How to Find Your Niche as a Freelancer
There are typically two paths for freelancers: go wide or go niche.
To go wide would mean you’re a generalist. You may have several skills or offerings rather than specializing in one thing. Having a niche means you specialize in one service or industry.
On paper, it seems like aiming wide and broad when it comes to seeking client work can offer more opportunities. After all, if you provide multiple services to a range of different clients, you’re bound to find work, right? While that may work for some freelancers, especially when you’re starting out, having a niche can help you find the *right* work opportunities,
In the latest episode of The Leap, we spoke to Grace Walker, an independent website designer and Webflow developer to get her take on freelance niches.
Let’s go over what freelance niches are, the benefits of having a niche, and how to position your niche to scale your freelance business.
What is a Niche in Freelancing?
The definition of a niche is “a specialized segment of the market for a particular kind of product or service.” Translated into freelance terms, a niche in freelancing means focusing on a single type of service, client, or industry for your work.
You can get as specific as you want. Maybe you want to focus on creating logo designs for small coffee shops. Or perhaps you want to offer Instagram strategies for entrepreneurs. The benefit of having a niche is that by honing in on something specific, you’re narrowing down the client pool. If you’re thinking, “Wait, what? How is appealing to fewer clients a good thing?” then hear me out.
While having fewer clients to choose from may seem limiting at first, many freelancers find that catering to a specific audience leads to more quality clients. The broader you go, the more likely it is that you’ll experience clients who aren’t a good fit for your values or who ask for work that’s outside of your scope. Having a niche allows you to be more selective about the type of projects you take on and the type of clients you work with.
How to Find Your Freelance Niche
There are a few different ways you can define your niche. Your freelance niche can be:
Industry-specific (education, tech, ecommerce)
Service-specific (content strategy, web design, SEO)
Platform-specific (Webflow, Shopify, TikTok)
If you want to focus on a type of industry for your niche, that could look like offering a range of marketing services to B2B SaaS companies. On the flip side, maybe you want to hone in on a specific service but are open to working with a variety of industries. An example of this would be offering landing page copywriting for any type of business that needs it. Get as specific as you want.
You can even choose a niche that’s platform-specific, like Webflow. This is exactly what Grace Walker chooses to do as an independent website designer, developer, and Webflow expert.
For Walker, who specializes in designing and building custom marketing sites in Webflow, her niche isn’t limited to an industry or type of client.
“I work with clients across industries, so I don’t really have an industry niche but I definitely have a skillset niche,” she said during her episode of The Leap. “And it took me quite a while to figure out that that’s another way you can niche down.”
While Walker was first introduced to Webflow in school, she was able to hone in on her Webflow skillset while working at a branding studio for three years and taking on a large volume of design and development work. “I saw a lot of folks freelancing with Webflow and thought, ‘Oh, they’re getting traction and making money, maybe this is something I can do,’” she recalled. “That was the impetus for me saying, maybe I can give this a shot on my own and see how it goes.”
Walker makes the case for choosing a freelance niche right out of the gate. But if you’re not sure what you want to focus on yet, give yourself time to explore different offerings or industries until you find one that sticks.
“When I first started freelancing, all the advice was to niche down and find an industry niche that you want to work with. And I was like, ‘well I haven’t done enough work to know who I want to work with [yet]” Walker recalled. “I was doing Webflow work because I was really good at it and I had some traction, [so] that niche came about very naturally for me. But when I first started doing Webflow work, I didn’t even realize that was a specific enough niche for me.”
As you start to explore different offerings or working different industries, pay attention to what interests you and where the demand is and your niche will likely form organically.
3 Benefits of Freelance Niches
If you’re exploring the idea of honing in on a niche but still aren’t sure if you want to focus on one just yet, here are a few benefits of freelance niches.
It’s easier for (the right) clients to find you
When you position yourself within a certain niche, whether you’re an Instagram Reels creator or a Webflow developer like Walker, you’re effectively positioning yourself as an expert. And the more work you do within your niche, the more likely you are to become the go-to within the industry. Not only does this help potential clients find you, but it can also lead to more referrals from your current clients who can vouch for your expertise.
An added benefit to working within a specific niche is that the clients who already know what they’re looking for, whether that’s a certain type of service or platform expertise, likely won’t need as much convincing or educating throughout the proposal process.
“Having that specific niche often means my clients have done the research before they reach out to me,” said Walker. “They’ve qualified Webflow as a platform, are well-informed on the platform limitations, and are actively looking into options.”
The client vetting process is also easier
The client vetting process can sometimes feel like a round of 20 questions. But there are a few things that help cut down the discovery process by a lot, including having a niche.
In addition to focusing on a niche, the other common ways to vet a potential client include asking about their budget, their timeline, and their goals. Their answers to these questions help you figure out what that client may be like to work with and help you determine whether or not the project is a fit for you. When you also have a specific service or industry that you work in, that’s another factor that immediately helps you and the client get to “no” or “yes” faster.
“Because I have such narrow offerings, it makes it really easy to qualify someone,” said Walker.
In addition to having a specific offering, Walker’s other client qualifications include budget, values alignment, chemistry, and overall interest in the project.
“I've worked with so many wonderful clients that I get to see different traits in people and how people work,” said Walker. “I can recognize when someone shares traits with a client that I’ve worked with in the past and was really great, or if they share traits with someone that I didn't work with so well. Being able to recognize both of those just came with the volume of work that I've done.”
Narrow offerings = efficient business processes
Focusing on a niche for your freelance business means you typically offer fewer services than someone who’s trying to reach a wide, broad audience. Narrow offerings can help make everything from the proposal process to the actual execution of the work much more efficient. The more you do something, the more you learn how much time it takes, what should be included in the scope, and how much to charge. After doing the same thing 20+ times, you can confidently put together a scope in a matter of minutes.
For Walker, her Webflow business only offers two proposal structures: one for design and development and another for just development. The predictability and repeat nature of her work within these narrow offerings have given Walker a good sense of her capacity and helped improve project management.
“I’ve built over 90 websites, so by having that volume of experience, I’m able to swiftly flag things that can be a potential issue or trip a client up,” she said. “I think it makes project management and my capacity management a lot easier because I know how much capacity I have and kind of have a gut feeling of how many projects is the right amount of projects.”
The consistency in her narrow offerings has also helped Walker get a better handle on her pricing. “[During] the first year of freelancing, I was increasing my rates of every single project to figure out where that ceiling was,” said Walker. She adds, “Over time, and with the number of projects that I've done, it's a lot easier now to have the confidence to say, ‘I know this is an appropriate budget for this project based on time, materials, and experience.’”
How to Position Your Niche and Scale
Once you’ve settled on a niche, it’s important to carve out space and position yourself as an expert so you can scale your business. Here are a couple of Walker’s tips for making yourself visible within your freelance niche.
Share your work
The best way you can let people know about your niche is to tell them. As uncomfortable as it may feel to promote yourself, no one else is going to do it for you.
“Visibility as a freelancer should be your number one focus,” stated Walker. “I’ve found the most success from making myself visible.” She adds, “Making sure people know you’re available for work, what kind of work you do, and showcasing yourself as an expert is so important. If nobody knows what you do, it’s going to be so hard to find work that you align with.”
Here are a few ideas for how you can make yourself more visible within your niche:
Share your work: Whether your social platform of choice is Twitter or TikTok, use your online presence to share any projects you’re currently working on and client projects that you’ve wrapped up.
Join relevant community groups: There are a ton of online communities — for example, Slack or Facebook Groups — that cater to specific niches, whether you’re a Webflow developer or a freelance writer. Join these groups to connect with other freelancers in your niche.
Remind people: Make it a point to share regular reminders with your network about what you do and who you do it for. Reach out to past clients for referrals, share on social when you have a client opening, and participate in online groups to introduce yourself to other freelancers and potential clients. The more you share, the more it will stick in people’s minds.
Get in front of clients
It sounds obvious, but the best way to make yourself visible to potential clients is to put yourself in front of them. Join the communities they’re part of, be a helpful resource when they’re looking for an expert, and make it easy for them to find you.
Start by putting together a freelance portfolio or website. If you already have a website, optimize it for your niche. If you’re a copywriter for B2B tech brands, then those keywords should be included throughout your website to increase your chances of showing up in search results for those terms.
If you want to focus on a platform-specific niche like Walker, consider joining an expert program like the Shopify network. These marketplaces act as directories for clients seeking help with a specific platform — further proving that it pays to have specific knowledge on something.
Here are a few expert marketplaces website freelancers can join to get in front of potential clients:
Or, if you want to have an industry-specific niche, you can join an online community within that industry. An example of this is Superpath, an online community platform for content marketers.
To sum it up, are freelance niches worth it? Yes. A niche can help you find the right clients, speed up your proposal process, and get to “yes” faster.
To find your niche, you have to have specific knowledge or interest in an industry, a platform, or a service. And remember: You don’t have to hone in on a niche right away. In fact, it’s probably best to explore a few different industries or offerings to see what clicks.
Once you find something that works for you, do everything you can to position yourself as an expert in your niche (no matter how cringe it feels). Share your work, get in front of potential clients, and remind people what you do and who you do it for.
Watch the full conversation with Grace during her episode of The Leap here. And follow Wethos on Instagram to catch more episodes of The Leap, an Instagram Live series where we have insightful conversations on all things freelancing with people who have taken the leap themselves.