Part of the guide: Affiliate Marketing
Last year, I was looking for a business consultant. I needed someone to give me corporate business advice. Something I had very little knowledge of.
Although the person I hired was in the top 1% of the price range, and lived thousands of miles away; I hired him because he seemed like the expert.
He has hundreds of testimonials, case studies and positive feedback from past clients. It was a no brainer, I wanted to hire him above everyone else; at whatever cost.
As with anything in life, you always want to hear from an expert. You want business advice from a successful business owner and you want marriage advice from a couple who’ve been married 50 years.
The point is, people always choose the obvious expert. If you’re not an obvious expert in your niche, few people are going to subscribe to your blog, read your articles or buy your products. It’s just how it works. A natural law of human psychology.
That’s why positioning yourself as an expert is so essential for breaking through in your business. Internet Marketing especially is all about image. It’s about how people perceive you, which is why it’s so important to position yourself as an expert.
I’m going to start with several reasons why this is so important, followed by physical steps you can take to position yourself.
Why You Should Position Yourself As An Expert
1. Experts Command Respect
Whenever we want to purchase anything, or learn something new. We want to hear from experts. Whether it’s to buy a new car, fix our boilers or learn about blogging.
When you are perceived as an expert, your information will be absorbed and actually implemented by your customers. Your products will be used, people will listen to you.
2. People Chase You
Being just another marketer or just another company means you have to chase customers. When you become an expert, you’ll have customers chasing you, clients begging for your services and as a result; you’ll need to do little to no marketing. Experts generate business through word of mouth and via referrals; on autopilot.
Everyone wants what they can’t have, or what is difficult to attain. By becoming a recognized expert in your field; you become a prize to be won. Becoming an expert completely changes the normal business man > customer dynamic.
3. Opportunities Find You
Open any newspaper, news site or article. Page after page, you’ll find quotes and stories from experts. The media NEEDS experts, they thrive on them. Whenever a reporter has to write about a topic they know little about, their seek advice from experts.
Becoming an expert can get you featured on blogs, websites, TV or merely referenced in articles. On top of media attention, new partnership opportunities will present themselves. If you want to grow your business to the next level, you need to partner with other recognized experts and authorities in your niche.
Finding these partnerships is never easy, but with the credibility and respect you gain from being a recognized expert; it’s a lot easier. Doors to new audiences and opportunities will appear.
How To Become An Expert
1. Charge More Money
Everyone associates more money with more value. A typical example is when someone sees two items in the supermarket that look exactly the same, they purchase the higher priced item. Why?
It’s because people automatically assume the higher priced item is simply better, that is has more value or provides a better service. Logically it makes no sense, but we’ve all been conditioned to think this way. By charging more money for your services of products, your audience will assume you’re more of an expert who delivers better results and more value.
2. Start a Blog
A blog is an excellent outlet for sharing information. In order to be truly respected in your field, you should share your thoughts, opinions and strategies online.
It’s the easiest way for others to acknowledge your expertise and recognize it. A blog allows you to build your own audience, a list of subscribers and ultimately customers. It’s the perfect platform for becoming a recognized expert.
3. Share Your Story With Other Audiences
An expert should have a compelling story. The story of how you went from rags to riches or beginner to expert. You can attract more blog visitors and in turn grow your presence by sharing your story with other audiences. This means doing interviews, guest posts and videos with other authorities in your niche.
4. Claim Your Expertise
You have been paid late before
You have watched the number on the dashboard not match the number in your account. What is different now is simple: it settles on a public contract you can check yourself, not a dashboard I control.
Read the contract →Most participants earn little to nothing. No income is guaranteed. You can verify every payout on the public smart contract.
Even after spending decades in a field, people are often too afraid to claim expert status. By claiming to be an expert, you take on more responsibility. Small screw-ups and bad information are no longer acceptable. People will automatically assume you’re always right.
A small piece of bad advice can destroy your reputation if you’re not careful. If you’re ready to become an expert, you need to be bold and state it. State exactly what you’re the expert on, and why.
5. Display Social Proof
Every expert has an array of social proof. You should have videos testimonials, comments and positive feedback from clients/customers. If you have no social proof, don’t attempt to kid others into believing you’re an expert. Every expert should have dozens of testimonials behind them at a minimum. They should have a presence in their niche. Without it, don’t claim to be an expert. Work on your presence first.
In Prosperity,
David Wood
P.S. Leave me your thoughts, comments and questions below.
Comments
Tyronne Ratcliff, June 30, 2012, 10:40
Awesome interview, loved it!
Linda Williams, July 1, 2012, 12:15
Thank you for sharing this, David. The advice on positioning oneself as an expert is invaluable. I’ve been looking for ways to stand out in my field, and your tips are just what I needed. Looking forward to implementing them!
James Brown, July 2, 2012, 14:30
This is fantastic content, David. I particularly liked the part about charging more money to be perceived as more valuable. Do you have any examples of how this strategy has worked for you or others?
Sarah White, July 3, 2012, 09:45
I found this post very informative, but I had a bit of trouble understanding some parts. A detailed guide or a step-by-step video would be really helpful for those of us who are new to positioning ourselves as experts.
Michael Johnson, July 4, 2012, 11:20
Hey David, great post! It’s been a while since we caught up. Loved the insights on becoming an expert. Let’s connect soon and discuss more strategies!
Emma Harris, July 5, 2012, 16:55
This reminds me of when I first tried to establish myself in my industry. It was tough, but these tips are spot-on. Thanks for sharing your experience and advice!
Robert Martin, July 6, 2012, 13:35
For anyone looking to enhance their professional image, I highly recommend following David’s advice. Positioning yourself as an expert can really make a difference in how you are perceived and the opportunities that come your way. Great post!
Alice Smith, July 7, 2012, 08:25
I find it hard to believe that positioning oneself as an expert can have such an impact. Do you have any specific case studies or examples that show the success of these methods? It would be great to see some real-life applications.
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Most affiliates earn little, and that is disclosed up front. The difference here is not a promise about what you will make. It is that you can verify every payout yourself, on a public contract, in about twelve seconds.
See how the payout works →Most participants earn little to nothing. No income is guaranteed. You can verify every payout on the public smart contract.
I think what’s being missed if you read this cynically is that ‘charge more so people think you’re better’ isn’t only manipulation — pricing really does function as a signal when someone has no other way to judge quality quickly, the way I choose a freight broker I’ve never used before. The claim isn’t that price creates value, only that it’s read as evidence of it. That’s a fair thing to point out to a new business, not a trick.
‘Claim your expertise boldly’ and ‘get dozens of testimonials before you claim it’ contradict each other in the same post. Which is it?
The strongest defense of the apparent contradiction Marla’s flagging: claiming expertise and displaying proof aren’t sequential steps, they’re meant to happen together — you state the claim while the testimonials are still accumulating, and the boldness of the claim is itself partly what earns you the next testimonial. I don’t think that fully resolves it, but it’s a better answer than the post gives outright.
We called this ‘positioning’ in the nineties too, just with a fax-back sheet of testimonials instead of a blog.
Tried ‘charge more money’ in March. Raised my rate by a third with zero change to what I actually delivered. Inquiries dropped for two weeks, then picked back up from people who never mentioned the old price at all. Net effect after two months: fewer, more serious conversations, same close rate. Didn’t make me more of an expert, just filtered who reached out.
What was your inquiry volume before and after, roughly, and over how many weeks? ‘Dropped then picked back up’ could mean anything from a 10% dip to a 60% one.
Kelsey’s result matches what I saw from the company side more often than not — a price increase mostly changes who inquires, not how they perceive the person raising it. Whether it reads as expertise probably depends more on what happens in that first conversation than on the number itself.
One correction: ‘people automatically assume the higher priced item is better’ is presented here as a law of psychology, but it’s actually a specific, well-documented bias — the price-quality heuristic — and it only holds reliably when the buyer has no other information to judge quality by. Give someone a visible alternative signal instead, like independent reviews or a demonstration, and the price effect weakens considerably, sometimes to nothing. Worth knowing precisely before you raise your rates assuming the effect will hold regardless of what else the market can see about you. It’s a real effect, just a narrower and more conditional one than ‘charge more, look better’ suggests. The compliance version of that lesson is: document why you priced something the way you did, because ‘people will assume it’s worth more’ will not survive a regulator asking you the same question.
Twenty-two years in insurance taught me the corporate version of ‘claim your expertise’ is called a job title, and mine changed four times without my actual competence moving an inch. Reading this, the unsettling thought is that self-employment just makes you write your own title now, with a blog attached instead of a business card.