Do You Have a Writing Specialty?

As a freelance writer, it is important that you determine what your specialty is, and that you hone your knowledge in that specialty. Many new freelance writers have no idea what their writing specialty is, and many experienced writers have never taken the time to find their niche either.

It is possible to specialize in more than one niche, but you do not want to have too many specialties. The following information will make my point clearer.

What is a Niche - 

A niche is simply a category. For example, when you submit an article at Constant-Content, you must choose what category the article belongs in, such as health, sports, or business among others. These categories are all "top level"niches. However, each of these categories has subcategories, such as weight loss, football, and business finance.

These subcategories are also niches, and they can still be broken down into even more distinct niches, such as weight loss for women, professional football teams, and small business loans.With some thought and research, these categories can become even more targeted.

Internet marketers always try to narrow down their top level niches as much as possible because it is easier and more profitable to market to a very select group of people. You should use the same philosophy when you select your writing specialty.

What is a Specialty - 

When you have a writing specialty,this could mean two things...the niche that you write for, such as health or sports - or their sub-niches, or the form in which your work will be published, such as web content, books, digital books, magazine articles, newspapers, etc.

I'll save the merits of various publishing platforms for a later date, because you need to figure out what your niche specialty will be before you think about the type of publishing that will work best for that niche. You also need to determine the style of writing you prefer for the niches that you choose. You can learn more about that by reading the post "What Kind of Writer Are You?".

Right now, the important thing is to determine what writing specialty - or niche - will work best for you.

How to Find Your Writing Specialty -

Ask yourself these questions to figure out what your writing specialty should be.

• What topics do you enjoy writing about?
• What topics do you enjoy reading about?
• How much knowledge, experience, or education do you have on the topics you enjoy reading or writing about?
• Is there a market for content in those areas?

As you can see, these are very simple questions, but you should give deep thought to your answers for each question before you determine which writing specialties you want to go with. Remember that you can have more than one specialty, but you will have greater success as a freelance writer if you avoid branching out to too many specialties.