Question from ProBlogger reader – Joshua:
“My question is how to make yourself a credible source. For example, when I came across your site, I got the impression that you had no experience with blogging, but found your niche in “making money from blogging.” But since you had never actually done it, I’m curious as to how you made yourself the source that you are now. You have very good tips and information, but obviously didnt have them to begin with.”
Thanks for the question Joshua – I think it gets to the heart of a really important issue for bloggers and one of the things that is often at the heart of a blog’s success or failure – the credibility of the blogger.
Let me start with your example/question about ProBlogger and then move on to outlining a number of ways that we as bloggers can build credibility.
ProBlogger
Obviously when I started blogging three and a half years ago I had no experience in blogging and started out like a newbie like everyone else – but my first blog wasn’t actually on the topic of blogging. It was a personal (ish) blog. Then over time I added new blogs to my blogs and learned as much as I could about blogging and blogging as an income. Gradually over a number of years I built a way to make a full time living online through a variety of blogs. It was at this point that I launched ProBlogger.net (in September 2004) after I’d been blogging almost two years.
If I’d started ProBlogger as my first blog I suspect it would not have been seen as anyone as being a credible source of income – simply because I’d not proved myself as being someone who had expertise on the topic that I was writing about.
The Series Ahead
Over the next few days I’ll attempt to outline a number of things that I think can add to a blogger’s credibility. By no means will this be an exhaustive list as each circumstance is so different on a number of fronts:
- Credibility is a slippery thing – what is credible to one person can be seen as suspicious to another
- Every ‘credible’ blogger I know has gotten to that position in my mind for a slightly different reason. What helps build credibility in one blogging niche might not necessarily add to it in another.
Lastly I want to make it clear that in my experience each of the points that I make in the following posts don’t tend to lead to credibility alone but rather when they come together they add to it.
Anyway – enough disclaimers and explanations – lets dig in and explore what it means to build blogger credibility.
Here’s the Series so far:
