For NEW Marketers - Forcing Authority Is Easier Than You Think

This is more for the "newer marketers" out there....

More times than not in the marketing world people make the mistake of thinking that they actually have to be an authority to be an authority...confused yet?

What I'm talking about is you will hear people say all the time:

"I can't sell that because I don't know anything about it" or something else generic along those lines, When what they don't realize is more times than not online you are an authority not because you are really an authority, but because YOU SAY YOU ARE AN AUTHORITY, and there is evidence that backs this up everywhere you look.

Here's a great example that people can relate to directly just from what you can see on this forum...

Someone new signs up to the forum,and all the sudden starts making posts on a particular subject, it doesnt' matter what the subject is...could be Article Marketing, Video Marketing, Press Releases...it doesnt' matter.

Within 50 posts or so, a certain percentage of folks start to believe that they are an authority on whichever subject that they are posting about, maybe not everyone, but certainly enough to give them a little bit of credibility....right?

The next thing you know, there is a new "WSO" up or a new line in their signature directing you to one of their products or some sort of opt-in form or whatever, and you can bet your ass that the folks that see them as an authority buy their stuff or opt-in...

...and that's when it gets even better...

In the case of a WSO, it gets even more convincing, and the person trying to build authority doesn't even have to do anything else, the community as a whole does it for them by providing feedback which 9 times out of 10 is good if they are either giving the info away or selling it on the *cheap*...or by posting a thread in the "product review section" or just by mentioning it in passing.

Before you know it, the person is an authority just because they said that they are, and then you get to go on to watch them become an authority in 5 or 6 more subjects over the next couple months by pretty much repeating the same pattern over and over again....we've all seen it done...I'm not saying it's right or wrong...I'm just saying that it is easy to position yourself as an expert just by claiming you are.

Did you realize that it happens just as easy in non-im niches?

In order to understand it though, you kind of have to forget all of the experience that you have in Internet Marketing, and all the defenses you've built up against affiliate marketing as a whole, and put yourself in the shoes of the "average" internet surfer who for the most part sees things in print and assumes them to be true becasue the words are right there in black and white.

Why do you think people were making thousands of dollars a day OR MORE when flogs were the "big thing"?

The tools that we have as marketers, and the resources that are available to us have the ability to make us authorities the minute that we say we are..and the average internet surfer will believe that we are without any proof, without any data to back it up..they will just take our words for it...easy peasy.

The best part is that because certain resources paint us as authorities, the people that find us via those avenues normally convert better than any form of "paid traffic" simply because with paid traffic 9 times out of 10 the person looking at our "ad" knows that we paid to be able to show them the info we wanted them to see...right?

The resources that I'm talking about are things like Article Directories, Social Media Outlets, and Press Releases...Blah...you already know about these things..right? Old News!!

Fair enough...

But, do you realize what kind of impact a statement like "expert author" has or what kind of impact it has on the average internet surfer to see your name (real or a pen name) in something like a press release right next to a press release from someone that is known nationally?

Places like EZA label you as an "expert author" the first time that you submit an article if I remember correctly, so as soon as someone sees "expert author" their defenses are down and you pick up some instant credibility the minute that they see it in most cases...same with a press release! The average internet surfer doesn't think that any Tom, Dick, or Harry can publish a press release or get the title of "expert author" if it weren't true.

The same is true with Social Media platforms such as twitter. I could use an auto-follower, collect a couple thousand followers in the next couple days and be an expert in anything that I wanted pretty much, to the point where I could offer my advice for free to anyone that wanted to email me questions, and they would for the most part follow my advice as gospel.

The best part is, you don't even have to use your own name...do you have any idea how many pen names I have? I don't, I have to keep a spread sheet.

The point is, no matter what you decide to promote today, you shouldn't let something like "not being an expert" stop you...I'm not saying you should sell some holistic medicine type of stuff, and put yourself out there as some sort of medical expert, but you can definitely portray yourself as a dating guru, someone that knows a thing or two about green energy, or even a Private detective that can help people track down their cheating scum bag spouses and expose them for the cheating pigs they are via several of the online affiliate programs.

Granted, this stuff isn't rocket science, but I do believe that many people don't stop and think of things from the perspective of the average internet surfer, and instead hold themselves back because of their own preconceived notions of how they will be seen, and what people will think, but think about it...

1. Who cares? if you are using a pen name noone will ever know it's you

2. nothing ventured...nothing gained.

Some of my biggest earning niches are things that I have no interest, expertise, or extensive knowledge in, but press releases portray my sites as authoritative, Article Directories label my pen name as an expert, and people are trained to believe those kinds of credentials...

So, fake it till you make it...eh? Not Quite...

While the fake it till you make it method is certainly one that people have made some serious bank with in the Internet Marketing niche...there is a difference between the way you portray yourself in regular "niche marketing"...

The people who do the whole fake it till you make it thing in Internet Marketing for the most part FLAT OUT LIE! They will post fake screen shots, make fake claims to put your mind at ease - for the most part, they are practicing "theft by deception" But, because of the way the internet works, and the overwhelming need for information, it is easy for people to get sucked in, and even more easy for the fakers to milk it for all it's worth...Hell, even some of the "big gurus" have been exposed for things like fake screen shots, fake testimonials, and yet they can still pull of HUGE launches...

hehe - Got off track there for a minute...

With regular "niche marketing" you never have to make any false claims, you never actually have to come out and say "I'm the expert"...people will assume you are an expert simply because of the perception they have about "written media" and the "fake credentials" that many of the resources that we have available to us give us...I mentioned them earlier...

The only reason that I bring this whole subject up is because I know that there are a TON of people sitting on the sidelines and not doing anything with the knowledge that they have about marketing, and actually making money online simply because they have similar interests as I do...watching TV, spending time with my family, and generally doing as little as I can which means that there aren't a whole lot of niche markets that jump out at them when they look around and try to find things that they either have an interest in, or have any solid know how about.

Simply by putting words on the internet, you will be an expert to a BIG PERCENTAGE of average internet users that find your words...simple as that.