How to make money no matter what your expertise

I recently watched two webinars from blogging experts Michael Hyatt and Jeff Goins.

Both these men have the required experience to coach writers; Hyatt is the former CEO of Thomas Nelson, and Goins is a published author. I believe his story that he was able to leave his day job a few years ago, after 18 months, and now makes seven figures. His claims seem realistic to me.

And his recent webinar was worth my time. First, though, Hyatt.

At the outset, he gave the most amazing stats: last year there were 1.5 million new books published.

Million.

That's staggering. Also, there are now 400 million blogs floating through cyberspace. That's a lot of writing competition.

He also said that it "Would take Hollywood 43,000 years to produce the amount of video uploaded to YouTube in one year."

Dang!

Hyatt's "Platform University" is his creation, from his perch in Nashville. The urbane Hyatt has parlayed his publishing experience into a very lucrative coaching career, and make no mistake – few would be able to match his output. He has a sophisticated staff and technology network, and let's face it, CEO of Nelson is a big deal. His Rolodex is probably more valuable than Bill Clinton's.

Both Hyatt and Goins have devoted themselves to helping writers achieve their dreams. That they've amassed wealth themselves is something we should all applaud, for all the right reasons: their systems largely work, and hey, capitalism is the bomb, man.

I won't betray their exclusive content, but rather in this space will focus on a couple of their points that help writers move forward and hopefully get to the point of doing it full-time.

Hyatt emphasized that it's super important to develop a subscriber base, and initially, 1,000 subscribers should be the goal. That means 1,000 people sign up on your site and your latest newsletter or blog shows up in their inboxes. From there, once you develop legitimate teaching aids, you can begin to "monetize" your site. That's right: make money.

Interestingly, Hyatt says that his initial efforts (he began in 2004) were trial and error. After four years of blogging, he only had 1,000 subscribers.

He now has 615,597 subscribers.

Whew.

That's why Michael Hyatt & Company is now a multi-million dollar company.

Next, Jeff Goins hosted his own webinar and it was equally worthwhile. By the way, at the end, he offered a coaching package (teaching modules, ebooks, etc.) for $197; I feel this information is legitimate, especially for a relatively new writer trying to navigate the blogosphere.

Goins said that an early goal can be to have a list of 100 people to whom you can send something via email; he suggested a free ebook.

For example, perhaps you are handy with tools and want to teach people to build a backyard deck. You can write a short how-to ebook and offer it for free. As you build your audience, you can begin to charge for various upgrade services (the ins-and-outs of software packages, tips for consistency in blogging, etc.).

Goins also quoted Derek Sivers: "What's obvious to you is amazing to others."

This quote is amazing. Think about it. Perhaps you have quite a bit of writing/blogging experience. Or it might be in another arena: auto-body work. In other words, you have expertise you can parlay into an income in this age of the Internet.

You have built up vast knowledge in some area. It's in your head, so you sort of forget that that information isn't in others' heads. So … you share that information.

And, as Hyatt and Goins point out, there's nothing at all wrong with making money from that.

I realize that I've given away a tremendous amount of information in another area, over the years. Why not charge for it?

Goins also suggested sending a survey to your subscribers/readers. Ask them how you can help them, what do they want to know? You'll then know how to do that, to help them learn. That in turn allows you to create products. Everyone wins, just like in these two webinars. These two bloggers provided valuable tips to writers and in turn, allowed the webinar participants to choose whether to buy other products, or not.

You might be a stockbroker. Maybe you make crafts that are in demand. Or, maybe you are an experienced writer and realize many people ask you for advice.

Learn to parlay that into an income. Who knows? By helping others increase their platforms and goals, you can help yourself, as well.

Everybody wins.

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Source: How to make money no matter what your expertise