It stops most entrepreneurs, especially ebook writers and information publishers in their tracks…they feel they must be an “expert” in their niche market before they can get started.
Yet you look at many of the ebook and book information publishers out there today that have made it big, who appear to be experts really weren’t when they started.
People like:
- Tim Ferris (4-Hour Work Week)
- Yanik Silver (Instant Sales Letters and pioneer of the Underground Seminar Series)
- Kevin Trudeau
- Eben Pagen (Double Your Dating)
These people started with a minimal level of knowledge and experience (all under 30) and turned that interest/passion plus a willingness to take action into becoming perceived as experts.
Rather than having to BE an expert before you start your business, your business can help you be perceived as an expert (the opposite of what many aspiring entrepreneurs believe)
Truth is, when you set out to start an information marketing or content-based online business there are a number of ways you can set your brand to dominate your market (as we share in the first week of the 6-part InfoProfit Video Training System)
Let’s look at a few of them below….
1. You Are The Expert
All this really means is that you have some starting experience, knowledge or insight into a given market that you can bring to the table to answer the first, most compelling question your niche market has.
For example, one of the earliest influences I had was the report “Car Secrets Revealed” written by the late Corey Rudl. Corey was a car salesman at the time and so had some insight into how car buying was done. Most would not have called him an expert, but he did have some obvious “inside” knowledge. So when he wrote his guidebook on how consumers can get the best deal buying a car, he had some credibility – again not massive, but some.
The point here is that even minimal knowledge or experience can serve as the basis of your niche infoproduct business, the launch of your own product can then further elevate your expertise (beyond what years and years of additional experience or designations could ever do)
2. You are the objective Journalist
In this category, you serve your niche market as a “reporter” of different information, research, expertise, opinions and of course, products or services.
Many bloggers who go on to release collections of information (think Problogger, CopyBlogger and Gary Vaynerchuck’s Wine Library TV) as just 3 examples where the blogger themselves becomes an expert over time by continually reporting on their niche forming a strong bond with their niche market in the process.
The key to this approach is simultaneously building your brand and your own expertise (as well as products) as you grow your audience based on your journalist persona.
3. You Are “Them” – Case Study
I really like this approach, here you try (becoming the “test” or “trial”) for one or more “experts” and then report back to your niche market…you go one step further than the journalist by becoming involved as primary research for your niche.
Using this approach you gain massive trust, credibility, and loyalty from your marketplace because you can PROVE that your knowledge is first-hand.
Tim Ferris (The 4-Hour Work Week) is a great example of using this “Case study” approach to eventually researching and becoming an expert – often at the same time as earning huge profit from that marketplace.
Many membership sites thrive with this model, where the publisher will try new things each week and report back to their niche market saving them the time, pain or investment that goes along with the customer themselves having to try.
4. You (And Your Market)Â Â Against The World…
Another interesting technique or “voice” you can bring to your niche market is one of the dissenter.
In any given market (health versus alternative health, strict parenting versus lenient parenting, pro positive thinking versus against positive thinking, etc…) there are the dissenters, those who go against the perceived mainstream and are looking for someone to lead them.
Many political and social bloggers have done extremely well with the dissenting point of view.
Kevin Trudeau took this approach when he came out with his controversial (but top selling) “Natural Cures” that rallied against the mainstream medical community branding himself an expert by virtue of taking an alternative stand over the big-bad establishment. Taking the stance of “You Against The Mainstream” can bring you many loyal followers if done correctly.
What Is Your Persona?
As you can see, there are many ways for non-experts to break into the most competitive niche markets and then use their content and information products to further improve their branding AS experts over time.
Very few successful online marketers and information publishers start out as “experts”, but the ones who gain large market share and profits certainly do become experts in very short periods of time.
So, do you have to be an expert in your niche market to get started?
Clearly no, you have alternatives to begin taking action right now to get your business started right. The sooner you take action, the shorter the path to expertise will be and the faster your profits will roll in.
Do you have an obstacle standing in the way of your business success? Leave a comment and we’ll address that in an upcoming post.
