Positioning yourself as a recognized expert is a smart way to build online visibility and increase your credibility. Let’s face it: fame has its benefits! A number of websites offer the opportunity to be featured as an “Official Expert” or an “Official Guide”. Some of these can be done for free, others will cost a small investment. You may be wondering if this is something that would benefit your business, so let me share 7 tips you need to know  and recommend some sites I personally use.

1. Make Sure You’re Really an Expert!

OK, this should be assumed, but sometimes people jump at the opportunity for visibility before they’ve earned their expert wings. If you know a lot about your field, others consider you in high regard and go to you consistently for information, and you have real life experience, then you may have the right to position yourself as an expert.

2. Understand “The Expertise Gap”

To measure your expertise, you first have to know WHO your target market is AND the gap between what you know and what they don’t/need to know. For example, if you’re a book coach who helps first time authors get published, then you need to know more about first time book publishing than your audience. Maybe you don’t know as much about getting the 3rd or 4th book published, but that’s OK because it’s not your area of expertise. It’s not necessary to measure your knowledge against the top echelon in your industry; measure first against the needs of your specific audience.

3. Have Your Content Ready!

When you’re an official expert, you’re expected to provide information to the visitors of that site. Usually this is in the form of articles, but with Web 2.0 you also can include videos, blogs, digital products, and more. You may be asked to upload a minimum of 10 articles, so be sure you can deliver the goods before you make any promises.

4. Know That It’s a Good Match

You will want to ask questions of the site owners regarding target market, web traffic, and expectations of you as an expert. Some sites do much of the admin for you (posting links, optimizing) while others leave it in your hands. Understand exactly how the site operates before you jump on board.

5. Use an Optimized Title for Yourself

You may be asked to provide your official expert title, such as Marketing Expert or Official Guide to Online Visibility. Pick a title that reflects a term that people are searching for on the web. So as much as you’d like to be the Official Guide to Sizzling Righteousness, you may need to SEO it up if you want people other than your drinking buddies to understand what you’re all about. Ask the site for help if you need ideas for optimized titles.

6. If You’re Paying to Be An Expert, Know This:

Getting top position on a site doesn’t come for free, most often you will pay for the honor. If you’re paying for your Official Expert position, check to see how it’s benefiting you. Look at web stats, reprint requests of articles, page views, incoming links, etc. You want to make sure this is a good investment!

7. Leverage Your Visibility

Be sure to let people know you’re an expert. If the site offers you a badge for your website or some other honors, take advantage of them! Marketing yourself as an expert is a smart way to tell the world that yes, you are a trusted voice on a certain topic and a great person to connect with.

Expert status increases your credibility and paves the way for media attention and raising your fees. If you have a high level of knowledge that is in-demand by your target market, understand how to create helpful information around your area of expertise, and are ready to consistently build your name recognition, then this is a great strategy for you.

Here are a couple Expert programs I use:

Idea Marketers Expert 360 Program

Marnie Pehrson makes it  easy to get high Google rankings, traffic to your site, and a steady flow of visibility. Excellent support and tutorials. Big perk: your content gets syndicated with an RSS feed, and pops up on Twitter!

To learn more about Expert 360 Click HERE

Self Growth

Self help expert David Riklan has launched a comprehensive expert program that also includes a networking component for experts to connect with one another. You have to pay up front to do this, and be sure you have a clear strategy on how to make this program work for you.

Get more details about Self Growth HERE

Ezine Articles

Chris Knight’s site www.EzineArticles.com offers a shoestring budget way of getting expert placement. All you need to do is regularly submit great content (no fees attached) and you’ll get promoted to Expert Author. And then one day a big size coffee mug arrives in the mail thanking you for being an expert. That totally won me over PLUS they have your articles pop up on Twitter once published. Nice all the way around.

Get more Info about Ezine Articles HERE