It’s impossible to be an internet marketing expert in the whole field of internet marketing.

It’s just too big – written content like this, video content, article marketing, video marketing, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, AdWords, CPA, PPV…

The list goes on.

Instead, you need to work out your strengths and weaknesses and play to your strengths.

And, in the process of doing that, you may well realise that you’re more expert than you thought!

A quick test is to look at the last few internet marketing products you bought.

Likely a third to a half of those were in or around your chosen area.

Always assuming that you read or watched those products then if your reaction to near enough all the material was “I already know that” then you’re probably – in theory at least – already an expert in that area.

Of course, you may know what to do in theory but you’ve not put it into practice.

If that’s the case, you need to stop buying products and start putting the ones you’ve bought into practice.

Otherwise it’s like trying to lose weight by buying a diet recipe book but never cooking or eating any of the recipes in it.

Theory doesn’t always translate perfectly to what works in practice.

So put your knowledge into practice.

It really is as simple as that – because you’ll start to find out all the “gotchas” and tweaks and all the other stuff that makes an expert an expert.

The 80/20 rule is a good one to follow here.

80% (four fifths) of your time should be spent on the 20% (one fifth) of things that provide the best results. In this case, the things that will help make you more of an expert in your chosen niche.

The precise figures vary.

But it definitely won’t be that everything you do has the same value.

That’s just not possible.

So take a bit of time to work out what works best for you – what gives you the best return for your time spent – and do more of that.

Doing this will take some effort.

But it will have a couple of benefits:

• You’ll learn more of the hidden secrets in your chosen area which will help you to become more of an expert.
• It will give you the best return for the time spent – because you’ve already identified this is a good use of your time and you’re now spending more time on this area. It’s called a virtuous circle.

The other thing is that it doesn’t matter whether or not the world knows you’re an expert.

You could quite easily work out something like how to create affiliate sites that convert to sales and concentrate on that.

Or you could learn how to create YouTube videos that (on average) ended up on the first page of both YouTube and Google.

There’s nothing to say you have to go public with your expertise.

You could work away in the background and earn some very nice money,

All because you decided that you were going to become an internet marketing expert in your chosen field.

Of course you need to know what that field is. So if you’re still unsure, take some time to brainstorm with yourself. For most people it’s simply a matter of jotting down the things you do, maybe giving them a score and letting the answer leap out at you. For some people, it’s talk to a friend or a coach.

Whatever works best for you.

And feel free to share your thoughts in the comment box below.