Respect the People who Read Your Blog
“Hi! I’m Eric Stratton, Rush Chairman, and I’m damn glad to meet ya!”
That’s one of the great lines from the iconic movie Animal House and it’s easy to see why. Otter, as Mr. Stratton was called by his fraternity brother, was so earnestly phony. He wasn’t damn glad to meet any of those prospective pledges to the Delta house.
That’s how so many bloggers treat their readers. They don’t really care about them. They only care about what they can sell them.
Listen, making an honest buck is something we try to do. But too many bloggers treat the relationship with their readers in strictly economic terms. Oh they try to hide that by writing in conversational colloquialisms. They use little phrases and regional dialects to try to convince you they’re just average guys. But they’re not. They’re the modern version of the used car salesman. And they should be approached just as cautiously.
Even though a good blogger may want to sell you things either directly, through affiliate relationships, or through list sharing, you need to feel confident that any recommendation coming from a blogger is genuine. What are business bloggers to do if these are the models they see?
Provide your readers with genuine information.
If you give the people who read your blog genuine information, they’ll come to trust you. If you’re honest about when you’re selling something and your financial interest in a recommendation, they’ll trust you even more. Rather than becoming a master sales person, make your recommendation the gold standard.
Trust me, you’ll have more happy customers and they’ll be happy to recommend you to their friends and family. That’s the kind of community you want to build because it’s made of the kind of loyalty money can’t buy.
Sean Romanoff is a copywriter and online marketing consultant. He specializes in blogging, WordPress web sites, article marketing, social media, and all other aspects of creating an effective online presence. To contact Sean, just click here.
Tags: articles, blog, blog content, Blogging, Copywriting, Marketing, online marketing
