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Ask HN: How do I choose a niche for freelance software business?

18 points by acconrad ↗ HN
I've read that in order to attract inbound business, it helps to develop a niche where you can become an expert on something. Two examples include:

* Technical experts: People like Jon Skeet (C# StackOverflow guru) and Jacob Thornton (Bootstrap creator)

* Tangential experts: People like Patrick MacKenzie (blogged about his software small businesses) and Brennan Dunn (Double your freelancing, aimed largely at software professionals)

If I went technical, I'd probably choose the framework/language I use the most in my freelancing work and become a deep expert in that. The upside is it would achieve the goal of more inbound business. The downside is it would be a chore for me to be blogging about topics that haven't already been covered - language/framework niches are difficult to break into if you aren't the creator or early prominent member.

If I went tangential, I'd choose the topic of health and software development. There's clearly a market for this (see "The Healthy Programmer"[1]) and I think it's a niche I could dominate. I also would have no trouble creating blog posts, podcasts, and other material to develop this niche. The downside is I don't think this would achieve my goal of bringing in new business for software development - I could see this being a side project to build in addition to my freelance development, and it could become big if I put enough effort into it, but I don't see businesses needing health consultants for their development teams (who are also developers) as an immediate pressing need.

Does anyone have any insights into attempting these various approaches?

[1] https://pragprog.com/book/jkthp/the-healthy-programmer

12 comments

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BjoernKW
I'd suggest becoming an industry or business subject-matter expert instead, for example you could specialise in

- solving problems with software in the healthcare industry

- digitising procurement processes

- designing and running large-scale systems

From a business perspective I'd advise against becoming a technical expert. Not only is very specific technical expertise like knowing a certain framework particularly well quite short-lived but you'd also be further away from where the more important decisions are made and the most money is spent.

Businesses (those that don't sell software themselves, that is) don't care about frameworks and programming languages they care about the problems you can solve for them. I think it was Patrick MacKenzie who advocated taking end-to-end responsibility for solutions you provide to customers instead of merely creating a bunch of computer code for them.

taprun
To follow up on this, I'd also suggest coming up with something that requires treatment (ongoing, recurring income) vs cure (one time work, one time payment). The more often you have to hunt for clients, the more painful and irregular the process.
acconrad
So currently I do have a long-term contract as a subcontractor, which is indeed ongoing and recurring. The only reason I got this, though, is because the contrator knew I had Rails experience. And that's why I feel like if I blog/seek expertise in a language/framework, that will contribute to finding more long term work like this.
acconrad
Interesting! So I do have subject-matter expertise, which is developing and scaling marketplaces. Would that be the right kind of niche you're referring to?
siquick
Because of the difficulty of marketplace establishment then you are in an excellent position, if you can sell yourself in the right way.
BjoernKW
Yes, absolutely. That sounds like valuable expertise that involves both business and engineering matters.
jamesmp98
I'm assuming you need to be late in your career in order to do something like this
BjoernKW
You certainly need some kind of experience first but I wouldn’t say such a move is reserved to late in your career. It’s all a matter of learning and making connections deliberately.
petermonsson
I suggest that you take the free double your freelancing course by Brennan Dunn. The course or one of the follow up mails covers this issue.
fiftyacorn
have you taken the course? is it any good?
petermonsson
I am not a freelancer, but I have taken the free e-mail course, because I wanted to learn. I liked it. I felt motivated to complete the course and I would definitely heed the advice if I were to become a freelancer some day. It has a soft up sell at the end, but it still gets my full recommendation anyway.
saluki
You'll probably naturally gravitate to a niche whether it's projects in a framework you are familiar with or 'developing and scaling marketplaces' that you mentioned.

You'll tend to move toward doing what projects pay the best and come find you.

I would create a personal website and start blogging about the technical aspect and the scaling you do.

I know most people say make one site that is your personal brand. But I always feel like you would create two sites a technical expertise site and a scaling site. But it's probably better to create a personal site and start posting regularly there.

This could lead to technical projects and scaling projects from people finding your articles.

Start building up an email list from the start, maybe one for technical/framework tips/articles and one for scaling.

Once you start building up a reputation as an expert in each of these, engagements will find you and you can market ebooks and courses in each to your list.

Being a freelancer/consultant I would recommend creating products/SaaS that generate recurring revenue so you are not so dependent on finding new project work.

Make it part of your long term plan.