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). Becoming an expert is crucial to make money blogging.
If you have ever taken an Internet marketing course or participated in 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 earn an online income then the model is based on content, people are taught to either begin 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 bloggers start off as reporters because they have not established expertise. Experts enjoy the perks of preeminence, higher sales 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 have higher incomes and attract more attention.
Many Bloggers Simply Report
The thing with expertise is that it requires something – experience. No person becomes an expert without doing things and learning. Bloggers routinely start out with little expertise and as a result begin their blogging journey by talking about everything going on in their niche (reporting) and by reporting on and speaking with other successful bloggers (reporting again).
There’s nothing wrong with reporting of course and for many bloggers it’s a necessity in the beginning until you build up some expertise. Unfortunately the ratios are pretty skewed when it comes to reporters and experts – there are far more reporters than experts, hence reporters often struggle to gain publicity and when they do, they often just help the reputation of the expert they are reporting on.
Don’t Copy Your Mentor
If you have ever spent some time browsing products pertaining to the Blogging for Dollars niche you will notice a pattern. Many people first study affiliate marketing from a guru (for lack of a better term). The mentor teaches how he or she is able to make money blogging, and very often the view that the student gleams is that in order to make money blogging you have to teach others how to make money blogging.
The end result of this process is a huge army of amateur writers attempting to duplicate what their mentor does in the same industry – the affiliate marketing niche – not realizing that without expert status based on proven record and all the benefits that come with it, it’s next to an uphill battle to succeed.
Even people, who enjoy some success, say for example growing an contact list of 1,000 people, then go out and launch a product about how to grow an contact list of 1,000 people. Now I have no issues with this idea, I think it’s fine to teach novices and leverage whatever achievements you have, the difficulty is that people gravitate to the same niche – affiliate marketing – and rarely can be differentiated.
How many products out there do you know of that all state they teach the same things – email marketing, SEO, pay per click, affiliate marketing, and all the sub-niches that are under the heading of Internet marketing. It’s a difficult niche, yet when you see your teachers and other mentors making money training others how to make money (and let’s face it – making money online as a subject is one of the most compelling) – your natural thought is to follow in their footsteps.
If the key is to identify yourself as a mentor and you haven’t spent the last 5-10 years making money, I suggest you look for another niche to establish expertise in.
Give it time and stick with what you do to learn and then translate that training into training for others, and remember, it’s okay to be a big fish in a small pond, that’s all most experts really are.
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