10 Ways to Position Yourself as an Industry Expert

In yesterday’s post, David talked about Aaron Wall’s SEO Book and how instrumental it was in getting his SEO business started. Today, David has many satisfied clients who are ranking in the top spots of Google for their keywords. Even better, their phones are ringing because of the online efforts he and his team are providing.

The purpose of this post isn’t to talk about how Aaron Wall’s SEO Book can help you optimize your site better, but what you can learn from Aaron Wall about positioning yourself as an expert in your industry as he has.

Consulting

One way to become known as an expert in a niche is to offer consulting in that niche. However, if you are billing for your services by the hour, you quickly realize that there are only so many hours in the day and therefore only so much money to be made. The only way to increase your income if you’re only offering consulting is to increase your rates.

Even when you increase your rates, your money is still tied directly to time spent. Plus, as you increase your rates, your information becomes accessible to fewer and fewer people. If you want one on one SEO consultation with Aaron and his business partner Scott, expect to pay $1,200 per every 1.5 hourscr.

eBooks

Aaron’s SEO Book however allowed him to do the work of writing a book one time (though he has rewritten it several times) and sell it many times. His Book allows him to create a steady stream of passive income while providing more value to more people at a lower cost per person. Could you do the same by packaging your knowledge as an eBook?

What If You’re not An Expert Yet?

If you don’t think you’re an expert yet, you can at least begin positioning yourself as one now. The video in Aaron’s most recent post Planning & Preparing for Success Online offers a smart idea for laying the groundwork for your future expert site. He says to:

• Buy domain names now that reflect your industry
• Develop mini sites on your topic
• Get it a few links and a few mentions
• Let the site sit and age

The reason for doing taking these steps is that site name and site age are critical factors for Google when determining trust in Google’s eyes. Trust from Google = a higher search engine ranking for your keywords.

Other Things You can do to Establish Yourself as an Industry Expert

Start a Blog

Blogging can be one of the quickest and most effective ways of establishing yourself as an industry expert if done correctly. In fact, Tim Ferris launched the 4 Hour Workweek to the Best Seller list through blogging. If you’re going to be blogging for business, I would highly suggest reading Micheal Martine’s posts on Gateway Blogging as well as his 10 part series on How to Start a Business Blog.

Guest Post on Blogs

Guest posting on blogs is a sure way to expand your reach to new audiences. Micheal Martine of Remarkablogger had real estate blogger Cyndee Hayden write a guest post on his blog last week. Though I had never heard of Cyndee before, her smart post quickly made her an expert in my opinion. In fact, I will be using this guest poster’s ideas as a benchmark for a real estate blogging client that I work with. Had she not guest posted on this site, I probably would have never found her.

Radio or Podcast interviews

Hundreds of radio shows seek knowledgeable and interesting guests to satisfy their listening audiences. With the onset of satellite radio, internet radio and podcasting, the number of hosts seeking guests grows daily. You need not be a celebrity to secure a radio interview. Plenty of opportunities exist for individuals with knowledge in specialized areas.

Resources:
Podcast Directory: A directory of podcasts sorted by category
Live 365.com: A directory of internet radio station

Press Releases:

Alert the press to the fascinating things that you’re doing and how you are helping solve a problem in your industry. Getting a write up in a newspaper, magazine, or trade publication can really help you establish yourself as an industry expert.

Resources:
PRWeb: Press release distribution with lots of exposure

Other Ways to Generate Revenue Once You’ve Established Expert Level Credentials

Create a paid membership site: Brian Clark’s (Copyblogger) new resource Teaching Sells offers an excellent way for you to create a paid membership site. Maki of Dosh Dosh provides an excellent analysis of how to leverage this resource to increase profits in his post “Building Paid Membership Sites for Money: Teaching Sells Review.”

Teach a class: Create your own class and fill it, or work with local colleges to promote your classes. David speaks in front of live audiences 2-3 times a week on topics of internet marketing and making money on the internet.

Write a book: Once you’ve established yourself and have proof that people like what you have to say, it becomes much easier to sell a book idea to a publisher. You can subscribe to Writer’s Market.com for $3.99 per month to search through hundreds of publishers that are seeking authors like you.