These 5 Things Are More Important Than A Niche (For Beginners)

Do I really need a niche? This is a question that all new copywriters and content creators ask me, and for a long time my answer was yeah, 100%. But as copywriting, marketing and the world of content creation continue to evolve, you better believe the rules around niching down are changing too. In this video, I'll share when having a niche is absolutely critical and what's even more important than niching down today? Especially. Especially if you're just getting started. So keep watching. Hey posse, what's up? It's Alex coming at you this week with a long overdue video. We are going to break down. And by breakdown, I mean tear down this concept of niching down or niching down if you're in America. When does having a niche actually matter? Who should have a niche and who should not? And if not a niche, what else will help you stand out, attract the right people and get paid online? Today we're gonna get right into it because you better believe I have a lot to say on this topic. But first, make sure to give me a thumbs up below if you like this video and subscribe to my channel for more videos to help you start and build the business of your dreams from home. So the question I am answering today is do you really need a niche in 2025? Everywhere you look, and I mean everywhere, you will find a ton of information and social media posts telling you that y you need a niche. Including yes, I know some of my own past videos. But let me be clear that there is no way to give a blanket yes or no answer to this question. It is a complicated and nuanced conversation just like so many things in business and marketing. So I am sure you will be happy to know that my answer is both yes and no. I know, I know. Not very helpful, right? But just you wait. There is no denying that having a niche is still a really great way to stand out online. Of course this is how we find people to teach us about a specific skill, topic or subject area. Just like me making specific copywriting and marketing videos for you here on my YouTube channel. Niching down is really smart if you're trying to build a one to many business where you're selling courses on a specific topic or area of expertise and you're creating content as a traffic strategy to get more people to that offer. There are many content creators I follow who are very very very niche. I mean it doesn't get more niche than Ms. Excel who literally does nothing but teach folks how to use Microsoft Excel or one of my favorite YouTubers and makeup artist Bailey Sarian, who tells her subscribers true crime stories while she does her makeup. I mean, that is like niche on niche. This niche content is exactly the reason why we follow these people and why we continue to consume their content time and time again to get more of the same. So if this is all starting to sound like, yeah, Alex, niching down is a great idea and that absolutely everyone should be doing it, right? Wrong. Now, don't come at me, but I really believe that niching down is not for everyone. And if you're watching this video, then spoiler alert it is probably not for you yet. Especially if you're a new or aspiring copywriter or any kind of service provider who works one on one with clients and is just getting started. So then you're wondering, okay, so then who should be niching down? If you're a service provider, niching down is really great. After keyword you have already built up a repertoire of specific experience, knowledge and or skills. For example, when I was a freelance copywriter, my specialty was email marketing in the personal development niche. But it didn't start that way. Not even close. When I was first starting my business, I wrote for every type of copy offer type of client I could possibly find. Then over time I discovered that I was particularly good at writing emails and that I particularly enjoyed writing for personal development and spirituality brands. So I started getting a little bit more intentional and taking on more and more clients in this niche and of course more and more email marketing related roles. And before I knew it, I was a go to email marketing authority in the personal development and spirituality niche and clients came to me specifically because of my experience here. I was getting referrals and clients kept coming back, but it happened slowly and was a very natural evolution. Do you think I would have built the career I had if I was super picky about only working with personal development clients in the beginning or if I only accepted email marketing jobs? You know the answer. It's absolutely not. I would have had a very hard time getting my business off the ground because my niche made me too picky. Right? I tell my students all the time, first get paid, then get picky. You just have to start and allow your niche to develop over time and it might completely be different than what you think now. While it's good to have a general direction you want to head down, don't niche down just because you're interested in the subject matter. If you don't yet have experience doing it, sure you can and should let that interest Guide you and try to build experience in that particular field, if that sounds exciting to you. But being too strict about your niche at the beginning of your career, whether you're a copywriter or a marketer or any other type of service provider, can really backfire and it can hold you back and slow down your progress. You should only niche down in something once you have built that experience and expertise in that specific area. And yes, you guessed it, that takes time. It takes consistently showing up, it takes trying new things. It takes, you know, seeing what clicks and what sticks. Now you're probably wondering, okay, so if I am just getting started and I don't yet have a niche, how else am I supposed to stand out online? Well, my advice is that you focus on these five things instead. Number one, focus on gaining experience. You just need to get a client, any client, period. Roofing company down the street, you know, your mom and dad's friend's business who needs copy, a friend who isn't paying you, but you're just trying to get those reps right. It doesn't matter if you're writing copy for a mechanic shop when you're actually interested in writing in the beauty industry. It doesn't matter if it's the most boring or dull project in existence. If you don't have experience yet, you are in no position to be selective about who you'll work with or what type of projects you will take on. You should be thrilled to say yes to any opportunity that comes your way because it's going to help you build your character. It's going to help you build your experience. In fact, one of my Sparkies, a member of my exclusive membership for freelancers and service providers, built her copywriting business very fast by supporting local small businesses. In her self proclaimed redneck town, she worked with excavation companies and even a dairy farm. Not glamorous, but she got her foot in the door and now her business is taking off. And then once you gain some experience, you start building your number two expertise. Start paying attention to what you enjoy and what areas you are the most skilled in. This is when you can really start seeking out more of those opportunities to build your expertise. And I think you'll be really surprised by what you find. I have Sparkies and members of my community who thought they were going to write in personal development and ended up writing in like Fintech. I've had people who thought they were going to write in beauty and they ended up writing in personal development. You never know what you'll vibe with and what kind of clients you'll actually enjoy working with. But here you're still just experimenting, right? You are not claiming this as your niche just yet. Right now all you're doing is noting the direction you think you might want to take and starting to be a little bit more intentional about getting experience in in that specific area. Then number three, you want to focus on leveling up your skills. Practice, practice, practice. You want to continually develop your skills in this area until you are really good at this particular thing. When I realized just how much I enjoyed writing emails in the personal development niche, that is exactly what I did. I doubled down and I started looking for more opportunities to practice my skills and get even better and better. But don't get it twisted, I was still working with other types of clients and taking on other types of projects. Just because I had identified what I wanted my niche to be didn't mean that I was like shutting down all other clients or opportunities. And then once you level up your skills and then you get those stats and metrics and lots of happy clients to prove it, you start to build your number four authority. And this is when you claim your niche. And it happens really organically as you start getting testimonials from people you've helped and really start going deeper and deeper into the work. And it is now that you can confidently say, hey, I have been there, I've done that, and I am an authority in this niche. This is when people will start to come to you for help and tips and advice because they have a reason to trust you and other people trust you too. And that is how you get referrals. But, but, but don't for a single minute think that this means you can't publicly talk about what you do right now, even if you're just getting started. And that brings me to the fifth and final thing you need to know right now. It is to start building your personal reference brand. This isn't about showing up on social media every single day and claiming to be an expert in this niche when you know you're actually not. It's simply about sharing what you do and who you are as a real person with interests and likes and dislikes. The difference is that when you're a beginner, you don't come straight out the gate posting educational content and teaching people as an expert when you are not. And a lot of people do this and we can spot it from a mile away. So if you feel awkward or fake or forced every time you post online, chances are your trying to show up in A way that isn't you like putting on a weird hat that you would absolutely never wear in public. Yeah, no wonder it is very awkward. Now I get why this happens. We see influencers doing their thing online, whether it's me or some other type of creator or business owner that you follow and you think, oh, that's what it looks like to build a personal brand. If I'm going to build my personal brand, I have to do it like that. But that actually couldn't be farther from the truth. The reality is there are many ways to start building your authority online, even if you are just getting started. For example, you could share your day to day and what you're learning along the way. Like, hey, check out this thing I learned from Alex today about email marketing. Or hey, I wrote this email sequence for a brand new client and I think I did pretty good. What do you think? And of course as you build your personal brand, there should also be a lot of photos of your dog or cat, or the daily walk you go on, or your morning ritual, or you just sharing snapshots of your life. Because that is you. That is what it means to build a personal brand. And you don't want to wait until you officially niche down and feel ready because you might not ever decide decide to niche down and that's okay too. Start building your personal brand right now. Take your people along with you for the journey. Right from building your experience to getting expertise to honing your skills to building your authority. Will it happen overnight? Absolutely not. But you are building a freaking business and there is no brand influencer or successful business owner out there who will tell you anything different. It takes time and it takes repeated action. Becoming an authority in a niche isn't as simple as just waking up one day and saying, ta da, I'm going to be an authority in this niche. When you have no experience, it takes time with small, intentional, step by step progress taken every single day. If you can do that while showing up consistently and building your personal brand on the side just to like let people know what you're all about, I promise you, you will be 10 steps ahead of everyone else. So here is your official invitation to take the pressure off. You don't need to know exactly what niche you want to write in or work in right now. You don't need to have a website or a logo or some catchy Instagram content or do dancing reels. All you need to do is start. And if you're brand new and you're thinking, great, Alex, okay, you made it sound so simple. But how am I actually supposed to just start? How do I get that first client? Well, I've got you there too. Grab your copy of my free Client Getting Guide 101 Ways to Find your next client at the link in the description box below. And always remember, first get paid, then get picky. Give me a thumbs up below if you found this video helpful and I'll see you next week with a brand new video. Until then, I'm Alex. Ciao for now. All right guys, if you enjoyed that video, make sure to check out the next one from me right here. And you can click right here to get a free gift. What I'm about to tell you no, what I'm about to show you will change everything you think you know about copywriter portfolios. I'm going to reveal exactly what clients are looking for when they ask you for a portfolio. The five things your portfolio must have for you to stand out right now in 2025 plus, I will let you look over my shoulder as I show you real life portfolios that posse trained copywriters have used to land their first clients. And as an added little bonus, you are also getting a behind the scenes peek into what my students create during my 8 week copywriter coaching program. The Copy Posse Launchpad. So huge. Shout out to my students for letting me feature their work in this video. Keep watching.