Breaking Out of the Niche Paradigm
The following is an excerpt from today's newsletter.
The beauty of online business is that you can make it whatever you want. There are no rules, only best practices. Much of what you want to achieve has already been accomplished by someone else. It's all about finding the right role models and piecing things together.
I recently read a random comment on YouTube that said something along the lines of: “You can't compete for mass attention. But to be that expert in a niche like Gluten-free vegan baking for diabetics is totally accessible”
Even though a niche can be useful to get started, there’s no way it can be a sustainable life choice unless you want to remain specialized and completely single-minded. But we are all multifaceted humans. Which is why the full niche approach seems to me like a short-term game.
Embracing The Multi-Niche Approach
Focusing on a specific niche can definitely accelerate audience-building at first. When someone stumbles upon your profile, they'll immediately say, "Ahh, that's the 'Underwater basket weaving guy.' I'll give them a follow since that's my current hobby." But once they are no longer interested in your niche, they'll completely forget about you.
By sharing some of your different interests, as well as your personality and unique perspectives, you can still target certain niches and monetize them. However, by being authentic, you are more likely to retain your followers once they lose interest in a niche.
The authentic multi-niche route definitely takes longer, but it seems to be a better long-term approach.
The Eternal Markets
I've learned that a successful business needs to target one of the three eternal markets: money, health, or relationships.
A well-rounded individual needs these three areas to achieve fulfillment, and different aspects may be more important at different stages in life.
People aren't interested in a niche; they are interested in how that niche can help them achieve a better life experience. It’s not as much about the interests you share with your audience, but more about how you can help them improve their lives through financial gain, improved health, or better relationships.
This is why being authentic on the internet works. The multi-niche approach is more humane, which is a legitimate way to survive the competition, especially during the AI revolution.
“You can escape competition through authenticity when you realize that no one can compete with you on being you.
That would have been useless advice pre-internet. Post-internet, you can turn that into a career.” - Naval