Does your Press HAVE to be your specific niche only? What I've learnt from over 50 press features on astrology.

I've been lucky enough to have been featured as an expert in perhaps 50 + press outlets over the last few years, with different stories thanks to some amazing journalists who trust my opinion on all things astrology.

Writing about things from King Charles's reign predictions, Career predictions, the Chinese new year, your love life, Uranus retrograde, Venus retrograde through to what holiday destination suits you and my most recent pieces 'Which houseplants best suit your star sign?'' picked up by the Independent and 'What is your perfect lipstick shade according to your star sign?' featured over on The Irish News

Want to know something? Not one of these areas above are my 'niche' when you look at it deeply and this goes against what all PR departments will tell you.

Here are 3 things I've been told by PR groups, reps and departments in the past and my humble opinion:

Press should be for your benefit as much as it is the journalist:

I get and understand this, some press pieces are time consuming and take research/facts/figures etc to compile and it needs to be worth your time.

But, at the same time if it's not you the journalist is going to find someone else to use and you've missed an opportunity.

If you're newer to business say yes, get the exposure if it's something that makes sense to you and you can do with minimal effort even if it isn't your niche so to say your website SEO will thank you hun trust me!

If it isn't in your niche it's a waste of time your audience isn't going to see it:

Again I get the idea behind this but for me, and perhaps you, it doesn't matter because what my audience is going to see is that I have brand recognition and authority. Yes my entrepreneur who wants to learn intuition for business success may not read all about what houseplant they can buy according to their star sign but they are likley to see that I have been featured in the Indepenent 3 times for my knowledge on astrology and understand that I know what I'm talking about so they can trust me to work with me long term.

The truth is no these press articles haven't gotten me major website traffic or sales but they have given me a name behind my authority, recognition and confidence in my knowledge that is 20 years in the making.

Don't waste your time if they aren't going to credit your website:

Really? Many outlets don't credit outside sources other than by name, but look if someone really wants to ask me more about what lipstick shade they can buy depending on their star sign they can find me pretty quickly on google. Again this maybe more for really niche or knowledge pieces, my articles have been fun and uplifting pieces of information not save the world big movements...yet...(who knows right) 

What I do know is I actually enjoy writing these weird and wonderful astrology pieces. They make me think about star sign energy in new ways at times and that gives me a new layer of information and understanding on the signs energy that I can use with my clients in different ways in the future. 

I also love to write, and find the little step back from some of my practical day to day duties of my business a nice distraction that I get to see flourish into a full written piece once the journalist has combined mine and another authorities information together. 

I'm always so grateful to see the google notification pop up showing I've had yet more press, because sometimes it doesn't get back to me if the piece is picked up so that's a lovely notification to get when it comes and although maybe my ideal client isn't reading Yahoo finance or the Metro each day looking for this type of information I do know that my clients enjoy the reads when I share them on and it shows different sides to my versatile personality.

Conclusion

I'd say as long as your press is vaguely related to your business go for it, because the authority matters in the long game. If you enjoy the content you're writing and it's top of mind and doesn't need any research from you, like my astrology knowledge, so can be written super easily without too much hassle it's a fun exercise and a great way to practice your writing skillset (Even with AI readily available this is important to maintain)

Enjoy writing, write and show up!

I love writing these articles and plan on being more proactive to pitch these pieces to journalists in 2024. What topics would you love to hear about?