You Can Choose Whether to be an Expert or Reporter

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 training or attended a seminar specifically for novices, you have probably heard about the two different beliefs. Whenever the business model is based on content, and if you are blogging for dollars 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 many instances people begin off as reporters because they haven’t 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 search you out rather than you having to seek others out, partnerships come easier, etc. experts in most cases simply make more money and attract more accolades.

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 aspiring bloggers it’s a necessity in the beginning until you build some expertise. Unfortunately the ratios are pretty skewed when it pertains to experts and reporters – there are a lot more reporters than experts, hence reporters often struggle to gain attention and when they do, they often just help the reputation of the expert they are reporting about.

Don’t Copy Your Mentor

If you have ever spent some time surfing products in the learn Affiliate Marketing genre you will notice a pattern. Many people first study affiliate marketing from a mentor (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 mmake money online you have to teach others how to make money online.

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 building an email list of 1,000 people, then go out and develop a product about how to build an contact list of 1,000 people. Now I have no issues with this idea, I think it’s fine to train novices and leverage whatever experience you have, the problem is that aspiring bloggers gravitate to the same industry – Internet marketing – and rarely have any key points of differentiation.

How many bloggers out there do you know of that all say they teach the same things – email marketing, SEO, pay per click, Internet marketing, and all the sub-niches that fall under the heading of Internet marketing. It’s a competitive industry, yet when you see your mentors and other mentors making money teaching others how to work from home (and let’s face it – making money from home as a subject is one of the most compelling) – your first inclination 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.