Which Niche?
Natural health, investing, and self-help.
Quick – what do these three things have in common?
The answer is nothing.
Sure, they’re all niches a writer “could” consider writing for. But realistically, you wouldn’t attempt to tackle them all at once.
Why?
Imagine you’re writing a sales letter for a natural health company. You spend days immersing yourself in the industry, getting to know the people who buy natural health products, and familiarizing yourself with the “hot buttons.”
You spend the next few days researching your client’s competitors, evaluating what’s working in the industry, and finally sitting down to write the letter.
The next week, you sit down to tackle another sales letter, only this time, it’s for an investment newsletter.
So you start up your entire process all over again.
Now imagine if instead of an investment newsletter, your next project was for another natural health company …
You’d be able to re-use all of the information you researched and leverage all of the time you spent getting to know the buyers and the industry.
The sales letter would most likely take you less time to write, which means after you collected your fee, the value of your time would have increased.
Remember, you set your rates with the client in advance. And regardless of how long the project takes you to complete, you still collect your fee either way.
And the more immersed you are in your niche, the easier it becomes to write – whether you’re writing sales letters, autoresponders, websites, case studies, white papers, or video scripts. Easier projects mean you can turn them around faster.
Which means you have more time to either take on more work and make more money overall, or work less hours and still enjoy the same income.
Of course, maximizing the value of every hour you work is only one of the major benefits of specializing and picking a niche to launch your writing career …
- It’s easier to charge more because you’re a specialist.
- It’s easier to market yourself.
- And it’s easier to quickly identify potential clients.
Nick Usborne has a lot of experience helping copywriters pick a good niche to tackle. So for today's issue, I've asked him to write an article on the best practices of choosing your niche.
That way, you’ll be able to choose your own copywriting niche if you haven’t already, or ensure that the niche you have chosen is a good one.
And once you’ve chosen your niche, share it with me in the comments below.
Now, all this assumes that you’ve chosen copywriting as your path to living the writer’s life.
If you haven’t yet chosen a path, I invite you to read (or re-read) an article I wrote earlier this year that focused on helping you choose the path that was right for you.
In addition, I’m happy to help you decide where to start if you’re interested in more than one. You can access that article here and post any questions you have for me in the comment section.
Just remember, the only way to reach the writer’s life is to choose a path and get started.
And then once you do, you can count on AWAI to ensure you have access to the people, training, and opportunities you need to succeed.
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A very intersting article full of good advice. My work experience is in the health field and an obvious niche would be to write about medicine, natural health and healing and related subjects. Is there any particular course in this fields. I wold apreciate any advice you can give me.
Many thanks in advance.
Georgeval – May 20, 2011 at 5:43 pm
I love the article. Here's my issue...I just finished the AWAI Accelerated Program for Six Figure Copywriting. I have no idea what to do now. I guess I need to find a niche first, but after I do, where do I go from there? Thanks Rebecca
Guest (Jeff ) – May 22, 2011 at 2:02 pm
@Georgeval12 - we do actually have a health-focused program called Secrets of Writing for the Health Market, which has actually recently been revised. If you head over to the AWAI catalog and look under Niche Copywriting, you'll find it. It's a growing niche, and one definitely worth pursuing.
@Jeff - It's time to start landing clients! Decide what type of companies you want to work for - what topics would you be most interested in writing about? And then start pursuing them, while at the same time, studying that niche so that your copy continues to strengthen. Feel free to post again once you decide which niche is for you if you'd like more specific advice. Just remember to keep practicing your writing skills, even while you're marketing your services. Your writing will ALWAYS continue to get better, and you'll become more confident as it does.
Rebecca Matter – May 23, 2011 at 9:48 am
Hi Rebecca, I'm a B2B software copywriter, currently focusing on the enterprise workforce management niche (time & attendance, punch clocks, etc.) I've been researching companies & building my list of contacts over the last few months. I used to work for one of these companies a number of years ago, so I'm familiar with the niche, though I admit I didn't know it was as big as I'm rediscovering. :)
Julia Borgini – May 24, 2011 at 6:36 pm
Hi, Rebecca! I am setting up my website - thanks to your "4-Days in May", which of course made me try to identify my (beginner's) niche. I've been researching small businesses in general and their need for effective marketing strategies, especially in this economy. I figure small businesses need a website (it doesn't have to be fancy but has to be good) to work together with direct sales letters. So my niche would be web copy & sales letters for small business. What do you think?
JudyB-Raleigh – June 11, 2011 at 3:26 pm
Sorry for the delayed responses - I'm just seeing these comments now...
@Julia - that's awesome to hear! You've done a great job specializing and it sounds like you've hit a very profitable niche. I can't wait to hear an update on your success.
@Judy - great job on setting up your site! I'm glad to hear my series was useful. I'll be curious to hear how your hunt for clients is going - as you may want to target your niche a bit further with regards to small businesses. Even if your marketing says you writer web copy and sales letters for small businesses, when it comes to proactively searching for potential clients it will be easier if you have some specific areas to focus. For example, it's easier to search Google for "supplement companies," than it is for "small business." Good luck and keep me posted!
Rebecca Matter – July 19, 2011 at 2:34 pm