SEO BLOG

Trust by hcii.

Dear reader, if you’d ask me what the single most important factor in the success of my blog is I would reply: Trust!

Trust is a tool that enables you to communicate and work together with people.

In blogging like in business trust is the single most important factor of success.

SEO 2.0 is about both or both of them combined in “business blogging”. This blog succeeded in reaching the 1000 subscribers mark even during my absence while I was off line for 10 days.

1000 Subscribers*

In SEO 2.0 we often talk about reputation management or building. Reputation is the aura of being trustworthy, the message purported by others who already trust you. Those others trust you so much that they will recommend you to their peers or readers. On the web, where most people never see the actual person behind a blog or business, trust and it’s extension reputation are even more important than in print publishing or off line business.

Trust by guendal.

So before you think about personal branding and the likes you need the most crucial prerequisite: It’s trust.

Nothing is more useful to gain trust on the web than a blog.

Trust is a two way street. You trust others and other trust you or they don’t. In SEO trust is even more of higher worth than gold as this market is seriously hampered by it’s bad reputation.

Trust by thorinside.

So how to build trust with a business blog venture you can only do part time?

As a part time blogger I have always envied professional bloggers a little. You know, these girls and guys who spent all day and night in their basements blogging and who have thousands of subscribers and followers. There is no need to do that though: You can succeed as a part time semi-professional blogger like myself too. Focus on the trust, there are some very simple measures to gain some of it, skip

1. The Google ads
2. The undisclosed affiliate links
3. The overselling - “we offer the world’s best x”
4. The attacks on others to elevate yourself, Jason Calacanis may be famous but he’s is the least trusted person in the search industry, he’s even persona non grata in the search marketing community by now due to his hate marketing
5. The pyramid schemes where you make people join services you get commission from

On the other hand it’s not as easy as following solely this simple advice. You have to know what you are talking about, convince your peers and your niche leaders that you do. You can’t by only flattering them, you have to play in the same league based on merit, so you have to share what you know to enable others to asses your merit.

Last but not least you have to write like a god. I want to thank James of Online Marketing Banter who I entrusted this blog twice for guest posts recently and who assisted me in getting where I am with SEO 2.0. Weren’t I a gifted writer myself (and arrogant) I’d need someone like him to blog. He’s of course only one of the many who trusted me: My readers, my subscribers, my peers and the industry as well as blogging and social media mavens who link and refer to me. Your trust has made this blog this big. It’s your triumph too.


*On the day the last post by James was published SEO 2.0 reached 1000 subscribers, the number fell below 1000 on the weekend, which always happens on weekends due to people not logging in and Feedburner not counting them. The graphic is taken from one of my favorite blog measurement tools: Feedcompare.

Related posts:

1. Feed Stats: Do Your Subscribers Really Read Your Blog? Increase Item Use
2. How to Write for Subscribers: 10 Rules of Advanced Blogging
3. The Right Blog at the Right Time - 1 Year SEO 2.0
4. How to Blog: 7 Writing for Blogs Guidelines that Define Blogging
5. Common Blog Business Models: What Works What Not?