There are dozens of different types of influencers. The two that often get the most grief are the superficial fashion and beauty, maybe food and lifestyle influencers that I like to call the peace sign, duck lips crowd. The other are the self-promoting talking head types in the B2B space … often fraught with marketing nerds like me. They don’t seem to have clients or case studies, but they claim expertise and try to pull you into their online course to pay them a ton of money to learn what they know.

You can probably hear the contrarian tone coming out in my voice here. But there’s a reason I’m pointing those folks out. It’s not that I don’t like the online course pushers or even consultant types who seem more style and less substance. In fact, my opinion on them aligns with my opinion on the long-standing debate over whether or not someone is a social media expert. 

If that person’s clients learn from them, are happy with the work they are doing for them, then for the client, he or she is an expert and our opinion doesn’t matter. 

I’ve always wanted to have an online course, frankly. I’ve started and stopped building one over the years. It can be overwhelming. It turns out there’s help out there for folks like me who struggle with that. Or you content creators or subject matter experts listening who might also be thinking of starting an online course. 

Rocky Buckley is the creator of Platinum Path and The Power Persona Project. He helps experts, thought leaders and influencers “Go Platinum” by reinventing their brand, strategy and even business model. One of the primary ways he does this is through online course, masterminds and other virtual products that serve a direct audience for a subscription fee or similar revenue stream. 

I asked Rocky to come on the show and illustrate to us how one can not only tap into these types of information products to build a community of paying customers around them, but take that to a next level and build that community into raving fans of your content, too.

This episode of Winfluence is presented by Tagger, the complete influencer marketing software platform. Sign up for a free demo today at jasonfalls.co/tagger.

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