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.
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Lee,
You are right, it is all about making that real and personal interaction and making it as quickly as possible.
IN addition to “about me” on my blog I have tried a “start here” in this area I group some of the “better” posts and theme them so that someone who is new could get a quick and easy view of many of the things i write about.
It is all about giving people the most “bang for their buck”
Thanks for writing a great article about this importance of building trust.
Have a wonderful day,
Steve
Responding to readers definitely helps build trust, whether it’s in the comments, via email, questions they tweet you, etc. One of the worst feelings is asking a question and being ignored, and chances are it’s happened to quite a few readers of the big blogs out there. If you answer their question when no one else did, you’ll have a new loyal fan almost guaranteed!
Great post Lee.
Excellent tips for bloggers.
One of the things that works for me on my blog is to include details about my life. It keeps the reader interested and it clearly illustrates the point I’m trying to make.
Thanks for this great article.
Thanks for the great post Lee! I really love your points especially since it focuses on building trust as bloggers. Getting your readers’ trust is the key to succeeding online these days and you listed some great ways to do that!
Lee providing authority content and responding to emails/comments or any kind of questions is an awesome thing to do in order to build trust among the readers.
Readers believe that the blogger is an expert in what he/she is talking about and he/she knows stuff, only when things are consistent.
We can see that most bloggers respond to comments/emails at their early stages but as they become established, they totally ignore any responses from their readers; this is a deadly thing.
Good luck with the contest. You have brought up a nice topic.
Cheers,
Jane.
Also, another way is to guest blog – coming in the spotlight on a reputed blogger’s blog is a kickstart to build a brand out of your blog. Plus, you can respond to comments (as you mentioned in the post) and gain more subscribers (i.e. loyal readers) from it.
Blogging is all about sharing information. The credibility of this information being shared can be directly associated with the credibility of the blogger. Gaining trust of the readers should be the utmost priority. There are bloggers I know who don’t write very well but the information and the insights they share are so valuable, their followers continue to grow.
One of the most effective ways of gaining trust from the readers is having a good “about me” page. Take a good picture of you and show them the face behind the wonderful writing. Write something about yourself like hobbies, interests, why are you blogging and your experiences in life. That way, the readers will be more comfortable with you.
In everything we’re doing as a blogger, we should make sure that we put more trusts into it as a blogger. Blogging without trust can results in something bad. This tips mentioned in this article are useful guide to help everyone build a successful blog without stress.
Thanks for sharing this 🙂
I realize the post is a bit older but wanted to comment anyway to say thanks for the list.
Personally, I failed miserably at #1. Writing those ‘about’ pages always just feels… weird.
Numbers 6 and 7 have been huge for me, though. Taking the time to reply to someone’s comment really does go a long way, and on the social front – Twitter sends about 25% of my total site traffic these days 🙂