What Type of Blogger Are You?

There are basically two types of bloggers:

• reporters;
• experts.

Some people perform both roles, cause usually the experts becomes reporters, and reporters become experts (it’s very rare, but it can be possible :).

Have you ever taken an Internet marketing course or attended a seminar specifically for beginners? If yes, you have heard that if you blog for money then the business model is based on content, people are taught to either start as reporters. Is it possible to step up as experts?

We ask, cause we want to be the expert!

Reporters leverage the content of the experts and in most cases people start off as reporters because they don’t believe they can be an expert. 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 and etc… Experts in most cases 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 any experience 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 and for many people it’s a necessity at first until you build up some expertise. There are a lot more reporters than 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

Have you ever spent some time browsing products in the learn Internet marketing niche? Have you noticed a pattern. Many people first study Internet marketing from a “guru”. The guru teaches how they are able to make money online, and very often student get the view that if he wants to make money online he has to teach others how to make money online.

The result we get - 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, it’s next to impossible to succeed.

The problem is that people gravitate to the same niche - Internet marketing - and rarely have any key points of differentiation.

There are many products in the category of Internet marketing about email marketing, SEO, pay per click, affiliate marketing, and all the sub-niches. It’s a saturated market. When you see your teachers and other gurus making money teaching others how to make money - your naturally 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 of progress from reporter to expert is not to focus on other experts, but 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.

You can 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 their. 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 :).

You - An Expert

Most people fail to become experts, because they don’t leverage what they already know. The reason why they never become an expert is because they choose not to, 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.

Blogs and the Web 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!

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.

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, but if you truly want success 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://www.blogmastermind.com

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