Finding your Niche

Finding your niche has never been more important as it is in 2021! This is particularly true with food blogging being an option that more and more people are seeking as a career choice.

If you are considering starting a food blog or are wanting to turn a food blog from being a hobby to a business than you might have heard the need to ‘find your niche’.

There are many successful bloggers who say ‘finding your niche’ in a passing sense like it’s an easy task, but it has never been more important to do this when more and more blogs are being created and standing out from the crowd is what will really turn this from a hobby to a paid job.

You might have also considered how you're not sure where to start on figuring out what your niche is so this article will hopefully help you. Definitely drop some ways you've found niching down helpful or discuss your views on this topic in the comments below!

Why having a Niche is important

You might be thinking you are a multi dimensional person and you want your food blog to be one element of what your life is about whilst showcasing who you are beyond the dishes you create.

If you remember Instagram in 2014, when it was a relatively new platform, most people were using this social media app like what successful bloggers were doing in 2008 - showcasing their whole lives.

And some of those people went on to be successful and make careers from being multi dimensional, however, a shift happened when Instagram became the platform it now is, into profiles of people marketing themselves with one product or one specific niche.

Many people have turned small social media accounts into businesses by focusing on a defined area and creating a business out of their product - whether that was a website, a physical product or themselves. The same has never been more important for blogging or rather food blogging.

With that shift to niching down; the days of being a jack-of-all-trades and succeeding became an almost impossible task, particularly when you want to stand out from the crowd of countless successful food bloggers out there.

There are so many voices online, voices who have a dedicated audience and consumers of food blogs now expect that the creator of the content they are clicking into is a specialist in their field and knows what they are talking about, because if you’re not, there are plenty of other food bloggers who are that they can click into in a heartbeat.

Your niche will demonstrate valuable expertise in your field which is essential to establishing yourself as an authority on the subject you are creating content on. This will help you engage your audience with you and your specific brand.

What is your Niche

You might be thinking, well what is my niche? And if the idea of a niche feels stifling, it’s okay. Let’s take a step back and give you a moment to see why niching down is an opportunity for you to show up better than you could without one.

To figure out your niche, ask yourself some questions:

• What is my why?
• What do I want readers to learn from my blog?
• What is both something I'm passionate about and have enough expertise on that I can answer the FAQs?

Answers to these questions are often defined by that very first question of what is your why. When you sit back and think about your blog in those moments where you’re creating content or looking for inspiration in the world around you, what keeps the fire going inside of you?

The more you really focus on your why…what you would make for yourself if no one was watching and what brings you the most joy, the more your niche will feel like an opportunity to really push yourself and your creativity in a more specific direction.

Let’s consider the benefits of a Niche

Planning your strategy will become easier

When you have a defined niche you suddenly have a much more aligned strategy to work with and personally this has allowed me to sit down and plan out content to create for not just a few weeks in advance, but rather months at a time.

When you know what you want to focus on, you can set out your content in a more defined manner and make content creation less of an overwhelming process because you’re not trying to be a jack-of-all-trades - you’re now a master of one!

You will create a defined community

If you already have a blog and have Google analytics active, your niche can be partially defined by the audience who visit your website. They’re telling you what subject matter engages with them, so when you’re deciding what your speciality is alongside your why; those insights will help you give your audience more of what they are already seeking out.

In turn, you will help create a more defined community of people who will feel engaged with your brand because you will be experienced in your subject matter.

If you don’t have a blog yet, but want to define your niche; really use this time to sit down and think about what you want to teach your audience. If food blogging were your full time job and you didn’t have the energy or passion for this work after a hectic week (we've all been there), what would you want people to take away from one of your posts?

You will become more of an expert in your subject matter

Many successful bloggers weren’t experts when they began their blogs, they are self taught and passionate about their subject matter and their success lay in really focussing on learning and honing their craft as much as possible.

Having a niche means you’ll be hungry to learn more about your subject matter and you will become educated in it which in turn will give your audience the feeling of being valued and educated when they visit your website.

Your content needs to be good enough to educate someone who might know nothing about it which means you really need to know what you’re talking about.

You want your audience to not just make a dish that you’ve perfected with your recipe testing, but feel a sense of joy about the why’s of needing to add that ingredient or bake that dish for so many minutes.

Plainly put, creating a niche is to create a foundation to work from. Like you wouldn't build a wall without a foundation on a house, you can't build something solid that people want to visit without having a niche to work from.

Food blogging as a career is only becoming a more popular option, but becoming successful in it means you need to really earn your spot and having a niche is one of the best ways to grow your audience authentically and will set you up to truly focus your attention and energy in the right direction for growth.