Jason R Ward

Something weird has happened with algorithms on a few sites where I do side-hustle stuff. One has gone hugely up in terms of earnings and another down. When it comes to writing, because of my varied background, I have never really thought about narrowing down to a niche. But I have recently realised that I do have some niches, they are just really different.

But is it essential to limit yourself to just one or two niches?

My earnings have suddenly flipped

On Fiverr I have one gig and that is for being a writer. I will write pretty much anything. But the platform has recently shuffled my sole gig around to the point where even I can’t find myself on there. And I know all my settings, jobs and prices, so I should be able to use filters but… nope. I am going to add a couple more gigs but the feeling on the platform is that the buyer is king whereas the sellers are serfs. You feel kind of powerless. We’ll see if things change. Maybe this is a platform where I should ‘niche down’.

On Medium, however, my stories suddenly seem massively in favour. My earnings there went up almost exactly tenfold from November to December. This month is already on target to be even better. The good thing there is that it is cumulative and I can write about what I am interested in. The more you write, you more you are likely to see an increase in earnings. You need a couple of articles to do well and suddenly you are off and running.

Niche or no niche on Medium?

That is the question. I never thought I had much of a niche but actually, as I said, I have a few – they just happen to be really varied.

I don’t know if my experience will work for everyone but I have found it to be highly enjoyable and surprisingly popular simply writing about my main interests.

My interests are (primarily): history, all literature, writing for a living, technology and science. On Medium, I tend to write mostly about history, technology and writing. Or a mix of all three.

Writing about history is something that never occurred me before

My top-read story to date is about the King of Prussia and how he had a division of giant soldiers that he was obsessed with. He even kidnapped and bred tall people in an early attempt at eugenics.

You can read The King of Prussia hired, kidnapped and bred giant soldiers by clicking on this.

I also recently wrote about the story of a Real-life Lord of the Flies and the history of toilet paper.

History is fascinating and full of great tales. I also really enjoy writing about it and searching through books and the internet for new tales to share. If this has never occurred to you, give it a try. You don’t have to be an expert, you just need to be able to tell a story in an interesting way.

Blending niches

I love technology but don’t really know enough to be an expert on it. However, that doesn’t mean I can’t write about certain aspects. I wrote a piece that proved popular with writers, tech fans and Apple fans. It was called:

MacBook Air M1 2020 for writers.

This blends two of my niches – technology and history. Similarly, another story I wrote blends my love of history and technology:

OneCoin – The $4 Billion Scam

I have mixed interests quite often. Are books getting longer? looks at how long books are historically and how technology is changing literature. On a similar theme is: How Is Technology Changing the Way We Read?

I think you probably get the point. Even though my niche choices are different, they can be mixed and blended.

Vastly different niches shouldn’t be a problem but there are some final things to consider

I think it depends on what kind of writer you are. For me, advertising my services on Fiverr, it is good to have a broad or general portfolio. If I advertised a specific niche, I would have missed out on jobs. On Medium, I can blend my interests if needed, even though they are really different.

My other writing work, not including my short ebooks, involves working with very different repeat clients or my pitching articles to a variety of publications. If I niched down too much, I would limit places I could pitch to and think I would get bored and burn out quite quickly.

However, if you are really into just one or two niches and love the idea of just writing on a couple of topics, then maybe that would work better for you. Being an expert on a subject and building a reputation can bring clients to you.

In summary – go for whatever works for you. But don’t think you HAVE to have a niche. Being interested in what you do is the most important thing.