Before I get into this any further, I am not talking about the type of famous you get from lip synching to a Romanian pop song, camping it up because the press are being nasty to Britney Spears or revealing you have a crush on the president and posting it on Youtube. I am talking about lasting, authoritative fame where you have successfully branded yourself as the specialist, the EXPERT in your chosen niche.
Don’t Make This Mistake
In a previous post I discussed the importance of building a business around your passions. If you take just one thing from this post then it should be not to make the fatal mistake of trying to brand yourself around a fad or hot topic because you think that’s where the money is.
Think about it this way – how can you hope to become a famous authority figure in a niche you don’t know the first thing about?
You can’t!
Countless people enter a niche without having the first clue about it, or worse still, have no interest and then they wonder why they are not succeeding with their lazy marketing, poor products and neglected blogs.
You should brand yourself around a topic your are knowledgeable and passionate about. The key to success, as simple as it sounds, is to be be compensated based around your passions.
Narrow Your Focus
To give yourself a better chance of becoming famous, you need to carve out a spot in your niche. People always assume a “specialist” knows more than somebody who has a broad knowledge of a general topic.
If internet marketing is your chosen niche, there is no point in trying to brand yourself as an expert at “internet marketing” because the topic is too broad and there are numerous sub niches which all require a level of expertise.
You need to pick a topic within a particular niche you are knowledgeable and passionate about and become the “go to” guy or girl in that area.
For example, here is a short list of people who are famous in their own sub niche within the huge area that is “internet marketing”:
- Rich Schefren – Business Development but now The Guru to the Gurus (enough said)
- Alex Jeffreys – List Building
- Darren Rowse – Pro Blogging
- Dean Hunt – Buzz Marketing
- Perry Marshall – Google Adwords
- Josh Bartlett – Video Marketing
- Matt Wolfe – WordPress
Your chosen sub niche must be broad enough to market to a large enough group of people so you can make money from them but also focused enough so that you a realistic chance of becoming the best in that niche.
Alternatively you could even create your own category by combining several different niches. That way you would have zero competition!
A good example of this is Tim Ferriss, author of the Four Hour Workweek who found himself in between the “careers” category and the “work-life balance” category.
Instead of concentrating on either of them he created his own category: Lifestyle Design and went on to have a New York Times best seller!
Get Noticed
If you are going to become famous online then you will need to take a stand.
It must be clear which side of the fence you are sitting on and ideally your position should be different from the rest of the pack in your chosen niche.
If you take the same stand as others in your niche, you won’t have anything that makes you stand out and will just add “noise” to the marketplace rather than something fresh and worth paying attention to.
If you take the complete opposite, or even a controversial position within your niche then that is not necessarily a bad thing (as long as you genuinely believe it) because it will make people stand up and take notice.
You could be the person who says what everyone else is afraid to say. Refreshing honesty and a strong position will make it easier for people to align themselves with you.
Please note that whatever position you take, it should be seen to be in the best interest of your marketplace.
Become The Best!
The reason I have talked about the importance of being knowledgeable and passionate about the niche you want to enter is that you need to have an advantage over your competitors if you are to become famous – there is no way around that.
You must be able to do something better than your competitiors and for it to be meaningful in the minds of your prospects. What unique area of expertise do you bring to the marketplace and ultimately, what do you want your customers to say about you?
Your competitive advantage will answer the following questions potential customers will have:
- Why should I do business with you?
- Why are you the best choice?
- What are you offering that other businesses in your market are not?
Your answers to the above questions should be able to slice through the clutter of the marketplace. They should be unique to you and explain why the customer should choose you above everyone else.
Once you have indentified your unique competitive advantage you need to turn it into a unique, compelling and credible promise that you can make to your marketplace.
Your own promise can be derived from the following:
- Who You are Promising. The customers within the focused area of expertise.
- What You are Promising. Specifically, the results.
- When You Will Deliver on Your Promise.
- How You Will Deliver on Your Promise.
Remember, success does not just “happen”. By deciding what you want to become famous for and what you want your customers to say about you in order to draw even more people to you, then you can engineer that into your business, your blog, marketing material etc.
If you don’t try to engineer your own success and hope that it will all just fall into place then you are going to be sadly disappointed.
Note from David: I will be adding further posts around this topic over the next week and editing/interlinking this post accordingly. The future posts will be about getting your message out there, credibility, positioning and staying ahead of the pack!
Hey David,
Took a bit of reading, but well worth the effort.
I agree that entering a niche market without having any passion for it, is practically suicidal.
The main reason is, as hard as you might try to understand and get a handle on the niche, if its not an area of interest, it’ll show. It will show in your writing and people who are passionate will spot it.
Just a few words of friendly advice to your readers buddy.
Well done on yet another highly informative post.
Andrew.
Hi Andrew,
Haha your “suicidal” comment made me laugh. I know what you mean though, I slogged through nine long months in an area I did not care for and aligning myself with Rich Schefren and Alex Jeffreys in July proved to be a lifesaver for me.
If anyone asks me “what niche” they “should” go into I will tell them it’s the one they are most passionate about. Almost all niches and sub niches have an audience with money to spend so you may as well immerse yourself in something you love doing!
David
David,
Wow! You timing is amazing! I just was chatting with a friend on FB about this very thing. I asked hime what the REAL secret to making money on line was and he said “BECOME FAMOUS” I kid you not!!!
Your post not only reinforces what he said it gave me some real food for thought because, while I have been working on branding myself, my scope has been so broad that I’m not really saying anything yet. I’m still in the “get to know me and like me” stages but the idea of narrowing my own focus to something that folks can really use that is somehow different than what they get everywhere else … that is a true GOLDEN NUGGET!
THANK YOU!
Leanne
Hi Leanne,
I am glad my post has helped you out! Regardless of whether your friend was being flippant or not when they said to “become famous”, they were correct!
Personal branding is something I didn’t give much importance to up until I started the coaching program but now I realise it is THE most important component to succeeding online, used in conjunction with a strong mailing list.
As you are becoming more knowledgeable I am sure you will find an area of expertise you can make your own!
David
Oh – he was dead serious! Thank you for your encouragement!
Leanne
Awesome Post David. It is true! I think it is important to have focus when you start working in internet marketing. If you try to be the person who knows everything about everything, you will spread yourself very thin. Brand yourself as the goto person in a specific subject, and you will see some success.
Thanks so much for the mention. I would hardly consider myself famous in my niche. It’s still nice to know that some may perceive me that way though.
If anyone deserves some credit, it’s David Walker and the build traffic niche. You beat out hundreds of other people in a blog traffic competition. I want to know your secrets!
Matt
Hey Matt,
Thank you for commenting on this post. I think spreading myself too thin was where I have gone wrong before in previous blogs – I tried to be all things to all people.
Now I am going to focus on blogging and being the “go to” person on how to make money from blogging.
I may have won that competition (and will blog about it as soon as the prize money hits my account!) but I am not generating *enough* traffic in my opinion to be perceived as an expert – I am much better at blogging than I am traffic generation so will try and make my name in that niche!
YOU may not think you are famous in your niche but there are a lot of people who would argue differently!
Speak soon.
David
Hi David,
This is rock solid content right here, I’ve learnt a lot from reading this post. And it has certainly made me think deeper about things.
Quality post !!!
Take care,
Paul.
Very nice, informative post, David.
I’m not sure it’s always possible to be passionate about your chosen niche but, as you note, you’d best at least have an interest in it.
Cheers,
Rod
David
Great post. Its all so important to develop a USP based around your competitive advantage so that you can become that ‘go-to guy’, the specialist in the field/niche/area.
Its something that I need to work on as at the moment I am spreading myself around building foundations but will begin to hone in on certain areas and become much more specialist and an expert, and in turn the ‘fame’ should follow.
Keep up the good work
Tom
Great Post. Passion is everything.. it’s the only thing that will keep you working har din a new niche when you havnt made any money yet. Without it, you will be done and moving onto your next nuche.
As far building around a fad.. think about all the businesses/websites built around the twitter name. what will happen if twitter gets serious about trademark,or if twitter does a belly flop like myspace? lol it will be a mess.
Nothing wrong with focusing a lil time and energy on a new fad, but do not build your brand/you business around it.