I've spent a bunch of time this week searching for people to interview for my new Course Builders TV venture.

I'm looking for people who've successfully built and grown an online course. And while I've found a few through searches on Linkedin, it does appear that there are actually more “experts” in teaching people how to build an online course than there are actually people building them.

I'm sure that's partly to do with the way I've searched. But it does also highlight that once it becomes clear that there's a lucrative market for something it fills up with competitors pretty fast.

Some of the “experts” no doubt really are. Some seem to have become experts overnight.

So how do you stand out when there are so many people saying they do what you do?

One way is to focus on a sub-niche where you can deliver a more tailored service than more generic providers. To find a little oasis of blue in a desert of red.

When I first started my own business back in 2007 I was one of a handful of people focusing on marketing for consultants, coaches and trainers.

Over the years more and more competitors entered that market and I found I could stand out by focusing my offer on people like myself who weren't naturals at marketing and sales who found the whole thing a bit painful.

Of course, these mini-blue oceans don't last forever. If they're lucrative enough others will focus on them too.

Another successful approach is to differentiate based on your personality and the relationship you build with potential clients.

That might come from being a brilliant presenter, a best-selling author, or from nurturing relationships over the long term like I do with these emails.

There's no doubt that over the years a number of my clients have picked me not because there's no one else who could have helped, but because I'm the one they came to like and trust through my ongoing communications.

Perhaps the most effective way of differentiating is by using a unique approach to get the results your clients are looking for.

This is the way most of the big names in consulting have grown to prominence. Bruce Henderson and the Boston Consulting group through their experience curve, then the growth share matrix.

Tom Peters with McKinsey and the 7S approach that later morphed into his Excellence books.

Michael Hammer and CSC Index with Re-engineering. Jim Collins with his Good to Great principles. Peter Senge with the 5th Discipline and systems thinking applied to business. Eli Goldratt with the Theory of Constraints.

Of course, your unique approach doesn't have to be as “big” as those well known examples. It just has to be clearly different to what others are offering and to what your potential clients may have tried before.

My approach to teaching people how to build online courses, for example, isn't the normal “guru” approach of “I'm an expert in this, pay me to tell you how to do it”. It's “let me share with you the experiences and expertise of dozens and dozens of people who've been successful at this. You'll find the best way for you in there”.

Like all unique approaches, it won't be for everyone. Some people will still want to be spoon fed “one best way” (despite knowing there rarely is one).

But there'll be enough people who click with my approach that I'll stand out. Hopefully a lovely island refuge from the ocean of “online course experts”.