Why I Decided To Not ‘Niche Down’ When Writing.

I much prefer to be broad!!!!!

How many of you have heard the term niche down, over and over again when you’re trying to figure out what to write about on medium or your blog??

You hear it so much that it ends up sounding like a damn broken record. I’ve been writing online for quite a while now. Before I started writing on medium, I had several blogs over the years, and I did follow all the guru’s advice and tried my best to“niche down.”

But it simply wasn’t for me. I would end up feeling bored, frustrated, and incredibly burnt out. Which would then cause me to write some very boring articles, just so I could fill up my blog. After a while, I’d eventually end up abandoning the entire thing.

So what does the term niche down mean?

This means finding a specific topic or area to focus on in your writing.

Examples of different niches could be……

Writing only about pets, cooking, mental health, writing tips, movie reviews, anything. Once you establish yourself, you’ll be seen as the go-to person in that specific niche.

If you’re writing online for a specific purpose, and as a way to financially support yourself, then yes, it’s a good idea to niche down because choosing a relevant niche will help you become known for what you do, which helps you stand out from your competition.

Writing has always been something fun for me, and a way to fully express my thoughts without judgment or embarrassment. Sure, I may receive the odd judgemental comment now and again, but that’s part and parcel of bearing your soul online for the entire world to see.

When I first started writing on medium, I had the full intention of only writing about mental health as I deal with constant anxiety and the occasional bouts of depression. My first few stories were mostly about anxiety, and I remember thinking one evening about how I would love to write about my cat, of all things lol.

I searched online for days, wondering If I could write about different topics and If it would be okay as my niche was only supposed to be about mental health. I couldn’t find anything relevant enough, so I decided to find a way to incorporate cats and anxiety into one article.

And I eventually came up with the article below. Please don’t judge me, this was one of my first posts on medium, and I was just learning how to use it. The writing was also not the best lol.

5 reasons why cats are the perfect anxiety-banishing friends

(Do you ever go back and read your oldest articles?? It can be incredibly cringe, at least for me anyway.)

After writing about my cat, I decided that I again wanted to write about something else unrelated to mental health. So I did, and I was having a blast. I’d only ever written about anxiety before when I had my blogs, so being able to write about whatever was on my mind was brilliant.

Of course, when I wanted to write about anxiety again, I did. But I decided to stop writing about that specific niche and write about whatever I wanted instead. Choosing a narrow niche works well for plenty of writers and bloggers, it just didn’t work well for me.

My views and reads on medium were actually rising a lot quicker than when I only wrote about mental health. Because not everybody wants to read about the same topics again and again. Readers prefer a wide range of topics to read. In my opinion, it’s more relatable and fun.

At the end of the day, there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ when writing online. If you want to niche down, then do it. Or, if you want to be free-flowing and write about whatever is on your mind at that time, then write whatever you want.

I write because I love it. I love to let out all my fear, frustrations, anxieties, weird thoughts, life experiences, and so on.

So niching down is definitely not for me. I don’t want to feel burnt out to the point where I don’t want to write anymore. Because writing is escapism for me, and I would be lost without it.

So it’s up to you, you can choose to niche down, or you can choose to freestyle and write whatever is on your mind. ♥