It should come as no surprise that your credibility will play a vital role in whether or not your blog is successful. After all, who is going to look to you for information if they have no faith in what you say? That is what makes creating and building credibility so important. The key is to know how to do that. There are ten secrets that are guaranteed to help you build the credibility you need so that your blog can become a success.
- Guest post: Contact blogs in your niche that are well known and well respected. See if they would allow you to guest post. If so, write an informative and entertaining post that will draw people in. Do not make this a one-time thing. Take advantage as often as possible.
- Get personal: Your readers want to know about you. If you are secretive then it is in their nature not to trust you. Rather than hiding things, open up. Give them all of the information that they will want or need right on your page. Those bloggers who open up are more easily accepted by readers than those who keep things private.
- Write what you know: It can never be said enough that you should always focus on what you know. It has been told to aspiring authors for years and now has a role in blogging. If you do not know the topic or understand it then you will never gain credibility as a source of information.
- Take advantage of memberships: The more professional credentials you have, the better you will look ‘on paper’. There are always organizations, groups and other memberships that you can take part in related to your niche. Do so and then share that status with your readers.
- You are judged by the company you keep: If you are known to associate with those who are well respected and revered in the niche then you will be viewed as the same. If you tend to associate with those who are looked at as irresponsible and unreliable then you will find the same is thought of you.
- Share your knowledge: If you have the time, write about what you know. Make it a book, document that you share or any other type of information you can share. People will immediately trust you more if you have credentials on the topic.
- Talk about your topic: Take the opportunity to share your knowledge any chance you get. Sign up to speak at colleges or conferences. Do interviews. Anything that will let you get out and share what you know verbally.
- Get as much press as possible: You can contact your local paper if you have something newsworthy to share. There are online news sources and magazines that you can be featured in as well. The more press you get and the more your name is spoken, the better your credibility will be.
- Build readers: The simple fact is that no matter how reliable your information, if you have no readers people will be less likely to trust you. Get those visitors to sign up. You may have to find the right enticement, but once you do others will begin to flock to your site.
- Prove yourself: Sometimes time is all it takes. Sit back and work hard at all of it. Over time you will become known as the expert that you already knew you were.
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It’s definitely true that a huge key to success is networking. The internet and social media can only get you so far but at some point you’re going to have to get out and get your name out there. If anyone is a shy blogger, they are going to need to develop their social and networking skills of they want to succeed. Lessons learned the hard way!
I think this is %100 true. I was never a very social person growing up, but you kind of have to grow into that if you want to be successful at blogging, or at anything really. And I really like the point about making your blog personal, so that people feel that they know you and are attached to you. I think that’s an excellent key to success.
Networking is my kryptonite. Well, that may be stating the obvious, as I have always preferred to remain anonymous. I’ve built my image on that so it’s too late to turn back now. But young bloggers out there should definitely adhere to what AffMaster and this article are saying!
I agree with all of the above in this post! Another good way to get your name out there is to make sure to follow others’ blogs that you admire, or that are applicable and be sure to write comments! :)
Good point. :)
Can you give a better example of what you mean by “building readers”? I mean, I get the concept but it’s a little vague, what kind of enticements do you suggest using?
I think even just having an intriguing topic, and an interesting writing style is enough to entice readers to follow your blog. No one reads blogs because they’re boring!
This was really very awesome post !! I agree with all your 10 points and liked the article ;)
I’ve tweeted it too :D
Regards
~Sam~
This article kind of touches on this but not too extensively: A really good way to build credibility is to become a known source of information on all other types of social media. Work on building followers on Twitter, build your fan base on Facebook, become a force on those other sites where you can really be interacting back and forth with people, and drop links to your blog. Great way to build traffic and get your name out there.
That’s good advice too, I’m guilty of not doing that enough. It can be really time consuming to be on all the social media at once and I have a hard time managing all of my pages. But I know that self-promotion is key to being a good blogger, so I think I’m going to have to get better at that.
Well, Dana, one thing you can do is find someone you know (a friend or family member) who is tech savvy and familiar with those sites, and just assign them to the task of managing them for you, for a small price per week. You can tell them what to post, when, etc. Also there are up and coming Social Media Management companies who do this for a fixed price per month, but a lot of times that isn’t worth it for a small or individual business because of $$$. Hope this helps!
Can you list some examples of “memberships?”
All these tips are really very helpful but the only thing on which I’d like to pay your attention is that you shouldn’t overuse them. Because people who will find too much information about you on press, or to who you’ll send too much information will be irritated by this and you can loose their trust
I think Amanda has a really great point. On sites like Facebook studies have shown that the best way to keep people interested in your business is to post no more than 2 times a week. People don’t want to be bombarded by emails or news feeds full of stuff from your business, they absolutely will get irritated, or just start to ignore your materials. It’s all about finding a balance, keeping them interested without losing their trust.
Oooh, definitely, that’s a quick trip to the block/spam folder in my book!