More money, more opportunities, more networking connections — how’s all that sound? Helium’s Credentialed Professional Program is collecting more and more professionals who write for Helium. And guess what the future holds? Yup — more for professionals and other experts alike. And that means you too.

Last week I wrote about the value of finding, maximizing and marketing yourself as a niche writer. Expertise is within reach of anyone. Look up “how to become an expert” in a Google search and you’ll see over 70 million links to articles, books, self-help videos and websites. Malcolm Gladwell, in the Tipping Point explores the “10,ooo rule,” that the difference between novice and expert can be measured by 10,ooo efforts to improve skills.

This applies to all. For professionals, you’ve had a head start with training, study and practice. Add workforce hours to all that training time, and you have not only your 10,000 plus hours, but authoritative credentials to further verify your expertise. Once you are verified, watch for an invitation to one of our Groups of professionals. Or find one yourself and get connected.

If you have professional credentials, share them with me via the experts@helium.com inbox. Check out our current list of credentialed professional badges; and don’t be discouraged if you don’t see something that fits. Know that we’re developing professional badges on an ongoing basis. And, in the future, we’ll be developing subject matter expert badges as well. Keep us informed of your expertise, so Helium can help you get the most out of what you have share.

More professionals and experts, plus more badges…What’s next? More earning opportunities. You’ll see a series of professional contests each month, with cash prizes to pocket in addition to ongoing ad revenue and other earning incentive opportunities.  Each week’s Title Madness Contest, Get Local and other contests give you opportunities to jump-start niches to showcase your writing expertise.

When you get notice of a contest opportunity for writers in your expertise or profession, share the good news with others in your field too. More is better for you too. How is more better? The more professionals or experts we have in a given category, the better our ability to attract Marketplace publishers willing to pay for expert content.

What if you’re not a professional? Become an expert. Narrow your niche, maximize your writing in that niche, network and link effectively, and you will have an expertise well recognized on the Internet. And sometime down the pike, Helium will also recognize you as a subject matter expert in your topic area. Meanwhile start a Group for those who share your expertise.

But don’t stop there: Invite fellow experts from all over the Internet to converge on Helium to share their expertise. You gain more authority when you are part of a concentrated cluster of experts, all drawing readers to each others’ articles.

As a hardworking individual writer you can do much, but as a member of an expert or professional cluster you can get further on the Internet. Why? Keyword density is the key to getting high hits on search engines. Maximizing your writing to your niche — and using smart SEO techniques — adds to keyword density for your content.

Bring in a cluster of writers willing to share their expertise like you, and you increase keyword density exponentially. Frequent visitors plus name recognition makes for wider respect on the web. So, lead a pack to your niche and you can go much further than you can as just a solo expert writer.  Helium even gives you a way to profit from those you invite to Helium: Use your Invite-a-Writer link.

To summarize:

Step 1: Identify a writing niche that reflects your professional or practiced expertise. (Add research for informative value.) If you have professional credentials, write to experts@helium.com, and get recognition to boost your authority within your niche writing area.

Step 2: Expand your article base by writing to (and suggesting) scores of titles related to your field, as explained in Tips for (and benefits of) finding a writing niche. Add good SEO techniques: Pin-point your content to a narrowly-focused title. Identify a high-value keyword phrase that most people will use to hunt for the content in your article on web searches. Repeat that keyword phrase in the title, lead, intro, 3-4 times in the body of your article and in the conclusion (not more, or Google will view the content as spam).

Step 3: Market your articles within the niche community of writers, experts and readers interested in that topic. Build relationships and linking opportunities.

Step 4: Invite others in that niche community to gather at Helium. Form a Group for them to gather in.

You’ve worked hard as an individual freelance writer. Now it’s time to expand your opportunities — by extending the circle of experts and professionals writing alongside you at Helium.

Feel free to contact me for advice. My inbox is always open.