Last week, I got an email from a subscriber interested in making money from writing.

That’s not too unusual…

But this reader was thinking about targeting a niche that most probably wouldn’t consider….

… Erotica.

Specifically, he was wondering about how writing a piece of erotic fan fiction that combined a racy story with an existing public domain figure could be monetised.

(I won’t reveal his particular ‘coupling’, but for more info on how you can ‘remix’ public domain works like Winnie

The Pooh and even James Bond… take a look HERE.)

As he pointed out, there are vanity presses who will gladly take his money to publish a book.

But finding a publisher to pay an advance or give him royalties is more tricky.

Well, I’m happy to get all kinds of requests, no matter how outré!

And I think my answer is something worth sharing with all my readers.

Because there IS money to be made from obscure niche genres and unusual specialities.

These are where you get small but dedicated crowds of superfans who will seek out and buy everything and anything related to their passion.

And you don’t need to find a conventional publisher to get your stuff out there to these people. (You don’t need to go through the old gatekeepers at all!)

What’s more, you don’t even need to write books.

Because there are multiple ways you can profit from an obscure niche.

And with the help of AI tools and print-on-demand services, you can do this without skills in writing, design, or production.

Let’s take a look…

What is a Niche?

I’ve covered this a few times before, but to recap…

A niche is a narrow field of interest that appeals to a small group of people.

Let’s take a broad topic like “Health”.

It’s too vast to consider for a home business, so you’d want to find a sub-category.

For example: pain relief, fitness, weight loss, insomnia or disease prevention.

You could feasibly start a business around one of those – like a weight loss programme or a range of sleep aid gadgets…

But for a part-time home business, it’s likely that this is still too broad.

You’d have to compete against companies with big budgets, staff, manufacturing capacities and thousands of social media followers.

This is why I recommend you find a ‘niche’ – a smaller category with less competition, where you can specialise more easily with the resources available to you.

An example might be that you choose ‘Natural Relief from Joint and Muscle Pain’ or ‘The Keto Diet Weight Loss Method’, or ‘Blood pressure control’.

Those are good, but you can go further and focus on a specific audience. For instance, ‘Cholesterol Control for Men Over 50’ or ‘Keto Diet Weight Loss for Women After Childbirth’.

When you have a smaller subject area and target audience, you can better focus your product development and marketing, spending less time and money trying to appeal to lots of people.

Being a bigger fish in a smaller pond gives you a far better chance of being noticed by your audience amidst the noise of the internet.

What’s more, you can get to know your potential customers more intimately and become THE go-to source of information for those ‘in the know’.

This is ideal for a part-time online business because it means that you don’t need a flashy website, awards and accolades, or tens of thousands of social media followers.

As long as you have the kind of info your customers CRAVE, they won’t care about how slick or corporate you are. Even a basic email newsletter, eBook or private Facebook Group will do the trick!

If you want to know more about the process of ‘drilling’ into a niche, check this out: NICHE DRILLING

Okay, so today, I want to focus on ways to make money from obscure niches with dedicated followers willing to shell out money for information, products and services.

Ideas for Obscure Cult Niches

When I say ‘obscure’ I mean those niches that aren’t expected, or that are seen as outside the norm, and less represented by mainstream media.

In other words, they should be too small or “weird” for big companies to bother with.

This creates small gaps in the available products, information, or services that you can fill (I’ll come to the types of products in a moment).

Examples include…

• Fan Fiction, eg. Marvel Cinematic Universe character relationships. Harry Potter alternative timelines, Anime character personality analysis…
• Divination. Tarot cards, astrology, dowsing techniques, chaos magic.
• Alternative Healing. eg Medicinal plants, energy field manipulation, chakra balancing, aromatherapy.
• Romance. Eg, Regency-era courtship, Vampire mythology, erotica.
• Cosplay. Eg, historical re-enactments, Japanese cartoon character makeup, Star Wars costume accuracy, prop construction, historical fashion research.
• Collectibles. Eg 1980s action figures, Vintage toys and games, comic book.
• Gaming. eg, Retro console repair and preservation, Independent game reviews, hardware modification.
• Alternative Living. Eg Solar panel systems, rainwater collection, filtration systems and permaculture food production methods.
• Minimalism. Eg Zero-waste lifestyle, capsule wardrobes, mindful consumption psychology, Japanese Zen Gardens.
• Urban Exploration. Eg Abandoned buildings, industrial decay photography, urban wandering, psychogeography.
• Crafting, eg. 1940s-1960s sewing patterns, furniture restoration using reclaimed material, traditional craft techniques
• Food Culture.eg home brewing, fermentation science and bacterial cultures medieval and ancient cooking methods.

These are just a handful of examples to get you thinking along the right lines.

Start with a category that appeals to you – say, for example, ‘Divination’ – and then drill into a niche that you could more easily dominate.

For example, you might choose ‘Tarot’…

But even then, you need to consider different niche audiences, for example…

• Beginners who want to learn tarot
• Experienced tarot readers seeking to monetise their skills
• Collectors of vintage and antique tarot decks
• People in specific circumstances who want their tarots read (eg entrepreneurs, divorcees, jobseekers)

These are all very different niche audiences!

But before you decide, consider some key factors.

How to Verify An Obscure Niche

Firstly, your audience needs to be genuinely obsessed, not just casually curious.

For instance, they should be the types who spend hours researching, discussing, and thinking about their interest – or who hungrily devour everything that comes along (products, events, gossip, news!)

So you need to find those online communities where people use specialised jargon, have heated debates, and consider their niche a core part of their identity.

Next, you need to make sure they regularly go online to seek out solutions to problems, or advice on reaching their goals.

This could mean checking Google Trends for searches, to make sure people are actively seeking info on Google…

Or using the search function in social media networks to look for online conversations about topics related to your obscure niche.

A good sign of potential is that there are popular influencers, forums, and niche blogs in the niche, because it means there is an active interchange of information that you can be part of.

Finally. you also need to be sure that these people will happily pay for information, products or services.

Look for evidence of books, courses, events, equipment, subscription newsletters and memberships sites… and avoid any niche where people expect everything for free.

Ways to Monetise Your Niche

Once you hit upon an obscure niche, there are multiple ways to monetise it.

• Information Products 

  You could write a book or eBook addressing problems that people in your niche might have – or a goal that they want to achieve.Or try something smaller, like a quick start guide, planner or checklist. For example, I recently told you about the rising popularity of PDF Farming, where you deliver a simple PDF document that helps people solve a problem.

  These would come in handy here, either as a stand-alone product or a method of drawing people into your business so that you can sell them other items.

  Or you could consider a digital course. These work well in obscure niches because mainstream education doesn’t cover these topics.

  Importantly, none of the above require you to go through the old publishing gatekeepers, or pay vanity presses!

• Recurring Revenue Streams 

  Setting up an email newsletter would be a great way to set yourself up in an obscure niche.You can offer free weekly content that’s useful and engaging, so that you build an audience to whom you can promote your products (courses, eBooks, PDFs) or affiliate products.

  Or put some of the content onto a paid subscription tier, where they get the most useful and practical advice.

  Membership websites work well in these niches because your most passionate followers will pay to connect with like-minded people. You can then charge monthly for access to forums, exclusive content, live Q&A sessions and other benefits.

  Podcasts are also good if you want to share interview-style content. You can make money from sponsors and advertisers – or simply use it as another way of pushing listeners to your products and services.

• Events and CoachingYou could create workshops, seminars and masterclasses online to capture a global audience.
  Or in-person events can be incredibly profitable if you think you can catch enough super-fans in your city, town or region.

  If you’ve got expertise in your field, or plenty of experience as a fan of a niche topic, you could also offer one-on-one coaching or group coaching via Zoom or Facebook Live.

• Physical Products 

  You could find specific products that are relevant to your audience on wholesaler sites like Alibaba, then set up your own Amazon or Etsy store to sell them.Subscription boxes are an option where you curate monthly selections of vintage collectibles, craft supplies, or specialty foods.

  Even easier, you could make your own range of physical products like t-shirts, mugs and artworks by taking advantage of print-on-demand services.

  You can use AI tools to help you write slogans and design images, while ‘print on demand’ companies like Printify will make and deliver the product for you.

Tell Me YOUR Unusual Niche

As you can see, there are plenty of ways to monetise your obscure interests or fandom beyond simply writing a book.

So if you have a special interest you’d like to turn into a part-time income, let me know and I’ll do my best to help.