Here in the good old USA, we live in what is called a free market economy. That is a fairly complex topic in itself but basically it means the law of supply and demand determine what the price will be for goods and services. A vendor can charge whatever they want and the consumers will decide whether it is worth paying the price they ask to acquire it.
If they decide not to purchase that item then the vendor can either choose to lower their price to entice them to buy or hold the line and hope for the best. This system works pretty well and I don’t foresee any changes in the near future, although I hope we do something about gas prices pretty soon.
Other countries have very different regulations regarding commerce but the Internet is the great equalizer there. The Internet has brought a free market economy to most of the world with the most common good being shared is information.
The Internet is FULL of advice, with most of it being free.
Information Overload
I wrote an article a few weeks ago titled Information Overload that encouraged you to stop reading and start DOING. You can check out that article for the details but in a nutshell it was intended to be a wake up call to get you to engage, stop reading other people’s bad advice and get to actually working towards your own success.
When it comes to that aforementioned economy there is an old saying that should ring true that you get what you pay for. This holds true when it comes to the Internet as well, you will find NO shortage of bad advice available and it seems as though you can’t throw a rock in any direction without hitting a 12 year old telling you how to make money online.
Many people pick their niche based on what they want to write about or what they hope to become an expert in. The MMO niche is infested with these types of blogs as many naive bloggers think that in order to actually make money online that you have to write about making money online. This has produced a plethora of newbie bloggers who are trying to learn and teach how to make money online at the same time. That simply won’t work.
These bloggers are not experts, they are not authority figures and in most cases, the time you spend reading their blog, is a complete waste of time. They simply repost everything they read on someone else’s blog about Making Money Online.
Stop reading, start doing….remember.
Garbage In Garbage Out
I would recommend that you be careful when reading blogs for your advice as you never know what the credentials are of the person that is writing it. What do they know, what do they do, why should you listen to them. These are some points to consider when deciding what to add to your feed reader.
These are also key points that you should ask YOURSELF when determining your own niche. If you don’t know the first thing about Making Money Online then you probably shouldn’t select that as your niche. Not only will your readers not get anything out of what you write, but you will not enjoy what you do. It’s hard to write 3 to 5 times a week on a topic that you don’t love.
Whatever you are an expert in, that should be your niche. If you offer a wealth of knowledge in a certain area such as say antiques, then that should be your niche. It isn’t as glamorous as John Chow but if written properly you could quickly build a huge following for a niche like that. Once you have readers, monetization isn’t that difficult.
Write with Authority
Readers want to learn from people that are experts as it is a waste of time to try and learn from someone that knows the same or even less about a subject than you do. Your knowledge of the subject will allow you to naturally become an authority figure.
Being an authority figure still does not make you a compelling writer. You will still face the challenge that we all do of how to engage your readers and make them want to listen to what you have to say but being an expert in your field, will certainly give you a leg up over someone who isn’t.
People will always naturally listen to authority figures, you just need to convince yourself that you are one and tailor your writing style to show it.
You are an authority.
Conclusion
As the work weeks grow longer and the demands of daily life intrude on our free time more and more, it will become that much more important for people to be efficient when it comes to reading blogs or searching for content. They simply don’t have the time to read a dozen different blogs on all of the topics that interest them.
Write with Authority by choosing a niche you understand and excel in and then share what you know as confidently as possible with your readers. They will be happier for it and so will you. Nobody can write for long in a niche that they don’t enjoy.
You might want to be the Forex trading king but if futures, stocks and bonds put you to sleep then you won’t enjoy writing in that niche anyway. Do the right thing from the start and use your own time wisely and be respectful of your readers time.
Pick a niche you know, pick a niche you enjoy and then share.
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This Friday Featured post was written by Bill so if you enjoyed reading it then check out my own blog at The Blog Entrepreneur where I write on a variety of MMO topics but particularly niche site creation. Sign up for my FREE Niche Site Creation Newsletter.
Originally posted on May 25, 2008 @ 11:51 am