When I started my own business last year, I didn’t really have a n
iche. After all, beggars can’t be choosers. And whilst my previous experience covered certain, specific areas, I was open to working in any industry.
As time went on, I did exactly that: law, accountancy, central heating, slot machines, stress et al. I enjoyed it. But throwing such a large net over the marketplace has problems – what do I specialise in? I mean, writing blogs and web content is a pretty broad area.
To help narrow down my target, I asked myself three important questions:
- What do I especially enjoy writing about?
- Where am I experienced?
- Where do I thrive?
The good news was that there was considerable overlap in my answers. I’ve discovered through experience, that I thrive in topics that I enjoy. Which may sound obvious. But in reality, plenty of people work in areas they don’t enjoy. Plenty of people work in areas they have insufficient experience in. And not everyone can claim to thrive at work.
Pleasure
Before I even started writing for work, I wrote for pleasure. In the main, this was about sport – specifically football and American football. I had my own blog, I contributed to other sites and I had plenty of readers and positive feedback. Best of all, I seriously enjoyed it. Fast forward to this year, and I’ve recently started writing Premier League football reports for a client. The challenge of thinking of different ways to describe another Norwich defeat or another David Luiz howler (NB: ‘howler’ is a good word to have up the sleeve for football report writing!) is one I love. And being a complete sports geek, means I’ve got a thorough and borderline unhealthy knowledge of the topic.
Experience
Away from sport, previous roles have seen me write about health, specifically mental health and wellbeing. A few years ago this was my full time job, and since going freelance it has become a regular source of work. I’ve got personal experience of mental health issues, so a)I know what I’m talking about and b) I love the chance to be able to help people going through difficult times.
Another, more random, source of work has been the world of online casinos and gaming. Understanding games, knowing the best ways of playing them, and helping people to make money is another area of work that I enjoy. You may have seen articles and social media posts from me on the subject of matched betting (Tagline: ‘It’s not gambling!). I’ve got an exciting series of articles lines up on that very subject – watch this space!
Thriving
I’ve also had two excellent pieces of feedback from clients this week. As most copywriters know, just about the best verdict you can get from a client is ‘no amends’. When that’s coupled with positive comments like ‘This is great, ‘very good’ et al, then you know it’s a job well done.
As it goes, these two pieces of positive feedback came from content I’ve written on football and emotional wellbeing.
All 3 boxes are ticked and I’ve discovered my (somewhat disparate) niche areas:
Mental health
Sport
Casinos
A slightly diverse and eclectic mix of topics, but all three of them are areas I love, have experience in and thrive at.
Do I still want to write about anything and everything. Yes, to an extent. I really wanted to get involved with small businesss and charities in my local area (Wyre Forest), but that hasn’t come to fuitition yet. 
Notwithstanding that desire, I want to start pitching myself as a specialist in the aforementioned fields. It will allow me to focus my marketing efforts on specific areas, look for work in relevant places and enhance my knowledge of these topics.
It’s going to be fun!
If you, or anyone who know, require the services of a freelance copywriter then please get in touch.
Simon Day 