How to Find Your Niche on YouTube

Choosing a niche is often the single most important decision for YouTube success. In this guide, I'll break down why your niche matters and share a proven process—rooted in strategies from top creators—to help you find your niche on YouTube so you can focus your content strategy and scale your channel.

Why Your YouTube Niche Matters

  1. Clarifies your content direction
    A clear niche tells YouTube’s algorithm exactly what your channel is about—boosting discovery and recommendations. It also means you are focusing all of your energy into a very specific topic VS wasting energy by being all over the place.

  2. Builds loyal audience engagement
    Viewers are more likely to subscribe and interact when your channel consistently delivers content they care about. If someone subscribes to you because you have awesome vegan recipes, they are not going to want to see you posting travel documentaries. 

  3. Unlocks monetization and authority
    Niche experts attract sponsors, higher CPMs, and affiliate opportunities. And, as you build trust, viewers look to you as an expert. When you gain the trust of your audience, they see you are their person and are more likely to buy from you in the long run.

Step 1: Define Your “Why” & Goals

Ask yourself:

  • What purpose does your channel serve? Education, entertainment, income, or brand positioning?

  • Why do you want YouTube success? Is it building authority, earning revenue, or sharing a skill?

Your goals shape everything—from content style to frequency to monetization strategy.

Learn How I Built A Multiple 6-figure business Leveraging The Power Of YouTube

Step 2: Identify Your Passion + Expertise

  • List where enthusiasm meets knowledge: What topics can you talk about for hours? What do you consistently learn or teach?

  • Look for overlap between your passions and what you can consistently create content on for years

This sweet spot fuels consistency and authenticity—two keys to long-term success.

 

Step 3: Research Audience Demand & Profitability

  • Search trending topics using tools like Google Trends, TubeBuddy, VIDIQ

  • Analyze similar channels: Are they growing fast? What video topics get the most views? 

  • Check monetization signals: Do the creators in your niche have a way to make money? My preference is courses over YouTube Ads. A search of Udemy courses should be able to quickly answer this questions.

     

Step 4: Refine and Niche Down

  • Go specific: Broader themes (e.g., "fitness") are crowded. Niching down (e.g., "beginner calisthenics for busy professionals") cuts through competition .

  • Differentiate yourself: Highlight unique angles—your teaching style, background, or format—to stand out. I don't have a degree in music and I let my audience know that. As a guitar teacher, it helps me connect with my audience who was told they weren't good enough.

     

Step 5: Let Content Performance Guide You

Don’t be afraid to experiment early:

  1. Test 3–5 related topics within your niche. Certain topics may be more important to your audience than you think.

  2. Track performance metrics—views, watch time, subscriber growth. If on average, your videos get 100 views in a month, and you release a video that all of a sudden gets 300 videos in one month, that's a signal that something good happened in that content.

  3. Double down on winners, both what audiences prefer and what you enjoy making. Remember, the process has to be enjoyable for you as the creator to keep doing it.

Step 6: Build a Niche-Focused Content Plan

Once your niche is locked in:

  • Keyword research: Use TubeBuddy, VidIQ to uncover video ideas around your niche.

  • Plan a content calendar: I recommend posting at least 1 long form video a week and 1 short form video. If you can do more, great. You should also put a focus on long form video as that's where we build relationships with customers.

  • Rotate Topics: Rotate video content through your main 3 topics and see where the fish are biting. Don't be afraid to do the same video with a slightly different spin. I have so many videos on strumming the guitar.

Grab VidIQ:

I hope you enjoyed this article on how to find your niche on YouTube. If you do not own VidIQ, I highly recommend that you grab it as a tool to help you with researching content ideas and keeping tabs on popular content in your niche. Click this link to check out VidIQ today. They even have a free version!