Best Freelance Niches for Writers

Whether you’re just starting out as a freelance writer or you’re more experienced and looking for a way to switch things up, you might be wondering about the different freelance niches. Figuring out where you fit in the world of freelance writers can take time, and many new freelancers explore different niches before ultimately deciding what they want to focus on.

As a new freelancer, it can be tricky to determine what direction to go in, and here’s the thing–no matter how long you’ve been a freelancer, you have to strike a balance between becoming a specialist in one niche and being too niche–but more on that later.

There are several steps to take when starting your freelance writing career, from creating an online portfolio to finding the best apps for freelance writers. One of the most important steps is choosing a writing niche. Let’s dig into what a writing niche is and if you actually need one.

What Is a Writing Niche?

While niches aren’t exclusive to the writing world, there is a specific set of niches within the industry. Before we even discuss the definition of niche, we first need to address how to pronounce it. According to Webster, it’s pronounced like “neesh” and rhymes with sheesh (if you didn’t cringe when reading the word sheesh, you obviously don’t spend much time on TikTok or haven’t spent much time around middle schoolers.)

Now that we’ve got the pronunciation down, a writing niche is an area of specialization in the services you offer as a freelance writer. While sometimes writing niches are sorted by topic (i.e. your niche might be writing about food,) writing niches are more often defined by the type of writing you specialize in. For example, your niche could be:

• Creative writing
• Blogs
• B2B writing
• B2C writing
• SaaS writing
• Copywriting

There are various levels of niches, depending on how specific you want to be. Instead of saying you’re a marketing writer, you might niche down even further and specialize in creating landing pages. Technically, writing can be broken into four major categories to include expository, descriptive, persuasive, and narrative writing. Then, these categories are broken down even further into more specific areas.

Keep in mind though that you should pay attention to how you advertise your niche. Even though expository, or informative, writing is one of the four major categories of writing, you don’t want to label yourself as an expository writer. Mainly because no one is going on Google searching for an “expository” writer. Instead, they’re looking for a blog writer, a journalist, or a long-form content creator.

From a technical standpoint, it’s important to understand what type of writing you’re focusing on. But when it comes to advertising your services, you need to know what your clients are searching for before identifying your niche.

Do You Have to Choose a Writing Niche?

No matter what type of writer you aspire to be, you might question whether it’s necessary to choose a writing niche. Many freelancers assume it’s better to offer a wider variety of services instead of specializing in only one area. The truth is, what works best for you and your skill set may not be what works best for everyone else.

In the business world, the consensus is that niching down is truly the best way to stand out from your competitors and build a unique brand. There’s value in being a specialist in some cases. This is often true of your freelance business as well.

More often than not, being a “general” writer without a niche will make it more difficult to get really good at one type of writing. Not to mention many business owners and professionals are looking for someone who specializes in the kind of writing they need–they don’t just want a marketing writer for their email campaign, they want the person who’s the best at writing marketing emails.

On the other end, the danger with freelance writing is niching down too much. Your specialty might be writing informative blogs, but if you’re only advertising food blogging services, your business isn’t going to thrive as much as it could if you offered blogs for a wider audience. In this case, you might be better off offering blogs for either B2B or B2C services.

By all means, find an area of writing you love that you can get really good at. But don’t box yourself in so much that you can’t find enough writing jobs to keep your business afloat. If you need some ideas to get started, let’s look at the best freelance niches for writers.

Best Freelance Niches for Writers

If you’re not sure what type of writing to focus on, here’s a look at some of the best niches for freelance writers.

Fiction or Non-Fiction Ghostwriting

Ghostwriting has become a lucrative field–but don’t worry, it’s not as spooky as it sounds. As a ghostwriter, you’ll write books that will be published under someone else’s name. You can ghostwrite fiction or non-fiction books. Professional ghostwriters make between $2,000-$10,000 per book.

Digital Marketing

While digital marketing can be a pretty broad niche, it’s a specialty that's often in demand. Sales writing takes a special set of skills you aren't going to learn in your creative writing classes. Whether you're writing marketing emails or blog posts, the purpose of marketing writing is to increase sales or convert customers.

Long Form Content

While long-form content might not seem much different than creating short blog posts, it takes a different set of skills to write lengthy articles or ebooks. Long-form content will be anywhere from 1,000 to 7,000 words, give or take.

Short Form Content

On the other hand, short-form content can be tricky to master. This type of writing requires getting your message across in bite-size pieces. Short-form content is shorter than 1,000 words and may include content such as short blog posts or social media posts.

Copywriting

Copywriting is another niche with no shortage of opportunities. In the digital world we live in, businesses will always need some form of copy. Copy is meant to persuade a customer or lead to take action– it could include website copy or the copy for a landing page on a website.

Finding Your Freelance Niches With Hire a Writer

Becoming a freelance writer is an exciting journey–but it can also be isolating if you feel like you’re doing it alone. At Hire a Writer, we believe in helping you be your best self, no matter what writing niche you choose.

If you’re looking for tips on how to become a successful writer, grow your business, or just improve your overall writing skills, we’ve got you covered. Subscribe to our blog to get writing tips straight to your inbox!