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July 23, 2008
Reporter vs Expert - Why Most Bloggers Are Stuck Reporting
Another article, by my friend Yaro Starak...
Reporter vs Expert - Why Most Bloggers Are Stuck Reporting
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://BloggingPaysBig.com
Posted by Willie Crawford at July 23, 2008 10:00 AM
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