7 Ways To Choose Your Freelance Writing Niches and Start Ahead of the Competition

You've got to approach your freelance writing career with a big picture mentality. Sure, in the short-term, you might pick up a few extra jobs by applying for everything and anything under the sun. In the long-run, a haphazard approach won't get you where you want to go though.

The best way to really establish yourself as a freelance writer is to create a great brand for yourself and that means specializing! By deciding on a niche you give yourself the opportunity to establish yourself as a great brand within that niche.

As we say, it's very difficult to establish yourself as simply a great freelance writer. It's much easier to establish yourself as a great niche writer though. Build your brand around your strengths and passions, and use it as your calling card.

For some people, choosing niches will be an easy process. You might have expert skills in a certain industry or simply be the world's biggest fan of UK pop groups or some other niche. For other people, this decision is not that easy though.

The good news is, this decision doesn't have to be too hard. Sit down with a pad of paper and start doing some brainstorming. Write down anything you might be passionate about and narrow the list down at a later date.

You might be thinking that nobody else is interested in the things you're passionate about, but we guarantee that's not the case. We love to use the example of how many people search Google with the question "is Bigfoot real?" You'll find the answer shows there's plenty of interest in whatever you're passionate about.

The other thing to remember is not to get too bogged down in having to be a complete expert in a subject. The good thing about choosing a niche is you will be able to focus on that subject and become an expert in the field.

We said in point two that it's not important to be a complete expert in the niche you choose. That's because you're going to do a lot of research to make yourself an expert in your niche.

Hopefully, you've picked something you're passionate about because the easiest way to kickstart your freelance writing career is by absorbing your niche into your day-to-day life. Always be on the lookout for new developments in your niche and use research to improve your content.

One way to shorten your learning curve is to be aware of your strengths and weaknesses. Not only can this help you figure out where you need to improve, but it can also help you market yourself within your niche.

Understand what style of writing you are best suited to, whether it be academic or a more light-hearted, conversational tone, find out what you're best suited to and look for the kind of jobs that are looking for that style.

You'll find you're clients are always looking for a distinct voice and certain tone from your writing, so figure out what you're suited to and look for those kinds of jobs.

There's no point choosing your niches if you don't market yourself as a niche writer! One of the major advantages of selecting a niche is that you build up a great body of work in that niche. If you forget to market yourself as a niche writer, then you've undone much of that good work.

Imagine you're applying for a writing job about rainforest conservation. If you can show 20 examples of successful pieces you've written about rainforest conservation then you're going to be ahead of the guy who can show 20 great pieces of conent on unrelated subjects.

Once you've got your niches sorted out, work on building your brand around those niches and market yourself as an expert in those subjects.

You absolutely must learn how to market yourself in this industry. You can be the greatest writer around, but if you don't market yourself you simply won't get jobs.

One of the best ways to market yourself is by building your own website. Focus your website around your personal story and your niches and point potential clients to it. Not only is this a good opportunity to practice your writing, but it also gives you better knowledge of how to write for a website.

Practice your SEO and watch your site grow as the job offers start to flow.

When it feels like things are starting to go well that is the perfect opportunity to scale up. Double your efforts and focus your mind for another big push. Once you find that the methods you are using are working, it's time to commit even more and make sure you take your freelance writing career to the next level.

It all starts with choosing your niche, but eventually, it's your hard work that's going to pay off.