To sell or promote products online is something everybody can do, but there’s one thing you absolutely need to make it work and that is credibility. This is why a lot of people listen to experts. In this post, I talk about how to become an expert in your niche with the help of a few insights I got from reading the book mastery by international best-selling author Robert Greene.
Here are Real Digital Successes…
Tips answering how to become an expert in your niche
To become an expert in your niche you need knowledge
You should be qualified to suggest products to people online and be able to showcase that to people. This is one of the reason a lot of people don content marketing. Personal Blogs, YouTube, podcasts and all kinds of other forms. By giving people useful knowledge you gain their trust. There are a few ways to get this knowledge.
- Blogs
The days of were the internet only had blogs with superficial content are gone. Nowadays if you’re trying to rank your blog in search engines you’re going to have post content with depth. So now there are all kinds of blogs out there with really valuable information. Use this to your advantage and find some good blogs with content you can learn from. - YouTube
Just like with the blogs there’s a lot of valuable content that can be found on YouTube that you can use to get knowledge. Where the platform used to allow only videos that were max 10 minutes now you have video’s over 6 hours long where people are giving out information about their niche. - Books
One of the oldest and most obvious tools you can use to get more knowledge. People who are a lot smarter than us have put their smartest ideas on paper and laid it out with editors to make it as easy to digest as possible. If you aren’t reading books you’re missing out on a large portion knowledge that can aid you on the journey of becoming an expert. - Case studies
Case studies are an excellent tool to gain knowledge from. Real events that people on the same journey as you went through can shed a lot of light on a question you might have.
Transform yourself into a knowledge “sponge” taking every little piece of knowledge in.
To become an expert in your niche you need mentors
Everyone that’s an expert in their niche had a mentor to show them the way in some sort of way. This doesn’t mean it has to be a person necessarily. Mentors can also be books or courses in my opinion. Mentors are there to guide you and make sure you don’t stray away from your path.
Having a mentor guide you will save you time, mental stress and energy.
“… Life is short, and time for learning and creativity is limited. Without any guidance, you can waste valuable years trying to gain knowledge and practice from various sources. Instead, you must follow the example set by masters throughout ages and find the proper mentor…” – Robert Greene
To become an expert in your niche you need to surround yourself with Peers
On your journey to becoming an expert in your niche having like-minded peers is something very valuable. You could probably do it on your own but it’s going to be a lot harder to get to where you need to be.
Peers will help you with:
- Motivation
There aren’t a lot of people that you can really call an expert in your niche because it takes a lot of work to actually get there. If you have people in your circles that have actually achieved your goals it’s going to be easier to keep on going. You will feel less alone and it’s easier to adopt the mentality that you can do it too when you see people you know succeeding. - Holding you accountable
You will have to promise yourself to be consistent with learning and working but this is easier said than done. Distractions are everywhere so having peers to keep you accountable will help you in times your own willpower isn’t enough. - making it able to vent about problems
When striving to become an expert in your niche you’re on a road less traveled which means that there aren’t a lot of people that will understand your frustrations while you’re walking the path. Keeping everything in isn’t always happy so it’s nice to have peers so you can vent about your problems.
To become an expert in your niche you need Practice
Being a true expert means not only having knowledge but also having complete mastery of your niche in my opinion.
According to Robert Greene mastery is a combination of knowledge and practice. You’re going to have to walk the walk.
This means in a lot of instances putting in your 10.000 hours of practice to achieve mastery of your skill set.
No skill set is learned just by reading the theory even things like languages which are based on text can’t fully be mastered memorizing the words. You are going to have to speak with people to fully master it.
When are in the process of learning something new 100% of your focus is on practicing the task at hand. The more you practice, the less focus you need and the more possible it becomes to monitor yourself your strengths, weaknesses and spot opportunities to experiment and create your own “style”.
To become an expert in your niche you need to be able to market yourself
Having complete mastery of your craft is nice but if nobody knows you exist you aren’t going to make any money. You need to be able to spot where attention is and how to direct that to what you’re doing.
A few examples of how to get eyes on your website.
- Search engine marketing
Google processes over 40.000 search queries per second. That’s a lot of people you can market yourself to. With the help of keyword targeting Google makes it very easy for you to find people that are interested in what you have to offer. Interested in doing this than you’ll have to learn how to make simple websites and perform search engine optimization. - Content Marketing
Posting a lot of valuable content on the internet is a good way to get the word out that you exist. Through your content, you can show people that you know what you’re talking about and let them know a new expert is in town. - Social Media Marketing
Marketing yourself on social media has become very popular because it enables you to actually create a bond with the people you are trying to reach. A lot of niche communities reside on social media of which you can become a part of. The moment you have their trust in whatever you’re planning to sell or promote will become a lot easier. - Influencer Marketing
There are a lot of people online that have to build their own audiences called influencers. You can reach out to these influencers and have them promote you to their audience. Compared to the other ways I listed here this probably has the quickest return of investment. - Question website
There are a lot of websites out there based on answering questions people might have( Quora.com. Ask.com etc.). These websites create an excellent opportunity to get your name out there. If you start answering all kinds of questions people in your niche have it’s very possible to make a name for yourself. You could direct people from the website to your own website.
All of these examples can work most of the time it’s more a question of which one or what combination will work the best with the message you are trying to communicate to the world.
To become an expert in your niche you need to Always be moving forward
The world is constantly evolving and so is your niche. What might’ve been the status quo in your niche a year ago might be completely different right now. If you look at doctors even after graduating they keep doing courses to keep up with the changing times. The moment you stop learning is the beginning of the end of you being known as an expert.
View yourself as a doctor by never being contempt with where you are and keep learning more and striving to be better than you are right now.
To become an expert in your niche you’re going to have to trust the process
Nothing happens overnight, you will have to put in the work and putting in the time. There’s something successful people know that people who quit halfway don’t. On your journey to become good in your craft there’s a very long period in which you might not see any progress. Feelings of frustration, boredom, panic, and insecurity will arise and like it or not these are all part of the process.
The people close to you might even try to convince you to quit because they don’t see the immediate return on investment. It’s in these times that you’ll have to keep your composure and stick to the process.
I see this period as the gatekeeper to becoming successful. Those who have faith and keep on working will be rewarded.
“… Many of those who succeed in life have had the experience in their youth of having mastered some skill –a sport or game a musical instrument, a foreign language, and so on. Buried in their minds is the sensation of overcoming their frustration and entering the cycle of accelerated returns. In moments of doubt in the present, the memory of the past experience rises to the surface...” — Robert Greene
If this is the first time going through that process or past experiences aren’t solidified enough in your mind that you can rely on them for support remember…
