Do you need to be an expert in the weigh loss arena to be successful online?

I wouldn't say that you necessarily have to be an expert, as there is a lot of information online that you can refer to when writing web / sales copy or communicating with potential customers.

You don't need to be an expert in anything in order to be successful and make a bunch of money.

If you're able to manually curate content, pick out the best of the best, share unique things you've found, that's valuable to people.

You gain credibility as someone/site they can come to and get great information...

In the process you sell a bunch of stuff.

Nah you don't need to be an *expect* in the weight loss niche to be successful. You just have to be smarter and know more than your prospect. Quite frankly anything new to them (and true) will be perceived as mind-blowing. Just do your niche homework about market, and just sell the damn product. Doesn't have to be perfect.

When you know more then your prospects, you are seen by them as an expert.

If you don't feel like one but still want to market products in this niche, you can always find products and people that do have a lot of expertise in this field.

If it bothers you a lot you could try these things on yourself to validate them or interview experts for content. In my opinion, though, you're already an expert on weight loss. You gotta eat less calories than you burn each day. The formula is eat right and exercise. How you're going to package yourself and your content to get people to do that is your mission and there will be some that follow you because of your voice and style, just like they do with other 'experts'.

Now go to the mirror in your bathroom and say, "I'm an expert in weight loss" for five minutes. Do that everyday until you believe it. Then, get back to work!

P.S. I'm not saying write a nutrition guide if you don't know what you're doing. No, you should pay a nutritionist to make that for you (or get a PLR book written by a nutritionist and rebrand it with your voice... or interview a nutritionist... or get the info off a nutritionists blog and then rewrite it with the same facts but different delivery approach... you get the idea.)

Similar to the age-old question...

"Would you hire a personal trainer who doesn't look the part?"

The answers are always mixed...

However, yes, you can actually do what you are asking.

Heck, who says you even need to show a picture of yourself?

There's quite a few affiliates who operate that way.

Here's what I teach my MLM downline distributors to do to sell weight loss programs.

Secret: "You teach the cold market where to place you in their minds".

So brand yourself as a weight loss expert.

How to become an expert? Simple... go to your public library and read one or two weight loss books each week. It all boils down to 'eat less - exercise more' anyway. Only you have a secret sauce that makes dieting go down easier. The real secret to weight loss is developing the mental toughness to stick to a diet. See:http://www.fatloser.com/ Same mental toughness it's going to take for you to execute my simple system below...

Capture peoples names, emails and phone numbers online and offline using bait like:
Drop your business card into the fish bowl to win a Free 30 day supply of our New,
Delicious Weight Loss Shakes.

Call each person and say: Sorry you didn't win the 30 day supply, but I can give you some info on our program and let you try a free sample so you can taste just how yummy and filling our new weight loss shakes are.

BTW... Are you in front of your computer? Go to google, type in Joe Marketer Weight Loss Expert and tell me what you see?

You own the entire first page of google because you spent 10 days branding yourself writing articles and creating pages of content that google will show when you tell them what to type into the search box.

Also.... collect testimonials... before and after pictures of your customers who got results with your products. And if you are fat.... great.... use your weight loss products to help you to consume less calories and turn off the computer and go walk around town all day to burn fat... place your weight loss fish bowls on counter tops of stores... (if anyone wants to know what to say to get store managers to agree to display them contact me) and have before and after pictures of yourself to show.

Teach 10 people in your city to duplicate your actions and within a year your organization could circle the globe with several thousand distributors/affiliates.

All of this is simple stuff.... but you got to have enough burning desire and mental toughness to do the work.

If you do.... you will make a fortune!

Cheers,
SteveSki

PS... Even if you are fat, sick and nearly dead... there is a very simple, easy way(I won't give you the secret sauce to doing this in this post) to get 50 people to beg you for a taste of your weight lost products/program because you can borrow someone else's credibility. I did this by recruiting a doctor and a couple of naturopaths into my business so anyone who joins my team will also be in the downline of one of these doctors. Then even a fat, sick person can simply go out and meet people and rave about how doctor so and so is helping them and others and he's speaking to a small group of people at my place tonight at 7pm sharp. Be there to try free samples, talk to the doctor, ask your questions and we'll send you home with a free booklet of weight loss tips by Doctor so and so.

Of course it will be much harder to do this if you insist on doing online marketing only. Limit your time on the computer to 4 hours a day. Then talk to people in person or phone for 4 hours a day. Once you have a group duplicating in your town... then use the computer to expand across the globe. But get off of your Fat Butts and do some real work offline in addition to spinning your wheels on the internet looking for an easier way.

Being an actual expert about something is desirable, if one intends to sell information about it to others, but....you don't have to be a meteorologist to tell someone that they should wear a jacket because it's cold outside.

So even if you're not an expert yet, it doesn't mean that no one will listen to your offer of a report, program, etc. if you're offering info on something they want to know about.

If your copy is decent, your product has value, and your setup looks professional, people seeking advice or systems to lose weight are likely to perceive you as an expert, and give it a try.

Tons of people have become 'experts' in something simply by researching, reading, and studying the subject.

You don't have to be an expert to talk to others online about weight loss. However, you will only ever be parroting what other websites say about weight loss as you won't have actual real world training in what causes weight gain and what results in weight loss. That doesn't mean you shouldn't have a weight loss blog, just that you won't truly be an expert. If that's the situation, you should at least consult and use the most authoritative sources when writing.

Monetize? Fixed that for you. And YES 100% you HAVE to have some EXPERTISE with your niche ESPECIALLY if you're selling HOW-TO INFORMATION PRODUCTS.

It's very wrong to teach people how to do something when you don't have any idea or experience on what it is that you're teaching. I know that's not how most marketers go about business...but just because a lot of people are doing something...doesn't make it right. Not in God's eyes.

In my experience with this niche,
I have found that you don't need to be an expert.

Even if you were, you would still have to simplify content it so that potential
customers could understand it and absorb the material.

No I don't think it has to be in the health/weight loss arena. There are lots of niches you can thrive in online.

A lot of people think the health industry is a good one to try and break in to because it is a multi-billion dollar industry. The reality however, is that there is a whole heck of a lot of competition so I would simply target an industry/niche where you have some sort of passion or knowledge of and grow from there.

When it comes to weight loss you need something to show people. Either you losing weight with your tips or someone else. It's a delicate market, people expect to lose weight with your tips and if they don't they'll blame you for wasting months of their time.

So you have to be sure about your tips!

you dont need to be an expert but you need to know more then the next guy.

Why not? Share your knowledge or experience for benefit to other people.