How to Find Your Niche

The fact I’ve been helping bloggers blog for the past 5 years and I’ve never written about finding your niche before is beyond me. Shout out to @itsjla_ for sliding in my DMs to ask! (P.s. if you ever have any questions about blogging or want to see a certain topic on here, please don’t be shy and let me know – I’m here to serve YOU!)

Ok back to finding your niche. So, this is something every single blogger and influencer should establish before anything else, like before you even think of a blog name, you need to figure out what it is you’re going to blog about.

step 1: list your passions

It’s cliche and predictable but write down a list of your passions, like, right now. Why? Well, when you’re passionate about something you have that fire, that motivation, that momentum that is going to carry you through the beginning stages of blogging, which are often the hardest. You can’t get by on passion alone, but it’s a good starting point.

When you’re passionate about something you get those around you to be passionate with you which in turn creates more opportunities for growth and expansion (aka all the elements you need to succeed as an influencer). Plus, passion prevents you from getting bored and you can’t afford to get bored because building a business requires lots and lots of patience.

The first step is to think of all the things you could talk about, watch, learn about, or do for hours. It might be cooking, baking, traveling to Europe, riding a bike, finding the perfect pair of jeans, thrift shopping, etc.

Once you’ve done that you need to narrow your list to just one, yes, one. How do you do that? Well you pick the passion that really lights you up. Think of it as picking a life partner. There are a lot of hot guys and girls out there so how do you pick “the one”? You pick someone that meets most of your criteria and someone you can see yourself hanging around with for a while, if not forever. You want to look at the good, the bad, and the ugly of each passion and see if, despite all of that, it still interests you.

For example, maybe one of your passions is beauty but you hate wearing make-up… well that’s not going to work. Or your passion is thrift shopping but you don’t want to share all your thrifting secrets… that’s not going to work either. Maybe you love fashion but you hate answering questions about what you’re wearing… that won’t work either. You see what I’m saying? It’s like me hating Instagram but wanting to consult people how to use it (which I do BTW).. it just wouldn’t work!

So when you’ve refined your ultimate, absolute, #1, ride or die passion you can move on to Step 2.

step 2: find your area of absolute expertise

After you have your #1 passion you want to get really, really specific within that passion. So for example if you’ve decided your niche is fashion. Great! But what kind of fashion? Affordable fashion? Great! What kind of affordable fashion? Affordable fashion from Zara? Perfect! Now you’re halfway to finding your niche.

Three accounts who have really killed it in the niche department are @colette.prime, @thedevilswearzara, and @targetdoesitagain. The reason being is because they are super specific in what they blog about. Colette Prime only blogs about fashion finds on Amazon Prime. Genius. The Devils Wear Zara are two fashion editors who literally wear Zara every day, whether it’s one piece or an entire outfit, there is Zara somewhere in their OOTD. Target Does It Again is unique in that it’s not a blogger talking pictures of herself wearing or using items but it’s simply pictures of finds at Target, like in the store. There’s no curation whatsoever and it’s really refreshing. Whether it’s a discounted chair, new pottery arrivals, or designer office supplies, Target Does It Again is your go-to source for the latest and greatest at our beloved Target.

What it comes down to is choosing a niche that’s right for you. I’m probably the only person in the entire world who rarely shops on Amazon so emulating someone like Colette Prime just wouldn’t work for me. I also don’t like how Zara doesn’t offer affiliate links so a niche like The Devils Wear Zara is out for me too. However, I’ve been reading self-improvement books since I was 16, I truly believe I was born to teach, and I love helping people grow their blogs and business which is why self-development works for me as a niche. See what I’m saying?

step 3: consider what you have the most experience in

Something else to keep in mind when determining your niche is what you have the most experience in. Let’s say you want to be a beauty blogger who only uses vegan beauty products. There are a lot of beauty bloggers out there but not as many beauty bloggers who only use vegan products. It all sounds great, until you realize you’ve never actually used any vegan beauty products. Now what?

You backtrack slightly and look at all the make-up you do use. Do you see any niche worthy ideas there? Maybe the majority of your make-up is MAC so you essentially become a brand ambassador for them.

Your passion is beauty, your area of expertise is make-up, and you have the most experience with MAC make-up. Boom. You have found your niche.

But let’s say you really want your niche to be something you don’t have any experience in. I can say with almost 100% confidence that if you do this, you will be bypassed for someone who actually knows what they’re talking about. You wouldn’t listen to someone giving parenting advice but doesn’t have any kids would you?

When you have experience you gain credibility and when you gain credibility you become a trusted source which is necessary for growth. If you’re not a credible source of information and people don’t trust you you won’t get very far.

step 4: hone in on why people come to you

If you’ve followed all the steps thus far and you’re still feeling like you’re not sure what your niche is, look at what people come to you for. What questions do you get asked all the time? What advice do people seek from you? What are frequent compliments you get?

When you answer these questions you’re doing an audit of sorts, or a “product market fit” which is when you let the market kind of dictate what direction your biz should go in, or in this case, your niche. Sometimes what we think should be our niche predicated on what we’re passionate about or what we have the most experience in, isn’t always the case. You always want to be paying attention to the questions you’re asked, the compliments you’re given, and the feedback you’re receiving. These are usually clear indicators of whether or not you’re going in the right direction.

For example, maybe based on Steps 1-3 you think your niche should be a Revolve fashion blogger. You love Revolve, you’ve been a fan on them for years, you know everything there is to know about the company and the brands they carry, and you feel you have a great personal style… BUT all of your friends, family, and strangers are always asking you about your beauty regime – your skincare routine, the different products you use, how you get rid of dark circles around your eyes, etc. so you may want to consider switching your niche from a Revolve fashion blogger to a Revolve beauty blogger. Plus Revolve’s beauty program is relatively new so this could lead to great opportunities.

It’s little things like this, that often go overlooked, dropping you hints to discovering your niche. Pay attention to the signs. The universe won’t steer you wrong.

What’s your niche? Tell me in the comments below!

xx