Do you want to become an expert at something? Maybe you already are an expert in your niche, but just want to get better. By following these pointers within this article you will definitely hit your goals a lot faster.
What is an Expert
Malcolm Gladwell said only after training for 10,000 hours can you be considered an expert in any field. That equates to 20 hours a week for 10 years. Well I have to disagree. Knowledge is key here and as long as you know more than the people you are teaching then you will be deemed an expert by them.
Let’s face how many times have you helped someone out and they have come back and said to you that you are an expert. Happens to me all the time but I still have a lot to learn and are no where near the 10,000 hour mark, YET!
True, the more you learn the more people will perceive you as the expert you want to be. But, there are some things that you can do to help the process along the way, so let’s run through them for you.
Believe in Yourself
Mindset is critical in anything you do in life, and becoming an expert is just part of your life. If you have doubts about ever an expert then you probably will never achieve it. However, believing that you are capable, worthy and able to achieve things will help make them materialize in your life.
Now I haven’t got time to go too in depth with this, just take it from me you need to BELIEVE that this will happen.
Mindset is very powerful and something your can learn to control for your benefit, I will be touching more on this in future posts so watch out for those.
Having A Home Online
Setting up your own website / blog is a great way to show your visitors the extent of your knowledge about your niche. With platforms such as WordPress, websites can be built very quickly and easily and with very little training indeed. You can even build a free website to begin with and then continue to improve it.
You can also do some guest blogging of other sites within your niche, this allows you to get in front of many people quickly. Do some research and only choose sites with high traffic otherwise you are just wasting your time as your post will not get seen. Most sites allow you to link back to your own website too so it’s a win all round.
Social Influence
Join all the major Social Networks.
The growth of social platforms like Facebook, Twitter and You Tube has mean’t that placing yourself in front of an audience is easy to do now-a-days. Using the power of social media enables you to build an audience fast.
All you have to do then is post amazing content that places your as an expert in your field. More knowledge about your niche will be required here as you are putting yourself on a pedestal.
Remember there is always someone that is happy to try to knock you off.
If this happens, and it will, stand back up, dust yourself off and get back up there helping people.
Branding
Create a brand, this could be you as the brand or your company. My brand is Newbie Affiliate and I am the face behind the brand. This means that as the brand gets noticed my name is automatically branded as well.
There are simple steps you can take to brand yourself or your company online. But the secret is of course consistency and time. Brands are very rarely an overnight success they need to be worked on daily until your niche is familiar with your brand.
All the time you are building your brand you will become more of an expert within your chosen field. The two run side by side, get your branding wrong and this could hurt you long term.
Give Information Away
Create reports, PDF’s, E books and then give them away. This is something that I have done on other sites and am about to introduce here so look out for them on relevant posts and pages.
Why would you do this ?
Well there’s two reasons :-
- You are placing yourself as the expert by giving away good information that people are looking for.
- The other reason is that you can ask people for their email address in exchange for the information. Although we are not talking about email marketing in this post this maybe something you could utilize more with tools such as AWeber as you become more known.
Utilize Other Companies
I have already mentioned, about contacting other blog owners, building a relationship with them and asking to do a guest post on their site. When you have been featured on these sites, gained more exposure and no doubt driven some traffic back to your site, don’t just forget about it.
Utilize these sites!
Here is how you can do just that. Place a section on the home page on your own website with “AS SEEN ON” as the headline then list, by placing the logos of other blogs you are featured on in this section.
Matthew Woodward does this effectively
Do you think this portrays him an expert in this field ? Definitely!
Keep Learning
Things in this world change so quickly, more information becomes available, things get updated and new products are launched. Which is why you should always keep learning about your niche. By doing this more and more people will realize that you are the go to person (the expert) and that’s what you want of course.
Pay for Courses / Books
Within your learning process don’t be afraid to invest in yourself by paying for courses, books and products that will improve your knowledge. I have done this throughout my journey so far and will continue to do it.
Hey and if the product or course is great they may even have an affiliate program. You can then recommend it to others and earn a small commission. Always looking into 🙂
Find a Mentor
Follow someone that has already become an expert. You can learn from them and gain from their experiences. Good mentors will charge and prices can vary between niches. Do your research and get a contract in writing as to what both parties are going to have to do.
Try to choose one-to-one mentoring as this will be much more targeted specifically at you and your business. Group mentoring does tend to be watered down to cover everyone s stages in business.
On a personal note, I would never pay for a mentor again as I had a couple of bad experiences which cost me a lot of money. The value for money was very low.
That aside if you can find a great mentor this will only help you evolve as an expert even quicker.
Join a Community
Communities such as Facebook groups, Forums or membership sites are a great place to show that you are an expert. A forum such as Quora is brilliant for this, people ask questions about your niche and you can then answer them. This also gives you some insights into what people want to know about your niche.
You can then go and produce blog posts or even free giveaways on these topics.
I try to use Quora as much as possible. I am also a member of Wealthy Affiliate which is a website for free training, support and guidance on starting your own online business. There are 1000s of members all at different stages of their journey I help answer questions, give encouragement and produce training videos. And of course I am always learning more from other members and the coaches.
You can search in Google for any communities in your niche by searching your keyword phrase then forum or membership site. Use the search tool in Facebook to do the same.
Bragging Rights
Do you have something to brag about ? Well don’t hide it, shout about it.
This could be qualifications, followers, success stories or just stats. As long as they will boast your credibility and increase your ability to say “I am the expert” then use them.
Similar to utilizing other companies’ logo’s as I mentioned earlier, create a section on your website to announce these to the world.
Here is an example from Kim Garst
See how Kim has used stats from her social media, successes from past businesses and being an international best-seller. Now your achievements may not be so grand (at the moment) but list them anyway it’s going to help big time!
Keep Going
Like all things becoming an expert can take time and hard work. In fact 10000 hours of hard work if you were to take Malcolm Gladwells advice. By implementing these ideas that you have read today you will speed up the process and get yourself there much faster.
This is a continuous journey…. Keep Going !
I would love to hear from you as to which of these you are currently using or maybe you are using a great method that I have not even mentioned. Either way drop me a comment below.
Coming up with the best Niche and becoming an expert has always be a big challenge to so many. This article on how to become an expert in your Niche has really done a great job The steps to become an expert were discussed explicitly and Who ever follows them will become an expert in no time. Great work
Thanks Ibrahim, I would definitely agree with this
Hi,
Your article on how to become an expert in your niche, is an excellent read. I learned alot of new things. Granted, there are some I already know, but there are others I am getting exposed to for the first time.
Like, being a guest blogger. I never knew one could guest blog. I think, it’s an excellent idea to leverage on other people’s established blogs, to call attention to your self and talent.
Pleased you found it a good read Peace and learning more about guest blogging. You should look into this more its worth doing for sure.
Anyone can become an expert at anything they decide to do. It all depends on how they do it. We all don’t have to spend 10000hours before we become an expert. Like was said in this post, if you decide to help someone today that person you helped can start to look at you as an expert in your field.
Although we have a lot to learn but one does not have to spend years performing a particular task before they become an expert at it. You just need to know how to go about it and before you know it you would be considered an authority.
Totally agree with Jay I am proof that this doesn’t have to happen 🙂
What I’ve always wanted is becoming an expert in my niche, I want to be a household name and a popular authority in my niche. I want the whole industry to know who I am but before then, I have a lot to do. I have to learn harder, get a mentor, features as a guest author in several blogs and sell myself out in communities. The journey is not easy but I’ll get there.
I am sure you will succeed Sammy keep working hard and it will come
I really appreciate this piece of content. I am a part time blog, also looking to dominate my space on the long run. Being an expert in a field is very important in domination and the important steps and actions needed to attain this level are cited in the review.
From time to time I will review this piece and sure use it to my advantage.
Glad you found this article useful, I am sure you will dominating your space in no time at all.
Amazing article. I think, being an expert is the most desirable trait for all the new online entrepreneurs. You have listed the great points. I believe, having a good mentor is the most important one. Mentors are real game changers in people lives.
And, taking course is absolutely essential as well. Thankfully, now we have facility to take digital courses, they are economical and also we can learn from them anytime we want.
Thanks a lot for sharing this awesome article. You’ve covered all the important points. Those who are truly willing to learn will be greatly benefited by trading this article.
Indeed the age digital has certainly made it easier to take courses and keep learning new things.
If you have expertise in a niche you need to prove it by producing great relevant content and by working on your social media profiles.
If you lack expertise then you can either hire an expert of fill in the cap or try to become an expert yourself by building new skills.
Either way your goal is to establish a tunnel of trust between you, your website and your users.
Thanks Mustapha, Trust is a great virtue when building anything that includes becoming an expert
I often find that I kind of ‘dry up’ in the niches I cover in my blog, leading to me looking and sounding a little bit of an amateur in my writing. I’m hoping the tips you’ve provided here will point me in the correct direction with this problem.
I kind of feel that social media plays a big part in how you look to your sector and customers these days. What social platform would you advise taking on if you want to become more of an influencer?
Thanks for your comments and question Chris. Firstly writing more blogs will mean you become more confident in what you are writing about and in turn perceive you as more of an expert.
As regards to which social platform to advise I would say to you … do some research and find out where your audience hangs out most and then go for that platform. This will give you better results and in a faster time.