1 Perfect Ghostwriting Secret: It’s a Niche

I never realized ghostwriting was a niche. I never thought that way.

After a years-long effort of trying to make it as a freelance copywriter, my career coach asked me a question.

“If you could do anything, what would you do?”

After dismissing my first love of sportswriting because the newspaper business is all but dead, I said ghostwriting “because nothing has been more emotionally and financially gratifying for me than telling someone’s in-depth story.”

OK,” he said, “so do that.”

We spent months figuring out how, and I’ve been successful for years now. Looking back, I realized I learned something else: Ghostwriting is a niche.

When I first became self-employed, I subscribed to the write-every-way-i-possible-could approach, reasoning that if I cast a wide net, I’ll get more clients. 

That worked for about a decade. I wrote websites, speeches, scripts, social media posts, elevator pitches, and blogs. I edited manuscripts, I constructed resumes, I wrote, edited, and designed newsletters. I was a stringer for Associated Press and a reporter for a local newspaper. And I ghostwrote a memoir.

Around 2016, I started to experience the law of diminishing returns: The more I invested in this philosophy, the less ROI I started to see. I had yet to learn the value of running a niche business.

It seemed counter-intuitive. Why would I want to cast a smaller net? I’ll lose out on projects and clients I would otherwise get. I didn’t realize that those projects and clients didn’t matter, took up too much of my valuable, finite amount of time, and were often frustrating and unfulfilling.

Ghostwriting was just the opposite. While took a lot of time (as much as a year), it didn’t feel like a burden (once I learned I could only take three projects at a time), I made more money than I ever had, and the emotional rewards of completing projects—not to mention the tears clients shed when something they had wanted to do for years finally came to fruition—were greater than anything I had ever experienced.

The benefits are numerous. In researching for this post, I searched “benefits of niching down” and found too many to name. But here are the best ones, all of which I’ve experienced:

You decrease competition. Alli McAuley, founder of Do Well Design Studio, pointed out that a niche helps you stand out from your competition. She used weight-loss coaches as an example. A person trying to reach everyone who’s trying to lose weight competes with everyone. By niching down to “moms trying to lose weight after having a baby,” she competes with a much smaller group of people.

“Think about it, wouldn’t you rather hire someone who specializes in solving the exact problem you are having for people just like you? Of course, you would,” McAuley wrote.

Richard Lowe, on his website thewritingking.com, lists 16 ghostwriting niches, including cookbook, children’s book, musical, celebrity and sustainable living. I’m not competing with any ghostwriter in those niches because I’ve chosen to focus on memoir, business book and expository essay only. I’m also not competing with any fiction ghostwriter. I’m automatically in a smaller pool.

You increase your brand. A niche allows you to prove your expertise in one area, which is extremely valuable for people who want exactly what you’re offering. As a result, the number of clients actually increases. I have found this to be true. I have more quality leads, resulting in more quality clients.

SEO works better for you. Back to my career coach: “Show me a person with a lot of referral partners, and I’ll show you someone with not a lot of clients,” he told me. That’s true for ghostwriters. People aren’t spending their time thinking about how they can help your business by referring you. They’re focused on how they can grow their own businesses, just like you are.

The more niche you can be, the more likely people will find you when they’re searching online because they’re using the same keywords you are. I have found this to be completely and surprisingly true, which is why I have better leads and better clients now.

You’re having more fun. Back to McAuley: “(W)hen you choose a specific service and group of people you love to work with, you get to say yes to doing more of the work you enjoy.” That’s exactly what’s happening with me. By telling the stories I find compelling, I’m enjoying my work more than ever.

In other words, if you’re not having fun, why are you here?

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