When it comes to starting an online business, one of the most common pieces of advice is to “niche down.” Instead of trying to cover an entire industry or topic family, niching down means choosing a smaller slice of the pie to specialize in. In this week’s Web News, Matt and Mike explore whether that same strategy can apply to developers. Is there value in mastering a narrow set of skills and becoming the go-to authority in that niche? Or does broad knowledge provide more flexibility in a fast-moving industry?
When someone goes to start an online business, the most common piece of advice that I hear is “niche down.” This is the process of not covering an entire topic family (primary and related topics), but instead choosing something smaller to specialize in so that you can become an expert and authority in that niched down space.
Example 1: If you wanted to make a golf website, you may want to niche down to reviewing drivers - instead of covering golf news, club releases, golf carts, course information, etc.
Example 2: If you want to create a gaming website, you may want to niche down to a popular topic such as reviewing indie video games - instead of talking about all things gaming hardware, best TVs for gaming, AAA games, indie games, and more.
