ProBlogger: How to Build Trust with Your Blog

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ProBlogger: How to Build Trust with Your Blog

How to Build Trust with Your Blog

Posted: 25 Apr 2019 05:30 AM PDT

The post How to Build Trust with Your Blog appeared first on ProBlogger.

This post is based on episode 151 of the ProBlogger podcast.

"All things being equal, people will do business with and refer business to those people that they know, like, and trust." – Bob Burg

A big reason many businesses start blogs is to build trust with customers so they can drive sales.

If we look at our own spending habits, we don't just make purchasing decisions based on features or price. We also make decisions based on whether we:

feel a connection to the brand
trust the brand
like the people selling (or creating) the product.

Over many years, I've found that blogging and podcasting are great ways to build a connection with potential customers.

When you create regular content that changes the lives of those who read it, over time people will come to know you, like you, and trust you.

So how can you speed up the process of getting your readers (or your listeners) to trust you?

Before we dig into that, here are two important things you need to keep in mind.

#1: Building Trust Will Take Time

It's important to realise that building trust takes time. Most of us don't instantly warm up to someone the first time we meet them. It happens slowly over time.

So don't try to build trust fast on your blog: it's not sustainable. Instead, think about building a solid foundation.

When I blog, I know a single post or podcast is unlikely to have a reader trusting me completely. It's better to take things step by step.

#2: You Need to Earn Your Readers' Trust

Think about the people you trust most in real life. Why do you trust them?

For me, it's about all the little interactions I've had with them – the times they've been generous, dependable, honest, accountable, vulnerable, or true to their word.

The same goes for blogging. It's little things over time that get readers to trust you. It's your track record of creating useful content that serves those who read it, and the consistency and dependability of your message.

Think about the value you can bring readers, and spend your time creating content that makes people's lives better, whether it's through your blog, a podcast or a YouTube channel.

Every time you sit down to write, ask yourself, "How am I going to change the life of my reader today?" It doesn't need to be in a big way. You might:

Give them some new information
Share the latest news in your niche, or apply it to their situation
Help them realise they're not alone.

These can all change people's lives in small ways. And if you keep writing that type of content, over time you'll build a real connection and earn your reader's trust.

So you want their trust to come about naturally. Having said that, here are a couple of ways you can nudge the process along a little.

Tip #1: What Other People Say About You Counts a Lot

If my wife Vanessa introduces me to someone she knows, likes and trusts I'm more open to trusting that person, even though I may not immediately trust them. And I'll have more peace of mind entering into that relationship.

The same happens online. You might have heard about this "social proof". And you've probably experienced it yourself at some point.

For instance, you're more likely to read a blog that's active and has lots of readers than one that clearly has very few readers. There's an element of social proof there.

To harness this power you might focus on building community and engagement with your readers. When you've got a warm community, people will be more open to trusting you because they can see that a lot of people already trust you.

Another way to get this type of social proof is having people of influence interact with you, talk about you, or trust you in some public way. It might be through interviewing influencers on your blog, or by guest posting on a larger blog. While these things don't guarantee trust, they will help people feel a bit more open to trusting you.

For more help with social proof, check out episode 114 of the podcast where I cover four types of social proof you can use on your blog.

However, social proof will only take you so far. It can speed things up a bit with helping new readers open up to you. But you still need to earn their trust.

Tip #2: Trust Grows Faster When It's Reciprocated

While I think it's true that people do business with those they know, like, and trust, I think it also works the other way around.

People are more likely to do business with you when they feel you know, like, and trust them.

Knowing your readers is pretty easy. You can find out their demographics and the kind of language they use.

Liking them has to be authentic. Do you genuinely like your readers?

I really love my readers on ProBlogger. One of the reasons I started the ProBlogger event was because I wanted to meet my readers. They're fantastic people. We have a lot of fun, and we enjoy each other's company.

Trusting your readers might mean being vulnerable – sharing how you feel about the problem they're having, and how you want to help them overcome it too.

Two Ways to Create Content that Builds Trust

When you create content, choosing the right tone and using personal language can help build trust. Aim to:

Create content that's vulnerable. Talk about the areas you're still learning about, the areas where you're still making mistakes, and the questions you don't know the answers to. This shows your readers that you trust them.
Create content that has some personal touches, or tells a story. This doesn't have to be deeply personal, but showing a little of who you are can really build a connection.

Ultimately, if you want to gain your readers’ trust you need to be trustworthy. Be transparent with your readers, act with integrity, treat them with respect, and keep your promises.

Once you have your readers' trust, treasure it. As the saying goes, trust takes years to build, seconds to break, and forever to repair.

Do you think your readers trust you? Do you trust them? Leave a comment below to share your thoughts and any tips you have for building greater trust.

Image credit:Form

The post How to Build Trust with Your Blog appeared first on ProBlogger.

ProBlogger: How Being a Good Listener Can Help You Write Effective Sales Copy

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ProBlogger: How Being a Good Listener Can Help You Write Effective Sales Copy

How Being a Good Listener Can Help You Write Effective Sales Copy

Posted: 18 Apr 2019 05:30 AM PDT

The post How Being a Good Listener Can Help You Write Effective Sales Copy appeared first on ProBlogger.

How being a good listener can help you write effective sales copy

This post is based on episode 146 of the ProBlogger podcast.

Before you start writing your sales page, promotional blog post, tweets or Facebook updates to sell something, you need to do something else.

You need to listen.

I first came across this advice many years ago, and since then I've heard from numerous people. Robert Bruce breaks it down very well in his Copyblogger post How to Become a Truly Great Copywriter, where he writes about three core ways you need to listen.

It's a short post, with three key paragraphs I want to dig into here.

#1: Listen to the Product's Creator

Robert writes:

Listen to the creator of the product you're selling. Let her talk (for hours if necessary) about what makes it work, why she built it, what she hopes it will do for her customers. This practice alone can give you the bulk of your copy.

Maybe someone on your team created a product or service your business sells. Maybe you're selling an ebook that someone else wrote. (All our Digital Photography School ebooks and courses have been created in partnership with someone else.)

Even if you created the product yourself, you might find it helpful to run through some of these questions:

Why do you want to create this product? Who's it for? (Or if it has already created, who did you have in mind when you created it?)

What are the benefits of the product? How do you use it? What makes it work? What's the product's 'secret sauce'? What problem does it solve?

Do you have any or worries about how your product will be perceived? What are they? (This is really useful information, as it lets you know the limitations of the product, or how it could potentially be misunderstood.)

Are there any similar products out there? How is your product different?

Over at Digital Photography School we ask a lot of these questions before the product is created. The author or creator gives us a description or outline of the product and tells us who it's for. This helps us decide whether the product will be a good fit for our audience, and how to market it.

Here's a simple example. When we launched Mike Newton's Adobe Lightroom course, we noticed that Mike kept using the words "mastering Lightroom" when explaining the course to us. He wanted to help people master Lightroom.

We liked that, and decided to call the course Lightroom Mastery. We used the word "mastering" quite a bit in the sales copy.

That's just one example of how an author's language helped shape the sales material.

This can also work if you're doing an affiliate promotion. Ideally you'd talk to the product creator. But if you can't then look at the sales copy they use, the blog posts they've written about their product, and interviews they've done with other bloggers.

#2: Listen to Your Audience

Robert writes:

Listen to your audience. What are they telling you — directly or indirectly — about what they really want and need? If social media has given us anything, it's an unprecedented ability to hear the demands and desires of real people, in real time.

I love this idea of listening to your audience when it comes to sales copy. This is something you want to do before you even start creating products. That way, you know your readers' needs and challenges, and get an insight into the language they use.

When you're writing sales copy, ask yourself some of these questions:

Who is the audience? Who will buy this product?

What are their pain points? What are their challenges? What are their problems? How do they express these – what language do they use?

What do they hope to gain? What are the dreams they hope could come true by using your product, or a product like yours? Again, what language do they use to describe these?

What are their fears? What questions do they have about your product, and what objections do they raise? (These may come out after you've launched your product. If they do you can edit your sales page, perhaps by adding Frequently Asked Questions section.)

You can also ask your readers about their challenges directly. When we were launching the Lightroom cause, I asked on the Digital Photograph School Facebook page, "What are your frustrations and challenges with Lightroom?"

Two themes came out strongly:

people had bought the software, but felt overwhelmed by it and weren't using it
people had so many photos they didn't have time to process them.

And so we weaved these two themes into our sales copy.

#3: Listen to Your Competitors

Robert writes:

Listen to your competitors. It's wise to have a view of the entire field. What's working in your market? What's not working? What can you learn from others' success and failure (and from the language that got them there)?

In the blogging space you can learn a lot from your competitors, who may also be your collaborators.

On Digital Photography School we often create products with people who are actually our competitors. The Lightroom course I've been referring to was created by Mike Newton, who sells similar products to ours on his own site. He came onto our radar when we were looking for affiliate products to promote, and we learned a lot by looking at how he was selling his products.

Knowing what other people are selling and how they're selling it can really shape what you do. Maybe the way they do their sales pages, their launch emails, or even their social media will inspire you.

If you're selling something at the moment, or if you're about to create your first product, do this listening exercise.

Listen to whoever created the product, whether it was you or someone else.

Listen to your audience and understand the language they use – this should be the basis for your sales copy.

Listen to your competitors and collaborators, too.

That way you'll be creating a product your readers will love, and promoting it in a way that shows how it can help them.

Image credit: Jeremy Vessey

The post How Being a Good Listener Can Help You Write Effective Sales Copy appeared first on ProBlogger.

ProBlogger: Why You Should Revisit Your Old Content – Regularly

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ProBlogger: Why You Should Revisit Your Old Content – Regularly

Why You Should Revisit Your Old Content – Regularly

Posted: 11 Apr 2019 05:30 AM PDT

The post Why You Should Revisit Your Old Content – Regularly appeared first on ProBlogger.

This post is based on episode 145 of the ProBlogger podcast.

Is your obsession with new content hurting your blog?

As bloggers, we tend to focus on what we're creating now rather than what we created months or even years ago.

Of course, it's important to put time and effort into creating new content for our blogs. And that's what we do here with both ProBlogger and Digital Photography School. We want to make those posts useful and practical, and to ensure they're well edited, attractive to the reader, and optimized for search engines.

It's good that we do all that. And it's also good that we promote our new content. We share it on social networks, put it in our newsletter, and encourage engagement through comments on the blog and on social media.

But here's the thing: The week your post goes live is only the beginning of its life online.

Sure, it will get a spike in traffic for a few days after it's published. But what happens in the months, years, and potentially decades after you hit 'publish' can completely dwarf those first few days.

That's why evergreen content is so important. I won't get into creating it too much in this post, but if you want to know more there are plenty of resources on ProBlogger including:

How to Build Your Blog's Audience with Long Form Evergreen Content
The Ultimate Guide to Creating Evergreen Content for Your Blog (podcast episode 136)
7 Types of Evergreen Content for Your Blog (podcast episode 209)

Why Your Archives are an Amazing Asset

If you've been blogging for a year or more, your archives probably contain loads of great content that can really help your readers.

It may take a while for your regular readers – particularly the newest ones – to get to those archive posts. But readers who come in from search engines are more than likely to land on one. In fact, when I looked at the Google Analytics for Digital Photography School, the 14 most recent posts got only 15% of the overall traffic. The remaining 85% went to older posts.

So don't assume your archived posts don't matter or aren't useful. They're almost certainly getting a large share of your traffic.

And don't assume the people who subscribe to your newsletter or keep coming back to your blog each week have read them either.

Here's how to focus more on your archives, which can provide a number of benefits.

Revisiting Archived Posts

Each day on Digital Photography School I look back at what we published six months ago (which will almost always be two separate posts), and ask myself:

#1: Is the content evergreen? If it is, I schedule both posts to be published on Facebook the following day.

#2: Is the post still relevant? If it's related to a promotion or competition that finished nearly six months ago, or linked to some news that's no longer relevant, I consider deleting the post.

#3: Are there any mistakes in the post? I look for errors in the post – factual errors, spelling mistakes, broken image, embedded tweets that no longer work, and anything else.

#4: Could I (or my team) improve the post? Maybe it can be enhanced by updating the image or adding some additional formatting to the text. It may even seem a bit dated. (This doesn't happen too much with six-month-old posts, but occasionally I need to make tweaks to keep them up to date.)

#5: Could we link the post to newer content, or link to it from newer content? This helps readers find their way deeper into the site. (It also helps a bit with search engine optimization.)

#6: Does the post need additional optimizing for SEO? This means looking at how it's ranking on Google and potentially tweaking the titles and keywords, or even the alt tags used for the images in the post.

#7: Could we publish a follow-up post tackling the same topic? If the original post got a lot of discussion going, the questions in those comments sometimes give me an idea for a fresh post. Or maybe I'll ask one of our writers to write a post that takes a different angle.

#8: Is it worth repurposing the post into a new medium? If the post has done really well, I consider whether it's worth turning the content into a podcast or video.

#9: Does the post need a new call to action? Sometimes the call to action we used six months ago is no longer relevant, and we may want to promote a new Facebook group we've started or new product we've released instead.

#10: Do any comments need to be dealt with? This where I delete any spam that has managed to slip through the moderation system. It also gives me the opportunity to reply to comments I haven't responded to yet.

#11: How is the post performing in Google Analytics? If the post has a lot of comments, or gets new comments regularly, I might look in Google Analytics to see how it's performing. If it's doing well, it's a sign I need to pay attention to that post. For instance, I might be able to get it ranking even better.

As I go through these questions, I usually find the posts only need a few small tweaks. But even if I don't update it, looking at that post helps me put it to the front of my mind.

Repeating the Process So You Cover All Your Posts Annually

Once I've done this for the posts from six months ago, I do it again with the posts from 12 months ago.

I get into a rhythm when I do it, so it only takes me a couple of minutes to look over each post.

I then go back 18 months, 24 months, 30 months, and so on – right back to the start of the blog in 2006.

All up it takes me about an hour. And it's one of the most valuable things I do each day.

I look at every post in our archive (of more than 6,000) at least twice a year. And many of them get little tweaks along the way.

You might want to try a different system, such as looking only at the posts published one and two years ago. Or you have some other way of looking at posts in your archives – some of which you may have forgotten were even there.

Why This Process is So Effective

When I share older posts on social media other people often share them too, which helps to bring in even more traffic.

And updating old posts can help search engines view them more positively – potentially bringing in a lot more traffic over time.

I also get loads of new ideas when I do this. For instance, if I see that posts on a particular topic are doing really well, I might think about creating additional content. A while ago we realized a lot of our Digital Photography School posts on Adobe Lightroom were doing especially well, which gave us the idea to create a course on Adobe Lightroom.

This process also keeps my archives from looking dated and out of touch. I don't want 85% of people coming to my blog thinking "Meh, this is no good. It's out of date".

You may not have an hour a day to devote to this. That's fine. Make a start anyway. Even spending ten minutes on one post in your archives each day can make a huge difference over time.

I'd love to hear how you maintain your archives and keep older posts up to date (and visible to your current audience). Feel free to share your tips in the comments.

Image credit: Matthew Dockery

The post Why You Should Revisit Your Old Content – Regularly appeared first on ProBlogger.

ProBlogger: Should You Use ‘He’, ‘She’ or ‘They’ in Your Blog Posts?

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ProBlogger: Should You Use ‘He’, ‘She’ or ‘They’ in Your Blog Posts?

Should You Use ‘He’, ‘She’ or ‘They’ in Your Blog Posts?

Posted: 04 Apr 2019 04:30 AM PDT

The post Should You Use ‘He’, ‘She’ or ‘They’ in Your Blog Posts? appeared first on ProBlogger.

Should you use 'he', 'she' or 'they' in your blog posts? This is a post by ProBlogger writing expert Ali Luke

You probably already know you should use "I" and "you" in your blog posts. But how do you use "he", "she" and "they" in your blogging?

It's an important issue, and one bloggers don't always think about.

Let's say you're working on a blog post and you've got a sentences like this:

If you want to hire a blogger to write for you, it's important that [PRONOUN] can provide you with relevant samples of [POSSESSIVE PRONOUN] writing.

What should go in the 'pronoun' spaces? There are several potential options, some of which are more appropriate than others.

Option #1: If you want to hire a blogger to write for you, it's important that he can provide you with relevant samples of his writing.

Option #2: If you want to hire a blogger to write for you, it's important that she can provide you with relevant samples of her writing.

Option #3: If you want to hire a blogger to write for you, it's important that he/she can provide you with relevant samples of his/her writing.

Option #4: If you want to hire a blogger to write for you, it's important that they can provide you with relevant samples of their writing.

Option #5: If you want to hire a blogger to write for you, it's important that it can provide you with relevant samples of its writing.

We can dismiss option #5 immediately. In most contexts, "it" sounds bizarre and dehumanising when referring to a person. (There are a few exceptions, such as "It's a girl!" when a baby is born.)

So which of the other four options should you pick. And why does it matter?

Option #1: Use "He" Because It’s How It Was Traditionally Done

If you want to hire a blogger to write for you, it's important that he can provide you with relevant samples of his writing.

A few generations ago, a sentence like this wouldn't have raised an eyebrow. (Well, other than because "blogging" wasn't a thing back then.)

Traditionally, "he" could be used in this type of sentence as a neutral pronoun to encompass both male and female. Old style guides might still suggest it be used that way.

But today it's rare to come across any writer who believes "he" can be used neutrally. Regardless of the intent, "he" inevitably implies the person being referred to is male, not female.

In our example sentence, using "he" might be seen as implying that freelance bloggers are mostly male (or even that they should be male), which is far from ideal.

One case where it might make sense to use "he" for hypothetical people is when you're writing for a blog aimed solely at males (e.g. a blog about prostate cancer). But it can still be an issue, as we'll come to when we discuss the use of "they".

Option #2: Use "She" to Make a Point

If you want to hire a blogger to write for you, it's important that she can provide you with relevant samples of her writing.

An alternative approach is to use "she". It's likely to stand out because it's not as common as using "he", which may be what you want. For instance, you might want to challenge the reader's unconscious assumptions by using "she" to talk about hypothetical CEOs or managers.

The danger with this approach is that, just like using "he", it can come across as exclusive and ruling men out of the conversation. It could also imply that you feel some roles are or should be female only (e.g. using "she" when talking about an assistant or secretary).

Again, "she" might make sense is if you have a blog aimed solely at females (e.g. a blog about breast cancer). But it can also be an issue, as we'll come to when we discuss the use of "they".

Option #3: Use "He/She" to Keep Things Equal

If you want to hire a blogger to write for you, it's important that he/she can provide you with relevant samples of his/her writing.

The advantage of this approach is people won't object to it on grammatical grounds. But if you do it for more than a sentence or two it becomes very clunky to read, which is a real disadvantage.

You could use "s/he" instead of "he/she", but that also starts to look clumsy after a while. And there's no real variation for "his/her".

Still, if you're writing something very formal or official then using "he/she" might be your best option.

Another alternative is to alternate between "he" and "she" in successive blog posts, or perhaps in successive examples within a single blog post. So you might write something like this:

If you want to hire a blogger to write for you, it's important that he can provide you with relevant samples of his writing.

[…]

Make sure you offer your freelance blogger feedback on how she is doing. It's unfair to blame her for not meeting expectations you haven't clearly set out.

If you're determined to avoid using "they" (which we'll come to in a moment), then alternating between "he" and "she" is probably the best method. But you need to make sure you are alternating (rather than simply throwing in a "she" occasionally), and that you're not using "he" for higher status roles than "she".

Option #4: Use "They", Either as a Singular Pronoun or By Rewriting the Sentence

If you want to hire a blogger to write for you, it's important that they can provide you with relevant samples of their writing.

This is my favourite option. These days I simply use it as a singular pronoun. I know some people dislike that, but it's become very common across all sorts of media. (It's also found in writing going back centuries, as the Oxford Dictionaries site explains here.)

There are several crucial advantages to using "they" in this way:

It's truly neutral
It doesn't look clunky like "he/she" or "s/he"
It's inclusive of non-binary readers

That third point is important, and may need some unpacking.

Some of your readers may not identify as being either male or female. This can be the case even if your blog is aimed at a particular biological sex. (If you're writing about breast cancer or prostate cancer, some of your readers may well be non-binary. You might also have transgender readers.)

The preferred pronoun for most of these readers is likely to be "they" (though there are other options such as "ze"), so using it as your all-purpose neutral pronoun makes great sense. That way you're including all your readers: male, female and non-binary.

But if you're strongly opposed to using "they" as a singular pronoun, there's a simple solution: rewrite your sentence to make the subject plural.

If you want to hire bloggers to write for you, it's important that they can provide you with relevant samples of their writing.

While it won't work for every sentence of this type, in most cases it will solve the he/she/they issue. No-one will fault you on your grammar, and it's inclusive of readers of any gender.

Why This Matters (Even Though It's Your Blog)

A few weeks ago the he/she/they issue generated a huge discussion in the ProBlogger Community group on Facebook.

One of the views there was along the lines of:

It's my blog. I'll do what I like, and if readers don't like it then I don't want them as readers anyway.

Another view was along these lines:

People get offended too easily these days.

While I can understand those perspectives, I disagree with them.

Of course we should be free to run our blogs however we like, and that includes the language we use. For instance, bloggers who swear frequently might feel it's a crucial part of their brand. And they're happy to pay the price of losing some readers who don't like that kind of language.

But I don't think we should see he/she/they as a minor, insignificant issue that people are just waiting to be 'offended' over.

Instead, it's an opportunity to bring about a more equal world where people of all genders feel equally valued and welcomed, which is hopefully something we all want. As bloggers and writers, we have an important role to play here.

Of course, in the end it's your blog and your choice about the pronouns you use. All I ask is that you give it a bit of thought, and consider that your assumptions (e.g. "Everyone knows 'he' can be used as a neutral pronoun", "Everyone is either a 'he' or a 'she'") might not be correct.

It's also worth keeping in mind that language changes and evolves over time. And that's a good thing. It means the words we use reflect the changing society in which we live. Just because a particular grammatical rule or guideline was in use fifty years ago doesn't mean it should still be used today.

How do you handle the "he/she/they" issue on your blog? Is it something you've already considered? Is there something you might change going forward? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Image credit: Tim Mossholder

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