There are basically two types of bloggers in the
world - reporters and experts - and some people perform both roles
(usually the experts, it's hard for reporters to become experts, but
it's easy for experts to report).
If you have ever taken an
Internet marketing course or attended a seminar specifically for
beginners, you have probably heard about the two different
methodologies. Whenever the business model is based on content, and if
you blog for money then the model is based on content, people are taught
to either start as reporters, or if possible step up as experts.
I'll be frank; you want to be the expert.
Reporters
leverage the content of the experts and in most cases people start off
as reporters because they haven't established expertise. Experts enjoy
the perks of preeminence, higher conversion rates because of perceived
value, it's easier to get publicity, people are more likely to seek you
out rather than you having to seek others out, joint ventures come
easier, etc� experts in most cases simply make more money and attract
more attention.
Most Bloggers Are Reporters
The thing
with expertise is that it requires something - experience. No person
becomes an expert without doing things and learning. Bloggers usually
start out without expertise and as a result begin their blogging journey
by talking about everything going on in their niche (reporting) and by
interviewing and talking about other experts (reporting again).
There's
nothing wrong with reporting of course and for many people it's a
necessity at first until you build up some expertise. Unfortunately the
ratios are pretty skewed when it comes to reporters and experts - there
are a lot more reporters than there are experts, hence reporters tend to
struggle to gain attention and when they do, they often just enhance
the reputation of the expert they are reporting on.
Don't Replicate Your Teacher
If
you have ever spent some time browsing products in the learn Internet
marketing niche you will notice a pattern. Many people first study
Internet marketing from a �guru� (for lack of a better term). The guru
teaches how he or she is able to make money online, and very often the
view that the student gleams is that in order to make money online you
have to teach others how to make money online.
The end result of
this process is a huge army of amateurs attempting to replicate what
their teacher does in the same industry - the Internet marketing
industry - not realizing that without expert status based on a proven
record and all the perks that come with it, it's next to impossible to
succeed.
Even people, who enjoy marginal success, say for
example growing an email list of 1,000 people, then go out and launch a
product about how to grow an email list of 1,000 people. Now I have no
problems with that, I think it's fine to teach beginners and leverage
whatever achievements you have, the problem is that people gravitate to
the same niche - Internet marketing - and rarely have any key points of
differentiation.
How many products out there do you know of that
all claim to teach the same things - email marketing, SEO, pay per
click, affiliate marketing, and all the sub-niches that fall under the
category of Internet marketing. It's a saturated market, yet when you
see your teachers and other gurus making money teaching others how to
make money (and let's face it - making money as a subject is one of the
most compelling) - your natural inclination is to follow in their
footsteps.
If the key is to become an expert and you haven't
spent the last 5-10 years making money online, I suggest you look for
another niche to establish expertise in.
Report on Your Process, Not Others
The
secret to progress from reporter to expert is not to focus on other
experts and instead report on your own journey. When you are learning
how to do something and implementing things day by day, or studying
other people's work, you need to take your process and what you do as a
result of what you learn, and use it as content for your blog.
It's
okay to talk about experts when you learn something from them, but
always relate it to what you are doing. If you learn a technique from an
expert it's fine to state you learned it from them (and affiliate link
to their product too!) but you should then take that technique, apply it
to what you are doing and then report back YOUR results, not there's.
Frame things using your opinion - your stories - and don't regurgitate
what the expert said. The key is differentiation and personality, not
replication.
Expertise comes from doing things most people don't
do and then talking about it. If you do this often enough you wake up
one day as an expert, possibly without even realizing how it happened,
simply because you were so good at reporting what you did.
You Are Already An Expert
Most
people fail to become experts (or perceived as experts) because they
don't leverage what they already know. Every person who lives a life
learns things as they go, takes action every day and knows something
about something. The reason why they never become an expert is because
they choose not to (which is fine for some, not everyone wants to be an
expert), but if your goal is to blog your way to expertise and leave the
world of reporting behind you have to start teaching and doing so by
leveraging real experience.
Experience can come from what you do
today and what you have done previously; you just need to take enough
steps to demonstrate what you already know and what you are presently
learning along your journey. I know so many people in my life, who are
experts simply by virtue of the life they have lived, yet they are so
insecure about what they know, they never commit their knowledge to
words for fear of�well fear.
Blogs and the Web in general, are
amazing resources when you leverage them as a communication tool to
spread your expertise because of the sheer scope of people they can
reach. If all you ever do is talk to people in person and share your
experience using limited communication mediums, you haven't much hope of
becoming an expert. Take what you know and show other people through
blogging, and you might be surprised how people change their perception
of you in time.
Reporting Is A Stepping Stone
If your
previous experience and expertise is from an area you want to leave
behind or you are starting from �scratch�, then reporting is the path
you must walk, at least for the short term.
Reporting is a lot
of fun. Interviewing experts, talking about what other people are doing
and just being part of a community is not a bad way to blog. In many
cases people make a career of reporting (journalism is about just that),
but if you truly want success and exponential results, at some point
you will have to stand up and proclaim yourself as someone unusually
good at something and then proceed to demonstrate it over and over
again.
Have patience and focus on what you do to learn and then
translate that experience into lessons for others, and remember, it's
okay to be a big fish in a small pond, that's all most experts really
are.
This article was by Yaro Starak, a professional blogger and
my blog mentor. He is the leader of the Blog Mastermind mentoring
program designed to teach bloggers how to earn a full time income
blogging part time.
To get more information about Blog Mastermind click this link:
http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/go.php?offer=satishcha&pid=1
