Non-scholarly publishing

Most of the methods used to become a "non-scholar" expert on a subject are the timeless, tried-and-true application of tenacity, hard work, and being the biggest loudmouth you can on a topic.

Let me explain further. We live in a time where the cost barriers to entry in publishing are negligible. If nothing else, you may create and publish a PDF document, and have it hosted on a website affiliated with the topic.

But there are so many other methods by which you may get your ideas into the world. There are plenty of free blog websites out in the world. For less than $100, you can make yourself an Internet authority through podcasting. If you have the means to do so, you may even create video podcasts. You can create a Flickr account that lets people see how brilliant you are at photography. You can create a Yahoo mailing list that lets people receive your wisdom directly in their emailbox. Finally, you can use a publishing house like Lulu.com and create hardbound, print-on-demand books you can use to establish your authority on a subject.

So the methods of getting your words out into the world are fairly easy; what is truly difficult in this area, however, is creating the basic text for what you are trying to accomplish. If you are not a writer, this can be overwhelming. There are plenty of services available on the Internet to help edit your text, but this can be costly. You will need to create a body of written knowledge as a first step, but then you must immediately follow up with the second step: marketing yourself.

This means you will need to have multiple means of selling yourself as a "brand name" of your own. This means logos, buzzwords, business cards, Press Releases, publicity photos, and so forth. This means attending industry conferences, expos, and other conventions. This means becoming involved in local meet-up groups about the subject; and if there are none, starting one. This means creating organizations of like-minded people on the Internet and in real life, or barring that, joining the organizations that exist and working your way up through the ranks to a position of prominence.

Finally, it boils down to simply being good enough in your area to have other people respect what you are doing. This means you must be a "non-academic" scholar; you must continuously and voraciously study your area of expertise. You must subscribe to academic journals, or at least read them in the library. You must travel to hear other experts in your field speak. You must participate in workshops, seminars, and other learning venues about the area of expertise. 

If you can obtain veracity by having other scholars and noted experts review your body of knowledge and comment on it for publication, you can start to build a collection of commentary gold that will eventually end up in further proving your relevance to a specific topic.

So to review briefly, to become a non-academic expert in an area:

Write a body of knowledge that is useful and informative in that area.

Publish this knowledge in the multiplicity of methods available to you in this day and age.

Market your knowledge products through networking, brand-creation, and the tried-and-true tactics of community participation and leadership.

Finally, seek outsider confirmation of your knowledge base as a means of shoring up your position on a subject and continue to pursue your area of expertise as a serious course of study throughout your lifetime.

In other words: it's very simple to become an overnight success in the field of your choice through 10 years or so of hard work, informal scholarship, and successful self-promotion.

In addition to all the great advice sambearpoet gave you, you can expand your framework to a website completely focused on articles.  That one for example, is built out to cover an very broad range of subjects, presumably from a number of experts.  Maybe you and some others can join together to publish and the strength in numbers will work to your advantage better than publishing in an individual blog. 

If you are looking for self-publishing companies to publish your book, I know of a few companies that practically holds court to everything a book needs from getting you your copyright, book cover design customization, layout consultation, copyediting and even marketing – at affordable costs.
Xlibris is one self-publishing company who practically has everything an author requires whether your book is going to be in full color or black and white. The company has been in business for over a decade already to know what they are doing.  They have programs that have all the inclusions that will turn your book of poems into book form.
            Normally, self-publishing companies practically publishes all sorts of genre except pornography and hate literature – this kind of principle is exercised by Xlibris, too. Say you wanted to write something that you know you are an expert of and your book is close to that of a manual or reference kind, no one is going to tell you that your book is not gospel.
You might want to take into consideration the sources that you have acquired to complete this project and strengthen the foundation you have laboriously built by your influential references.
Self-publishing entirely means that you get to retain full control of your book’s production and that it gives you the option to publish your work and claim authority of the particular subject matter that you have written about.
I suggest you try and consider completing this project and revel in the results. You can actually request for free information here on how to self-publish your book .