An overcrowded Blogosphere has created intense competition among bloggers in attracting more readers for their blogs. Offered with boundless number of blogs to choose from, the netizens has now become even more picky in choosing blogs to read. This situation has positioned credibility as one of the top considerations that the netizens look for in a blog. The more credible your blog is, the more readers stick to it.
There’s no doubt that blogs with credibility are the blogs that are widely read. But how and what makes a blog credible? Today’s post explores the possible ways you can do to improve your blog’s credibility, therefore, increasing your ‘readership’.
Tips To Build a Credible Blog
Choose a Niche
Having a niche or a specific topic to blog about is by far the most effective way to build credibilty for your blog and yourself as a blogger. In contrast to those who blog about all sort of stuff, niche blogging allows a blogger to focus and concentrate on a certain topic, preferably of his/her mastery which in turn makes him/her an authority. For the same reason, John Chow is considered as a more credible source of information about ‘making money online’ than Rose DesRochers, who blogs about different things.
Create Useful and Informative Content
Content is king but only when it’s useful and informative. Your blog’s content partly defines what kind of blog you have. If your blog contents are nothing of value to anyone, then it shouldn’t be considered credible either. People read blogs for certain reasons but mostly to gather useful information. If you want to earn credibility for your blog and for yourself, here are a few things you can do to improve your blog content.
Link To Useful, Related and Informative BlogsWhile some bloggers are generous in giving links to other blogs, most bloggers remain reluctant. Search engine optimization is a possible reason why most bloggers are reluctant to link to other blogs. Assuming that I’m creating a post about ‘Increasing Blog Traffic’ and I have linked to another post that has the same topic, the end result is usually a better search engine position to the blog post I’ve linked to.
Linking to other blog posts that are relevant to your blog may improve their page rank and search engine position but this will also improve your blog’s credibility as well as your credibility as a blogger. Linking to other blogs will send a message to your blog readers that you are a wide reader. In fact, your blog readers will appreciate supplementary information that you provide through linking to other blogs. Just make sure that you link to quality posts and it must be relevant to yours.
If you don’t want to share link juice to other blogs, which I don’t encourage, you can always use the rel=”nofollow” attribute. This will instruct Google to disregard the link you’ve created as a vote to the site.
Create a Professional Blog Layout
The appearance of your blog has a huge impact on your blog’s credibility. Usually, netizens judge blogs based on their appearance and design. It is therefore important that you invest on the looks of your blog. That shouldn’t be a problem if you are knowledgeable in coding but you can always hire web designers or just be patient to search for blog templates that will suit your requirements.
Work with Other Blogs or Websites
Establishing presence in the Blogosphere is another effective mechanism to establish credibility for yourself and for your blog. This can be achieved in several ways but here are some of my suggestions. Take note that the following tips require you to work with other blogs and websites. A good interpersonal skill will be very useful.
Have Your Blog Reviewed by Other BloggersBlog review is another simple yet effective strategy to build credibility for your blog and yourself as blogger. But getting other bloggers to review your blog is the challenging part. This is easy when your blog is really fantastic and when you have lots of blogger friends. Most of the reviews about Blogging Mix are created by my friends over at BlogCatalog.
Alternatively, you have the option of paying other bloggers to review your blog. ReviewMe and PayPerPost are the most popular sites that offer such kind of service.
Use a Domain Name
If you are using a domain name, people visiting your blog will think that you are serious at blogging. This alone will increase your blog’s credibility. Registering your own domain name has become affordable nowadays so having one for your blog shouldn’t be difficult.
As always, I’d like to hear from you. I’m sure that you have something to add to my list so feel free to drop it at the comments. Comments here are Blogging Mix are made ‘Dofollow’ so you get a link juice everytime you comment on my posts. Thank you for your time. Here are some of my previous post you might be interested to read.
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Nice post. The readers are being left behind by a lot of the SEO-related link tactics.
When I started my DVD blog, DVD Spin Doctor, it achieved a PR 5 pretty much overnight, right out of the box.
Pleased but puzzled, my theory remains that I simply followed the blog’s interests and linked to the sites and blogs that were relevant, without any thought of juice.
nice artikel in,
full of information. Hope will see more interesting article by you in future. anyway you also can submit your article into http://www.timestreets.com/article for free or any article directory to promote your article.
nice experiance here. wish your luck
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Good post, but what about credentials? If the content requires a certain amount of expertise, I want to know where the blogger has his expertise from. This could be formal education or lots of real-world experience or both. I would suggest you add to your list a good profile page that says not only what you do, but what kind of experience you have in it.
By the way, the jimmy choo comment is the exact same thing they left on a post on one of my blogs. There is made no sense and was clearly spam. I’d suggest the same is true here.
Feel free to delete this comment, especially if you delete theirs.
good post (IMHO) – re the first point, i have to disagree slightly (although i’m biased because i run a general, lots of topics site) – but the top ranked non-tech blog on technorati is Boing Boing! which covers loads of different stuff..
(FYI – I’ll be linking here shortly
)
I do NOT agree with your first point: “Choose a Niche”..
A blogger blogging about different informative topics can be as credible as a niche blogger! You should re-consider your point here!
Else, the rest is good..
- Wakish -
(http://wakish.info)
I do think that the content and the design can give you a great push but at the end you need to build a network to drive a solid buzz..
@MS,
The blogger’s credential also matters. That’s probably a great addition to the list. Thanks for sharing.
@David and Wakish,
I am not saying that a blog blogging about different stuff is not credible blog. These blogs can be a great source of information but when it comes to specific topics, like SEO or Branding or Social Media, in most cases, people tend to turn to blogs that’s been specializing on such topics.
Funny many consider me an authority. I might not receive as much email or traffic as John, but I do ok. Just because I’m knowledge in many different areas does not mean that I’m not an authority in blogging.
Wakish – Well said!
Ms- Regarding credentials – I always list mine.
Ps- Copy any content lately without asking permission?
@ Rose,
I’m glad you visited my blog. You’re still the same Rose Desrocher… I guess it’s in your genes to be irritating. Haven’t been to your blog for a very long time. I’m also glad that many consider you an authority… but definitely not an authority of all topics. Having a niche gives you the advantage to become an authority in your chosen topic, preferably something of your expertise.
I don’t believe I said that I was an authority in all topics and I’m curios why out of all the people you could have mentioned why you chose to name me. lol
@ Rose,
Perhaps because you’re the best example I can think of right that moment… you blog about different stuff, right?