Holy Weblog Batman! T.L. Pakii Pierce is writing some great articles these days! His recent one on Cracking Credibility & Why Internet Marketing WILL Change is worth the read and talks (as the title suggests) that credibility is an essential element of effective blogging.
Blogging is not a silver bullet solution – it takes time to build an audience, time to build relationships and time to build credibility as a source of information that people will keep coming back to. Its common sense really. T.L says it much better than I do:
‘When you consider the cost of blogging and the return on your investment, the ROI of blogging is phenomenal…BUT…it comes at a price.
But doesn’t everything?
The price is that you must commit to a relationship that will require ongoing attention. Blogs will amplify your message and your reach in a powerful way and at near zero cost when compared to other means of reaching a market with your message. But the price of relationship is the need to continually connect with your market and develop your social network in order to build an authentic and authoritative voice that can be trusted.
This is an extremely important message to receive and digest for newbie marketers and newbie bloggers especially. You cannot approach blogging thinking you will set a up page and sell tons of items. You have to properly prepare a message that helps carry your product to a targeted niche audience….’
The rest of the article is excellent – but for me this is one of the major pieces of advice that I give new bloggers with dreams of fame and dollar signs in their eyes – it won’t happen over night! Are you willing to work hard on your blogging, for a long time? Are you willing to slave away at something with the risk of being ignored by the blogosphere? Are you willing to make blogging a daily part of your life?
Credibility doesn’t happen quickly. Think about those that you respect the most in your real life? Why do you see them as credible, respect worthy people? I can’t answer for you, but for me its simply that over time I’ve seen behavior from them that consistently impresses and assures me that they are people of character who not only speak the truth but who live it. It takes time – I don’t trust just anyone in real life – it has to be earned – and in the blogosphere this lesson is also true.
I wrote a few months ago that:
‘Unless you have an absolutely brilliant concept or strike it incredibly lucky it will take you time to build your blogging up to a position where it earns you a decent income – even then you still need a bit of luck, many hours in front of the computer and a few intelligent strategies in place to make it worth your time. I spend at least 30 hours a week blogging – I treat it as a full time job – if I’m not willing to put substantial hours into it why would I expect it to reward me with a substantial monetary reward?’
So take a long term approach. Build your blogging over time and remember that a constant daily posting approach builds over time into something quite substantial. It will build you a substantially sized blog – but more importantly it will build the size of your credibility.
