Freelance Content Writer, SEO Blogger, Ghostwriter – squareONE

Lost and confused, trying to figure out your writing niche? Don’t worry. Here are five practical steps to find yours today.

I have seen many articles about how finding your niche is essential when you are a freelance content writer. We get it, but how do you go about it?

And I mean practically: how do you decide your writing niche, and what factors should you consider? Because this is something you will be spending a lot of time writing on, it would be helpful if you know it will pay off in the end.

Today, I have five solid practical tips and free tools to help you find your writing niche. Let’s get to it.

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5 Steps to Find Your Writing Niche

1. Write about what you know

You can write effortlessly and with more confidence when you are familiar with what you are writing about. It takes more effort when writing about topics you need to learn about.

As freelance content writers, we are well-versed in writing articles and blogs on topics we may need to learn more about. Still, we always take the time to research and provide legitimate references (hopefully.)

But that takes time and a lot of effort.

It is not very fun when you are the least bothered about what you are writing about. Sometimes, our writing seems forced and boring because we are doing exactly that — being forced to write about something boring.

If you are familiar with a topic, you will know where to find references quickly, and your words and thoughts will flow more naturally. Creating more content faster using an expert voice is what websites are looking for when hiring freelance content writers.

That’s why you will see many companies recruiting writers who are familiar with specific topics and not accepting resumes from others. If you have a particular skill set or degree in something, that will go a long way toward your credibility when writing about a specific topic.

2. Explore the readability & profitability of the shortlisted

There is a delicate balance in writing about what you love and readability.

When ascertaining readability, a quick and easy way is to use search tools like Ahrefs or Google Trends to see if readers are searching the topics you shortlisted as your niche. Pay attention to intent (information) and volume at this point.

For volume, the higher the number, the better. If your chosen topics have low numbers, you can still write on them; know you will need more time to gain traction quickly.

Next, you want to check for profitability, but this is a little more complicated and a topic for another article. In the meantime, check out this piece by Neil Patel, who explains it beautifully.

3. Narrow it down and get to work

Not only will you know how much you have to work from, you possibly just wrote the first headline for your first article!

If you have selected more than two topics, now is an excellent time to try them. See which one comes naturally to you when you sit down to write. What seems like something you can talk about and feel confident when you do it?

4. Explore your niche industry

A quick Google search will find you the top bloggers in your niche just by typing niche + bloggers, and you can take a quick look at what they are writing about and what kind of content they are creating about your writing topic.

Knowing the competition is crucial to enter the arena and go head-to-head.

5. Find the gaps

It is hard to rank for topics well-established blogs have already written about, so you focus on keywords that have yet to be explored.

You can do this with some research and with the help of a keyword gap search tool; I like using Moz.

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Why Medium Cares About Your Niche

Now you know how to choose a writing niche for your new blog or next article!

Choosing a niche is also crucial for the platform on which you are reading this article — Medium!

Medium now operates with a niche-driven system where articles are tagged with one to five specific topics your piece falls into.

You get to choose these when you publish your article, and it helps readers find exactly what they want to read — another great reason to focus on a few specialized topics when publishing on Medium.

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In the end, it is important to remember finding your perfect place may take some time. The more you write, the more you know if you are where you should be.

We all fit together like uneven puzzle pieces; no one is perfect. You may choose a niche and decide it doesn’t work for you or your readers and change it.

And that’s okay.

What is important is to stay focused and believe in yourself, take a deep breath, and write.

Originally published for New Writers Welcome on Medium on September 11, 2023.