First, let’s review what this thing is. You can read more about the original product here, but I’ll summarize it now:

So what is an online press kit, anyway? Sometimes called a media kit, it is really just an expanded “About Me” section that includes things like images and graphics (like headshots of yourself or images of your ebook cover), and lots of in-depth information about yourself that journalists could use when either writing about you, or quoting you. The more information you give reporters and bloggers in a simple, easy-to-get format, the better. The key is that you want to make it EASY for a reporter to choose you when they are looking for comments and quotes from an expert in whatever topic they are writing about today. Reporters have tight deadlines. They want answers and they want them fast.

Journalists are trained to look for press kits. They’ve been relying on company media kits for decades. Just by having your own online press kit, you let them know that you respect them, and you are willing and ready to work with them. You let them know that you are available as a source. That gives you an edge over all the other “gurus” who don’t have an online press kit.

I can hear you asking already…how do I set up an online press kit? You can simply add a section to your current web site that gives all the pertinent information on its pages. Keep it simple and clean, with navigation that makes it impossible for a hurried journalist to get lost. Include quotes, testimonials, syndicated articles, suggested questions, podcasts and videos, images and graphics, and lots of bio information.

Ok, so if you want to check it out, and see the demo of it, just click here (opens in new tab). If you want to download it, just click here. Yeah, it’s that easy. Enjoy. (Oh, and I forgot to mention that it comes with several color schemes, so you can just choose which color stylesheet to use).

I’d like to really encourage everyone to think about how a press kit can be used. Many of us are hurting from the bad economy. Everywhere I turn around, people are either out of work, working less, or have family members who lost their jobs. Unemployed people still have incredible work experience and knowledge to share. If you, or someone you know, needs to build up their personal brand, please make use of this template, or use it as inspiration, to start making it happen. I believe we can all help dig each other out of the economic hole we find ourselves in. This is my small contribution to that effort.

Note: If you think this is useful, I’d appreciate it if you’d link to it or share it on your fave social networks.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2011. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: media kit, online press kit
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Create Your Logos

The first thing you’ll want to do is create 2 logos. One should be no larger than 190×60 pixels and one should be no larger than 750×90 pixels. I suggest using exactly those dimensions, but smaller is ok too. Next, pick one of your main logo colors to use as a border color later on. You’ll need to know the HTML value for that color (such as #FFFFFF for white and #000000 for black). Your image editor (Gimp, Photoshop, etc.) can give you that information.

Host Your Logos On A Secure Server (https)

Now that you’ve created your two logos, you need to upload them to a secure server. Since Paypal uses secure (SSL) web servers, you must use secure images for your logos. Your first question is probably, “Why?” If your logos are on an unsecured (http) server (the one your site is normally on), as opposed to a secure (https) server, your customers’ browser will warn them that your Paypal checkout process page “contains both encrypted and unencrypted items.” Your customer will likely think they are on a malware site and that your payment process is not totally secure. He or she will often decide to not continue with the payment.

If your web host comes with a secure server option, then make use of it. You’ll need to follow your host’s instructions for that. You may be able to find instructions on how to use your host’s shared SSL if you don’t have your own SSL in your host’s FAQ. If your host doesn’t have that option, you can use secure hosting services designed specifically for this purpose. One such host is securepixels.com. For only $4.95 per year, you can host up to 3 images on their secure server. Since you’ll only need to host 2 (the small and the large logos), this plan will work fine for you. Regardless of where you host your logos, you’ll just need to make a note of their URLs so you can give those URLs to Paypal when asked. They should look something like this: https://www.yoursecureserver.com/yourlogo.jpg – (Notice the “s” in https).

Customize Paypal Checkout

Ok, now you’re ready to roll. You’ve got your two logos designed and uploaded to a secure server, and you know what border color you want to use. Time to give all this information to Paypal.

1. Log in to paypal. You should be at your Account Overview.
2. Choose Profile from the top menu.

   

3. Under the Selling Preferences list, choose Custom Payment Pages.

   

4. Add a new Page Style and name it whatever you want. If you already use a Page Style, then select the Change option for that style.

   

5. Under the Logo Image URL section, provide the URL for your logo that is no larger than 190×60 pixels. Make sure the image is stored on a secure (https) server.

   

6. Under the Cart Area Gradient Color section, provide your chosen color for the gradient border.
7. Under the Header Image URL section, provide the URL for the large logo that is no larger than 750×90 pixels. Make sure the image is stored on a secure (https) server.
8. Supply a color for Header Background Color, Header Border Color, and Payment Flow Background Color. (FFFFFF for white works if you don’t have a plan in mind for this already).
9. Click Save and choose your new Page Style as the default for your new checkout.
10. Here’s what my logos look like when donating and checking out.

    

    

Modify Your Buttons Form If Necessary

Now, since you’ve chosen your new Page Style as the default, you probably won’t need to change your Buy Now, Add to Cart, or Donate form code on your site. However, if you have more than one Page Style (for multiple websites perhaps), then you’ll need to add a line of code to your Paypal form on your site. Add this line:

<input type=”hidden” name=”page_style” value=”YourStyle” />

where “YourStyle” is the name of the Page Style you created in step 4 above. Make sure to use the exact same name as the name you chose.

You’re all done!

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2010. | Permalink | 15 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: custom checkout, logo, PayPal, secure hosting services, secure server
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Transcript:

[Two Places You Might Not Have Thought To Brand Yourself]

Hi my name is Dave Dugdale and I wanted to thank Donna for letting me do another guest post.

I have been doing lots of videos lately so I thought instead of writing this post I would create a video.

I am going to run through two places that you might not have thought to brand yourself on your site.

To help yourself standout from whatever niche you in you really need to use every chance you get to help people remember your name and what you look like.

I try to place my picture just about everywhere I can on my sites, like on my SolarDave site even though I know it is the right thing to do I am still amazed when I go to solar conferences or other events when people walk up to me and say, “Hey are you SolarDave?”

Contact Form Page

So the first place to increase your branding is on your contact form page. On my contact form I ask them what my first name is, which is pretty obvious since the site is called SolarDave. This also helps me weed out emails that make it through this first filter because when I get an email from someone and they do not use my first name and I have it plastered all over my site, I pretty much know that it is going to be spam.

RSS Reader

If you are like me I read blogs from my RSS reader and hardly ever go to the site (like Donna’s site for instance). I use a plug-in on my blog called RSS Footer from a guy I can never pronounce correctly – that works great.

What you do is not only include your name and a link your site but include your photo (or logo if you are not branding just yourself but your company.) This also helps when people scrape your feed, so your brand follows you even on the scraped sites.

Well that’s it, I hope you enjoy these two tips and have a great day!

Thanks!

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dave Dugdale (SolarDave)
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One of the most crucial activities when crafting a marketing and branding plan is to get a logo for your company. A well-designed custom logo communicates a message to the public, conveying what your business is all about. Although Google’s logo is well-known and well-designed, Google often changes its logo for holidays and anniversaries. By portraying a more dynamic feel, their special occasion logos are able to actually “speak” to the public on these occasions.

Case Study: Google Doodle

According to Google:

At Google, we like to reflect the ever-changing world of our users through the logo designs on our homepage. These ‘doodles’ celebrate different people, events or special dates and are designed by our original Doodler, 30-year-old Dennis Hwang. (from Doodle 4 Google)

If we look at the history of Google, the first ever dynamic Google logo (they call it Doodle) was designed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin themselves. It was designed for the Burning Man festival in the summer of 1999. They created the Doodle in case their site crashed, and to explain why their phones weren’t being answered. The logo would convey the message to users that they had gone to the festival.

Later, they hired a graphic designer named Dennis Hwang, who has now become the official doodle maker of Google. He draws the designs by hand first and then computer graphs them. Dennis has designed nearly 150 Doodles to date. Presently, Google designs Doodles for many events and places them on their website for a limited period of time.

The most recent Doodle was displayed on May 10, 2009 to give tribute to Mother’s Day. The logo was predominantly pink in color, with a flower vase replacing the letter “L”.

Google’s use of Doodles that change for each event is a branding tactic that reflects Google’s image as a more advanced and up-to-date company, and also shows their affection for the events. This not only catches the eyes of their users, but also helps Google position its brand dynamically.

You can also use this tactic to brand your company with a dynamic logo on your website for each event. A good idea is to develop an event calendar so you can plan to have your logo designed before each event arrives. Then let your logo designer know what special message you want your logo to convey for that occasion. Upload it for the designated time period, and let your logo speak!

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Post tags: Dennis Hwang, Doodles, Google, graphic designer, logo designer, Mother's Day, official doodle maker, Sergey Brin
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So when I brought up the subject of personal branding, it was a little surprising that my normally loud, raucous family went totally silent. Quizzical expressions and dumbfounded looks surrounded the table. Finally my sister spoke. “Personal branding?”, she asked. “What is that? Like branding a cow?”

I sighed. “No, Sis,” I said. “It’s NOT like branding a cow. It’s like a product brand. You know, like Coke is a brand. Or Walmart is a brand. If Gary (my brother) decided he wanted to be known as the Louisiana Real Estate guru, he would market himself that way, establishing his own personal brand as Gary, the Louisiana Real Estate Guru. If he marketed himself well, then he would become well-known, and everyone would know that HE was the Louisiana Real Estate Guru. That’s what personal branding is. Marketing yourself.”

Although I’m not sure they completely “got it”, it was a good enough explanation to allow us to move on to safer topics that everyone could participate in – like how our local college baseball team was doing this season.

Personal branding is on my mind lately because Dan Schawbel’s book, Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success is now available at Amazon.* Dan is the guy behind the Personal Branding Magazine, and as I’ve mentioned before, I’m a staff columnist for that magazine. So of course, I’ve been looking forward to seeing Dan’s book get published. I ordered it before it was even published, so I could be one of the first to have it. It arrived on my doorstep (ok, in my post office box, actually) a few days ago. I’ve devoured it since then.

Although I won’t be recommending the book to either my sister or brother because they are at the tail end of their careers, I am recommending it to each of you. If you read this blog, you should read Dan’s book. If you have any interest in furthering your career (even offline), you should read his book.

In fact, Dan’s main focus in Me 2.0 is that of young people embarking on careers, and using the power of personal branding to get the jobs they want and be successful in their chosen careers. This is especially useful information right now, when so many are laid off. Competing for a job has gotten a lot tougher because so many people are desperate for work. How you market yourself can make all the difference in whether or not you land the job you want. The book does a great job of showing how to market yourself before, during, and after a job interview.

Of course, I work from home, so I’m not particularly interested in resumes or interviewing. But the world of freelancing and online marketing involves lots of personal branding as well, and if you are involved in ebusiness in any way, you need to understand personal branding. Your reputation is on the line every day in the ebusiness world, and your personal brand is your reputation. How you manage your brand’s reputation is critical to your online success.

Luckily, the advice Dan gives in Me 2.0 works just as well for me and you as it does for the recent college graduate looking for that perfect job. The concepts of personal branding – marketing yourself – extend to all of us, regardless of what kind of career we’ve chosen.

Here’s a little of what you can find in the book:

• A 4-step process for building a powerful brand (discover,
  create, communicate, maintain).
• Tips on using social media tools for personal empowerment, confidence building, and professional networking in order to attract jobs directly to you, without applying!
• Tested advice on how to create an online and offline presence for
  career protection and self-promotion.
• Over 40 expert quotes from leaders including Don Tapscott, Guy Kawasaki, Penelope Trunk, and David Kirkpatrick of Fortune Magazine, among others.
• More than 70 research reports, 3 personal case studies and examples to give you a broader perspective on the topic.

I personally bought this book because I know Dan’s advice is always excellent. I know that he knows this topic inside and out. I trusted that the few dollars I would spend on the book would be worth it, and I was right. Dan’s own personal brand is that of a personal branding expert, and there’s good reason for it. Anyone looking to market themselves – for online or offline careers – would be smart to read Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success. It can make a huge difference in your future career plans.

If you are interested in the things I’ve had to say over the years on the topic of personal branding, you might want to check out the branding category here on my blog. Needless to say, I’ll continue to post on this in the future as well, because it’s an important topic to understand if you want to be successful in an online business.

*

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Post tags: Amazon, Dan Schawbel, David Kirkpatrick, Don Tapscott, e - business, Fortune Magazine, Guy Kawasaki, Louisiana, online, online and offline presence, online marketing, Online success, Penelope Trunk, professional networking, social media tools, staff columnist, the Personal Branding Magazine
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The magazine’s editor, Dan Schawbel, describes this issue in this way:

Many people rush into personal branding, without first taking precious time to discover who they are and what they want to do for the rest of their lives. In this issue, we expose how to unlock your true potential, unearth your passion, acquire the necessary skills and how to set achievable goals. We’ve interviewed some of the leading businessmen, such as Marcus Buckingham, to help you with your own personal development.

I’ve seen a pre-release version of the full issue, and as always, it’s a really good one! Obviously, you’ll get to read my take on combining SEO with your personal branding discovery process, but there’s so much more. Here’s a peek behind the curtains at some of the articles:

• Interviews with author Marcus Buckingham, executive coach & author Marshall Goldsmith, author Tim Sanders, and costar of The Secret John Assaraf
• How To Cross The Hurdle of Sameness by Liz Pabon
• Tips for Rebranding Yourself Online by Jim Kukral
• Grow and Use Your Personal Brand Online by Ian Lurie
• Empowering Your Inner Superhero by Chris Penn
• Boosting Sales with Your Personal Brand by Anthony Portuesi

and there are more than a dozen more that are equally impressive.

This magazine is always full of high-quality information, and it never disappoints. If you’ve already subscribed, you should be receiving your next issue on February 1st. If you haven’t yet subscribed, I suggest downloading the free sample issue, and if you are impressed, you can always subscribe to get the full issue. The price is only $12.95 for an annual subscription (4 issues). And as always, half of the proceeds are donated to the American Cancer Society.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: American Cancer Society, Anthony Portuesi, Author, Chris Penn, Dan Schawbel, editor, executive coach & author, Ian Lurie, Jim Kukral, Liz Pabon, Marcus Buckingham, Marshall Goldsmith, Tim Sanders
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Anyone can slap up a web page that says, “I am an expert in …”, but saying it doesn’t make it so. And even if it is the truth, the mere fact of stating it won’t make others believe it. Belief is the key component of credibility. Let’s take a look at the definition of credible:

1. capable of being believed; believable: a credible statement.
2. worthy of belief or confidence; trustworthy: a credible witness.

Your assertion that you are an expert or authority in a subject matter should be believable. You can establish much of this trustworthiness by sharing your knowledge on your site. The articles you write on your web site should back up your statement that you are expert in your field. The very act of conveying your knowledge through informative articles, tutorials, and FAQs is often enough to convince others that you are indeed an expert.

In addition to conveying your knowledge, you should be prepared to back up the assertions that you make in the articles you write. Your expertise is deemed more credible when you show proof of what you state. Don’t hesitate to link out to other sites or other experts that help demonstrate that proof. Even something as simple as a link to the definition of a word (as shown above, when I referenced the definition of the word ‘credible’) can help make your case.

In some situations, however, even sharing your knowledge extensively, and backing it up with reference links, isn’t enough to establish your credibility. You may need to have others agree that you are credble. If you are a relative newcomer to the field (and newcomer doesn’t imply that you aren’t an expert), your name may not be well-known amongst the other experts in the field. If they don’t know you, they aren’t likely to acknowledge you publicly as an expert. However, if one expert acknowledges you, your credibility achieves a tremendous boost, so one of your goals should center around establishing name recognition within that circle of expertise, and then to become recognized as a peer of those experts.

Some ideas for achieving that goal include:

• Find the communities in which the experts hang out and hang out there as well
• Participate in discussions with the experts
• Don’t always be a yes-man. Debate the experts, but do so without coming across as a troll or adversary.
• Give the experts knowledge they didn’t already have.

Even the most expert of experts is missing knowledge. Perhaps you’ve run some tests or ran a poll that generated some interesting statistics about either your topic, or the people who are interested in your topic. There’s a good chance that other experts in the field did not run similar tests, and would likely be interested in the statistics you’ve gathered. Or perhaps there is a standard, tried-and-true way of doing something in your field, but you’ve found an alternative way of doing it that has some additional benefits of doing it that way. Sharing that information with other experts, as long as it isn’t detrimental to your business, is another way of being recognized with the community as a member of the “experts class”.

Obviously, you don’t want to give away all your secrets to other experts. Your business may rely upon keeping some of your knowledge to yourself. But there is much that can be mutually gained by leaders sharing knowledge with leaders.

Once you’ve achieved the goal of being recognized by other leaders in the field as someone with expertise as well, you can use that to help establish your credibility within your own site. Reference remarks made by other leaders about yourself. Link to pages on other sites in which you’ve held an intelligent, interesting debate with another expert. Include quotes from recognized authorities that mention you in a positive way. These types of references should also be included in your online press kit as well.

In short, you can establish credibility as an expert by:

1. conveying your knowledge through informative articles, tutorials, and FAQs
2. backing up your knowledge with proof, including links to outside references
3. becoming a peer of other topic authorities, and then referencing that relationship on site

Establishing credibility should be a constant theme running throughout your presence as an online entrepreneur. Whether adding content to your site, participating in social networks, or interacting with users and clients, you should strive to maintain your status as an expert by proving yourself credible.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2008. | Permalink | 11 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: credibility, online entrepreneur, online press kit, social networks
This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this in your news aggregator/reader or on DazzlinDonna, then the site you are looking at is probably infringing upon my copyright.

You need a press kit.

In the “old days”, that meant spending a LOT of money to have fancy-schmancy folders and papers printed that you would mail to newspaper and magazine editors. Because it is so costly to create those glossy kits, you and I would be doing without. Luckily, those days are long gone, and the Internet is here to save us. (Yes, you can still get hard copy press kits, and some may opt to do so, but it’s no longer the necessity that it once was).

So what is an online press kit, anyway? Sometimes called a media kit, it is really just an expanded “About Me” section that includes things like images and graphics (like headshots of yourself or images of your ebook cover), and lots of in-depth information about yourself that journalists could use when either writing about you, or quoting you. The more information you give reporters and bloggers in a simple, easy-to-get format, the better. The key is that you want to make it EASY for a reporter to choose you when they are looking for comments and quotes from an expert in whatever topic they are writing about today. Reporters have tight deadlines. They want answers and they want them fast.

If you accomplished all that we discussed in the last few posts, then it’s very likely that a journalist would find your site when he searched for “his current topic expert” or “whatever he is writing about guru”. Once he gets to your site, he’s going to want to:

1. Know more about you.
2. Find quick info that summarizes your expertise
3. Contact information so he can get in touch with you

An online press kit, then, would incorporate all of those elements and more. Journalists are trained to look for press kits. They’ve been relying on company media kits for decades. Just by having your own online press kit, you let them know that you respect them, and you are willing and ready to work with them. You let them know that you are available as a source. That gives you an edge over all the other “gurus” who don’t have an online press kit.

Once you have your online press kit created, you’ll want to be proactive. Let people know about it. Contact editors of relevant newspapers and magazines, or your local news editors, and let them know that you are available in the future as an expert source on the topics of “blah, blah and blah” (your niche expertise). Don’t hound them. Just let them know, give them all of your contact information, and be sure to include the URL to your spiffy, new online press kit. If any are interested, they’ll keep your information at hand in case they need it in the future.

You can also register as an expert source at either ProfNet (a service of PRWeb) or ExpertClick. These services connect journalists with expert sources (such as yourself), so they are great places to network, but the services are somewhat expensive. I would recommend doing everything you can in the first few months to build up your name recognition and have everything in place to position yourself as an authority before registering for this type of pricey service.

I can hear you asking already…how do I set up an online press kit? You can simply add a section to your current web site that gives all the pertinent information on its pages. Keep it simple and clean, with navigation that makes it impossible for a hurried journalist to get lost. Include quotes, testimonials, syndicated articles, suggested questions, podcasts and videos, images and graphics, and lots of bio information. If you want professional help, there are services that you can hire to create online press kits for you. From what I’ve seen, they seem to average around $500, so if that’s in your budget, it may be easiest to let someone else create it for you. Keep in mind, however, that you’ll still need to give them the actual content. You’ll need to spend a fair amount of time telling them about yourself, your achievements, your products, or whatever else would need to be included. After all, they don’t know those things about you – you do.

I looked around, hoping to be able to find a link to some free press kit templates, but didn’t find what I was looking for, so I decided to just go ahead and create some from scratch. I’ve created a new product called Online Press Kit Templates (no longer available as a paid product – see here to get it for free.). It’s not free, so let me tell you that right up front. But I priced it at a “reasonable” amount, so that it would be the right choice for anyone who wants help, but doesn’t want to spend hundreds of dollars. Many of you are old hands at setting up web sites, so you’ll be able to set your own up without any help at all. But if you would rather follow a template, without the actual service of someone creating it for you, then you are the right person to consider purchasing the templates I created. Keep in mind though, that you can absolutely do this yourself for free. I don’t want to mislead anyone into thinking that my product is the only solution, because that would certainly not be true. My templates simply make it a lot easier to get an online press kit up and running with minimal effort.

So that’s it. By the time you’ve covered all the steps in this Authority series, you should be well on your way to being called “the world’s foremost authority on ….”. Good luck!

P.S. If you are planning on hiring me as your ebusiness coach, don’t order my templates, because all my coaching clients get the package for free.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2008. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: An Authority, authority, company media kits, e - business, ebusiness coach, expert, guru, hurried journalist, journalist, media kit, online press kit, Online Press Kit Over, Online Press Kit Templates, online press kits, reporter, search results, templates
This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this in your news aggregator/reader or on DazzlinDonna, then the site you are looking at is probably infringing upon my copyright.

Let’s say you are an expert in mountain biking. No, you didn’t take courses in biking, and you never owned a bicycle factory. You simply have been an avid mountain biker over the last 10 years, and that experience has led you to an understanding of the sport that enables you to be considered an expert. You know much about great trails, bike safety, which bikes are best under which conditions, etc. You get questioned often about the topic, as young enthusiasts want your advice.

Now, you decide you want to spread your knowledge worldwide, so you set up a web site to do so. You’ve done your homework, you’ve made the site search engine friendly, you’ve obtained some nice backlinks to the site, and you’ve begun to see some traffic trickling in. You’ve decided that what you really need is to be recognized as an expert, so you tackle the following tasks:

• The “be everywhere” task, in which you participate in as many relevant online mountain biking communities as possible. During this task, you strive to be as helpful as possible, answering questions freely, and being generous with your time in giving advice and tips.
• The “get published” task, in which you write articles for syndication, write guest posts on outdoor enthusiasts blogs, blog frequently on your own blog, and even get published in a few offline publications, such as local newspapers and magazines.
• The “have your voice heard” task, in which you become a guest on podcast stations, and eventually even do guest spots at your local radio station.
• The “have your face seen” task, in which your head shot is your avatar, and that avatar becomes associated with your name in all the places you visit.

After a few months, you realize that you’ve got a pretty solid base of “proof” that you are indeed an expert in mountain biking. You’ve built up a nice collection of articles, blog posts, podcast interviews, etc. that all point to you as being an authority in the topic. The only people who haven’t yet heard of you are the ones you want recognition from the most – the Influencers.

The Influencers are the A-list bloggers, the well-known journalists, and the highly respected publications that reach the masses. If even one Influencer claims you are one of the world’s foremost mountain biking authorities, you can rest assured that it won’t be long before EVERYONE thinks that of you. At that point, every journalist and blogger who has a story about mountain biking will be wanting your comments, your opinions, and your quotes for their stories. And each of those influencers will likely call you an expert, or an authority, or a guru as well. But what if you haven’t been able to get that one Influencer to get the ball rolling? What do you do?

Get their attention (which doesn’t translate into becoming a pest, btw). You can make contact with them, offering your assistance to them in some way. (By giving of yourself to them, rather than asking something OF them, you become an asset and not a liability). You should be doing this whenever it makes sense to do so (again, always keeping in mind that you do NOT want to be a pest or a stalker). There are probably hundreds of influencers you can contact, so you don’t need to make a pest of yourself with any particular one. Make sure that a link to your site or blog is always in your email correspondence with these Influencers. They are curious just like you and I. At least a few of them will certainly click your link just to find out more about you. Simple curiosity can bring you right smack onto their radar. If your correspondence was helpful to them in any way, rather than asking something from them, there’s a very good chance that they will be drawn towards wanting to know more about you.

While you are attempting to get someone’s attention, you should be creating a path that leads straight to you. You see, when a journalist has a story to write about mountain biking, he will probably do the same thing you or I would do if we needed information about a topic we were not already knowledgeable about. We would google it. That journalist might even go so far as to search for “mountain biking expert”, or “mountain biking authority” or “mountain biking guru”. What if your name showed up in the top 10 search results for any of those phrases? How much would you bet that journalist would be trying to find a way to contact you to get your thoughts on his story angle?

You see, you can begin working towards being recognized as a guru in the search results long before the Influencers recognize it. Did your cousin win the local bike rally after you gave him a few pointers? How many social networks does your cousin spend his time in every day? What if he were to link to your site in each of those communities, using “Mountain Biking Guru” as the link text? Did you help your boss decide which bike to buy for his kid for Christmas? Could you persuade your boss to have his kid mention your name when he blogs about how cool his new bike is … using “Dave is an expert in mountain biking” as the link text perhaps? See where I’m going with this? In many areas, it wouldn’t take much to turn a few links into a top 10 ranking for “your specialty guru”.

Now, whether you’ve managed to get the attention of an Influencer or not, you’ll at least get their attention when they google for the experts in your field.

Let’s sum this up:

1. Recognize that you are an expert in whatever you are an expert in.
2. Spread your expertise far and wide using the various tasks described above.
3. Attempt to get the attention of an Influencer (without making a pest out of yourself).
4. Work towards a top 10 ranking for “your topic guru”, “your topic expert”, or “your topic authority”.

We’ve almost come to the final chapter in our journey towards positioning ourselves as authorities within in our niches. There is one final step that you should take, and we’ll cover that next time. Until then, make a list of the top 20 Influencers in your field and begin your journey to Guru-ness.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2008. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: authority, Christmas, expert, guru, journalist, online mountain biking communities, search engine, search results, site search engine, social networks
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The process of convincing others is vast, and we briefly touched upon a few ways to begin that process in yesterday’s post. As a recap: Write articles, answer questions, and help others. Those are all really strong ways to get the message out that you know what you are talking about, and in time, others will think of you as an expert in that area.

Ah, but there are sometimes shortcuts in life, and there actually is a shortcut for this as well. You see, you can gain “instant authority status” if the right person or publication calls you an expert. You could wake up one morning, skim through the new posts in your feed reader, and suddenly find some famous blogger has called you an authority! Trust me, once this happens, the world suddenly thinks of you as an authority too. And if some publication like the NY Times, for example, refers to you as an expert in one of their news stories, you’re on your way to authority paradise.

Obviously, not everyone is lucky enough to have that scenario happen, but it DOES happen. And you can help make it happen. There are things you can do to get the attention of those big-wig influencers, and we’ll discuss those ways in a later post. In the meantime, however, start the process of positioning yourself as an authority in your field. Write articles, guest post, answer questions on the big Q&A sites (like Yahoo Answers), and help people in subject-related forums that are looking for advice. Get your name out into the world as someone with knowledge in your field. It will be well worth your efforts.

Next time: How to nudge the big-wigs so that you can get one of them to label you as an authority.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2008. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: authority, expert, influencers, the NY Times, Yahoo
This feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this in your news aggregator/reader or on DazzlinDonna, then the site you are looking at is probably infringing upon my copyright.