Why would anyone listen to you? Tips for establishing your expertise online.

I think most people, when they start expanding their business on the Internet wonder how to get “street cred” — in other words, how do they become known as an expert in their markets. Coaches have it a bit easier — there is already some built in credibility when you hang up your shingle as a coach — but, you still need to get your name out on the Net as the “go-to” person in your area of expertise. Here are some tips for getting your name out online.

The very first (and probably most important rule) is to write about your topic as much as you can. Submit your articles to article directories. I have one on this site under resources. Include the articles on your site, blog about them, start a podcast by reading the articles once a week. The possibilities are endless.

Once you are creating great (and useful) content, get others to link to you. A quick and easy way to do this is to comment on blogs that have the do follow link activated. You can use this linkto find blogs that create links for you when you comment. Also, blog owners LOVE comments — at the very least, they will come over and check out your blog. If someone says something interesting, comment on it in your blog and link back to them. The conversation continues and you both get more links.
- get others to link to you, by creating great content, doing link exchanges, and gaining readership

Write a newsletter. The most effective is weekly if you can send it every week. If you are writing articles and blogging, creating a newsletter is easy, just take some of the content from your blog and send it out as a newsletter. Include relevant resources that can help people implement the advice you give in the blog. If you can add affiliate links… all the better. You never know when people will buy. Encourage people to forward your *helpful* newsletter to their friends.

Share your knowledge on forums and message boards. This is also a great way to get starters for your articles. If you are genuinely helpful, you can build a following that will help increase your traffic.

Create a Squidoo lens on your topic. Squidoo lenses are easy to create and a fun way to share what you know. Don’t forget to include a link to your site in your bio. You can also set Squidoo up to feature your latest blog posts.

Take a few of your articles and put them in your autoresponder. Have people sign up for your e-course and learn something new from you each day.

Send out press releases, talk about your background and knowledge but also what you are offering. Come up with a monthly marketing theme and send releases each month (or even each week), relating to that theme.

Play the social marketing game Add Digg, Stumble Upon and other social marketing bookmarks to your site so others can add you to their favorites. Don’t forget to digg and stumble your own articles.

Talk about it. Look for people with podcasts or speaker series close to your interests. Someone with a weekly podcast or membership program is usually hungry for guests. They would probably love to have you.

No time for all of this? A virtual assistant can help with many of these tasks. Just provide the content and they can do the rest for you.