There are basically two types of bloggers in the world – reporters and experts – and some people perform both roles (usually the experts, it’s hard for reporters to become experts, but it’s easy for experts to report).
If you have ever taken an Internet marketing course or attended a seminar specifically for beginners, you have probably heard about the two different methodologies. Whenever the business model is based on content, and if you blog for money then the model is based on content, people are taught to either start as reporters, or if possible step up as experts.
I’ll be frank – you want to be the expert.
Reporters leverage the content of the experts and in most cases people start off as reporters because they haven’t established expertise. Experts enjoy the perks of preeminence, higher conversion rates because of perceived value, it’s easier to get publicity, people are more likely to seek you out rather than you having to seek others out, joint ventures come easier, etc… experts in most cases simply make more money and attract more attention.
Most Bloggers Are Reporters
The thing with expertise is that it requires something – experience. No person becomes an expert without doing things and learning. Bloggers usually start out without expertise and as a result begin their blogging journey by talking about everything going on in their niche (reporting) and by interviewing and talking about other experts (reporting again).
There’s nothing wrong with reporting of course and for many people it’s a necessity at first until you build up some expertise. Unfortunately the ratios are pretty skewed when it comes to reporters and experts – there are a lot more reporters than there are experts, hence reporters tend to struggle to gain attention and when they do, they often just enhance the reputation of the expert they are reporting on.
Don’t Replicate Your Teacher
If you have ever spent some time browsing products in the learn Internet marketing niche you will notice a pattern. Many people first study Internet marketing from a “guru” (for lack of a better term). The guru teaches how he or she is able to make money online, and very often the view that the student gleams is that in order to make money online you have to teach others how to make money online.
The end result of this process is a huge army of amateurs attempting to replicate what their teacher does in the same industry – the Internet marketing industry – not realizing that without expert status based on a proven record and all the perks that come with it, it’s next to impossible to succeed.
Even people, who enjoy marginal success, say for example growing an email list of 1,000 people, then go out and launch a product about how to grow an email list of 1,000 people. Now I have no problems with that, I think it’s fine to teach beginners and leverage whatever achievements you have, the problem is that people gravitate to the same niche – Internet marketing – and rarely have any key points of differentiation.
How many products out there do you know of that all claim to teach the same things – email marketing, SEO, pay per click, affiliate marketing, and all the sub-niches that fall under the category of Internet marketing. It’s a saturated market, yet when you see your teachers and other gurus making money teaching others how to make money (and let’s face it – making money as a subject is one of the most compelling) – your natural inclination is to follow in their footsteps.
If the key is to become an expert and you haven’t spent the last 5-10 years making money online, I suggest you look for another niche to establish expertise in.
Report on Your Process, Not Others
The secret to progress from reporter to expert is not to focus on other experts and instead report on your own journey. When you are learning how to do something and implementing things day by day, or studying other people’s work, you need to take your process and what you do as a result of what you learn, and use it as content for your blog.
It’s okay to talk about experts when you learn something from them, but always relate it to what you are doing. If you learn a technique from an expert it’s fine to state you learned it from them (and affiliate link to their product too!) but you should then take that technique, apply it to what you are doing and then report back YOUR results, not there’s. Frame things using your opinion – your stories – and don’t regurgitate what the expert said. The key is differentiation and personality, not replication.
Expertise comes from doing things most people don’t do and then talking about it. If you do this often enough you wake up one day as an expert, possibly without even realizing how it happened, simply because you were so good at reporting what you did.
You Are Already An Expert
Most people fail to become experts (or perceived as experts) because they don’t leverage what they already know. Every person who lives a life learns things as they go, takes action every day and knows something about something. The reason why they never become an expert is because they choose not to (which is fine for some, not everyone wants to be an expert), but if your goal is to blog your way to expertise and leave the world of reporting behind you have to start teaching and doing so by leveraging real experience.
Experience can come from what you do today and what you have done previously; you just need to take enough steps to demonstrate what you already know and what you are presently learning along your journey. I know so many people in my life, who are experts simply by virtue of the life they have lived, yet they are so insecure about what they know, they never commit their knowledge to words for fear of…well fear.
Blogs and the Web in general, are amazing resources when you leverage them as a communication tool to spread your expertise because of the sheer scope of people they can reach. If all you ever do is talk to people in person and share your experience using limited communication mediums, you haven’t much hope of becoming an expert. Take what you know and show other people through blogging, and you might be surprised how people change their perception of you in time.
Reporting Is A Stepping Stone
If your previous experience and expertise is from an area you want to leave behind or you are starting from “scratch”, then reporting is the path you must walk, at least for the short term.
Reporting is a lot of fun. Interviewing experts, talking about what other people are doing and just being part of a community is not a bad way to blog. In many cases people make a career of reporting (journalism is about just that), but if you truly want success and exponential results, at some point you will have to stand up and proclaim yourself as someone unusually good at something and then proceed to demonstrate it over and over again.
Have patience and focus on what you do to learn and then translate that experience into lessons for others, and remember, it’s okay to be a big fish in a small pond, that’s all most experts really are.
This article was written by Yaro Starak, a professional blogger and my blog mentor. He is the leader of the Blog Mastermind mentoring program designed to teach bloggers how to earn a full time income blogging part time.
Why Most Bloggers Are Stuck – Reporters vs Experts
Posted by kashaan143 on October 3, 2008
Posted in Wordpress Tips & Articles | Tagged: attention, based, basically, beginners, blog, bloggers, category, demonstrate, easy, email, establish, example, experience, expert, experts, footsteps, frank, heard, industry, interviewing, journey, launch, learning, leverage, maeketing, money, most bloggers, people, perform, perks, possible, problems, record, reporters, reputation, roles, saturated, seminar, start, step, steps, stuck, suggest, talki, teacher, unfortunately, usually, Why Most Bloggers Are Stuck - Reporters vs Experts, wordpress tips and articles, wordpress tips and tricls, wordpress top tips for all users | Leave a Comment »
Create your own Self-extracting self-installER
Posted by kashaan143 on September 30, 2008
The following will show you how to use the Iexpress2.0 tool.
The tool allows you to make a self extracting file and much more : To play with this hidden feature of XP :
Navigate to : Windows\system32\
look for a file called iexpress.exe.
Double left click on it and follow the wizzard.
Posted in hardware tips | Tagged: called, click, computer hardware tips, create, Create your own Self-extracting self-installER, double, feature, follow, hardware tips, hardware tips and articles, hidden, navigate, own, play, self-exracting, self-installer, system32, tool, top hardware tips and articles, Windows, windows hardware tips and articles | Leave a Comment »
Microsoft DirectX FAQs
Posted by kashaan143 on September 29, 2008
Q: What is DirectX? Do you have a definition?
A: Microsoft® DirectX® is a group of technologies designed to make Windows-based computers an ideal platform for running and displaying applications rich in multimedia elements, such as full-color graphics, video, 3-D animation, and surround sound.
Q: What is the latest version of DirectX
A: The latest released version is currently DirectX 9.0b for users of Microsoft Windows 98, 98Se, Me, 2000, XP, and Server 2003. The latest version of DirectX for Windows 95 users is 8.0a.
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Q: What is new in DirectX 9?
A: “There are many new and exciting features in all of the DirectX components.
The SDK has added a new member to its core technology called Managed DirectX, a DirectPlay port for the PocketPC, a High Level Shader Language for D3DX, and Windows XP parity on downlevel operating systems for DirectShow and the DirectX audio APIs.
DirectShow also has a new Video Mixing Renderer (VMR9) which uses D3D9 surfaces and always renders video through the 3D pipeline, along with new and exciting samples.
The generic Windows Media Format SDK stub library (wmstub.lib) available in previous beta releases has been removed. DirectShow samples using this stub library have been reverted to the DirectX 8.1 behavior of displaying a warning to obtain the stub separately, and the readme.txt files have also been reverted with information on the process to obtain the stub.”
Q: What is new specifically in DirectX 9.0b?
A: DirectX 9.0b includes security and performance updates, along with many new features across all technologies, which can be accessed by applications using the DirectX 9.0 APIs.
Q: Will there also be a SDK update coming?
A: Yes, Microsoft DirectX 9.0b SDK Summer 2004 Update will be released this summer.
Q: What will be included in that?
A: Primary areas of concentration for the Summer Update was for the Direct3D Extension Library (D3DX), Graphics Samples, Sample Frame work, tools and documentation. This release includes updated developer runtime and the previously released DirectX 9.0b Redistributable.
Q: What was new in DirectX 8.0a?
A: DirectX 8.0a contains updates for issues with international installs on Windows 2000 and issues where input devices could have buttons disabled that were enabled with previous DirectX releases. There are no other changes.
Q: What operating systems is DirectX 9 compatible with?
A: Windows 98, Windows 98SE, Windows Me, Windows 2000(Professional and server editions), Windows XP. and Windows Server 2003. DirectX 9 is NOT compatible with Windows NT or Windows 95.
Q: You do not have Windows 95 listed as being compatible with Microsoft DirectX. What should I do?
A: The latest version available for Windows 95 is DirectX 8.0a.
Q: Is DirectX compatible with Windows NT?
A: Yes, though the only version supported on Windows NT 4.0 is DirectX 3.0a. You must also install Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 6.
Q: How much space will this take up on the hard drive?
A: It will take about 18 MB of space once downloaded and installed. About 60 MB for installation.
Q: Do I need to install DirectX 9?
A: There are improvements over DirectX 8.1, but most users will do fine with running 8.1. Future games and hardware will obviously take better advantage of DirectX 9.
Q: What was new in DirectX 9.0a?
A: DirectX 9.0a featured bug fixes as well as improvements in performance within the graphics and networking components of the original DirectX 9.0 runtime.
Q: I thought that a DirectX Icon would appear in my control panel – what has happened to it?
A: The DirectX Control Panel is only included in the SDK versions of DirectX.
Q: What is the DirectX SDK?
A: The Microsoft® DirectX® 9 Software Development Kit (SDK) contains the tools needed to build cutting-edge, media-rich, interactive applications. It includes the run-time, headers and libs, sample executables, sample source, documentation, DirectX utilities, and support for both C++ and Visual Basic® development.
Q: What versions of DirectX are shipped with the different Microsoft Operating Systems?
A: Windows 98 comes with native DirectX 5 support. While Windows 98 Second Edition comes with DirectX 6.1a and Windows 2000 DirectX 7. Windows NT comes with DirectX 3.0a, and Windows 95 comes with DirectX 2. Windows XP comes with Direct X 8.1. Windows 2003 Server comes with DirectX 8.1.
Q: Will new versions of DirectX affect older games?
A: No, as each new version of DirectX is backwards compatible with older versions.
Q: Will Windows 2000 users finally be able to update to each new version of DirectX as they are released?
A: Yes – all future versions of DirectX will install onto Windows 2000.
Q: Does DirectX have a role with Xbox?
A: Yes, all DirectX technologies had played a role in the development of the Xbox both through Microsoft and NVIDIA. Xbox either shipped with a customized version of DirectX or has a similar set of non-updateable technologies.
Posted in System Faq's Tips | Tagged: access, across, affect, applications, audio, base, changes, contains, cutting, definition, designed, direct show, directx, enabled, faqs, features, generic, graphics, hard ware, install, issues, latest, member, microsft, Microsoft DirectX FAQs, native, nvidia, pipeline, platform, primary, running, samples, server, shipped, similar, software, space, surround, system faqs tips and articles, system faqs top tips, system tips and articles, system tricks, technology, tool, updates, version, versions | Leave a Comment »