How to Build a Moat Around Your Expertise
And Finally Grow Your Authority
What’s the number one mistake new writers and content creators make?
It’s not creating poor quality crap…
Some of the most handsomely rewarded content creators don’t make anything spectacular.
It’s not doing a terrible job promoting their work…
Yes, promotion is important, and a lot of newbies don’t have a plan, but they usually know that they should at least share their stuff.
It’s not giving up too early, either, although let’s face it a lot of people do back out too soon (half of all podcasts have 14 or fewer episodes).
No, the biggest mistake beginners make is not building a moat around their expertise.
So, let’s talk about that.
Your Range is Hurting You
Whether as a writer or content creator, I’ve got serious range.
Yes, if you were to 80 / 20 my work, 80% of it would be related to the music business or music industry.
But the remaining 20% includes a vast array of topics, including personal development, leadership, entrepreneurship, mortgages, architecture, eCommerce, and subjects too numerous to count.
I’ve ghostwritten posts for Entrepreneur and HuffPost columnists too. It’s possible you’ve read my stuff not even knowing it’s mine!
My article output, by now, is well over 2,000 and is probably closer to 3,000. I’ve also self-published six books, and probably a couple dozen eBooks.
But in all this publishing, I realized something critical:
The algorithms only seem to favor me when I publish on certain topics…
How I Came to This Realization
In an episode of Marketing School Podcast, I heard co-host Eric Siu talking about how he was rewarded by YouTube when he shared videos on specific topics.
And you can see from his channel that he does seem to get disproportionately more views when he talks about things like crypto, NFTs and Web3. It probably helps that these are trending topics, but that’s almost beside the point.
The critical realization is that the platforms think your channel, profile, page, or group is about something.
And the more you lean into that, the easier it is for the algorithm to understand what your content is about…
And the more they know what your content and channel is about, the easier it is for them to put your content in front of the right audiences.
You become more endorsable when you’re consistent.
So, I Reviewed My Stats
And I figured out that:
- YouTube seems to think my channel is about personal development, social media, eCommerce, and affiliate marketing (other topics don’t do so well)
- My podcast follows a similar trend to my YouTube channel — I get more listens on episodes about personal development, NFTs, and affiliate marketing (though sometimes the guests do such a good job of promoting their episodes that those also catch fire)
- Medium appears to like giving my content about self-employment, productivity, and learning a boost
Are there other factors at play? Of course.
Is it all algorithm driven? Obviously not.
Sometimes, your content hits a particular vein, and it gets shared, viewed, and linked to more.
Sometimes, your headline is just too awesome not to click.
Sometimes, your channel already has some momentum behind it.
And sometimes, you outsmart all other factors with your expert marketing skills. 😉
But chances are, you will more easily be rewarded with traffic and views if the platforms can rely on you to deliver the content that’s expected of you.
Better yet?
You get to go deep into two or three topics and become an expert in it. Your authority grows when you do that.
“But I Want to be Known as a Writer / Content Creator with Range!”
Yes, I think many (if not all) of us have felt that way at times.
“There’s just so much to talk about, and after all, wouldn’t talking about a lot of different things make me unique?”
No, because unfortunately those are the creators you don’t hear about.
Many of them are probably awesome, just like me… 😉
It sucks, but most of the time, they get seen less because they’re so damn smart!
The way it works is:
You become known for one thing…
And then you’re rewarded with the luxury of branching out.
If you have a strong enough following, your audience will follow your interests.
If not, you’re taking the train off the rails. Welcome to blogging into the void.
“But I Can’t Think of That Many Things to Say About XYZ”
Again, I totally know how you feel because I felt the same way. But what I found was this:
First, you probably don’t have as many things to say about everything as you think you do.
Marketing guru Dan Kennedy has written dozens of books and has a variety of courses and programs on authorship, entrepreneurship, business, and marketing.
You know how many things he says he teaches? About 30.
Imagine! 30 things across his prolific and brilliantly crafted body of work!
Occasionally, he puts a new coat of paint on things, but fundamentally it goes back to those 30 things.
You can bring up the same topics, hammer the same points, and give the same advice over and over again without people getting sick of it.
Because they probably don’t read all your stuff anyway, and even if they do, human beings constantly need reminders of the good principles and methodologies they’ve picked up along the way.
Second, the moment you’ve written your first post, you’ve probably brought up half a dozen (if not more) topics that you can easily go deeper on.
Going that granular might seem scary, and you might worry about word count or length, but trust me, sometimes shorter, relevant, punchy content is more useful to the end user anyway!
Conclusion
The algorithm is hungry for your expertise. So, if you want to grow, you’ve got to feed the dragon.
Hold off on diversification for a bit. You’ll have the chance to branch out if you stick with it for long enough.
You’ll only see me talking about various self-employment, productivity, and learning topics here (basically, all through the lens of self-employment). Even if that means repeating myself on occasion.
I’m building a moat around my expertise.
Are you ready to build a moat around yours?