We all have different reasons for blogging and if you are a service professional with expertise in a particular skill you have a unique opportunity to not just blog to be noticed but blog to influence.

The definition of influence is

To cause change; A person or thing exerting such power or action

The knowledge you share can prove influential over your reader and as an influencer being happy to share that knowledge is an important trait.

An influential blogger will focus on three things

1. Sharing what they know for free (through their blog) by writing great content

2. Teaching what they know for a fee (though information products/membership sites)

3. Building a community that enjoys number one and moves on to number two.

There is nothing complicated in this method - write, build, share and teach is all you need to become an influential blogger.

If you are an expert in business you already have the knowledge and it provides you with a great opportunity to share that with people and then teach them what you know. It is an ongoing cycle of building, sharing and teaching.

Speakers, life coaches, therapists - all these professions make excellent influencers and so does anyone who is looking to make a difference to people through the words that they write.

The big opportunity for you is the chance to create a second income for yourself using the internet. You leverage the skills you already have to increase your income and as you write and sell your content - either through information products or membership sites - you also develop passive income streams for yourself.

It is my belief that Dr Martin Luther King Jr and Ghandi where great influencers - they never forced a person into doing anything, they merely spoke and what they said was enough to drive people into action.

You may never know when you have influenced someone - they don't always tell you but you can take comfort in the knowledge that the content you share as a blogger is of high quality, packed full of great information and created with the sole purpose of education and/or entertainment.

Being an influencer is not about numbers. Like the old days of social media it is not about having 40,000 Twitter followers or 10,000 Facebook friends. You don't need hundreds of blog comments either - you can influence people without even realising that you have.

"You don't have to be a "person of influence" to be influential. In fact, the most influential people in my life are probably not even aware of the things they've taught me." Scott Adams

Your only role is to share what you know so that people build a relationship with you based on your expertise and you make sure you are building your subscriber base and staying in touch via email marketing. Then, once you are ready you invite them to learn with you and develop training, products, webinars, events and more that your community can attend.

There is nothing manipulative about being an influencer - quite the opposite - it is possible to become a respected blogger within your own community and to build an online profile that will help to raise your credibility as an expert in your field.