We’d like to think that if we are offering a “How To/Tutorial” on a particular subject that that advice will be taken seriously.

Did you know that it often isn’t?  Dare you ask why?

The majority of blogs in the blogosphere are less than 1 year old and come out of the box pumping article after article about Search Engine Optimization, Making Money Online, Online Marketing Strategies, Coding, etc. leaving readers to ask: “How did you suddenly become this expert?” “And who the hell are you anyway?!”

The reality is readers don’t trust you, they don’t know you and they will not listen to you. You might as well be talking to yourself.

Readers have actually become less and less trusting of bloggers due to the transient nature of the blogosphere. So, how are we, as bloggers, going to overcome that?

The 7 Reasons Why Readers Dont Trust You!

1) Telling the Truth — Selling (leveraging) someone else’s product or offering a review on your website are two common ways to make money, although it’s also an easy way to distance your audience too.

What blogger doesn’t have a story to tell about needlessly buying someone’s digital product? Hopefully, you’ll soon realize that it is not the product you are buying but the concept that surrounds it. I like to call this “selling the dream”. And many have bought into this idea hoping to create an online business, automate their blogging activity, and make significant money online. The “get rich quick” schemes and “money-driven” activities have NEVER worked and have caused many readers to second-guess who these bloggers really are and what they stand for.

Stay away from that as well as avoiding careless requests to sponsor a product too. Protect your blog’s community from these types of “fake endorsements”.

2) Advocate — When I created Source Blogger, it was with the idea that I was going to be an advocate for other bloggers. I felt I had a duty to provide them honest, principled content. Nothing has changed.

When your focus solely surrounds “creating an online business” or “pushing your agendas” for the purpose of creating your own notoriety, you’ve lost sight on why we blog…which is for the reader. Not you.

Having the reader’s best interests goes a long way. Readers, just like animals and children, can sense insincerity a mile away.

3) Transparency — Developing relationships is often about trust and transparency. No one is going to trust someone they don’t know. Readers want a blogger to be accountable if some coding does not work or some advice backfired.

Anonymity is not the secret to success online. Readers identify with people. Whether you have an online business or not is irrelevant. Readers want to know who you are and what you look like. They also want to know what you think, in your words, and what your background is.

If you are not prepared to share yourself, be prepared for major road blocks.

4) References — We use references to support our “main idea” or “main concept”. It’s really no different than what were you were doing in college, writing papers, whether in APA or MLA format. You referenced where your information came from and gave credited who wrote it.

In the insurance industry, a warranty is a statement of fact by the insurer.  A representation, on the other hand, is something that the insured believes to be true to the best of their knowledge.

In blogging, a lot of what we offer a reader is based solely on representation — meaning that we only have to believe it to be true. Maybe we like to operate under this umbrella due to a sheer lack of accountability and a responsibility to provide accurate information— which is very different from conventional journalism.

The best way to overcome this is to seek supporting documentation. For blogging purposes, this is simply supplying links to other credible, online sources.5) Unavailability — How many times have you:

• Clicked over to blog and have no clue who the blog’s author is?
• Wanted to reach out to a blogger only to see he/she has no Contact Form?
• Hunted for a Facebook or Twitter link on a blog’s page only to find it did not exist?
• Submitted a comment, only for that comment never to appear or take a week to be moderated and show up on the site?
• Asked the blogger a question only to see him/her respond to their regulars, ignoring you?

This a sure-fire way to waste the opportunity to connect with someone online, isn’t it? You may have just lost out on someone who really wanted to be active within your blog’s community and is now turned off by their reception.

6) Regurgitating Info From Other Bloggers — This generation’s motto (supposedly) is to  “question everything”. Nothing attacks your credibility more than repeating something you heard online and lazily adopting it to your beliefs…without fully analyzing why. To make matters worse, you will regurgitate these ideas to your readers. You’re not providing any value when you do this. And a lot of the information you are duplicating can actually be false or harmful.

I’ve seen bloggers struggle to answer questions in their comments section because they copied and pasted something beyond their realm of understanding.

Just don’t do it. You have the right to “original thought”. You are not bound to the majority. If your main concern is wanting to be “politically-correct” and be everyone’s friend, you are actually performing a disservice to the blogosphere. What is your value proposition?

But, on the other hand, if you feel your ideas just have to be contrary to everyone else’s, this will not do much for you either.

7) Ranting & Raving — It’s great when a reader feels you are advocating on his/her behalf and exposing something that could potentially harm them in a negative way.

But, there is an effective way to bring something to a reader’s attention. Insults, cursing, personal attacks, and being too personal or overemotional will cause you to bleed the loyalty of others in a hurry.

Stand your ground, defend your point, but realize when it’s time to move on. Maintain your professionalism at all times. Someone is always observing you through comments and social media interaction. Always.

Wrap Up

Dealing with the public online has its disadvantages. We can’t listen to changes in tone, or see variances in body language or facial expression — meaning we can’t judge if someone was offended, insulted, or felt ignored by our actions. We have to rely on putting ourselves in the place of the reader and asking ourselves how he/she would feel in particular situations.

Remember, when a reader doesn’t trust you, he doesn’t like you. And we don’t want that to happen. When used right, your blog is a powerful tool for discussion and networking.

You can never take the loyal, active blog reader for granted. Trust me, there’s too many other bloggers that could be far more attentive to them.