Are you an expert?

I got an email from an internet marketer (one of the best, his website was highly recommended by some top websites last year as being the best source of free internet marketing information).

Anyway, I'm sure most of you have heard of Tim Ferris and his NY Best Seller "The Four Hour Work Week".

Well Tim was interviewed in relation to internet marketing and using the pricipals within the 4 hour work week, how he would (or does) go about being seen as authoritative or an "expect" like we all strive to be.

To reach expert level, you need 10,000 hours immersed in the subject, that's 5 years with an average 39 hour work week (works out to 10,140 hours) to master a subject and become an expert.

Now I'm sure most people here at WA, especially newbies, don't want to spend 5 years before they become an authority site and before they can be seen as someone people look to for advice on a subject.

There are some very simple short cuts - that have been proven to work.

1. Read the top 3 selling books within your niche

Reading the top 3 books within your niche will give you more information than the majority of people searching for answers related to your niche, it will give you instant authority because the information is coming from a respected source that you can quote in posts.

This approach also gives you a ton of ideas for new posts, 1 post per chapter (most books these days averaging 20+ chapters), that's 60 posts to get you started right there.

2. Make yourself sound official so people think of you as an authority

This might seem like a "Cheat to the top" but it really does work.

Join 2 or 3 official sounding trade organisations to boost credibility within your niche.

If your name was Bob, your niche was fat loss for diabetics and you were a member of Diabetics America, affiliated to Weight Watchers and The Democratic Republican Party for People With Diabetes (yup made that one up) then people visiting your blog would see your affiliations and be like "damn, Bob can be trusted if he's affiliated with real organisations like this, you know, ones that exist and that people know about!"

3. Guest post of others blogs or appear on a podcast

Today if you appear on a podcast - or in fact own a podcast - you are seen as an instant authority on some subject and people interested in that subject will listen to what you have to say (providing it adds value), if you know someone with a podcast or can become a guest on one, this will be a huge selling point that you can point to in your blog posts or on your static blog front page "Check out my interview with so and so".

Guest posts also have the illusion of making you an authority without actually being one.

Having someone ask you to publish content on their website is a huge honour as most people see that as you having some sort of acclaim.

I know I wouldn't let just anyone write a post for my blog, it would have to be up to my standards before I'd even consider it.

Even get friendly with another WA member in a similar niche and then guest post on others blogs, this will also allow for link building.

4. Be a newbie

You're probably thinking "how the hell can being a newbie be a benefit to me? I know nothing about internet marketing and it's really frustrating!!".

Well this is true, as with anything but the advantages newbies have over people that have been in the game for years is you don't suffer from the curse of knowledge.

Often when your new to something you have a fresh set of eyes and you can walk in, look at things subjectively and see pitfalls that experienced people can't see because they are so busy being busy.

This is true as most people that become experienced in something (or think they are) never see anything wrong with their work, even if their standards are slipping, they get into a routine and that's how things go on forever.

This can be illustrated in writing a book (a blog post is no different):

People that write books, do so, then pass their manuscript to someone who checks their grammar, their spelling, their word/line spacing, their chapter length, their engagement through words amongst other things, this is what makes the final print so great.

If it was left to the author to write the book, then publish it, it would be terrible, it would probably be out of sequence, it would definitely have spelling mistakes, would often repeat itself greatly and be a loss less enjoyable to read.