You want to become a copywriter but you’re not sure which area, or niche, to specialise in.

Everywhere you turn someone is telling you to segment your market, while someone else is telling you to generalise.

There are those who advise you to get to know your market, your audience, and learn everything about them… what they do, where they go, what they eat, how they speak, etc.

When you look at it that way you could target a specific market, or you could generalise.

I mean, it’s possible to stick to one market, learn as much about them as possible, and then it becomes second nature and you don’t have to do as much research each time you have a new assignment.

On the other hand, if you diversify, you have a bigger choice which could also be more interesting as opposed to sticking to one.

The question is, who do you listen to?

Look, I can’t tell you who you should or should not listen to.

What I can tell you is what I do.

You see, I have a problem… I get bored very easily.

I can choose a market and, a few weeks later, go completely off it… especially if I’ve been working hard for weeks on an assignment.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean for good.

Usually all it takes is for me to work on something different for a while and then come back and it becomes fresh again.

It’s like with food for me…

I can like a particular food and find it absolutely delicious.

However, if I continue to eat that food for a while, I can get sick of it.

In fact, I can get so sick of it, I never feel like trying it again.

Until I try it again… and realise I like it… again.

That’s how I’m like with work and copywriting.

All I need is something different for a while and then I can go back to what I began to dislike.

As you can imagine, working like this means I have to diversify.

I have to work in different industries just to keep my interest up.

Unfortunately, money isn’t always enough to keep me interested.

I don’t mind because it means I can take on jobs from anyone I choose.

And I don’t mind doing the research to get the job done.

Hey, it means I become more knowledgeable, and sometimes even an expert, in other fields I would not usually consider.

I remember reading about Robert DeNiro and how he prepares for a movie.

There was one movie where he had to pick a lock and, apparently, he got so good they had to edit out the part where he did the lock-picking for fear of people learning to do it by watching him.

In another movie he had to do some fencing… he got so good in preparation he actually reached Olympic standard.

And we know what he achieved during the making of Raging Bull, don’t we?

If you don’t, check it out.

Anyway, the one lesson I get from all this is that, to become a copywriter, you need to know things… you need to have some life experience.

And that means living and researching what you do, whether it’s something specific or something general.

What you pick is up to you.

I prefer the sea with its wide variety of fish, as opposed to the limited variety in a garden pond.