11 Ways to Use Your Blog to Become an Expert…FAST!

If you write nonfiction, or if you have the goal of building a business around your book(s) or your blog, you want to develop expert status—assuming you don’t have it already. A blog provides the perfect vehicle for creating authority in your subject area or industry, and this helps you get noticed as well as sell books and products effectively.

To accomplish this, try these 11 tactics.

1. Stay focused on your topic. As much as possible, blog about the subject about which you want to be known as an expert.
2. Blog consistently and regularly. Pick a schedule. Stick to it, whether that is once a week on Monday, three times a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday or seven days per week.
3. Make it easy for visitors to share your posts. Be sure you provide sharing tools on your blog.
4. Share your posts on social networks. Don’t expect your readers to share. You need to do so—often and on a variety of networks.
5. Use every tool. Don’t just provide written content. Also provide video content, visual content and audio content. Try podcasting (video and/or audio) and use visuals, such as those you can create with Canva.com, on a regular basis. Write and publish press releases and ezine articles. Take photos and share them.
6. Guest blog. Expose yourself to the readership of other experts in your field. Guest blogging is the best way to do this. You also can write for subject-specific publications online and off.
7. Interview experts. Associate your name with other experts in your field. You can become an expert by association.
8. Write a book. Write or blog a book. Nothing makes a person an expert faster than a published book and the ability to say, “I’m an author.” As a blogger, you can even blog your book.
9. Write more books. The more books you publish, the more expertise you appear to have. You can become a thought leader by dominating your market with published books. These don’t all have to be full-length books; you can write (or blog) and publish short books.
10. Become a speaker. Let people see and hear you. The face-to-face experience is much different, and it helps achieve the “know, like and trust” factor you seek. You can start with video, but branch out to live events. Nothing beats them.
11. Provide value. Always show your expertise by giving your audience value. Answer questions, point out solutions, offer benefit, provide ways to ease pain for those in your target market.

Any combination of these tips, or all of them, will help you develop expert status. That authority will make you a successful blogger, author, authorpreneur, or blogpreneur.

Do you have an expert-building activity to add to this list? Do so in a comment below.