It’s the question that I get asked more often than any other.
It’s either:
- I don’t know which niche to choose
- Can I have two niches?
If you don’t know which niche to move into but you’ve bought into niching down as you know it’ll open doors to more clients and more money, have a read of How To Narrow Your Niche And Earn More Money.
If you’re stuck between two niches, keep reading. Because, at the time of writing, I’m not sure how this article is going to go!
Update: since finishing this article, the answer is a resounding no! Let’s dig into why…
Is it okay to have two niches?
It depends on what your goals and circumstances are.
When we talk about being niche, it’s most commonly in one of these two scenarios:
- You’re a freelancer who recognizes niche = more money, personal brand, etc.
- You’re creating a website for affiliate marketing
Being niche as a freelancer
Okay, here’s what happens when you’re niche:
- Your pool of potential clients shrinks
- You stand out as one of the most hireable options
Oh no, the number of potential clients shrinks!
It shrinks from everybody ever to people who work in the same field as you and recognize your skillset, experience, and knowledge as superior to those applicants or potential hires without that niche element.
This is only a plus.
Look at the logos on my website. They’re all in the same industry as my future clients. Knowing I’ve done work for them reassures future clients they’ve come to the right person.
Here’s a small extract from my book on why niching down to one specialism is the right thing to do…
Niche freelancers have a smaller client pool
A smaller client pool than the rest of the world, sure.
It might seem scary at first. But narrowing down your client pool is a good thing.
Here’s why…
When you focus on one industry, type of work, or subset of that work, you become an expert in this particular area.
For example, I write about unified comms and contact centers. Almost exclusively.
My customers are unified comms providers like Cisco and contact center providers like Nextiva.
With 15 years experience working with and writing for these vendors, do you think they prefer hiring generalist writers who don’t know about their tech, audience, or brand?
Absolutely not.
They want to find and hire someone who’s been there, done that, and bought the t-shirt.
And they’ll pay more for it.
That’s the best way I can wrap up the positives about being niche.
But the second you stop focusing on that niche and start going after different industries, you start undoing all the hard work you’ve invested into your niche.
Sure, when you’re starting out, building a portfolio and honing your craft is probably the best advice out there.
But, the sooner you find your niche, the better.
Planning for two long-term niches, as a freelancer, is a restriction you don’t need to place on yourself.
A word on creating niche sites
When creating “niche” sites, what you’re doing is building a library of online resources that you want Google to know you’re the authority on.
First up, this is going to be a long-term project. You need to create high-quality content that satisfies search intent over a period of time.
Even if you write 100 blog posts in 25 days, Google isn’t going to rank your site above competing sites that have been around for decades.
So, not only must you be knowledgeable about this topic, but you must also be passionate enough to continue with your new site for the long haul.
My real-life example: I started a site based on work from home furniture. It was loosely related to what I write about for my clients and I considered myself an expert. After six blog posts, I gave up. Writing about furniture is boring. I was not committed. It was the wrong niche to try and start an affiliate site for. In fact, the only fun part was modeling for images. Here I am advertising the anti-glare screen protector I didn’t enjoy writing about.
TLDR: You’ve got to convince Google you’re a credible source and have the interest to see it through long term.
If this is your thing though (creating sites), there’s no harm in having multiple niches. If each site is a long-term project, and you have the resources or expertise in enough topic areas, they’re standalone websites and Google doesn’t care who runs them.
That said, imagine what you could do if you doubled down on that one high-earning niche that you really enjoy.
Just saying.
What if I have more than one niche?
Having more than one niche means you’re stealing attention from the other.
How can you justify you’re the best person for the job in one specific niche when you’re spending half your time elsewhere.
It’s like getting married and starting a family with two spouses.
- It’s not sustainable
- It’s impossible to commit to both
- It sounds like a good idea at the time (okay maybe not this one)
If you have more than one niche, seriously consider opting for one over the other.
It boils down to three main things…
1 - You are marketing to two different audiences
It’s hard enough for me marketing my freelance book and freelance coaching services to freelancers, while at the same time trying to drum up business for my actual job.
I quickly realized that the audience that hires me for the bulk of my work (writing, strategy, etc.) isn’t the same audience that will buy my freelance resources.
So, am I a hypocrite?
There is a distinction about what I’m doing here. I am a freelancer so it feels natural to write about my freelancing experiences.
My target audience for billable work remains the same: unified comms businesses who need help with their content marketing.
My freelance work is a hobby and a side income. But I’m well aware that mixing the two types of content on LinkedIn is slightly against the advice I’m giving.
That said, when you’re at the crunch point of deciding which niche to go after, you probably don’t have the experience to delve into stories about how you’ve done XYZ. It’s a different point in your career where you start branching outside of your core working area.
Freelancing isn’t a niche. It’s who I am.
If I was to describe my work self in one sentence, it would be:
A freelance content marketer who specializes in unified comms and contact center.
Being yourself and being good at it isn’t a niche. It’s who you are.
That’s an important distinction to make.
Writing about your marketing experience if you’re a marketer isn’t crossing niches. It’s writing about your experience.
Clients love that.
But, if you’re preaching how great you are at marketing HR software and marketing soda, you’ve got two very different audiences you’re building.
Often in the same place.
Take LinkedIn, for example. A source of over $300,000+ worth of my freelance income.
The majority of my followers and connections are inside my industry.
That’s by design.
I don’t want 200,000 followers. I want 2,000 potential customers.
And, sure, if you have two niches, using my logic, you might argue you could have 4,000 potential customers.
But, in reality, you’d be pushing out your soda marketing message to your HR audience and they’ll soon unfollow you.
Why is this bad?
Marketing to two audiences means you’re cross-polluting.
You’re telling HR folks you’re good at soda and soda folks you’re good at HR.
The chance of the two overlapping is minimal.
Your time and effort is effectively being shipped at 50% each time.
Could it be good?
Marketing the wrong thing to the wrong audience never works.
In fact, that’s where most advertising goes wrong.
Just because you’ve got a good advert, it doesn’t mean everyone wants to buy what you’re selling.
You need to get in front of the right people and tell them why you’re the right choice for what they need.
2 - Your personal brand is all over the place
If Jane is the WordPress girl, she needs to be the WordPress girl.
If Tom is the DevOps guy, he needs to be the DevOps guy.
To become known for what you do is every freelancer’s dream.
Juggling two niches is counterintuitive to that goal.
When someone Google’s unified comms writers , I want them to find me.
When someone searches LinkedIn for unified comms marketing, I want them to find me.
That’s my personal brand. I’m the unified comms marketer/writer.
When you try to be two things, you can’t put 100% into that one thing that makes you stand out.
If you’re not the person, you’re just one of many.
Why is this bad?
Branding and identity for any business is crucial.
We know Nike for sports apparel. We know Bose for high-end sound tech. We know Apple for beautiful, easy-to-use devices.
If potential customers don’t know what you’re known for, it’s easy for them to pass on working with you.
On the other side of the coin, you’re the person. Often the best person. And, sometimes, the only person we want for the job.
Could it be good?
No. Having an unstructured personal brand is like having no personal brand at all.
Your audience doesn’t understand what you do and you make it hard for them to approach you for work.
3 - You’re never going to become a subject matter expert
I spend around 10 days per year on non-billable work. These are dedicated to information intake.
I’m either at industry conferences, watching webinars, or on vendor briefings.
Those 10 days are me investing in myself to become the person to go-to for content marketing in my niche.
Becoming a subject matter expert makes me stand out among hundreds of other people fighting for the same gig.
Or, in most cases, there is no fight. Customers come to me before advertising they need help.
Sure, you can be knowledgeable about lots of things.
I can tell you tons about football, cricket, and motor racing. But I am a subject matter expert when it comes to unified comms.
If I pursued a second niche, there is no feasible way to claim I could be a subject matter expert without losing the reputation, knowledge, and experience in my existing niche.
To be a genuine expert, you need to live and breathe it.
Why is this bad?
To be a genuine expert, you need to live and breathe it.
Yes, I repeated that line. You understand why.
Could it be good?
Not if you want to be viewed as a subject matter expert, get more clients, and earn more money.
What about niche-adjacent?
There is such a thing as an adjacent niche or a sub niche.
We’re getting into trivial technicalities but it’s important to bring up.
I do a lot of work in the remote work and asynchronous work sphere. You could argue these are their own niches.
Because of what I do all day (writing about software like Zoom and Slack), I naturally know a lot about remote work and asynchronous work.
I would go as far as to say I’m a subject matter expert.
That’s because these are adjacent to my core niche.
I have worked remotely for 10 years, mostly asynchronously. And I’ve written about the technology, processes, and strategy needed to implement both.
It might be an accidental niche or just part of what I do already.
Their similarities ensure I’m not straying too far away from my personal brand and my target audience.
Deciding between your two niches
First up, are they different?
Sure, if you’re writing about Call of Duty one day and SharePoint the next, they’re totally different.
But, in some cases, people get hung up over nothing.
I’ve known freelancers who write about Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics and worry about having two niches.
While it’s super impressive they can write about one or the other for a living, they are both CRMs.
What’s more, they’re competitors. Having insider knowledge of the market your customers operate in is what being niche is all about.
If your two niches are totally different, run through this exercise to choose which niche is right for you.
Here’s the kicker:
You have to pick one or the other for each question.
- Which could you commit to for the rest of your working life?
- Which are you a subject matter expert in?
- Which has the longest potential lifetime?
- Which makes you the most money?
- Which makes you happiest?
- Which are you known for?
All these are key factors into deciding which niche is right for you.
It’s going to be a tough decision.
As long as you make the right choice, it will pay off 100x over the course of your career.
I often answer, “It’s because I know my niche” to questions like:
- How do you write blog posts so quickly?
- How do you get customers so easily?
- How do you get paid so much?
If I wasn’t a subject matter expert in my niche, I wouldn’t be able to do any of these things.
Are you at a crossroads in your freelance career?
