Most advice on finding a podcast niche tells you to follow your passion or pick an underserved topic. That’s not wrong, but it’s incomplete. The real work isn’t brainstorming ideas. It’s eliminating the ones that will quietly sabotage you six months in.
This guide walks you through six filtering questions designed to eliminate bad niche ideas before you waste time on them. Each question targets a specific mistake that causes podcasts to stall, lose momentum, or never find their audience. If your niche idea survives all six filters, you’re not just passionate about it, you’re positioned to build something sustainable.
How to use this framework: Read each filter question. If your niche idea fails any filter, stop and refine it before moving forward.
Filter 1: Who becomes what by listening to this?
What this eliminates: Niches with no clear listener identity
Why beginners get this wrong:
Most people define their niche as a topic. “A podcast about productivity.” “A show on real estate investing.” The problem is topics don’t build audiences, transformations do. When you lead with a topic, you’re competing with every other show in that category. When you lead with listener identity, you’re creating a destination for a specific type of person.
The deeper truth:
The strongest niches aren’t about what you discuss. They’re about who your listener becomes by showing up consistently. People don’t subscribe to information, they subscribe to becoming someone. A “productivity podcast” is forgettable. A podcast for “high performers who won’t sacrifice depth for speed” is a flag they rally around.
How to pass this filter:
Complete this sentence with absolute specificity: “I help [specific type of person] become [specific identity or outcome].”
Strong examples:
- “I help burned-out founders build businesses without glorifying overwork” (identity: founders who reject hustle culture)
- “I help first-time managers lead confidently without faking expertise” (identity: new managers who value authenticity)
Weak examples:
- “A podcast about entrepreneurship” (too vague. who specifically?)
- “Talking to interesting people in tech” (no transformation, no identity shift)
The test:
If you removed your topic and only described your listener, would they still recognize themselves? If yes, you’ve defined an identity. If no, you’ve only defined a subject.
Filter 2: What problem are they actively trying to solve right now?
What this eliminates: Niches based on your interests instead of listener intent
Why beginners get this wrong:
Passion misleads people here. You might love discussing theology, film theory, or economic history, but if your target listener isn’t actively searching for solutions in that space, you’re creating content for yourself, not an audience. The gap between “interesting to talk about” and “urgent to solve” is where most podcasts die quietly.
The deeper truth:
People don’t subscribe to podcasts because the topic sounds intellectually stimulating. They subscribe because they believe listening will solve a problem they’re already wrestling with. Your niche needs to intercept them at the moment they’re searching for answers, not introduce them to a problem they didn’t know they had.
How to pass this filter:
Answer these three questions about your ideal listener:
- What keeps them up at night?
- What do they Google when they’re frustrated?
- What gap exists between where they are and where they want to be?
If your niche is “exploring Stoicism,” the real question is: what problem does Stoicism solve for your listener? Is it decision-making under pressure? Managing anxiety in high-stakes roles? Once you anchor to the problem, your content has direction and your listener has a reason to stay.
The test:
Can you imagine your listener describing their problem to a friend without mentioning your specific topic? If yes, you’re solving a real problem. If no, you’re discussing an interest. Real problems exist independent of your solution. Interests require you to create demand.
Filter 3: Can you create 100+ episodes without repeating yourself or losing steam?
What this eliminates: Niches that run out of runway
Why beginners get this wrong:
Beginners choose niches that sound compelling for 10 episodes but have no structural depth. This happens when the niche is too tactically narrow or when it’s built entirely on a single angle. The excitement of launching blinds them to the reality of sustaining. By episode 30, they’re scraping for ideas or rehashing what they’ve already said.
The deeper truth:
A sustainable niche isn’t just deep. It’s architecturally sound. It has natural expansion paths. It allows you to go deeper on core concepts, broader into adjacent territories, or apply the same framework to different contexts without abandoning your listener’s identity. The niche should feel like a world you’re exploring, not a single road you’re walking to its end.
How to pass this filter:
Before you commit, map out 30 distinct episode concepts. Not 30 variations of the same idea. 30 genuinely different angles, frameworks, or applications of your core problem.
Red flags your niche lacks depth:
- It’s a how-to guide that could be fully covered in a YouTube playlist
- It depends entirely on breaking news, trends, or external events to generate content
- After 15 episode ideas, you’re already reaching or repeating
Green flags your niche has longevity:
- The topic connects to enduring human challenges (ambition, relationships, decision-making, identity, growth)
- You can approach the same core problem from multiple frameworks, disciplines, or perspectives
- Listener questions naturally generate new episode directions you hadn’t considered
The test:
If your niche was a book, would it be a pamphlet or an encyclopaedia? You need something in between. Deep enough to explore for years, focused enough that every episode serves the same listener transformation.
Filter 4: Does this niche naturally create stories, tension, or stakes?
What this eliminates: Niches that require guest-dependence or manufactured energy
Why beginners get this wrong:
Some niches are inherently compelling because they involve conflict, transformation, or high stakes. Others require you to work exponentially harder to keep listeners engaged, often by relying on guest charisma or injecting artificial drama into flat material. If your niche needs guests to be interesting, you’re renting credibility instead of building it.
The deeper truth:
Podcasting rewards narrative momentum. The medium is intimate and time-intensive. People are giving you their attention during commutes, workouts, and quiet moments. If your niche doesn’t naturally generate stories, tension, or emotional stakes, you’re fighting against the format. You’ll burn out trying to make dry information feel alive, or worse, you’ll settle for being forgettable.
How to pass this filter:
Evaluate whether your niche has built-in narrative elements:
Strong niches naturally contain:
- Before/after transformations (career pivots, recovery stories, business turnarounds, identity shifts)
- Decisions under uncertainty (leadership dilemmas, creative risks, strategic choices)
- Ongoing tension your audience lives with (balancing competing values, navigating change, building under constraints)
Weak niches require constant artificial stakes:
- Topics where every episode is a 101 explainer with no progression or layering
- Subjects that are informative but emotionally inert. No one’s future changes based on what they learn
- Content that only matters to people already deep in a niche industry with no broader resonance
The test:
If you find yourself thinking “this would work better as a blog post or a Twitter thread,” your niche might lack the narrative weight podcasting demands. Audio is a storytelling medium. If your niche doesn’t naturally tell stories, it’s working against you.
Filter 5: Can you differentiate your perspective, or are you just adding to the noise?
What this eliminates: Niches where you’re the 47th person saying the same thing
Why beginners get this wrong:
Copying successful podcasts feels safe. You see what works and think, “I can do that too.” But the market doesn’t need another general business podcast, another true crime show, or another interview series with founders unless you bring a perspective that makes people rethink the category. Imitation guarantees invisibility.
The deeper truth:
Differentiation isn’t about being wildly original. It’s about having a distinct point of view earned through experience, not credentials. Your perspective is shaped by what you’ve lived, what you’ve rejected, and what you’ve learned that contradicts conventional wisdom. This is where your authority comes from. Not from being the most knowledgeable, but from being the most honest about what you know differently.
How to pass this filter:
Answer these questions with brutal honesty:
- What do I believe about this topic that most people in this space don’t?
- What’s my contrarian take, earned through experience rather than theory?
- If someone described my show to a friend, what would make it sound different from the rest?
Your differentiation often comes from who you are, not what you know. A former founder talking about leadership carries different weight than a consultant theorizing about leadership. A parent discussing productivity operates under different constraints than a productivity guru. Your lived experience is your competitive advantage, if you use it.
The test:
Finish this sentence with something true and specific: “Unlike other podcasts in this space, I believe…”
If you can’t complete it, or if your answer sounds like something 20 other shows could say, your niche isn’t differentiated. And if it’s not differentiated, it won’t be discovered. In a crowded space, being good isn’t enough. Being necessary is what matters.
Filter 6: Does this niche have a monetization path that aligns with how you want to work?
What this eliminates: Niches that trap you in unsustainable business models
Why beginners get this wrong:
Most people avoid thinking about monetization early because it feels premature or mercenary. But ignoring this doesn’t make you more authentic, it makes you more likely to quit. If you build an audience you can’t monetize in a way that respects both your time and their trust, you’ve built a hobby that will eventually resent you for the hours it demands.
The deeper truth:
This filter isn’t about chasing money from day one. It’s about ensuring your niche doesn’t paint you into a corner where the only path to sustainability contradicts why you started. Some niches naturally lead to coaching, consulting, or courses. Others align with sponsorships, affiliate revenue, or premium content. Some require hundreds of thousands of listeners before monetization works. Others can sustain you with a few thousand deeply engaged people.
How to pass this filter:
Be honest about your long-term goals and constraints:
- Do you want to sell services (coaching, consulting), products (courses, books), or access (memberships, communities)?
- Does your niche attract listeners with purchasing power and intent to invest in solutions?
- Can you monetize without compromising the trust and transformation you’re building?
Warning signs your monetization will be a struggle:
- Your niche attracts hobbyists with no budget or businesses with no intent to spend
- The only way to make money is through high-volume ads, requiring you to optimize for scale over depth
- Monetization requires you to sell something misaligned with your listener’s actual needs
The test:
Imagine you have 5,000 loyal listeners. Can you describe a monetization path that would sustain your effort without feeling exploitative or exhausting? If the only answer is “get to 100,000 listeners first,” you’re building on hope, not structure. Hope isn’t a strategy.
What Happens After You Pass All Six Filters
If your niche idea survives this framework, you’re in rare territory. You have clarity on who you’re serving, what transformation you’re facilitating, and why you’re positioned to sustain it. You’re not just following passion, you’re building something with structural integrity.
But here’s the final truth: no amount of filtering guarantees success. A well-chosen niche creates the conditions for sustainability, but execution still determines outcomes. Consistency, the willingness to refine based on what you learn, and the humility to adapt when your assumptions meet reality, those are the variables you control after the niche is set.
Most podcasters fail not because they chose the wrong niche, but because they chose one that couldn’t survive the demands of regular creation. These filters are designed to stress-test your idea before you invest months of effort. If your niche holds up, you’ve earned the right to start. If it doesn’t, you’ve saved yourself the harder lesson of learning this after 40 episodes.
The best niche isn’t the one that sounds most impressive when you describe it at a dinner party. It’s the one you can build episode after episode, year after year, without burning out, losing direction, or wondering whether anyone actually needs what you’re making.
Now you know how to find it.