So you're an expert ? so what? In today's world, anyone with a little money can be an expert too. Websites everywhere market "life experience PhD.'s" to anyone willing to pay their fee. And if you're chatting, you really have no idea who's on the other end of the communication. There is, however, a simple way to show the Internet community that you are indeed an expert in your field: by writing articles and ebooks that show your knowledge in your niche industry.



Anyone can start a website selling paper dolls, vintage model trains, or used clothing; but only an expert will be able to talk intelligently about the history of Victorian paper dolls, how to preserve the paint on the outside of your model train without destroying the value, or how you can mix nostalgic clothes with new ones to create your own fashion look. Articles for the Non-Writer But what if you can't write well? This is definitely a disadvantage. Though you can put together flashy animations, great catalogs of your merchandise, and an awesome inventory, if you don't know how to communicate your expertise correctly, you will lose sales.

Non-writers aren't always just people who can't write, either. Lots of people who can't write for the Internet have that problem due to physiological issues like dyslexia, or a genuine fear of writing instilled by years of public education, or a focus on numbers or business instead of words. That doesn't mean you don't know what you're talking about. But you can identify writing that does know what it's talking about, and that's where you can fix your problem.

All over the Internet, talented writers who want to write, but who don't necessarily want to sell things on Ebay, are showing up. Why not hire one, or contract with an article broker, to get the writing you need done? Article brokers sell private label rights to articles pre-written by talented writers to people like you who need that content. These articles are often keyword optimized so that you can get better placement with search engines. They're well-researched and informed. And you can either purchase pre-packaged articles that you can place on your site or in an emailed newsletter, or you can contract with the broker or writers to have articles tailored to your specific needs. It's a new expense, but it can be surprisingly affordable. And since all rights are sold to you, you have the choice of recognizing the writer in the byline, placing your own name in the byline (as many celebrities already do with their ghostwritten autobiographies), or of just putting it up as content with no byline at all. What About Article Directories?

You may have seen other sites online that offer Free Web Content. I don't know about you, but when I see the word "free," I always ask what the hitch is. And article directories do have a hitch. Articles in these databases are written by people who are often experts in their field, and often have a website that competes with yours. You can indeed use their article on your website for free, but you will have to include a resource box with the author's name and, if included, website with a clickable link. This means that you are putting someone else's content on your site, acknowledging them as an expert, and then giving them a free link back as well.

This allows them to steal customers from your website, not for you to retain the ones you have hooked. Instead of using article directories as sources for free content, use them as a marketing tool. Purchase batches of content from a writer or a broker. Use some of the articles you've purchased to enhance the content on your website or in your newsletter, but take one or two of them and put them into the article directories under your own name, with your URL attached. Then if someone else downloads your article, the URL from their website will point to you. What About Ebooks?

Lots of people are looking at ebooks as a great way to self-publish books and sell them online. But they really make a much better marketing tool. If you compile your ebook into a PDF, it can be downloaded and read, but it can't be changed. That means anything you put into it will remain there, including the URL for your website and all the contact information to you and your business you like. And there are no printing costs for these documents. Instead of selling an ebook on your website, put them out there for free, no strings attached. Your customer may question it, of course, just like you and I question freebies, but the answer to that is the truth: it's a marketing tool.

With an ebook, you can show your customer you know what you're talking about, and you can give them information that they can subsequently use. But since the book has your information in it, including the URL, the customer who uses it will be reminded every time that you exist. Just like with articles, you can hire outside writers or contract with article brokers to acquire ebooks, or you can compile a collection of related articles into an ebook yourself. If you don't have the capacity yourself of creating a PDF, you can use the easy PDF creator in the free download OpenOffice; it's compatible with MS Office, and easy to use if you're used to Word.