Reporter vs Expert – Be the Expert Blogger not Reporter

Yaro has an interesting post about two kinds of bloggers – reporters and experts. He believes that experts will make more money than reporters.

Quick Definitions

Reporters write about the niche. They are journalists. They report news. They point people to interesting stories and people. They interview experts.

Experts have unique content that many people consider useful. They are the people that get most of the attention in their niche. Because of this attention, they can charge more for their products, speaking engagements, and advertising rates.

Advantage of Being an Expert

While some reporters will make a ton of money (think Engadget and Tech Crunch), being an expert is a better option because experts by nature are different from each other. This differentiation (or uniqueness) leads to a higher perceived value, which leads to higher profits.

It’s hard for reporters to differentiate themselves because many of them will be talking about the same thing. You may have heard of the terms “rehashed content” or “echo chamber”. Rehashed content is produced whenever a blogger simply reports news from another website without adding unique value to their post. Echo chamber is the phenomenon of reading the same rehashed content on multiple blogs in the same niche.

Simply put, because of the echo chamber, there’s only room for a couple very successful reporters in every niche. However, there is room for a lot of successful experts because experts are unique from each other.

Also, unless you have a news source advantage or unique commentary to the news, you will probably struggle as a reporter. Engadget and Tech Crunch have great connections within their niche. These connections allow them to report important news more quickly than the other blogs.

Two Principles for Becoming an Expert

So, how do you become an expert? Yaro has some 2 excellent points about this topic.

First, he says that experts are experts because they have experience. Their experience attracts many people to their sites. Experience is proof. Experience is personable. Internet users trust someone who has proved themselves. And they follow people who are personable. Getting experience takes time so if you want to be an expert, think long term.

By the way, Yaro says that you are already an expert because you have life experience. The experiences in your life can be leveraged to teach others and help them.

Second, Yaro writes that if you don’t have the experience yet in your chosen niche, the best way to become an expert is to gain experience (obviously) AND report about your experience. Cut down on reporting about others’ experiences. Instead, report about your experience for the long term and you’ll become an expert.

For example, I would consider John Chow an expert in the make money online. True to being an expert, he reported about himself making $20,512.17 last month. Many reporters blogged about John’s September income (including myself right now!). To begin to move to expert status, those reporters should also report about their income and their make money online experiences.

Here’s a recent personal example where I reported about my online business experience: How I Got 2 Blogging Jobs Without Having My Own Blog.

To learn more about being an expert, read Yaro’s whole article: Reporter vs Expert – Why Most Bloggers Are Stuck Reporting.

How often do you report about your experience?