5 ways to become an expert in your industry

Do you have what it takes to be considered an expert within your industry? If so, you might have the necessary skills and services to start earning a nice income online through whatever it is you might be great at. With all of that being said, it’s not enough to simply be great at something or have something to offer of value, you need to know how to market yourself and gain the trust of your audience as well.

Having been in the online marketing industry for over 20 years now, I know what it takes to build a successful brand while also growing a massive following in the process. After all, the more authority and trust you have with an audience, the easier it will be for them to purchase from you or follow your recommendations. Today I want to share some of my best tips with you on how you can do the same. Each of these methods is unique in their own way, but will also help establish yourself as an authority in the process.

Let’s get started!

1. Create a website or blog as your foundation

One of the absolute first things every professional or freelancer should have is a website or blog. With the low operating and setup costs of creating a site of your own, there is simply no excuse not to have one. At the same time, it’s also going to be one of the best long-term investments you can make for yourself.
With a website and blog, you are in control of the content people will find when they search for your name in Google. At the same time, it’s also the perfect platform for showing off your expertise, experience and being the foundation for your personal brand and services you have to offer. Having a site of your own is also a great way for freelancers to gain trust from clients, while also showing off previous work and client testimonials.

Setting all of this up is quite easy. All you need is a domain name, web hosting and a quick installation of WordPress. You can follow this simple start a blog guide that will walk you through the process step-by-step, while also providing you with everything you need to get a site live within 10-15 mins.

Once your site is live, it’s time to create some quick content for yourself, choosing a professional WordPress theme and also linking out to all of your current social profiles. This will also help with getting your website and blog off in the right direction.

2. Start selling online courses and build a community

When it comes to selling your expertise online, it’s all about using existing technology and services to make the process as seamless as possible. For example, WordPress is great for starting a website or blog to push content to the internet. However, if you wanted to create an online video series or build a community around your personal brand or expertise, there are better options.

Video courses have quickly become one of the best methods for delivering and selling premium content online. With mobile usage on the rise and instant gratification always of the utmost importance, video covers both of these areas. At the same time, it’s also easy for experts to put together quality content and resource guides through video as well.

Solutions like Kajabi have created a winning platform to help anyone get started with an online course or membership site, without the need to learn how to code, design or start a site where they need to handle payments and transactions. This is quite similar to the way WordPress changed how websites and content is created online.

In addition to finding a platform that allows you to create and sell digital content, Facebook has made it extremely easy for anyone to start a Facebook Page or Group to further grow their following as well. Something that’s working very well for many online experts, is launching an online course or membership site, then offering access to a private Facebook Group where they can all connect with each other as well.

No matter what your expertise is, there is definitely an audience out there that would love to learn more about it and potentially pay to access your video content.

3. Take advantage of free press and guest blogging opportunities

If you want to make a name for yourself and also grow a decent following in the process, you are going to need to get your name and content in front of the masses. One of the best ways to accomplish this (while also not spending a lot of money), is to look for free press and guest blogging opportunities.

There are currently over a billion active websites on the internet, all of which are creating new content. This means there is a never-ending need for quality content and site owners, media outlets and bloggers are all looking for more of. This is where you, your time and expertise come into play.

Through the use of outreach and guest blogging, you have the opportunity to get your name and content in front of millions of people if you are willing to put in the time and effort. The concept of guest blogging is quite simple and there are many benefits outside of just getting a potential backlink. Look for sites that are in need of content, write something original and amazing, then reach out to relevant sites within your niche and see if they would like to post the content on their site.

More often than not, if it’s really good and provides value, they will post it. In exchange for your time and effort, guest bloggers will often get an author account that features their profile picture, name, a description and often a link back to their sites and social profiles.

This is simply one of the best ways to get your name out there and establish yourself as an expert in the process.

4. Increase conversions with individual call-to-actions

Being seen as expert or authority for anything is all about making yourself stand out from the crowd. An excellent way to accomplish this is to have individual websites or landing pages to focus on exactly what it is you have to offer.

This can often be done with custom or premium WordPress themes, but it can also get quite confusing if you want to collect leads or a specific call to action. Through the use of responsive landing page templates, anyone can quickly and easily create about me pages, webinar signup pages, opt-in forms and much more. The benefit here is that you can completely customize your landing pages to look and feel just the way you want, while also making sure they are accessible through all desktops, tablets or mobile devices.

Landing pages are going to be one of the best ways for you to put some advertising dollar behind your expertise, to increase your following or even sell some products and services. With this in mind, it’s always important to make sure these pages are as professional looking as possible.

5. Go live with and participate in expert roundups

If you’ve done any research about top experts and authority figures within your niche, you’ve likely come across a few ‘expert roundup’ posts. The concept of an expert roundup post is quite simple. A site owner will ask a single question to a bunch of experts within a given niche, then compile all of the answers and go live with one big mega post.

The obvious content play here is to provide massive value for your audience, and also getting authority figures and brand name recognition for your site. However, there are other elements in play here as well.

First, we have to look at this from the site owner perspective. If you already have a website or blog, an expert roundup post can bring a ton of exposure, traffic, backlinks and social shares to your site. Not only will your audience be sharing this content, so will many of the experts you’ve interviewed as well (and most will likely already have a massive following).

The other side of an expert roundup is to actually be featured as an expert yourself. Take a look around at published roundups already within your niche and contact the blog or content creator that went live with it. Send them an email and tell them how much value you got out of the piece, and if you could possibly be added to the list (or future roundups) as well. This will allow you to quickly be seen as an authority in your space, right alongside other established experts as well.

Become the authority expert that your industry needs

As mentioned earlier, I’ve been doing my own thing in the world of online marketing for 20 years now. I first started making money online back in the late 90’s and didn’t start blogging until 2007. It’s never too late to get started and millions of new people are getting on the internet for the first time daily. Take action and implement each of these methods into your own personal brand or business today, and you might just be the next big authority expert within your niche sooner than you think!