Being known as a guru is a wonderful way to make yourself
much more credible to the average visitor to your site. But
how do you obtain guru status? Not everyone can get that
instant recognizability – and then, not everyone with guru
status deserves it.
What the gurus know that you may not is how to sell
themselves.
Step One: Believe You Deserve It
No one is going to give you guru status; you must take it.
Sell yourself as a guru: write authoritatively. Have more
than one website as well on which you address issues in
your area of specialization. And above all, be willing to help
anyone who needs information. A guru is someone to whom
we go for help and knowledge, so be ready to give up a
chunk of your time to do this.
You will be rewarded for that willingness with instant
respect, name recognition, and a much higher likelihood of
selling your product or service than the average vendor.,
Step Two: Deserve It
If you don't really have the knowledge you claim, your guru
status is not going to last long. Explore the websites of
others in your field. Know what's out there, and learn
everything you can about your field and fields closely related
to it. For instance, if you are going to be a model train guru,
know everything possible about model trains, and also learn
something about scale modeling, miniaturization, and
architecture.
Step Three: Don't Bite Off Too Much
Gurus hold sway over relatively focused subjects. If you try
to be guru to a topic that's too broad, you'll find two distinct
problems: it will take up too much of your time to keep up
with the information out there for that topic, and you will
find yourself responding to so many guru seekers that you
won't have time to properly maintain your business.
Instead of adopting a huge area (dolls), determine a smaller
area of specialization (antique Victorian wax-headed dolls)
and focus on it. If it turns out that you've chosen a too-small
slice of pie, you can always add a little more later, but if
your slice is too large, it's fairly difficult to give that extra
part back without destroying all the credibility you've built
up.
Step Four: Publish Stuff for Free
Gurus share their knowledge freely. If you attain guru
status, you should be ready to print articles and ebooks,
freely downloadable, that those seeking your knowledge can
access. This not only shows that you know enough to write
entire books about a subject, it also keeps too many people
from asking you for help. (The maintenance of an FAQ will
free up your time as well.)
But here's where many would-be gurus hit a snag: no
matter how much you know about a subject, you may not be
able to write convincingly about it. That's not really that
much of a problem, though, if you know where to go.
You don't have to write your own information, though you
should have mastered it if you intend to be a guru. Instead,
you can contract with a writer or with an article broker like
YourOwnArticles.com to either have articles custom
written for you, or to buy pre-written articles that you can
then publish as your own. Not only articles can be
contracted in this way, but also ebooks, put together in PDF
format and sharing a large quantity of information with your
customers.
Don't put huge chunks of articles on your site, either;
instead, dole out articles over time, either as regular posts
to your website or as blog entries, or even as emailed
newsletters. Later you can compile article series into ebooks
and special reports which you can then distribute from your
website as well.
The most important part, though, is that even though you
may be paying for this writing, you must give your
information away for free. You are a guru, after all.
Information is of so little value to you that you can afford to
distribute it to those who don't have it. Not only does this
make you look knowledgeable to your customer, but it helps
them get to know you, and makes it even more likely that
they will buy from you.
