How To Build Your Credibility As An Expert While Blogging

This is a guest post by Eduard Ezeanu. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

I don’t run ads on my blog; I don’t do a lot of affiliate marketing. The primary way of monetizing my blog is selling my own products and coaching services in the area of communication skills.

I’ve learned that when your strategy for making money with your blog is to sell something you have created or something you do, then your credibility as an expert is crucial.

People have to trust that you are a professional and that you can provide them something of real value before they decide to buy from you. The amount of traffic you get is not highly relevant if your readers don’t believe you are an expert in your field.

The good news is that there are specific ways of using your blog which reinforce your credibility as an expert. Being passionate about communication, I was eager to explore this topic and test various methods of building credibility as an expert through blogging.

Here are the methods that have worked best for me and I believe will visibly benefit any blogger:

1. Develop Your Expertise, Not Only Your Blog

I think many bloggers skip a step in their search for a source of income. They start blogging and growing their blogs, but they do little to actually be experts in the area they blog about. They revamp ideas they read in books or on other blogs, and then they wonder why readers won’t buy their products.

Up to a certain point, blogging in itself is a way to develop expertise, but I find it to be insufficient. If you want to become an expert, you need to also address this subject separately and use other ways to train yourself.

I worked with my first coaching clients for free and I also had another coach supervising me, before I started calling myself a coach and asking money for my services. Also, I only started blogging and promoting my services on my blog after I’ve already had significant experience as a coach. Putting expertise first did wonders for me and the quality of my blogging.

2. Go Against the Mainstream

In any area, there are ideas that are very popular yet any real expert knows to be wrong. This is why instead of reinforcing the same old ideas, many experts will oppose popular ideas in their blog posts and they’ll debunk them.

Do the same and you’ll develop credibility as an expert. Of course, in order for this strategy to be successful, you need to know what you’re talking about, to pick the right ideas to oppose and to back your claims with hard and smart evidence. Otherwise, you position yourself as a rebellious novice rather than a connoisseur.

3. Write with Depth

Almost anybody can write a blog and offer some general advice, much of which may be impractical or mundane. A real expert stands out because they can talk or write about a certain subject with a lot more depth and go into the fine details that make a piece of advice exceptionally valuable.

In my field, many bloggers write advice such as: “Just be confident”. This kind of advice is too superficial to actually help anyone. I write posts in which I decode the psychological process of acquiring confidence and describe it much more precisely. This is what makes me more believable.

4. Quote Scientific Research

Anybody can make claims on their blog. What separates experts from the rest is the fact they crave solid evidence and they put in the effort to keep in touch with the current scientific research in their area of expertise.

As a result, they often quote research to support their ideas or simply to discuss it, and they do so in a skillful way. One of the most important recommendations I can make is to practice reading and quoting scientific research, at least in some of your blog posts. The more you practice, the more apt you’ll become at using research.

5. Associate with Other Experts

Professionals in a certain field often tend to know each other and collaborate. Prove to your readers that you interact positively with recognized experts in your filed, that they appreciate you, and some of their authority will transmit to you.

There are many ways to do this: you can interact with experts using social media, you can guest post on their blogs, you can interview them for your own blog etc. While doing any of these, keep in mind that the main focus is on truly building trust-based relationships with experts, not on simulating them.

At the end of the day, the most important thing I’ve learning about building credibility as an expert is that it only works if it’s authentic. Expertise cannot be communicated with high impact by faking it. You can only do so if it is something you really have and you know how to tastefully reflect through your blogging.

About The Author: Eduard Ezeanu provides communication coaching and helps people put their best foot forward in communication both online and offline. He also writes on his blog, PeopleSkillsDecoded.com.

Why “Writing a Post a Day for 30 Days” Is a Brilliant Deception

This is a guest post by Slava Vishnyakov. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

They were so excited about starting in blogging. They tuned their themes and placed RSS buttons, they wrote their posts and submitted guest posts. They’ve done everything themselves to make their guests feel at home.

The only thing that didn’t do right was outsourcing the reason to blog to the Goal.

Now nobody knows their names and their blogs are sitting quietly waiting for time to take their domain names back to bits they’ve arrived from.

It wasn’t just any goal that destroyed them, but a particularly appealing Goal. The Goal of “writing a blog post every day for 30 days”.

At first it seems like it’s inncuous. I mean “write a blog post” – that seems fair, “every day” – that’s about right, “for 30 days” – I can do it.

But there’s a great evil lurking underneath this niceness that leads to wasted effort and exhaustion.

The first part of evil is that if you’ve set this goal – you obviously chose a wrong topic for your blog. Nobody that chosen the right topic had to setup a goal to write on it.

Most of successful blogger had chosen the topic so important to them that their friends actually have a goal “Make John shut up about [that topic]” in their New Year Resolutions. That’s the topic John should’ve chosen.

Admit it – you would feel stupid setting up a goal to “watch my favorite TV show a day for 30 days”? You are probably starting to feel the first part of “why”.

The Internet gets more and more new blood every day. Some of those guys actually write about topics they love and enjoy. If that’s the topic you are writing about and you don’t enjoy it – you can’t compete with them. They’ll kick your virtual butt with hardly any effort.

Imagine yourself in Cairo, near Sphinx and Egyptian Pyramids. Now imagine a huge glowing title over the desert: “The Internet”.

The web right now is a endless field with pyramids. Each of those is a topic. At the very top of it stand A-bloggers. Those are the people that know that theme in-and-out and they have a great way to shout around (from the top), so that almost everyone below hears them.

You are at the bottom of the pyramid, trying to step up. If you aren’t equally as good as the next guy – you won’t make that step. If you don’t know the topic at hand – you’re going to be walking around the bottom of the pyramid.

But that’s not even the worst thing yet with that goal. Remember it? “Write a blog post a day for 30 days”

The “for 30 days” part might be even worse (or at least on par). You’ve set yourself a deadline when your struggle to write about a topic you don’t know ends.

You are going to force yourself through these 30 days and then finally relax. Ending this awful journey would feel so good that you will never want to return to blogging again.

You’ll be scared of blogging when in reality blogging is really fun. You get to talk to people about interesting things, you get to hear people talking back to you, sometimes very smart people. You’ll get into some fights that won’t end up in emergency and you’ll learn a lot in the process and may even make money.

Don’t outsource your desires to “Goals” – it’s sure way to “Broken Dreams” book. Don’t assume that your “Goals” are actually your desires.

Throw away the goal of “blog a day for 30 days” and replace it with desire to write on the topic you love.

If you want something more physical – open up Google Calendar and setup a daily reminder with an SMS at some time (how’s 8pm for you?) to write a blog post.

Then, when alarm goes off – open up your favorite blogs, read something, write down some ideas while reading, then fire up WordPress and do it! Excite your readers! Burn through their imagination with the images of Great Pyramids and domains blowing back to bits of information the consist of!

About the Author: Slava is the author of TripIdeas.org, where he blogs about the most beautiful destinations around the world.

Most Bloggers Forget This Simple Rule. Do You?

When I wrote “most bloggers” in the title, I was including myself. In fact I forget this rule 80% of the time probably. Want to know what rule I am taking about? It is this one:

Include one image on each blog post you publish.

This rule is important for a couple of reasons. First of all adding images to your blog posts will help you capture the attention of distracted readers and encourage them to read your post.

Second, having images around will improve the design of your blog and make it more appealing.

Third, images can be a good source of search engine traffic, especially every post you publish has one (i.e., over time the combined traffic you’ll get for your images will add up).

So why do most bloggers forget this simple rule? Probably because they get lazy over time. That is my case at least. The solution is to force yourself to add those images initially, until you develop the habit.

Check out this post if you don’t know where to find images for your blog. I mention one paid and two free sources there, so money is not an excuse.

 source: dailyblogtips

8 Critical Questions You Should Ask Yourself as a Blogger

This is a guest post by Rob Rammuny. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

“I’m at a point in my blogging career where I just don’t know what I’m doing wrong.”

Every blogger reaches a point in time where they find themselves struggling, it’s normal. However, the challenging part of that struggle is finding out what exactly are you doing wrong and how can you correct it. I’ve watched as thousands of bloggers throw away their blogging career, just because they were unable to answer this kind of question. After being in the blogging industry for about 19 months, I’ve studied blogs and bloggers as well as the points where they go wrong. In my 19 months of being in the industry, I’ve gathered 8 critical questions bloggers forgot to ask themselves.

1. Are you blogging about your passion?

The beauty of blogging is that you have the ability to talk about something you love. If you put hard work and effort into it, chances are you will succeed. But, if you’re not blogging about something you’re passionate about, what’s the point of your blog? Are you blogging with hopes to make money? You can do that with any niche that has people who are interested in what you have to say. So why not make it a niche your passionate about? People will be able to tell if you’re actually passionate about what you do. The desire to over deliver, and give your blog your all can only be done by someone who is truly passionate about what they’re doing.

2. Do you know your audience?

A critical part that will determine your blogs success is how well you know your audience. The better you know your audience, the higher the chances are you can cater to their needs and help solve their problem. Another problem with not being aware of your audience is, how do you really know what they want and don’t want? What about all the posts you’ve been writing, do you really know how many of them your readers find useful? Are you wasting your time writing posts that aren’t benefiting your community?

3. Are you building a community?

Having a strong community can either make or break your blog. If you’re serious about blogging and wanting to better yourself as a blogger (which I assume you do since your reading this post), you should be serious about building a community. A strong community is like having a family; through your ups and downs as a blogger, your community will be there for you. They will love you, support you, and spread the word about your blog.

4. Are you solving your reader’s problems?

When people arrive to your blog and read your posts, are they going to leave with knowing something new? Or are they going to leave your site the same way they entered – confused and wondering what to do next. Take Problogger for example, it’s the world’s most popular blog for blogs about helping others to become a better blogger. If Darren posted about what he ate for dinner, or what he had been doing his entire day, would Problogger be where it’s at today? Absolutely not. He was able to get where he is at today by providing help useful material to new bloggers by finding out what problems his readers were facing and wrote about them.

5. Are you instilling the urge for community response?

What kind of vibe do your posts give off? Do they give the “I don’t care about your input” vibe, or do they give the “This post won’t be complete without your input” vibe. Having a comment section does not instill an urge for community response, your posts are what instill the urge. Try ending your posts off with a “Group discussion” or a “What do you think” section at the end. Ask your readers what do they think about the topic or what would they add to it. Give them a reason to comment, and show them that you want to hear their input. You can also write posts that connect with your readers deeply which will bring will allow you to see a more heart-felt comment. When your readers leave a comment, respond to it. Spark a discussion and share your input on top of theirs.

6. Are you a “thinker” and “planner” instead of a “doer”?

You will always hear someone say “I have a million dollar idea”, but you never see it happen because they don’t take action. Maybe you “plan” for the big day where you will become a six-figure problogger, but are you actually taking the steps to make that happen? A quote I like to think of is “It’s not what you know, it’s what you do with what you know.” The quote has so much meaning behind it, because thinking about something isn’t going to make it happen. Find your idea, write it down and actually do it. If you struggle, don’t give up, learn from your mistake and try again.

7. Are you blogging with a backup plan?

Every blogger should blog with a backup plan in mind, point-blank.
Diversifying your income streams
Having multiple traffic sources
Making sure your blog is being backed up daily
These are all backup plans you need to have. What if you wake up one day and find out that your blog has been hacked and you lost all your files? Do you have a backup of your site? What happens when Twitter dies out and that was your main traffic source? You suddenly lost all your blog traffic. You need to be willing to plan for the unexpected, because it can happen and it can happen to you.

8. Are you striving to over deliver on each one of your posts?

I’ll be blunt here. Being a consistent blogger doesn’t mean anything if you’re not striving to deliver the best on every post you write. If you hit the stage where you’re facing bloggers burnout to the point where you are struggling to find a good post to write about, take a break and ask for guest post submissions. The quality of your posts define the quality of your blog, and most importantly defines the quality of you as a blogger. So make sure you over delivering, or don’t deliver at all.
Are you asking yourself these 8 questions?

I’ve watched thousands of bloggers fail, but I’ve watched only a handful succeed. Ask yourself these questions, and be truthful about your answers. They can only benefit you for the better, so make the most out of it. Are there any self reflecting questions you believe us bloggers should be asking ourselves?

About the Author: Rob Rammuny is a 16 year old Internet marketer/blogger who teaches other’s how to make money online at his blog Robswebtips.com. If you’re interested in learning how to make money online, check out his website for a free course.