Why Not Having a Niche Leads to Beginner’s Burnout

Finding Your Niche and Doubling Down Masterclass – Part 1

Apr 08, 2025

Welcome to the “Finding Your Niche: Doubling Down Masterclass”!

If you’ve seen successful writers around here, you’ll notice that at the mention of their names, their works immediately come to mind.

The common themes they focus on—that’s their niche. A key part of their success.

To be brief:

Being in your own niche increases your longevity as a creator, boosts writing efficiency, and effectivity of your work.

This series will show you how these elements come together and how to leverage your niche for maximum impact.

Disclaimer: I want to be upfront that this series is primarily for those who are looking to grow their audience. If you're already comfortable with where you are or aren't focused on expanding your reach, some of these strategies may not resonate as much. But if you're ready to take your growth to the next level and engage with a targeted audience, you’re in the right place!

Here’s the deal:

If you’re unsure why a niche is important, start with Part 1. We’ll cover the basics of why finding your niche is essential and the challenges that holds you back form it.
If you already have a niche but want to refine it, jump to Part 2 for actionable steps to narrow your focus.

Series Overview:

Part 1 – Why Finding a Niche Matters: Learn how a niche prevents burnout, builds a strategy, and attracts a loyal audience.
Part 2 – Tools to Discover/Strengthen Your Niche: Practical methods to help you find or sharpen your niche.
Part 3 – Using Notion & Tags to Double Down: Behind-the-scenes of how I use Notion to refine my niche and boost content.
✨ Want to get notified when Part 2 and 3 of this series drop in the next few days? Make sure you’re subscribed for free to get updates straight to your inbox and join the subscriber chat
Let’s get started!

Part 1: Why You Have to Find Your Niche

To address the "why" of finding your niche, we also need to ask: Why aren’t you finding it?

Understanding what’s holding you back can be the first step in unlocking your true potential and identifying the space where you can thrive.

Picking a Niche Can Be Harder Than You Think

Picking a niche might sound easy, but I recognize how tough it really can be.

I’ve been on the other side, reading a lot of articles that tell you,

“JUST pick a niche”

Because it will bring you this

It will get you that

It’s this easy

Just pick

But it’s not that simple, which is exactly why I’m making this a three-part series—I want to make it as comprehensive and slow as possible, especially for new writers.

I don’t want this to turn into an overly optimized to be a short form list of “to-do’s” or “5 reasons why”.

I want this to be a real guide—one that acknowledges the struggles we face as writers when choosing a niche, because trust me, I’ve been there.

This series is designed to be both practical and reflective, helping you gain clarity while providing actionable advice you can implement right away.

Let’s start with the primary form of resistance when it comes to committing to a niche:

The fear of sacrificing freedom by being "chained" to a niche

A niche may feel like putting yourself in a box but it’s really not, and it's certainly not putting yourself in someone else's box.

Finding a niche does not mean abandoning the things you like to write about for you to chase numbers.
Finding your niche is really about discovering which topics you enjoy writing about that your audience connects with the most.
It’s also about surviving and then stabilizing your growth.
Once you’ve built some momentum, you’ll have more freedom to explore more passion pieces—and more people to share them with.

We will still read an article about diet from time to time even if it’s written by a writer who mainly talks about writing, especially if we are avid readers of that writer

Plus What's working may not necessarily be because people like the topic more.

It could simply be because you actually excel at writing about it.

It's something worth considering as you reflect on your own growth.

Your marketing content might be performing better than your productivity articles, but that doesn’t necessarily mean people aren’t interested in productivity. It could simply mean your marketing pieces are resonating more. The way you present your ideas, your writing style, or even the examples you use in your marketing content may be striking a better chord with your audience.

The second resistance is the mindset that you’ll be fine without a niche—that you can just write about everything under the sun and still make it.

Well, this is why I mentioned earlier that this series is for those who want to grow their audience.

Because if you’re not aiming to grow an audience, then sure, you might survive without a niche.

But building a subscriber base? That’s a whole different story. And by the way, there’s no shame in either goal—whether you’re looking to grow or just enjoy the process.

The second form of resistance:

I can manage without a niche.

At this point, it’s not even about active growth—it’s about survival, the passive growth everyone overlooks.
If you want to grow, you first need to figure out how to stay in the game.
In the world of online writing, success isn’t about who works the hardest or who is the most talented; it’s about who can stick around the longest.

I’ve mentioned a quick view of the positive things you’ll gain by settling into a niche at the very beginning, but let’s flip the coin for a moment.

Let’s take a look at what can happen if you don’t.

Not Having a Niche Hurts More Than You Think

Not having a niche or at least not trying to find out what your niche could actually signal that you lack clarity on your long-term goals.

This is because a strategy is needed for a long-term goal , and not having a niche—or at least not actively working on finding one—often means you lack that strategy.
A niche provides a clearer path and without a clear path , it becomes harder to build a solid plan that will take you where you want to go.

Let us first talk about why not having a long-term goal could hurt you as a writer

A long-term goal means having a clear vision for the future of your writing career. It’s about knowing what you want it to Look like months or even years from now.

If you don’t have long-term goals you’re probably subscribing too much to instant gratification.

This means you’ll become overly focused on short-term results

The stats

The low engagements

The slow traffic, and

Those fluctuations can really throw off your motivation, making your consistency and drive unsustainable.

A long-term vision helps you put those short-term signs into perspective, promoting longevity as a writer.

Again, you have to survive for a longer time if you wanna see the fruit of your hard work.

Instead of seeing low numbers as failure, with your eyes deadset on some long term goals they’re just indicators you use to adjust your strategy for the long game.

But without that vision, it’s easy to get discouraged.

You might start doubting your progress, and that’s how burnout starts, and could lead to quitting.

Now, why do you need a niche to have a good strategy?

A niche provides a solid foundation to build a strategy from.

If you don’t have a niche—or aren’t planning to find one—you’ll end up writing about anything, hoping it sticks.

As a quick overview, in online writing, a good strategy might look like this:

Having a planned core library of content to reference or build upon (like cornerstone posts or evergreen content).
Creating content buckets or themes so you’re not starting from scratch every week.
Planning collaborations that actually make sense for your brand and audience.
Designing future content with intention—so you can test what resonates and track patterns over time.
Batching and scheduling posts in advance, rather than reacting or scrambling last minute.
Repurposing older content into threads, emails, or guides to extend its value.
Tracking growth metrics intentionally (subscribers, comments, shares) to learn what works.
Knowing what’s working and what’s not—whether the issue is in your tone, your format, or your topic.
Building a reader journey, guiding new subscribers through your best work so they stick around.
Positioning yourself for opportunities, like guest posts, newsletters swaps, or even paid work—because people know what you stand for.

Poll Break! 🎭

What are your main struggles on Substack?

Without a niche, your resources and focus become scattered, and without a clear strategy, you'll struggle to make the most of them.

You risk wasting valuable time and energy.

For those of us running one-person publications, we can’t afford to waste either of those resources.

Over time, your efforts may start to feel disproportionate to the results you're seeing.

This leads to disappointment, burnout, and eventually quitting.

I’ve seen many dedicated writers struggle with this, and I almost quit myself because, despite working hard, I wasn't seeing progress."

Work smarter, not harder. To do that, you need a strategy, and a strategy starts with choosing a niche to build upon.

Now you have seen how the absence of a specific niche Affects You, the Writer

How Does This Affect Your Readers?

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Not having a niche doesn’t just affect you—it affects your readers too.

When I first started, I didn’t know what my niche would be. I tried covering everything—from productivity to biology—and struggled to connect with an audience.

One article might be about what makes a good business idea, the next about starting to write online, and then another about how exercise impacts your gut health.

As a result, I confused my readers.

Some subscribed for my writing tips and ended up getting emails about gut health. That’s not what they signed up for.

It not only wasted space in their inbox but also their time.

By jumping from topic to topic without any consistency, I couldn’t give them the depth or focus they needed to truly learn or engage with the content.

Writing isn’t just about typing words; it’s about “crafting” a piece that accomplishes a clear goal,—whether that’s to inform, entertain, or inspire action. It’s a service to the readers

And one can't fully achieve any of those goals if they don't commit.

This then results back to the earlier factors that can lead to burnout—such as the lack of short-term results.

The low-quality content and the lack of focus become obvious to readers, and won’t invest in a connection with the writer a.k.a YOU.

They can sense it, and as a result, they’ll leave because they’re not getting what they came for.

On the flip side, creators who have committed to a single niche can offer a higher level of expertise, delivering more valuable and consistent content to their audience.

I never truly realized how much harder the whole process was because I didn’t have a niche—until I looked back and connected the dots.

Here's the summary of what that lack of focus was really costing me:

🧭 Lack of Clarity and Strategy
I didn’t have a clear path. Without a niche, I kept jumping from one topic to another, hoping something would stick. The result? Scattered efforts, no real strategy, and a content plan that constantly felt like guesswork.

🤝 Inconsistent Service to My Audience
Because I wasn’t clear on what I was offering, neither were my readers. Switching topics all the time confused them. I couldn’t build trust or loyalty, and I noticed people would subscribe one week and unsubscribe the next. No clear promise, no consistent delivery.

📝 Content Creation Felt Like a Chore
Each time I sat down to write, I had to start from zero. Without a niche, I had no content thread to follow. I needed to generate new ideas for every piece, and creating something like a series felt too overwhelming. I kept second-guessing whether my ideas fit or mattered. Writing felt heavier than it needed to be.

📉 Low Engagement, Slow Growth
I assumed that covering more topics would attract more people. But it did the opposite. My audience didn’t know what to expect, and I couldn’t build a strong connection with anyone. The lack of focus made it harder to grow and even harder to keep people around.

🚫 Missed Chances for Collaboration
Without a clear niche, it was difficult to find people to collaborate with. I wasn’t seen as someone owning a space—I was just “someone who writes.” That made it harder for others to see how we could work together or what kind of projects we could co-create.

🔥 Burnout
Trying to cover everything without direction slowly drained me. I was constantly thinking, constantly switching gears, but rarely feeling fulfilled. It was like pouring energy into a leaky bucket. Eventually, I burned out—not from laziness, but from trying to do too much without a map.

Does this mean you're in trouble if you don't know your niche yet?

Not necessarily.

That’s why I mentioned that you should at least be “finding your niche.”

The process of discovering your niche is already a long-term goal in itself.

It’s the foundation of your content strategy.

And yes, each one of us already has a niche—even if you’re someone who came here JUST TO WRITE, rather than someone who came here TO WRITE ABOUT SOMETHING.

So then what is your niche?

I’d like to say that your niche is:

Something you like + Something your audience wants to read from you = Your Niche

If You Don't Know What to Write About

Start with something you are knowledgeable about—not necessarily something you are an expert in, just something that you are passionate about.

I am a microbiologist but I am really passionate about writing on productivity, so I started with those three:

I wrote about some productivity topics
Then about online writing
Then I also wrote on the topic of gut microbes

This is a good place to start: Things that you like talking about.

Because let's be real, you can’t keep writing about things you don’t know or don’t even enjoy—even though people seem to really like it.

This is why I mentioned earlier that it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to write solely about topics you don't like as long as it gets you the results you want, you still get to write what you like nonetheless.

To make all of these to work Start by writing for yourself first, then write for your audience.

Your content strategy for the moment is to find which of these three (I’d say three is about right. If you can narrow it down to two, that’s great, but writing about five broad topics is pushing) will stand out the best and gather data.

Treat your early articles as your data gatherers.

Right now you just need to get it out there: Because advancing your strategy requires data, and data comes after putting something out to collect it.

Now that you have something to start on, the hard part is finding what to write about that your readers want to read (Which will be the subject of the next part + How refine your niche and use it to cut through the noise. )

Final words

The Stats Don’t Lie

Since I started focusing on a narrower niche, I’ve seen a huge improvement in my subscriber growth—about double or even triple the daily subs.

I was stagnant for a couple of months, yes there is growth but if you only judge from the steepness of the graph below you could already tell something changed.

Even without doing anything special, my numbers are solid.

And yes, there have been unsubscribes. But honestly, those are a natural part of the process.

The people who weren’t aligned with my message are leaving, and I’m left with a more engaged and higher-quality audience.

Having a niche isn’t just a service to you as the writer—it’s a way of refining the service you offer your readers

That’s all for today! Wishing you a great week ahead. I appreciate you so much for reading up until here! 😊 If you think this article could help someone, feel free to share it or like it—it really helps expand its reach to help others as well. 💌

This first part is really for absolute beginners—someone who’s just starting out. I think this article would be most helpful for them. So if someone comes to mind, feel free to share it. 💛

Frey.

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