This is a guest post by Lee Ka Hoong from BloggingWP.
Of late, owning a website or blog is not simple or easier compared to how it was a few years back. Previously a good and attractive design of a ‘*.com’ domain caught attention easily. Webmaster neither had a need to prove its quality nor demonstrate the reason for providing solution to everyday problems.
Blogging, today has invaded greatly into the field of networking. Bloggers are interested in building relationship with their visitors and budding customers. These days, the trend has changed such that visitors and customers are interested in knowing the person behind the blog before they read the content of it. The blogger has to interact and relate with the readers to meet their confidence or trust.
Being a blogger for the past few years and gaining experience, I have noticed some means that builds trustworthiness among the visitors. Some of them are very easy to be implemented whereas some others require effort and time.
However, by executing some of these techniques, we can see the difference.
1. About Me
As a blogger, the first essential step would be to let the visitors know who you are! The ‘About me’ page should be clearly visible and easily assessable. It should not be concealed or bloated out. It is better if there are links to the ‘About Me’ page along the sidebars and below every blog post.
Another suggestion for the blogger would be to include some pictures and videos of yours. This would help the readers trust on you and not on the posts alone.
Read: How To Create A Great About Me Page For Your Blog
2. Organize Get-Together
Another way to build confidence among the readers of the blog is to pick a few of the regular visitors and people of expertise from your blog and interact with them. This can be done by organizing get-together.
As a start-up, it can be done in a smaller level but once the online business grows, mega events can be organized. Attending events conducted by other bloggers will also help in building relationships. This would also pull in more customers and an avenue to partner with expert people on the content of your blog.
3. Interactive Sessions
Interactive sessions like Q&A, polls, consultant services etc. is another way to build a trustworthy relationship with the visitors. This not only will help to increase the traffic to the blog but also will let the regular visitors be aware of the professional expertise and knowledge you have.
4. Freebies
There are many things that can be offered for free – e-books, coupons, designs, themes, services etc… As most of the people like to get free things, offering some freebies would make the people realize that you are generous too. This will also help in promoting yourself and increase the subscribers count.
5. Blogging Something Personal
Writing about the personal in the blog would further help one in gaining confidence among visitors. Such posts would not only take the about me page even further but it is also fun to read.
They may not convey the area of expertise of your blog, but will for sure help to build personal relationship with bloggers. Blogging about summer holidays or breakfast is cool to read and there is no need to be worried or shy about it.
However more of personal blogging is also not advisable.
6. Use Social Media
It is a well-known fact that in the internet world, most of the people are addicted to social networking sites such as Facebook, twitter etc… Linking your website along with these networking sites in an innovative and wise way will have its own payback.
7. Responding To Visitors Comments And Emails
Another important factor that builds trust is the way you respond to the comments people leave on the blog. It is important to answer their queries and share opinions about the comments they give. This would encourage not only the visitor who shared the comment but also other visitors with an idea that the blog owner observes and notes their opinions. Alternatively you can also email them directly.
This post is a part of SmartBloggerz’s guest blogging contest where you can win cash prizes for earning the most points. Help this guest author win this contest by commenting and sharing this post using the buttons below.
Top 10 Search Terms:
• building trust
Without trust you won’t make it in any business, this is very apt when you are selling or blogging online….interacting with your users and offering an ebook is a great way to build trust.
@ZK,
I believe that this is what every successful bloggers teach, interaction with readers is a must and you should do it the right way. Offering an ebook would be a good idea, but the ebook must be an unique one because there’s a lot of similar ebook on the web already.
Trust is something that is gained with months of tireless posting and work, but can be lost in a matter of minutes with one poorly-handled mistake or one act of dishonesty. Blogging is pretty much a virtual world and that makes many people turn to these short comings when the odds are against them. So it’s important to only do things that are above board and to gain your readers’ trust during your communication or business dealings with them.
i agree with peter on that . one dishonest move and bring down the house of trust. takes days , months to build and minutes to break. However we can always be quick in fixing and apologizing for our mistakes and fix it .
@Peter,
You’re right Peter, you can tie up your readers to read your blog and leave a comment for several months, but once you stop writing for some days and your regular readers might leave your blog away. It requires consistent updates and communication with readers, it’s not a one time work. Always be honest and be kind all the time.
Hi Lee,
The practices you laid out are all true and straight to the point. I totally agree with your #1 which is the About me page. Whenever I get to visit a new site for the first time, I normally look at the About Me page. From there you will get to know some facts about the owner(s) and the purpose of the blog site. Another great way to build trust from readers is to always entertain them via replying to comments and giving them some advice when they needed it.
@Felicia,
You’re right Felicia, it goes same to me, when I land to a new site or blog, I’ll first check out their About page to see who are them, that would be better if we have similar interest because this could make our communication easier in order to build up a healthy relationship. Communication and relationship are always the things that we must focus if we’re serious in online business.
Wow, that was a great one. I want to add some more.
For me, in order to build the trust from my readers, I should valuable content. I mean not just a theory-type article but an experience type. Maybe a case study is a good choice.
Thanks for sharing this LEE. I really benefited from it.
@Felix,
Thanks for your comment Felix. You’re right, we might need to always deliver valuable content with our own case study, that would help to build a solid proof for our statement, that would help to convince people to trust you and your writing.
This is a very informative and helpful post. I guess most of the bloggers today who are out here to make some bucks have forgotten about this. I used to be one of them. Indeed, as bloggers, we need to built trust from readers… Credibility is extremely important, and it will always be. Not only for bloggers, but also for those who are creating minisites and selling products.
Nice post! Keep it up bro!
@Jeen Hao,
You’re right, not all the bloggers can maintain this for months or years, they may stop interacting with readers after some days as they find it useless or they’re lazy to do this. It’s actually very important when it comes to online business, any business which attached to internet. Keep doing this and you can be another successful internet marketer on the internet.
Hi Lee! It is not easy to build up the trust. We need to put on efforts consistently. Providing the valuable and useful stuffs to the readers may help to enhance the trust of readers to us. If we are the expert on others’ eyes, people will start to trust us. ^^
@Kok Siong,
Besides providing valuable content to the readers, we need to communicate with them as well. Sharing information, discussion and answering questions from readers would help a lot in building good relationship.
I guess responding to visitor’s comments or emails is important as it makes sure that people do not lose interest and let them know that their comments are important for you. Even polls are a good idea to know how many people are actually visiting your posts. And by the way, interesting points for building trust.
@John,
You’re right John, responding to visitors is a way to tell them that you’re not a dead man who keeps writing content without interaction. It’s very important when it comes to building trust.
Building trust is always the best way to get into people’s mind. Even in business, this is always number 1 in the businessman’s checklist. As for me, the best way to build trust is to always tell things from the heart.
@Regina,
I believe that no matter in what business in this world, trust and relationship is a must for everyone. Otherwise, it’s difficult for one to be successful in the market. I agree with you Regina, treat everyone kind and honest and that’s the best way to build trust as well.
Mr. Lee it is not easy to build trust, but you have to try all the time, untill you get there, and you will see people running to you, because you are trusted.