Building Credibility With Blogs

Credibility and trust are essential elements when you're engaged in making Major Sales. (Major Sales are the type of sales where there's a lot at stake. Any sale that entails a substantial investment of time, money or has the possibility of a personal relationship OR the possibility of consequences as the result of making a wrong choice qualifies as a Major Sale.)

If you're making a Major Sale, one of your goals with your website must be to establish trust with prospective clients. A blog style website is a GREAT way to build credibility and trust with your prospective customers/clients.

For example, if you’re selling copy paper, building credibility isn’t a top priority. On the other hand, if you’re selling something of substance such as your expertise, then building credibility is the most important “marketing” you can engage in.

The reason blogs are such a GREAT way to build credibility and trust is that it’s hard to fake expertise over the course of a hundred or so posts. When you write frequently, you reveal yourself.

This morning, I saw on my iGoogle that the RSS feed from the blog of an author I respect and admire had been updated after several weeks of inactivity. I had heard great things about this guy and even though I don’t know him personally, he already had a substantial balance build up by reputation in his “trust account” with me.

When I discovered he had a blog, I subscribed to the RSS immediately. However, his posting to his blog is spotty and his posts didn’t seem to have much content. Most of his posts have been to promote his products, seminars and books.

Still, he’s got a nice trust balance with me based on recommendations from clients and colleagues, so even though my first visit to his blog was disappointing, I still subscribed to his RSS feed. I’ve been reading his posts but I’ve not been commenting.

So I see that this author has made another post and I head over to his blog. He begins the post with the tired blogging excuse “I’ve been busy.” OK.. I’ll buy that. After all, he’s already got my respect and trust. He's an important and BUSY guy.

Then, his post launches into the tired of MMO tactic of “look how rich I am.” He writes about how he’s property shopping for a 2nd home. He’s posting links to lavish builder’s sites in a warmer climate that draws the tourist crowds in the winter.

OOPS! His trust account balance just went to zero in my book.

At the bottom of today's post, I saw an offer for a product -his product- that I would have snapped up BEFORE he created that post. Unfortunately, the trust account balance had already been drained. His "look how wealthy I am" post made me think of all the cheesy "get rich quick" sites with a guy in a suit perched on the hood of an expensive car.

Contrast that to my experience with Monika Mundell who maintains the The Writers Manifesto.

I stumbled upo
Monika’s blog and subscribed to the RSS feed. I began reading her posts and after a while, began to comment. I’m not a freelance writer, but I am interested in honing my writing skills and her posts were instructional and well written.

After a few weeks of reading Monika's blog, I saw where Monika begin posting on another blog to which I subscribe. She is writing great posts on the other blog but the interesting thing is, while it’s still “her writing” she has successfully assumed the “voice” of this established blog.

NICE!!!

I’m swamped yet I have a new project I’m nurturing so I hired Monika to write the articles for me. We connected via email and a few days later VIOLA… I have 8 great articles ready to go, even though the past two days have been “no shower” days for me! She did an INCREDIBLE job. It’s like I wrote them (after reading all her posts and following all of her “rules”)… but I didn’t - she did.

I’ve been watching Monika blog for a while now and by watching her, I could tell she was walking the walk. However, in just a few weekss of subscribing to the “highly hyped” best selling writer’s blog, I can see he’s all talk and no walk.

Blogs are a great way to establish credibility and trust… even when you don’t know someone is watching!