How To Set Yourself Apart and Gain a Massive Following

Never before in history has it been so easy to influence large numbers of people.

Social media has made the playing field for building a following and influencing others almost completely level. Anyone has the capability of speaking to an incredibly large audience. A level playing field is good (anyone has a chance) but it also means there are no shortcuts. If you are going to stand out and build a lasting, powerful sphere of influence you actually have to be exceptional. Being exceptional is daunting, but I believe everyone is capable of it – each person is able to make a unique contribution to the people around them.

Here’s a great example of someone who set himself apart and built a massive following.

Pat Flynn – Radical (and useful) Transparency.

Pat Flynn is a very normal dude. He has a family. He was an architect… BUT – the story doesn’t end there.

Pat saw a need that lots of architects have. They need help preparing for a tough exam that certifies them to work on certain types of projects. So he created a website with study guides that other architects could use to help prep for the exam. His website really took off because it met a need.

Pat actually started making a good deal of money off of his exam prep website. He was intrigued by the fact that he could make something that was useful and that it could go on making money for him even while he slept.

Pat began looking for other ways he could create passive income streams and became quite good at developing them. He created iPhone apps, niche websites, and other things that he could build once and continue to make passive income. He was experiencing so much success that he started sharing what he was learning with others on his blog, SmartPassiveIncome.com.

The fact that Pat was willing to share what he was learning through his blog does create value and is pretty exceptional, but he did something else that really set him apart: he shared exactly how much money he made off of each of his passive income endeavors. This level of transparency was incredibly unique, and also helpful. I would venture to say that it had a large impact on establishing his audience of tens-of-thousands of people who listen to him for advice.

There Are TONS of other examples of people that did creative things to set themselves apart.

Here are just a few that come to mind:

Adam Lisagor – uses his dry sense of humor to create stunningly successful demo videos of web apps and tech products.

OkGo – Makes incredibly creative, but not necessarily big-budget, viral videos to promote their band. (I hesitate to link to them for fear of losing you to the YouTube vortex.)

James Altucher – Ditched the traditional publishing system after writing five books and started self-publishing and is giving one of his latest books away for free.

How are you setting yourself apart and making unique contributions to the people around you?

P.S.
One of the ways I hope to set myself and this blog apart is by giving away a very useful web app that I’m in the process of building. The app is still a secret, but it could be valuable to many of you who are trying to promote your blog or website.

If you would like to be among the first to know when the app is ready just fill in your email address below.