To Niche or Not to Niche on Medium
That is the question. Here’s the answer — a reader’s perspective.
As someone who reads Medium at least a few hours every day since 2019, I’ve read a lot by Medium writers about whether they need to have a niche to succeed on Medium. Answers are mixed.
My fifth-grade teacher, an interesting character, insisted you don’t need anything except food, water, and shelter. She was a total buzz kill; good luck to her, roaming around naked with no toilet paper. But I digress.
I’m sure my fifth-grade teacher would tell you that you don’t need a niche to be successful on Medium because a niche doesn’t fall under the food, water, or shelter categories.
In contrast to my fifth-grade teacher, I like to think that I need a lot of things. I especially need something if having it will make my life easier; if it is beneficial.
A Medium writer needs a Medium reader. Without the reader, it’s like that whole tree falling in the forest thing and no one being there to hear it. If you are writing and no one is reading, it’s pointless.
When a writer has a niche, it makes it easier to attract readers and keep them around for the long term. As I see it, having a niche is beneficial, so a writer needs one.
It’s beneficial to the reader if they know who they can consistently look to or where they can always go to read what they like. When a reader knows what writer or publication on Medium to turn to, it saves them time, and they are probably more likely to turn to that writer or publication again.
For example, if I want to read personal essays where the writer spills their guts and airs their dirty laundry, I know who to look for. If I want to read about mental health, I know what publications to read.
Knowing a writer’s niche makes my life easier. Over time, I depend on those same people and publications to provide me with what I like to read. I will then read them regularly, and I will probably subscribe to some writers’ email lists to keep up with their writing. A relationship develops, and that’s how a writer or publication ends up with a real fan.
The key to getting and keeping the reader as a fan is dependability. Having a niche helps to create that dependability. A reader develops a relationship with a writer or publication by depending on and knowing what to expect from that writer or publication.
It’s like your favorite cozy sweater you always have with you to put on when you catch a chill. If you reach for your sweater, and instead there is a bathing suit in your bag, that’s not going to cut it. It’s not what you were expecting, wanting, or needing. Now you’re disappointed. You’re not going to sit there shivering. Instead, you have to go off and get a new sweater. That’s inconvenient and wastes your time.
When it comes to writing, hodgepodge helps no one. It makes the writer or publication look unfocused, and the reader isn’t going to spend their time sifting through articles to see if there is anything of interest or value. The reader will move on until they find someone who gives them what they like.
Having a niche makes it clear to the reader what you consistently write about. When the reader knows that they can depend on you for what they are interested in reading and enjoy, they will turn to you before looking all over Medium; you will be their choice.
The dependable writer will benefit from the reader’s loyalty and, ideally, a long-term relationship between reader and writer. If that is what you are looking for, you need a niche.
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Linda Kowalchek is a work in progress and a member of the typewriter generation. She spends her time with her husband and her rescue cats, waiting for golf balls to crash through their windows. PSA: Don’t live next to a golf course.