Yes, you actually DO need a niche. But no, it's not what you think.

my writing advice for all writers: with examples from other substacks

So, you’ve been told you need a niche when you’re writing a Substack (or blog, or newsletter, or social media, whatever it is).

What the heck does that mean? What is a niche?

Well, a lot of people take that to mean you can only post something very specific. And to keep in brand, you can only post about that very specific thing. That can be a niche, but it depends what very specific thing you’re writing about.

a niche is your style of audience, and the amount of content you can create for them.

What most people don’t know is that there are four main types of niches.

A super specific niche, for example, has a super specific audience.

A non-unique niche simply means you can attract all types of audiences, not just one group.

Specificity: content

Uniqueness: audience

Note: just because you have a smaller “audience”, doesn’t mean you will always have less readers than everyone else (see example in “super unique”). It more means that you have a more specific crowd than others.

super specific (content)

Maybe you do want to write only about your writing process on your current WIP (for example), but think about how constraining that could be for you. If you want to stay “on brand”, that’s all you can write about. And maybe other people don’t want to hear about that…at least all the time.

Think of a super specific niche as a wide, shallow pool (see image). A very specific audience (narrow width), non-unique content (shallow depth). This means that you write about a wide-variety of content, but still for a single (specific) audience.

Pros: you have a very specific niche, so you can easily know “what you write about”

Cons: other people are probably writing about the same sort of thing, and you can quickly run out of ideas

My favourite Substack in this niche:

Noah Ballard

’s

Why I love this Substack, and why I think it fits this niche: Noah has a very specific goal in his Substack: helping writers write faster. I would also even put this into the specific and unique niche, because this category of writing is something I personally have not seen before. All of his posts are not only about writing, but specifically about how to hack your writing to write more and better in a shorter amount of time.

super unique (audience)

Think of a super unique niche as a narrow, deep pool (see image). More unique audience (narrow width), more content (more depth).

Pros: you have a very unique niche, so you can attract a unique crowd. You also have less restriction on the specificity of your content, so you will hopefully have an easier time thinking of ideas

Cons: your writing may be too unique for others to be interested in, or even for you to be discovered at all.

My favourite Substack in this niche:

Daniel Piper

’s

Why I love this Substack, and why I think it fits this niche: Daniel has definitely found himself a crowd! If you look at any of his post images or read anything of his, you can immediately spot his unique take on life (which, for him, is all about writing).

specific and unique (content and audience)

For a specific and unique niche, it has the depth of unique niches, and the width of specific niches (shallow and wide), meaning there is a larger audience and more content.

Pros: you have a specific audience, and specific content.

Cons: you have to fill the shoes of something specific and unique, which is harder up front.

My favourite blog in this niche: Mara and Sophia’s

Why I love this blog, and why I think it fits this niche: Mara and Sophia have a very specific goal: helping you write better, but they do it in a very unique way: with movies. My favourite article by them is bookmarked on my browser, haha.

neither specific or unique (content and audience)

‼️ Please, please remember that there is nothing wrong with having your writing fall into this niche! ‼️

Being neither specific or unique simply means you can attract multiple audiences that are all very different from each other, instead of being restrained to a very specific group of people and interests.

Pros: you have a larger audience range, and can write about literally anything you want.

Cons: you may have trouble finding things to write about, simply because you can write about anything.

My favourite Substack in this niche:

Briar Albaugh

’s

Why I love this Substack, and why I think it fits this niche: while this niche can be hard to tackle, Briar knocks it out of the park! I recently re-discovered her Substack, and I’m obsessed! She writes about very random things, but in a comedic and tasteful way. Again, unique in this sense is only about the audience.

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So, in conclusion…

There are many types of niches, but it’s very important to find out which one your writing is in, or which one you are writing for.

I’d love to know, which niche are you currently in, or what niche are you writing for?