Self-Proclaimed Experts

Sherlock Holmes, expert in... a lot of things

Have you ever run into a self-proclaimed expert? What’s the difference between them and a real expert? Can you trust people who say they’re experts? Are there any real experts in freelancing?

Why am I asking all these questions?

Simple, really: as I break the “one third of the way” mark on the book I’m writing (assuming it comes out at about 30,000 words), I’m starting to wonder what right I have to say anything about freelancing.

One of the first lessons I learned back at the end of 2008, when I started freelancing, was that everyone’s route to success – however they define it – is different and that following the same steps they took is no guarantee you’ll see the same returns.

Some people make thousands from advertising, some post thousands of articles on sites offering revenue share, some write to order, some write whatever they feel like and sell it… the list of  routes to paying the rent is almost endless.

This makes writing a book about freelancing very difficult because what worked for me might not work for you or for a newbie who’s desperate to get started in the business.  There are no guarantees. All I can do is lay out as much information as possible, hope that it makes sense and cross my fingers that it doesn’t ruin someone’s life.

A lot of so-called experts (or gurus) don’t care about that last point. They make their money by selling or reselling a system with no regard for its success. They don’t even need to use the system themselves because they’re making piles of cash off the poor suckers who buy their program. And very, very few of those suckers will ever see the same kind of results because everyone’s different and the original circumstances that made the guru rich can (almost) never be duplicated!

So how did these people get the “expert” title? Did they just give it to themselves and hope no one notices? Given the inconceivably large number of gullible wealth-seekers out there who believe the Get Rich Quick crap, I wouldn’t be surprised.

And why is it important to be perceived as an expert? What it comes down to in the end is that the “expert” title helps make sure the customer trusts the author. That the words on the page were written by someone who isn’t a complete idiot, has reasonably extensive experience (or knowledge) in their subject and who actually cares whether the book makes a difference or not.

So what’s the difference between an expert and a self-proclaimed expert? The real experts are called that by other people, that’s what. But how can you trust those other people? They could be lying.

I have 8 subscribers. Does that make me an expert or just a sad, no-friends blogger?

How do YOU figure out if someone’s an expert or not?