FIRE: Become an Expert


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Everyone loves a specialist.
As a copywriter, if you specialize in a specific industry or market, then you can command a higher fee and stand apart form the competition. We just saw how to start getting work in a particular industry. Now, how do you build on that and really take command of your expert status?

First off, the one thing that separated most recognized experts isn’t that they are the best in their field. It is simply that they are the most recognized. They publish. They speak. They market themselves as experts in their field. As long as they actually know what they’re talking about, they can create long-lived careers simply being experts.

What Do You Know?
So, the first thing you have to have is knowledge. Thanks to the big-box bookstores, the Net, and college bookstores, that knowledge is easy to come by. The simple truth is, if you read two or three books on the industry, you’ll know more about it than 95% of the copywriters out there (and the general population, for that matter). Read each book, and write a two page summary.

Once you’ve done this, let the information cool for a bit, come up with an angle you can call your own, and then write a 5-10 page special report based on the information you’ve read so far, and offer it for free on your site to subscribers of your free monthly newsletter. Keep reading a new book on the industry each month, along with half an hour or so of research online, and use this information as the basis for your newsletter. At the same time, you’re talking regularly with your clients and learning as much as you can about the various aspects of the business that affect them on a day-to-day basis.

Act Like The Expert You Are!
Next, contact you local university annex or community center and offer to teach a free seminar on some aspect of the subject at hand. Once you’ve taught it two or three times, contact the local trade association, and offer to speak to the industry about effective marketing. Record these seminars and offer them as free videos to your newsletter subscribers.

Once the members of the industry see you speaking authoritatively, they will see you as an credible expert…because you will be one. At this point, you can start charging fees for speaking, and you’ll have enough first-hand knowledge to start writing your own books on the subject. Not to mention the fees you can command as a Specialist Copywriter in the industry.

All from a few extra hours work each month.

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