Build Your Blog's Credibility: For Beginners

No matter if you're a journalist, novelist, or blogger, there's one thing you must have in order to build a successful career as a writer: credibility. Credibility will help you make a name for yourself and acquire loyal readers. But credibility isn’t something that is obtained over night; it's something that's earned over time. There are some starting points that can help you earn that credibility however, especially if you're starting with the very basics: a blog.

Build your blog's credibility: for beginners is a guest post by Jane Smith

Build your blog's credibility: for beginners

State your source to build your blog's credibility

First and foremost, you must always state your sources. It's always encouraged to come up with a blogpost entirely original—something that has never been written about before. Originality alone can earn you credibility. But since there are so many bloggers out there, a lot of topics have already been covered. And chances are you'll end up writing an article that you were "inspired" to do after reading someone else's blog or news site. That's fine. Tons of creative people get inspiration from other people's work. However, you need to ensure that you don't come off as a plagiarizer and actually give credit where it's due, especially if the articles appear too similar.  


If you were inspired to write a blogpost from another site but manage to make it your own, don't be afraid to blatantly say how the idea came about, or what news source first broke the story. For example, you could say, "I'm an avid fan of hotcellphones.com; they recently posted their top smartphone picks for the summer, but here is my own list." That way, your readers will trust you and know that you're an honest person. You'll also want to ensure that you link appropriate sources, which leads us to the next tip—

Link to facts /studies to build your blog's credibility

Your readers want to know that what they're reading is well-researched and is reliable, accurate information. While your article can be filled with tons of facts and statistics that make your post sound legitimate, it's important that you show your readers they can trust what they're reading by linking back to where you originally found your information—and that information could be retrieved from authoritative sources and domains ending in .org, .edu, and .gov. 

Even if you're explaining the findings of a new study and CNN was the first to talk about it, do more research and find the abstract of the original study or the publication it was featured in. Sometimes news sources can get their information wrong and your readers will respect the fact that you did all of the necessary research to give them the right info.

Proof-read your work to build your blog's credibility

There's a joke that my colleague always likes to tell: "I'm a writer not a speller!" That may be true, but he's also a professional writer and has editors to help catch misspellings and other grammatical errors.  If you're running your own blog however, you don’t have the same luxury. Sometimes errors slip through the cracks. This alone could deem you as an unreliable source even if you are a spectacular writer and researcher.  Give your eyes a break before reading it for errors. Printing the article out and then editing it is also a good idea. A fresh new pair of eyes is always beneficial too. Here's a study to show the process of creating a well-written online article in order to build your blog's credibility.

Get References to build your blog's credibility

Similar to how novelists try to get great reviews from credible sources in the industry so they can have something good to say on their book jacket and get more media attention, you might want to aim for great reviews by fellow bloggers and webmasters. Typically, if you link to other bloggers sites they will return the favor. But if you're mentioned on someone else's blog, then you earn instant credibility. 
Recommended reading: How Do I Blog.

Byline:

This is a guest post by Jane Smith from background check. She is a Houston based freelance writer and blogger. Questions and comments can be sent to: janesmth161 @ gmail.com