Rawlinson @rawlinsonwrites has an interesting story: switching niches!
Tracy started in the parenting niche, but it wasn’t working out as she expected. She pivoted into the HR space and is glad she did.
Her writing consists of medium and long-form blog posts for HR, HR software, learning, and development businesses.
Subjects include electronic signatures for HR, employee self-care, training for deskless workers, onboarding, and employee experiences.
Learn more about Tracy and her work here: https://www.rawlinsonwrites.com/.
Andy Robinson | Helios Copywriting @Andy_Helios is in the sustainability niche “because the future of our species and the health of our planet are top priorities for me. I want to help tip the scales back in nature’s favour before it’s too late.”
How’s that for a reason to pick your niche?
Andy writes blog posts and web copy. Two things have surprised him:
The number of people who share his goal and believe in a fairer, cleaner world
The size of the gap between what most people think climate change is and what it actually is
More about Andy and his work here: https://www.helioscopywriting.co.uk/
Tanaaz Khan @tanaazkhan_writes long-form content for companies at the intersection of health and tech (AI, data, etc.). Bylines: @dataversity, @primostats, and @ContentLabIO.
Tanaaz loves writing in this space because she can:
See how tech is being used to save human lives
Leverage her degree and work experience
Nerd out over new tech developments
Translate Digital Marketing @TranslateDigit1 is Claudia Kozeny-Pelling, a translator and bilingual SEO content writer (English/German).
Claudia’s focus is on ethical, sustainable and fair trade businesses. This is an area that she feels strongly about. Claudia also finds it more satisfying to work with people trying to make the world a better place.
She was surprised by how much work there was available. She finds the freelancers in this niche to be a supportive bunch. Also, she learns something new every day.
Learn more about Claudia and her business here: translatedigitalmarketing.com/connect
Aanchal Parmar @aanchalparmar is a B2B SaaS writer for marketing, eCommerce, and project management brands.
Aanchal started by working in an agency and SaaS. She’s still amazed at how much we’re surrounded by it.
Plus, she’s a huge junkie of consumer psychology and PM software.
Harshala Chavan @harshalachavan7 is busy building dribbble for publishing: @merrative
She writes newsletters and a book on no-code.
Harshala finds it fascinating how recording information from caveman days till today has helped take humanity forward. She watches it do its magic every day.
Common Threads for Niches
A few things stand out:
Many writers worked as generalists, often for years, before finding their niche. Don’t rush it, let it happen.
Some knew what they had a passion for, e.g. gardening, and pursued it. If you have a passion for something, could that be your niche?
It’s helpful to find a niche with like-minded clients and colleagues. Find your tribe.
Experience helps. If you’ve worked in-house in a sector for years, that could be your natural niche.
Starting in a niche, but it’s not working out? Time to pivot.
How Should You Develop Your Niche?
Once you have an idea for what you’d like your niche to be based on some of your existing clients, you should think about expanding it.
But how? I wrote, Freelancers: Where Do You Find New Clients. It’s all about growing your client list based on your existing clients. In other words, how to develop your niche.
Learn more about niches in my book, How to Start a Successful Creative Agency. It’s the essential business guide for graphic designers, copywriters, filmmakers, photographers, and programmers.
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This chapter covers essential areas such as Clients vs. Projects, Corporate Clients vs. Small Business Clients, How to Create an Opportunity Document, Benefits of Finding a Niche… and much more.
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