No, Having a Niche Is Not Important on Medium
By: Jerren Gan
Tags: Writers On Writing, Ｍedium, Writing, Write, Niche

No, Having a Niche Is Not Important on Medium

What you should do instead

Photo by Denis Oliveira on Unsplash

Every blogger who hopes to be successful has to choose a niche. It’s the first essential step in becoming successful. Choosing a niche isn’t simple. It has to be something you are interested in writing about — imagine having to spend hundreds of hours writing about something you simply didn’t care about. It should center around a popular topic while being ‘different’ enough for others to want to read your blog over another one.

Even though choosing a niche doesn’t guarantee success, not choosing one makes it difficult to market and monetize your blog. That’s why when writers begin to write on Medium, many continue to believe that a niche is the key to success. However, as someone who reads and writes a lot on Medium, I believe writing on Medium is vastly different from running your own blog.

The situation here at Medium

Unlike a personal blog, Medium already has an audience available for all writers. And every reader on Medium is different. Some spend all their time reading stories about writing better. Others might choose to read about politics. Another group could spend their time on Medium reading articles about astrology.

Fiction, non-fiction, climate change, mental health, psychology, technology, societal issues, productivity hacks, lifestyles, sports — the list of available topics people read about on Medium goes on and on.

This means that no matter what you decide to write about, there will likely be an audience already out there waiting.

Unlike a blog, where you have to maintain a niche to encourage readers to return regularly, Medium’s existing audience means you don’t have to box yourself in and force yourself into a certain mold.

Instead of building a targeted audience group from scratch, Medium writers can easily tap into various publications to reach readers who might be interested. And after building up a large enough reader base, Medium writers will begin to stand out and become recognizable, even if they do not stick to specific topics.

Here on Medium, instead of forcing yourself into a popular niche, become your own niche.

How to succeed on Medium

On Medium, a fixed niche doesn’t guarantee success. Instead, passion is the key. Write about things that matter to you, subjects you care enough about to spend hours reading up on, and ideas you hope to be able to spread to all your readers.

With so many writers here, the Medium audience has become a discerning bunch. They can tell if an article was forced out simply because the topic is popular. This means you’ll have to make sure that you write from your heart to build a brand here.

Let your voice shine through consistently, and let that become your brand and your niche.

Without the limitation of a niche, Medium is a place where you can tell any story you like. Don’t tie yourself down by forcing yourself into a niche. Share all the stories you want and do so compellingly. And by continually writing from deep within, you’ll eventually find success as a good writer that loves to write.

So the next time you click on that “write a story” button, move away from the niche that’s holding you back. Write that story that you’ve been itching to tell and enjoy the process. Because no matter what you write about, there will be someone waiting to read.