Zen and the Art of Picking a Freelance Niche

A no-stress guide to finding the best niche for your business

Image by Jason McBride — a collage created from licensed Canva images

One of the most common pieces of advice for new freelancers is to pick a niche.

There’s even a catchy slogan for this idea, “riches are in the niches.” However, many freelancers struggle for months or years to find a niche — or worse, they pick a niche and still struggle to gain any momentum.

After having made my living online for eight years, I have learned a lot about niches — and I know that almost everything you read about the wisdom of picking a niche is incomplete.

A niche isn’t a golden ticket. Picking a specialty doesn’t guarantee you will suddenly have more clients than you can handle. One dark secret many gurus are reluctant to share is that generalists can also have flourishing careers.

So many freelancers struggle with picking a niche because most don’t fully understand what a niche is or why you might want one.

A Niche Isn’t What You Think

A freelancing niche is often thought of as a type of work you specialize in. You might have a subject matter niche like hospitality or insurance. You could also have a project niche. Perhaps you design landing pages or write autoresponders.