I didn’t feel the full brunt of my creditability and expertise until I was doing a podcast interview with someone and they were so excited to talk to me. I remember her exact words were,

“I have never spoken to a professional blogger before.”

I may have laughed at her comment because NO ONE had ever said that to me before. I didn’t even see myself as a professional blogger even though that is exactly what I was. It wasn’t until someone else said it out loud that I allowed myself to fully take it in.

We all want to be seen as credible. We want to be seen as an expert in the areas that we are blogging about. We want to be taken seriously because blogging is hard work.

It is funny how sometimes it takes an outside perspective to shine the light on who we really are. That is what she did for me. She gave me the confidence to own that I was a professional blogger. She gave me the confidence to own that I was an expert in blogging.

I do want to say though that being an expert doesn’t mean that I know everything. I am always learning more and more about blogging every single day. If I have a client that asks me a question that I don’t know, I research and learn the answer. That is how I make myself a better coach and a better blogger.

I left that podcast interview with a giant smile on my face. It was as if I was FINALLY being seen as who I wanted to be. Someone else shined a light onto who I was and we all want to be seen as the person we wish we were. There is nothing better in this world than that.

BLOGGING MAKES YOU AN EXPERT

I know…

Seeing yourself as an expert can be incredibly intimidating. You may doubt your abilities but this is not the place for you to do that. I help you overcome your doubts. I help you see how capable you truly are.

You are blogging to share your stories.

You are blogging to share the lessons that you have learned.

You are blogging to help your ideal reader within your blogging niche.

THAT BEAUTIFUL, MAKES YOU AN EXPERT!

Now that is your affirmation for the next month or so. Repeat it every single day. Write it down every single day.

I AM AN EXPERT.

It feels great, doesn’t it?

In order to get the full effect of being an expert, you need to be seen as an expert in front of more than your audience. Your audience is full of your ideal readers and clients but you constantly want to be building upon that.

As a beginner blogger, it can feel intimidating to admit that you are an expert. You may or may not have the readers that you want but that doesn’t mean that you can’t showcase your expertise.

I want to share with you ways that you can be seen as an expert in your blogging niche even when you feel like you aren’t. Even the big names had to start someone. They had to get up every morning and be willing to step in front of a new audience and in front of their trusted audience to build up to the level of expertise.

Remember that getting it in front of a new audience is key to building your blog and your brand BUT you also need to remember to nurture the audience that you already have. It doesn’t matter if that audience consists of three people. You nurture those three people because they are there to read and support YOU!

BEING SEEN AS AN EXPERT IN YOUR BLOGGING NICHE

1| Show up. This is the BEST and most IMPORTANT way to be seen as an expert in your blogging niche. I am always talking about consistency. That is what this is. You NEED to show up every single day. Make a promise to yourself and to your followers that you are going to show up.

Showing up proves that you are dedicated. Showing up proves that you are passionate about what you do. Showing up proves that you are serious about your blog, your business and your brand.

2| Write guest blog posts. Start reaching out immediately to other bloggers who are in your niche and in your shoulder niches. This is a great way to build up your website DA but also allows you to get in front of new audiences and share your expertise.

What is a shoulder niche? This is a niche that is related to yours but isn’t exactly your niche. So for example, a few of my shoulder niches would be…

1. Stock photo photographers
2. Brand consultants
3. Freelancers
4. Graphic Designers

I could reach out to any of these experts and still be relevant to their audience and they would be relevant to my audience.

Start guest blogging immediately in your journey as a blogger. I did not do that and I am working on doing it more now so that I can build up my authority and show everyone in the blogging world who I am.

3| Do podcast interviews. Yes, you are a blogger but that doesn’t mean that you can’t reach audiences in different ways. I love being on podcasts. I have three interviews for podcasts just this week.

It is a great way to showcase your blogging expertise in a new way and with a different audience. Plus it is so much fun to have a meaningful conversation with another person.

4| Comment on blog posts in your niche. For a long time, I thought that I had to avoid commenting on bloggers in my own niche. I saw them as competition and I couldn’t let them know that I existed.

I am here to tell you…

THAT IS A LOAD OF CRAP!!

There is no competition. You can support one another and help each other grow. By commenting on a blogger in your niche, you are reaching more of your ideal client. You must leave genuine comments though. It is important to show that you support them and love what they are doing.

A couple of tips to help when commenting on other blog posts.

1. Leave your first and last name not the name of your blog or business. Think of it as an introduction. You don’t introduce yourself at a party with your business name, you give them your first name. Do the same for blog comments.
2. Leave a genuine comment. Add to their blog post in a meaningful way because other commenters are going to see and possibly read the comment that you leave behind.

5| Comment in niche Facebook groups. This was a struggle for me. I wanted to be the guest in someone else’s Facebook group and that meant that I couldn’t share my knowledge. I was so wrong.

I now make it a priority to answer questions that I see in other blogging groups. Not only to get my name out there but to truly help the other bloggers when they have questions that I know the answer to.

I also find that when I answer these questions, I have a different response than others who have also taken the time to answer. Now the person has more than one option to a question that they posed. It has opened a discussion up between multiple people and I love that Facebook groups offer that.

6| Answer the questions that your readers and followers ask. These are YOUR people so you want to give them what they are searching for. Answering their questions is going to give you great content ideas and help them achieve their goals.

Be honest with them if you don’t know the answer and let them know that you will figure it out. No one wants an expert to just make up the answer to something. That is going to be your downfall. Remember EVEN EXPERTS LEARN EVERY SINGLE DAY!!

7| Comment on social media platforms. We tend to forget that social media was created to be social. You can’t just constantly create new content and expect your ideal readers and followers to find you. You need to dedicate time to be social.

Take 20 minutes, 2 times a day to start building relationships with other small businesses, bloggers and influencers on social media. This is a great way to get to know people and to get your name out there. Make sure to be authentic and make genuine comments about what they are posting.

8| Listen to the feedback that you receive. You aren’t always going to get the results you want or have readers like what you say. That is perfectly okay. Take the feedback that you receive and make changes if necessary. This doesn’t mean that you need to listen to EVERYONE who sends feedback because sometimes it isn’t relevant to what you need to change.

Be open to the ideas of others. We all have different perspectives and sometimes they can help us evolve and grow.

9| Be willing to learn something every single day. The best experts out there are willing to learn. Whether it is through paid courses or free courses or books, they are constantly putting more knowledge into their brains.

Learning is one of the only ways that you can continue to grow and expand as a blogger, as a business owner and in life. I love Udemy for courses. They have anything that you can think of on there. Remember, you don’t always have to learn things that have to do with your blog or business. What is something that you have always wanted to learn or try? Make it fun.

10| Get involved with YOUR community. Blogging is all about building a community around yourself. Your community will include social media followers, blog subscribers, email subscribers, blog readers. Comment on their things. When they comment on your blog, respond to them. Take the time to get to know them and you will create an even stronger community.

Remember that they are there for YOU. No matter how big or small that community is, take your time to get to know them and for them to get to know you. Relationships are key when it comes to blogging and becoming an expert.

11| Have a plan and strategy in place. I truly believe that the only way to be successful in blogging is to make sure that you have a plan. What is your vision for your blog? Once you know the big picture, you can begin to break it down into steps that you can take every single day to reach that goal.

Knowing what you want to do and why you want to do it is going to help with the how. You don’t even need to always know the how when it comes to the strategy. Let me explain.

While you are creating and dreaming up your big vision, you know that you would like to monetize your blog. You may not yet have an idea how that will look to you but you know that it is something you want to do. There are other things to do before you monetize your blog anyway so you begin doing those. Eventually, you are going to come up with the HOW of monetizing your blog.

When it comes to having a plan in place, you need to focus on the details of the every day.

How often can you realistically post new content on your blog?

How often can you realistically post to your social media accounts?

Set aside time to figure all of these things out BEFORE you begin anything. Having a plan in place is going to help you lay a strong foundation down for the future of your blog. You NEED to have that foundation in place before you can monetize (if that is part of your goal).

I want you to remember that you are an expert in something. You have the knowledge that you want to share with people and these 11 tips are going to help you to begin to share it with more people.

Being an expert is about more than reaching more people. It is about being true to yourself. It is about believing in your abilities. It is about trusting that you know what you know.

We look up to experts because of the confidence that they exude. With practice and time, that confidence will also be yours and you will have people looking up to you as an expert. Take it day by day.

If you are ready to grow or start a blog, I have group coaching programs that are starting in May.

Blogfluent is for the woman who doesn’t feel confident in social media and technology but has ALWAYS wanted to blog.

Fierce Growth Accelerator is for the woman who already has a blog but has fizzled out when it comes to passion and growth. She wants to reignite the fire for blogging and is ready to take her blog to the next level.

Blog to Heal is for the woman who is a trauma survivor and is ready to share her story, heal on a deeper level and build a community around herself.

I look forward to working with you and watching your BIG vision come to life.