Do you have to be an expert in your own niche?

You could start playing again and call it work

I used to run a dream site and could lie in my bed and go to sleep for 'work' research.

Hey authority and being an expert comes with time, you can still start in this niche and gain crediability very quickly. It will be a process but you will get there. Adopt the mindset of "i will" not that "i wont". When you market you need to definitely provide good will and create high perceived value right from the get go. The more you learn the more you will become an expert. Provide immense value....the rest will fall into place easier.

Were that the case, that one must be an expert, well, there would be a whole bunch of IMers with a lot less money in their pockets. This is actually a point of contention for me, as many IMers hide that lack of expertise by creating a FAKE IDENTITY, and then label that FAKE IDENTITY as an, umm, 'pen name'.

You have guys that pretend they are girls and girls that pretend they are guys and IMers that have never owned a dog dipping their toes in the Dog Training world as 'experts', etc., and that is because if they do not pretend to be someone else (like an expert), they won't make sales. Period.

To me, the 'crime' isn't getting involved in selling something while not being a true expert, but the presentation of yourself as an expert when you are not, in order to gain confidence with the sole intent of using that perceived expertise to facilitate the transfer of money from the customer's pocket to the IMer's pocket. If the customer knows you aren't an expert, well, they probably won't buy an info product from you, will they?

So, what's the work around, for millions upon millions of dollars has changed hands in such transactions so there must be a work around? That work around can involve deception ...

I'm not trying to argue with you and appreciate many of your posts, but I think you are comparing apples and oranges here, starting with the fact that Wal-Mart's claimed 'expertise' is providing products (most products already known about by the customer) at the lowest price around - and they are relatively successful at that, so that expertise is well claimed, tested, and earned. Keep in mind that a good portion of the IM industry is the selling of info products (this includes multiple things, like membership sites, etc.). Wal-Mart doesn't sell info products and they do not claim expertise, nor try to insinuate expertise about dog behavior - they just sell dog food, toys, etc. Walk into a Wal-Mart, ask a manger to meet you in the dog food section, and start asking that manager how to correct unwanted behavior in your dog, and s/he will say, "Umm, we are not dog experts here, we just sell food and toys, etc., for YOUR dog YOU should know about. And if you need some dog expertise, you need to look elsewhere."

I never saw Frank Kern's sales page for his Dog Training info product he put together and made money on and has used as an example, but I have no doubt he subtly (if even only by omission), if not overtly, portrayed himself as an expert. I doubt he put on his sales page, "Hey, I don't even own a dog, let alone have real world experience in training them - I just scoured the net for info and packaged some up. Now, buy it."

The problem with that is because he is NOT a dog expert, he has no real way to determine the quality of the 'dog information' he is selling. This is the FINE LINE one walks with such - you don't know what you don't know, but must pretend you are not in such state of unawareness.

But who the hell is going to buy dog training advice from someone who is neither a dog trainer or who probably has LESS actual 'dog knowledge' thatn the average dog owner?

I'll tell ya who - people who have been sucked in by copy to ASSUME Kern was some type of expert.

Therein lies the not-an-expert problem, for me at least - when you will not make the sales you want if you are HONEST about your lack of expertise so you therefore need to create a FAKE IDENTITY and make people think you are an expert.

And none of this is black and white, either. Writers (actual freelance writers, NOT content mill writers pumping out 500 words for $5.00 in 30 minutes) write about topics they are not 'experts' in all the time. But that writing often includes things like expert interviews and solid research skills, tempered with the writer's knowledge of their newness to the subject.

No, you don't have to be an expert, but that doesn't mean you have to be a cheesy as hell and portray yourself as one with a FAKE IDENTITY (which IMers excuse away as their being some type of Mark Twain and needing a pen name).

I find blog posts are just waste of time. I simply don't have time on this stuff.
Don't want to hire a blog writer either - unless you have tons of cash to burn.

My plan - create a FB fan page and sell t-shirts to people in different niches. It's much easier. Of course i can take my own screen shots of me playing video games and just write a few sentences telling the audience what happen in the game. That's easy. I don't even need to engage my audience. I just need to post screen shots, write the sentence and let the audience engage with themselves, unless they ask me a direct question. No big of an issue. But like I said, I don't have time for gaming either. Maybe when I make enough that will allow me more time to spend with friends and families.