There are countless resources out there that answer the question, “How do I find my niche?” So why did I decide to write yet another one? Because I think there’s something the vast majority of them get wrong in their answer.

For the most part, they will tell you to find the intersection of what you’re good at, what you like to do, and what can be profitable in order to find your niche. For example, here’s what a Forbes article will tell you:

“It’s also important to think about which areas you have special skills or experience in. What do people regularly tell you you’re good at? What’s your training or education in? What special skills or knowledge have you developed through your work?”

Then it will lead you to Step Two which is “Figure out if there’s a market for your niche.”

I’ve even written about this previously and made a cute graphic to illustrate the process.

Overall, this is a functional formula to start with if you’re finding your niche purely to make money and not totally hate what you’re doing. And while money is a consideration for many people, for others, a “niche” is something that implies “purpose.” It’s your small corner of the internet where you do whatever it is you’re doing in your niche. This can often times be profitable, but less often will it be fulfilling if that’s all you’re looking for.

There is a way to do both.

That’s where I’d like to give you some new advice to finding your nice. Instead of thinking about your skills, experience, or education, simply think about what makes you passionate. I know that’s a cliché question, but let’s do this exercise:

Think about your 8-year-old self on a day off from school or getting home in the afternoon with no homework. What did you do that made you feel alive? Given all of the time in the world and your brief lived experience, what was your heart drawn to do?

Maybe it was storytelling, or playing sports, or video games, or coloring books. The possibilities are nearly endless. And that’s the beauty of finding your niche in the age of the internet.

There is something for everyone and space for everyone who has a passion to pursue it.

I’ll give you another example. Let’s say that Peter grew up playing basketball every day with his friends after school. Now an adult, he mostly sits at a desk counting down the minutes until he can rush home and watch the basketball games on that night. Peter really wishes his career involved basketball but it doesn’t.

So how can Peter use his passion to create a niche? There are tons of ways! He can start a blog about his favorite team and monetize that, using social media to promote it. He can make fan art and sell it as NFTs or turn his designs into apparel and open a Shopify store. If Peter is really only into the raw data of the game, he can study the analytics, call into his local station regularly and potentially leverage that into a part- or full-time job (this sounds far-fetched, but trust me it happens more often than you think, and especially in smaller markets). There are so many scenarios I’m missing but you get the point.

Further evidence of how there’s a niche for everyone is the rise of the micro-influencers. Richard Feng of CornerTech and Marketing writes:

With the pandemic, micro-influencers have seen engagement rates increase by an average of 130%, while Youtube channels are seeing an average growth spurt of 304% month on month.
Even better, on Instagram, micro-influencers average a 3.21% engagement rate compared to an average of 1.5% across all other social networks. This makes micro-influencers on Instagram one of the highest engaged groups in the industry.
Breaking it down further, micro-influencers who sit within the 0–25K follower range have the highest engagement rates regardless of any genre and targeting. They average 7% on their feeds, the most of any type of influencer.

And you only need 1,000 followers to be considered a micro-influencer!

Making a living is important, but if you’re trying to find your niche because you want to do something you love or at least like a little bit, that very often will not align with your experience or education. We’re all expected to know what we want to do for the rest of our lives at 18 when we go to college, which is insane. So we pick majors with an end-job in mind, NOT with our true, down-in-our-gut passion in mind.

If you are passionate about something, and you show the world that passion, you’ll likely resonate with a similar community and find your niche.