Review of Niching Up

[FranHarrall]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Niching Up" by Chris Dreyer.]

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4 out of 5 stars

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“Niching is not restrictive; it provides opportunity”. - Chris Dreyer

Chris Dreyer’s Niching Up certainly packs a ton of useful information in its 105 pages. As the title suggests, it’s a book that sheds light on what it means to choose a niche in your business—the good, the bad, and the unexpected. It’s less of a guide on how to choose a niche and more of a deeper dive into what it means for you and your business once you’ve chosen to take that step.

The book assumes that the reader already knows a bit about business—this isn’t a typical starter guide for those thinking of launching their first side hustle or startup. But that doesn’t mean to say it was difficult to grasp or written in a stuffy, formal way—quite the contrary, actually. Throughout its eight chapters, Chris talks in detail about the highs and lows of running a niche business, with nerdy Star Wars and Magic: The Gathering references peppered throughout, to give this book a much less serious tone than you’d expect.

What I loved was that as a freelancer for over a decade, I’ve pretty much seen it all in terms of ‘choosing a niche’ and the overdone higher-level blog posts and ebooks on niches—yet I found I learned a lot from Chris’s writing. The book starts off with an introduction to his career, then jumps straight into the consequences of choosing a niche—something you won’t see other books do very often. Without giving too much away here, there are specific downsides I’d never considered before, which just goes to show he really knows what he’s talking about, as it’s advice that he’d only know from having lived it himself.

From there, he goes on to talk about all the wonderful things ‘niching up’ can do for your business, from the personal benefits to all the good you can do for your clients and even your competition. I learned a lot from his obvious wealth of knowledge about marketing and running a successful niche business.

Overall, I'd rate this book 4 out of 5 stars.

Chris came across as a likable person who, if I were a personal injury attorney, I’d definitely call up for help with creating an SEO strategy. The only reason I felt I couldn’t give this the full five stars is that, although the advice was relevant to every industry, he spoke mainly of his current business helping PI lawyers, yet he’s mentioned working on 100 affiliate sites in the past. I’d love to have learned more about those businesses too as more of a guide on what not to do.

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Niching Up
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