Becoming the obvious expert in your niche is more difficult to do online than it is for in-person marketing. To get the personal connection going online with people who need to find your type of product or service, you have to learn some new tricks. Presenting yourself as an expert online requires you to become comfortable with branding yourself.

A website alone, no matter how elaborate, isn’t enough to set you up as an expert. That’s the first shock for new marketers. Setting up a fancy website is really no different than a fantastic local boutique blowing the budget on the rental of one billboard. Both are fine, but exposure is very limited. How many people see that single sign on the side of the highway? Static advertising won’t do it, online or on ground.

Online branding means that you must have multiple and ongoing exposures in a variety of targeted locations to people who are, or may become, interested in your area of expertise. Patience is the big virtue to exhibit as you start branding yourself online. Do some research in your topic. Where do you find people talking about it? Look at Google Groups for your subject matter.

What online forums draw big crowds? Sign up for those forums and start posting. Don’t jump in with a sales pitch, though! Start chatting and offering ideas. You can place your website and maybe a short pitch in the signature, depending on the rules of the forum. Make sure you have something to offer anyone who clicks over to view your website. Another benefit of checking in and participating with online forums or Google groups in your topic is to find out what interests other people.

What are they discussing? What are they asking each other? What do they most want to know? You’re the expert – so show your expertise with a solid answer. Then you can offer to send them an article or ebook with more information.

Keep it casual and friendly while being helpful – don’t act like a usedcar- salesman. Have fabulous freebies to offer, such as eBooks or articles with your name and contact information sprinkled through the copy, along with hyperlinks to your website.

The best freebies have your own ideas and slants. If you aren’t confident about your writing, hire an experienced ghostwriter to get your material prepared. You can offer affiliate products, but that’s far less effective in establishing your own brand – it hands over the expertise title to someone else!

Get into the Web 2.0 community and be active. Squidoo, Tumblr, Facebook and others give you a free place to share your information. Some sites give you instant access to membership in like-minded groups.

By becoming active in one or more of these communities, you will expand and multiply your influence to interested readers in mere minutes. Then make sure others catch up to your “news” by linking with StumbleUpon, Digg, De.licio.us, Google Bookmarks or Technotari – just to name a few.

Develop a blog that’s attached to your website or part of a blogging site like WordPress. The list of blog sites is enormous, so take your pick. Once you start a blog, it’s like raising a child – it needs constant attention. There’s nothing quite like the turnoff of going to a blog site on a topic of interest, only to find that no updates have been made in a month or more.

The most successful blogs have fans who expect to read the latest information and the hottest ideas. And blogs are showing up on web searches, so you expand your branding with yet another free tool. Start submitting articles to the major article directories. This is another way to establish yourself as an expert in your topic. Soon, people interested in a certain subject matter will begin to recognize your name and associate it with the subject matter because everywhere they turn you are there being helpful.

Branding is an ongoing process. You have never arrived – you just keep moving forward. Be on the lookout for any opportunity to share your expertise. You can best do that by maintaining a review list of all of your branding opportunities.

Divide your list into types: forums, web 2.0 sites, affiliates, topic interest groups, etc. Every place you want to show your expertise needs regular monitoring and fresh content. Then set up a schedule for places that you will monitor and update twice weekly, weekly and every two weeks. If you spread this out to post on forums on Monday and Wednesday, then update the blog on Tuesday and Thursday, your work isn’t so overwhelming.

Branding yourself as an expert in your niche is simple, but you’ll need to commit time and effort before seeing results. Once the branding starts to kick in, all you have to do is keep the great ideas coming and your work will pay off in profits and valuable partnerships.

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