Leverage your knowledge (or lack thereof) to make money online (Part Two)
This is the second part of the post – if you haven’t read part one, read it here.
So just to sum up the first part of this post – I believe that it is possible for a blogger to create his / her own expert status, irrespective of whether they truly are an expert. In Part One, I mentioned a few theories on why this is indeed the case, but now you might ask how you can achieve this status.
This is definitely not a “How to???-post or a “Step-by-step Guide to Success???, but merely a few general points that bloggers will need to attend to if they are to establish themselves as experts. It is possible that some of these might not be applicable to you, since it is very general in order to suit most bloggers’ needs.
- Painting the picture. The is probably the most important part to consider – the image you decide to portrait to the online community will build the perception they have of you. So being (and coming across as such) self-confident and professional, will go a long way in securing respect from your readers and also other bloggers.
- It’s in the content. If you don’t like to “waste??? time on spelling, grammar and the style of your writing, then you can stop bothering with the dream of being a respected expert. The words you decide to use, and the way in which you use them, is an integral part of the image you’re creating. Experts, in any field, will always take due care to think about the words they use and the way they structure their sentences. It’s Attention To Detail really…
- You’ve gotta have style. Your writing style is important and it’s important to develop your own unique style and not just copy another blogger’s recipe. When developing your style, you must again make sure that the style is congruent with the image you’re trying to create. And it goes without saying that your style obviously needs to fit in with the readers, and their characteristics, within your niche market.
- Pay attention to design. Now, you’ll probably get a lot of differing opinions on this matter, but personally I like blogs that are clean, easy to read and well-designed. You don’t need to be a web designer to have a nice blog, because they are many great, stylish free blog templates available on the Net, which you only need to download and install. The design of your blog is the visual part of the image you’re creating of yourself. A blog that is well-designed immediately creates the impression that the blogger cares about his blog and cares how his / her image is promoted. When I stumble on a blog that is badly designed, I leave immediately with a bad taste in my mouth – and my thoughts? “How can the content be any good on a blog that looks like that????
- Have an opinion. Your blog is only one vehicle to communicate your expert image, but you will need to do a bit more to get your peers to recognize and respect you. A good way to do this, is purely by commenting on other blogs in your community. I see every comment on another blog as a mini-blogpost and you need to adhere to the same rules / guidelines you have set yourself in points 2 & 3 above – in fact, you may need to be even more clear in choosing your style and words, since comments are out in the open and you’re exposing yourself to a much larger audience at the beginning than the audience of your own blog. But most important part is to comment, have an opinion and build a reputation as a blogger with a voice and a someone that participates in community discussions.
That’s it. Very easy, don’t you think? Well, I can honestly say that although this sounds easy, it takes a lot of hard work and persistence – it is possible that this “mission??? to expert status may take you months. The blogosphere is also very fickle and the needs of the readers changes on a daily basis, which means that you will need to continually adapt and re-mold the image you’re building. The one encouraging aspect of this, is the fact that the theory stays simple and the factors you need to consider (the 5 points above) are easy to understand and simple to implement in your blogging strategy. Good Luck Mr and Mrs Future Experts.
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