You'll Fail if You Don't Choose a Niche. But It's Actually Not That Hard.

This process will take the stress (and the ickiness) away.

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Foto di Yan Krukau: https://www.pexels.com/it-it/foto/donna-smartphone-laptop-lavorando-4458420/

The word "niche" makes writers want to puke. It’s yet another growth hack that’ll waste our time and kill our creativity.

The bad news is that without a defined niche, it’s almost impossible to attract an engaged audience. Unless you can wait 10 years to get to a decent size.

The good news is that finding your niche is easier than you think. And less limiting.

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If you’re struggling with finding your niche, I wrote a book that can help. It expands on the concepts in this article.
Its’s titled “Stress-free Niche Finding”. It’s available to all paid subscribers to The Unstoppable Creator. Upgrade your subscription to read it now:

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First things first

This word is so overused that everyone gives it a different meaning. So first, let's sync up to make sure we’re talking about the same thing. I’ll give you a perspective that’ll feel relieving.

A niche is composed of many factors, but you can sum it up this way: it’s a transformation you want to lead your readers to.

For example, you may want to help aspiring writers publish their first book. Or entrepreneurs become more productive. Or new moms be less stressed.

If you think these are too broad, you are right. You need a more specific niche to stand out among the competition. To make it more unique, combine these other factors:

• The topics you cover. For instance, to help an entrepreneur make more money, you could talk about marketing and sales, but mix in personal growth advice.

• Demographic aspects like age, gender, family composition, and education level.

• Psychographic aspects like interests, passions, desires, problems, and ambitions of your audience.

• Your uniqueness. It comes from your skills, interests, and personality. These unique traits can make two creators with the exact same niche look totally different.

Earlier, I promised choosing a niche is easier than you think. All these factors don’t make it seem that easy, right? Well, hold on, help is on the way.

So why does everyone want to be "nicheless"?

Creators want to express themselves. They want total creative freedom. “Niching down” feels constrictive. It condemns them to a prison made of a handful of topics.

On top of that, finding “the right niche” is a puzzle without solution. You think you need to identify the perfect combo no one has addressed before. And you need it right from the beginning, before putting out your first piece of content, without information from previous audience interaction.

A nightmare.

That’s why the supposedly “nicheless” creators are so successful. They reassure us, “YOU are the niche”. The dream.

I fell for this promise. Write about whatever you want and people will follow you. They will even pay you for being yourself.

It’s not a dream. It’s a lie.

Carefully study any nicheless creator and you’ll find that:

• they started in a specific niche, then broadened it,

• they have millions of followers, so, even with negligible conversion rates, they make a lot of money,

• 80% of their content still targets an audience looking for a specific transformation.

Why you need a niche

The niche isn’t a 21st-century invention. Think of any famous creative from the past. Their work always had specific traits that attracted specific types of people.

For example, Isaac Asimov wrote serious science-fiction for a nerdy audience. Its non-fiction books catered to science enthusiasts that wanted to understand physics and other topics but couldn’t enroll in a college class.

When we ace our niche:

• people can more easily discover and recognize us in a sea of capable competitors,

• they’ll have a strong reason to subscribe to us and keep following us,

• they’ll know how to quickly describe what we do to spread the word.

A specific niche also simplifies idea generation. It guides you to the best ideas.

Finally, it also makes monetization easier. It’s clear what you can help with, so they know what results they are paying for.

So how do you define your niche?

No one starts creating with no idea about their potential audience. You naturally gravitate towards some topics and problems. You may also have in mind some people or groups that can benefit from your content.

For example:

• my first site targeted amateur photographer, mainly beginners, who wanted to improve their photos,

• my second site (and YouTube channel) targeted aspiring online entrepreneurs,

• my Substack newsletter targets creators who want to become more prolific.

I was already part of these groups before creating content for them.

So, step one, who do you want to talk to?

Once this is clear, think about the transformation you want to guide them to.

This is hard. You may get stuck. But I promised the process would have been easier than you thought.

Here’s the thing to keep in mind that will prevent all the stress: it's impossible to define a perfect niche from the start. Start broad and refine it as you interact with your audience and gather feedback.

With this in mind, sketch out a transformation. Don’t spend more than half an hour on it.

Then, answer these questions:

• What are their biggest obstacles preventing your audience from achieving that transformation?

• What are their ambitions (i.e. why do they want that transformation)?

Create two long lists with the answers to these questions. They are content ideas.

Now, it’s time to consider yourself:

• What are your strongest skills?

• What are your interests?

• What are your achievements?

• What skills do you want to develop for at least the next 5 years?

• What interests do you want to explore for at least the next 5 years?

Now, find the intersections between the answers to this last series of questions and the lists you created earlier. It’ll give you a better understanding of your niche and show you what to publish.

Don’t spend more than two hours on the entire process. It’s just the starting point.

Constant refinement

The web is a giant feedback machine. You can collect an abundance of data on everything you publish: views, watch time, likes, comments, shares, and so on.

This means that the more you publish, the more you know how to improve.

Your niche is initially like a blurry photograph. Your goal is to improve the focus based on the feedback you get.

So, start publishing as often as possible. When a piece of content gets better or more feedback than the average, reverse engineer what makes it different. Then try to replicate its success.

But a single piece of content doesn’t tell much. It can even point you in the wrong direction. Think like a scientist: to extrapolate the correct observations, gather the largest sample you can.

In this phase, quantity is crucial. If you publish only once a week, you'll gain too little insight. Find content types that allow you to publish more frequently, based on how much time you have. This usually means short written or video posts. You don’t have to limit yourself to this kind of content, but throw it in the mix.

Be especially careful to choose a platform with organic reach. Otherwise, as a beginner creator, too often your content will get lost in the void.

Read this article for more details about the benefits of choosing the right platform.

Your recipe to choose a niche with less stress

Now, it’s time to act:

1. figure out the audience you naturally want to help,

2. write down the transformation you want to guide them to,

3. list their obstacles and ambitions,

4. find your skills and interests that can help them,

5. find a platform where you can publish frequently,

6. publish, collect feedback, refine.

And if you have questions, I’m here.

To your success!

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Remember that you can get more detailed help, with exercises, in my book “Stress-free Niche Finding”. It’s available to all paid subscribers to The Unstoppable Creator.

Upgrade your subscription to read it now: