The LinkedIn algorithm hates this

Niches and how to find them.

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By

Orel Zilberman

It’s September ‘23. I just quit my 6 figures job to become a full-time solopreneur.

My first goal is to take on writing and grow a community on LinkedIn.

I knew that in order for me to progress as a solopreneur and build a network of connections I needed to put myself out there and get people to know me.

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I started posting daily, writing about things that caught my interest in books that I read, ranging from productivity to stock market investing and philosophy.

For 30 days I barely had any engagement or progress.

I remember the frustration and the imposter feelings I had during that time. I felt like everything I wrote was common knowledge and that I should quit.

I felt like nothing I did was interesting enough.

Plus I was running out of ideas because almost nothing got people to engage and I didn’t know what else to try.

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New opportunity

One day Anton Zaides, a friend that I met on Linkedin, sent me a Google Doc that he created, explaining what he thinks that I am doing wrong.

The most impactful thing that he wrote was:

You spread too wide. You need to find your niche.

That’s literally the first thing in the docs, in bold.

I finally had my ‘aha’ moment and realized that there’s a huge problem when you’re too broad.

You will find it too hard to find the correct audience.

See, recommendation algorithms like LinkedIn’s and YouTube’s hate diverse content. They can’t find the audience for your content and the viewers who are exposed to your posts suffer your randomness.

Let’s see an example.

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LinkedIn algorithm

When you post a piece of content, you get people to follow you because they like what you write.

Now the next time you post the algorithm will expose your content to a small part of your followers first. If they like it, it will expose it to more people. If they don’t, well, it won’t expose it.

So if you follow me for my solopreneurship content, then I suddenly start talking about losing weight, you will not engage with my post and the algorithm will not promote my content anymore.

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The Framework

Now, finding your niche and ideas can be challenging in the beginning. And you’d probably start wide and get more specific as time goes by.

Here’s where you should start:

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Who do you talk to?

Imagine you’re in a room with a person. You have a story to tell her and you know it’s something she would appreciate to hear and you will enjoy telling.

Who is that person?

Who is the person that you want to tell that story to and that you know would get the most value out of it?

What are their interests and hobbies? What do they want to hear?

It’s enough to think about that one person because, I would go on a limb here and say, that there’s a 100% chance that there are at least thousands if not more people like them who would appreciate your message and the value you provide.

Personal choice

My aim is at people who are looking to start their journey as solopreneurs and are too scared to take their first step to financial freedom. I will be living proof that anybody can do that, by recording my journey and my mistakes.

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Find your sub-market

Anything can be connected to these 3 core markets:

Health, Wealth, Relationships.

Now, I want you to think about the person from the last section and I want you to connect her to one of the 3 core markets above.

So if we take my example, I can connect it to any of the three, but I choose to focus on Wealth.

Now, each market has a sub-market, which has a sub-market, which has many layers of sub-markets.

Health → Weight Loss → Weight loss for people with diabetes → Weight loss for people with diabetes, who live in Germany → Weight loss for people with diabetes, who live in Germany and don’t mind spending money to get results → …

A figure from the book: Experts Secrets

It can be literally anything.

And the more far-fetched and weird the interest sounds, the better. It probably means it’s not very common and very niche. Remember:

The more niched the idea, the more die-hard the fans you’ll have.

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The Medium

Now that you are set with a niche, it’s time to figure out which medium will bring you the best audience for you. And doing it correctly will be your make or break.

See, even if you have perfectly defined your niche and you’re looking for people who want to advance in their careers, posting tips on TikTok will probably not get you as many people as LinkedIn would.

Or if you want to attract an audience who loves cooking, LinkedIn will definitely not be the right place, but TikTok or Instagram would.

Do the research. Find the correct medium for you to use.

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Switch Up Your Starting Point

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Almost anything can work

I recently had a talk with Anfernee, who is a growing solopreneur who just made $3.4k in 24 hours.

We discussed many things, but one thing we focused on is this:

Anything can work if you put in enough effort.

Anfernee’s business is as niche as they come. He sells templates on Notion. My first thought was:
“Does anybody pay for a template these days? Aren’t these all free?”

Yes, there are free alternatives. But there’s a secret sauce to his offers.

Anfernee started by giving out dozens of great templates for free. He set himself as the guy who makes templates on Notion. The guy you call if you love using Notion and need tools to make your work better.

Although there are plenty of free alternatives, when you buy his templates, you buy it with insurance that you get a great value for your money.

And you need to do the same for your niche. Be the person that people talk about when that topic comes up.

“You’re looking for a SaaS expert in the B2B section who is an experienced developer with marketing skills? Talk to Orel then. He’s your guy.”

That’s when you know you nailed your niche and made it work.

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Results of using a niche

Keep in mind:

Hitting the right niche will attract the right people to you. Now your job is to keep them entertained, so they’ll come back for more.

Further recommended reading:

• How not to be boring

• How to become a 10x marketer by 'Reverse Engineering'

• Systems Thinking

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