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Struggling with your niche?
Got no niche and you’re worried it might hurt your online growth?
Not sure if a niche is really necessary?
Then this post is for you.
Have you thought one of these things to yourself:
- ‘I’ve been putting off starting a YouTube channel for a few months, because I’m struggling to pick a niche’
- ‘I worry that I’m never going to find my niche, so I won’t be able to create content anyway’?
If that’s you too, you’re not alone.
And no, having a specific niche is not as important as you might think.
Let me guess. You clicked on this post, because you’ve heard every other guru out there say: ‘find your niche’, ‘you need to niche down’, ‘you can’t make money unless you have a specific niche’.
That is absolutely not true!
That advice probably has you sitting there thinking: ‘well, I don’t have a specific niche’ or ‘I don’t know how to niche down’, which makes this whole online business thing much more stressful for you than it needs to be.
I know you might be putting off starting that blog or starting that YouTube channel, because you don’t have a niche. You don’t know what you want to talk about.
Or maybe you have all of these ideas in your head and multiple passions, multiple things you would like to talk about.
And you simply don’t know how to narrow it down.
You don’t know if you need to narrow it down even more.
Let’s talk about it.
Feel free to either watch this video or keep reading below for all the deets:
Is a niche really necessary?
Yes and no.
Having a specific niche does help in some ways. It can help you grow faster.
It can help you have a more focused effort on your content.
But it’s not the end-all be-all.
When people say ‘niche down’ or ‘find your niche’, it can be so confusing.
I’m going to give you the 3 options that you have when it comes to your niche, because it doesn’t have to be such a strict thing.
It doesn’t have to be this one thing that you always talk about.
Actually having just one topic that you talk about all the time can make you get in a rut.
It can make you feel stressed out.
It can make you burn out really easily.
It can make you lose the passion for this online business thing.
And that’s not what we want.
If you tell yourself you’re only going to talk about this one thing and then you start creating content on it consistently.
Then two months in, you realise you don’t know what else you can talk about on this topic and you just get frustrated and burned out, then you’re just not going to create any more and that’s very counterproductive. Isn’t it?
Especially when you’re trying to grow an online business from this content. Because most likely you’re not just creating content for the sake of it.
You’re creating content because you want to grow an online business and you want to make money from this.
Yes, having a niche or a few topics that you talk about can help the algorithm on certain platforms, which we’re going to talk more about in a second.
What to do if you don’t have a niche?
If you don’t have a niche figured out, that’s ok.
Most of the time, you are your niche.
Your whole experience, perspective, energy, vibe – that is your niche.
A lot of people or gurus omit the fact that it takes time to find that ‘thing’ that you’re known for. The thing that grows your business. And it’s ok for it to be like that. It’s all a process.
I’m going to give you three options that are going to help you get a bit more clarity on this niche thing.
But know that it is absolutely fine to grow without a niche.
How do I niche down? How do you find your niche?
Here are the three options that you have for getting clarity on your niche.
Option 1: The super niche
If you already have your topic in mind, you’re probably not even reading this to be honest, because you already know your niche.
But you might be wondering if you’re doing it right. You can be super niche.
If you have a topic, you have something specific you want to talk about, something you’re super passionate about and you just want to talk about that, then that’s great.
It can work well with the algorithm and it can help you grow.
Option 2: Pick 3-5 topics
Your second option is to have 3-5 topics (that’s just a rough number, not a strict one) that you want to talk about.
If they are related, if they go well together, if maybe the same type of person would want to watch or consume all of those topics together, then that’s a great niche to go for.
It doesn’t have to be so strict.
It doesn’t have to be just one thing.
Let’s say you have a mom blog.
You feel like maybe you should only post about babies or toddlers and that if you post anything else that’s going to hurt you in the algorithm.
That’s not true!
If you think about it, your audience is going to be moms like yourself.
So think about the moms and what they might need from the content you create.
Yes, they might need baby tips and toddler tips.
But they might also need really quick meal recipes, because they are busy moms.
They might need some productivity tips, because again they are busy and they are trying to do all of these things.
They might need tips for cleaning their home.
They might need home decor tips.
If you think about it, they are all related.
So even though you might feel like you don’t have a specific niche with all these topics, but you do.
You do have those 3-5 topics that are connected and that can work really well for you.
Option 3: Go broad and think about your target audience
The third option is to go really broad.
If you feel like you have no idea what topic you want to pick, then just think about your target audience.
Think about that one person that you want to talk to.
There are ways that you can do research on your target audience online, you can go to forums or Facebook groups and read about these people in your ideal audience.
See what they’re saying in those groups or in the comments of other YouTube channels.
See what they struggle with, see where they are right now, where they would like to be and how you can help them with that within your content.
Having a person in mind is really helpful when you’re creating your content.
Should you niche down?
It is honestly perfectly okay to start broad, to not know your niche and to narrow it down in time if you need to.
Or to just find what works for you in time.
A lot of people will get really stuck in this step. In this over thinking of their niche.
They are unsure of what they should blog about, so they never even get started.
Or they blog a few posts here and there, they quickly feel like they don’t have it right and they just quit.
I know you won’t let that be you!
It’s so important to keep going and to keep testing different things, even if they’re not super specific or niched down.
That concept of niching down can be so stressful in my opinion.
Let me know in the comments if you feel the same.
So I am giving you permission to just start broad and narrow it down in time if you need to. That’s how I did it too, that’s how I started. And it’s perfectly fine to do that.
You don’t have to follow the path that everyone else follows, you can follow your own path and you can find your own thing after testing and experimenting with your content.
Can you be successful without a niche?
Yes, you can absolutely be successful without a niche.
Rather than overthinking it for another year, rather than constantly wondering whether you should blog about this or that, rather than over complicating things, just take that messy action.
Take that huge messy action consistently and then you will find what works for you in time.
If you find that certain topics start to bloom on your YouTube channel, on your blog, whatever it might be, then maybe you will want to focus a bit more on those for a while.
And that’s okay too.
But don’t feel like you have to put yourself in this box to create content only on one topic in order to be successful.
You can be successful even if you don’t have a specific niche.
There are so many people out there who do this online thing without having a specific niche, whether that’s on Instagram, on YouTube, on a blog. And they still find success.
My blog is not very specific either.
You will notice that I have blogging tips and social media tips.
I have motherhood tips.
I share outfit ideas.
So it’s not a super specific niche and it still works. I still get traffic to all of those different categories, because they are generally related to that same target audience that I’m trying to reach.
You can do this even if you don’t have a specific niche in mind.
I actually started super broad.
I didn’t know what I wanted to do to be honest. I was all over the place on all these different platforms and it didn’t matter.
I still managed to make all of this money.
Yes, maybe you could get there faster if you have a super specific niche that you only talk about.
But you could also lose interest and lose that passion, which will make you not want to pursue this anymore.
So there really needs to be a balance.
Can I have a blog without a niche?
When it comes to a blog, you do not need to have such a specific niche.
You can have a lifestyle based blog.
Actually a lot of blogs are more like a magazine, an article-based website written by one person.
Some people say Google will favour your blog or your SEO will be better if everything is on the same topic.
But you can actually have different categories on the same blog, especially if you create a well structured menu at the top, so that people can navigate them all easily.
Google is pretty smart.
A lot of people are not just one-sided on one topic.
A lot of people have these different passions and different things they want to talk about.
And Google is smart enough to know that. It’s not an old-school algorithm anymore.
Google is simply trying to deliver the most relevant piece of content to each person who types something in that search bar. If you can provide that, it doesn’t matter how many other topics you cover on your blog.
As I mentioned, for example, on my blog I have different topics that I talk about.
I actually have a lot of them ranking in Google on those different topics.
I have some motherhood posts ranking.
I have some fashion posts ranking.
I have some blogging posts, social media tips ranking.
Google will work for you and your blog even if you don’t have a specific niche.
How do you find your niche on Instagram?
When it comes to niching down on Instagram, it’s the same thing as blogging.
Actually on Instagram even more so – people follow you because of you and because of your own personal brand.
And while, yes, it can help in the algorithm on Instagram to have things under a specific topic, it doesn’t need to be like that.
On Instagram I would highly recommend creating your feed content (whether that’s reels, posts, carousels), just create them on topics that your target audience is interested in.
No, it doesn’t need to be just one topic – it can be multiple ones.
Doing that research on your audience is really important for this.
I share the process of doing this audience research in this post on How to grow your blog without social media.
And even on Instagram stories, you can definitely be more lenient.
You can share more behind the scenes and really think about how your target audience can relate to you better through what you put on your stories.
On Instagram, most people will likely follow you for you, for that personality and the unique vibe that you have in your content.
What niche is best for YouTube? How do you find your niche on YouTube?
When it comes to YouTube, I do think it’s a good idea to have a few topics that you cover, as we previously mentioned.
Having that target audience is so helpful as well.
This is so that you know who you are talking to in your videos.
For example, on my YouTube channel, you might notice that I have a few tips on Instagram, a few tips on YouTube, on blogging and generally growing an online business.
That’s because my target audience is entrepreneurs, content creators or influencers who want to make this a profitable online business.
And I know they need tips on blogging and social media to do this.
I don’t just focus on creating content on one of those platforms only (only about YouTUbe or only about blogging), because most of my content creator audience will not just be on one platform.
Most of them won’t just be on YouTube or just a blog.
They will likely have a few other platforms that they work on.
And that’s why I create content on all of these different topics.
Again, knowing that person that you’re talking to and that you’re trying to help is going to be super helpful.
One thing that’s really important on YouTube is to try to ride the wave.
If you feel like one of your topics or one of your videos is picking up speed and it’s doing really well, then try to focus a bit on that topic for the next few weeks or for the next month or two.
Simply create more content on that topic, because then the YouTube the algorithm will pick it up and they’ll recommend your video to more people who are interested in that same topic.
Do ride that wave, go along with it and then go back to your other topics as well after you feel like the wave is starting to stagnate.
For example, at the moment on my YouTube channel, I noticed that one of my previous videos on blogging (How to Write a Blog Post Fast – 3,000 Word in 1 Hour) got picked up by the YouTube algorithm. And it’s also doing really well in search.
So what I did is I created more content on blogging tips. So if you look back at some of my previous videos, I did a lot on the topic of blogging to ride that wave.
But then a few weeks from now, I might create more content on YouTube growth.
To sum it up – no, I don’t believe you need a specific niche.
No niche? No problem!
You don’t need to put yourself in a box and stress yourself out.
Just get started.
Start broad and narrow it down in time if you have to.
Because honestly, trying and experimenting is the only way you’re going to find that profitable niche for yourself.
Go out there and create the content. I’m excited for you and I hope this helps you on your journey online.
Thank you, Madeline! This may be the best blog post I have ever read.
Trying to do this “pick a niche, narrow it, etc. thing” has been so stressful (for years!), that I was at the point of saying the heck with it and walking away. I watched a Gary V video where he said people can make $85,000 per year talking about anything, and that got me thinking. Your blog post went into greater detail, hitting on every issue that has been holding me back. Something just clicked inside. Thank you so much. Truly, this was something I needed to hear. I can finally get started and be happy about it, rather than stressing over everything! Smile! You made someone’s day today!
OMG! This was all I need it to read, I have been paralyzed for months trying to find a niche, writing, and stopping just because I think it is not niched material, so thank u, really thank u very much.