Cory Miller wrote a piece the other day that I found really interesting, it was on becoming an authority and why he started using WordPress. It reminded me of a lecture I used to give in college about the power of the internet and how my first year students should become expert bloggers to help secure their own futures in the industry.

Most of my students wanted to work in the video game industry as 3D animators, artists and modelers but they lacked professional experience and portfolios. This was in my opinion a perfect example of how to use WordPress to get a job and in the process, become an expert.

Here’s the basic plan and the strategy that I shared with students term after term …

First, register a domain name and setup hosting. Ideally, you’ll want to do this on your own domain name but if you’re really stretched and can’t afford to setup a $100 website, you can do it for free on WordPress.

Step two, find a template theme for your website. It’s easy, there are plenty of free WordPress themes here on my website or you can find thousands on the web.

Now, setup your site and add your theme … now the tough part … start writing and posting every day. For students this shouldn’t really be a problem, pay attention in class and when you get home write about what you learnt that day and post the results to your blog. If you do this every day, eventually you’ll find that others are coming to your website to read about it and eventually, you’ll discover that they’re telling their friends about your cool, free lessons.

Step Four is where it gets really scary, spend some time on Google and find ten forums about your subject matter and 25 other blogs. Every day, visit two of the ten forums and try to get to at least five of the 25 blogs, every time there’s something you can contribute … do it. Answer questions, ask questions, comment on work, offer advice, support the authors and be constructive. If there’s an opportunity for you to link back to an article or tutorial that you’ve written, do it.

Keep doing this every day, using RSS feeds whenever possible to keep track of your favorite authors and eventually you’ll discover that you’re not just a student in the industry any more, you’re an active member of the community and maybe one day … if you’re lucky, you’ll be an expert in it.