Be Yourself, Not a Niche

By Nat Eliason in Marketing

Published or Updated on Jan 30, 2021

I often get some form of the question:

"Should I build an audience around a certain niche? Or just talk about whatever I want?"

My advice is not to choose a niche.

Choosing a niche is great for quickly building an audience. If you brand yourself as "The SEO Expert" or "The Crypto Guy" you’ll have an easier time gaining followers. If someone sees your profile, they'll know exactly what they're getting, and if they're interested in that topic, they'll follow along.

You lose that advantage when you try to just be yourself. The audience will come much slower. You might pop up in someone's feed and they'll wonder, "why would I follow this person?"

But what you lose in speed you gain in durability. If people follow you for hot Crypto takes, they'll replace you with the next clever Crypto tweeter who shows up in their feed. They never really cared about you. They cared about the topic you talked about.

Focusing on a specific niche can also lead to developing an inauthentic digital personality. One of my favorite compliments I receive from people who know me in real life is that my blog and Twitter are really me. I'm not playing some character. I can't say that for many other internet personalities, and I don't totally trust people who play someone else on the Internet.

This is part of why I decided not to go the full time creator route. When your income relies on your digital brain farts, you tend to slide towards whatever niches, topics, and personalities gain you the most clout and customers.

So be yourself. Don't play a character. Try to be a legitimately interesting person with all the varied things you find fascinating, and don't worry if it takes longer than the growth you see from others.

Like I showed in my "Start a Blog" post, the growth might be slow, but it can pay off in big ways over time.

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