Making money online can be a sore subject for most.
For many, talking of making money on the internet causes even the most intelligent of people to become defensive, hesitant, and even downright skeptical.
Why is this? I mean how could all of those people boasting of making 6 figures online be lying?
And the truth is, they aren’t.
When you look at detailed income reports from notables such as Pat Flynn, John Chow, Zac Johnson, and Matthew Woodward, you can quickly see the potential there is for making money online.
But why are people still so skeptical?
While it’s hard to come up with a sure fire answer, this would be my best conjecture:
Due to the relative “free-press” nature of the internet, there’s undoubtedly going to be a ridiculous amount of faulty information littering the corners of the web.
It’s this “faulty” information that makes the average person looking for ways to make money online increasingly skeptical of everything else they read.
As such, it’s absolutely vital to implement sound strategies for gaining the trust of every reader who happens to find your blog.
What follows are 8 easy strategies anyone with a blog can implement to gain the trust of readers – all the while helping to increase your sales and credibility along the way.
1. Be Transparent
Being transparent is by far one of the most VITAL pieces to gaining credibility with readers.
One of the best ways to be transparent, in my opinion, is to post an income report on your site. Doing this is a very effective way to not only grow the trust of readers, but also demonstrate to your audience that your money is where your mouth is.
The more detailed you can make your income report (as well as even showing your failures) helps your readers’ learn from your mistakes, as well as learn what IS working for making money online.
2. Make Videos
Making videos is a great way to interact with your audience in a very personal way. This is an awesome way to gain the trust of your readers as they see you explain why something you support is important.
This will help them to relate with you more, and also feel like they know you personally a lot better. Here’s an interesting quote I found concerning this:
“If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video could very well be worth a thousand sales.”
3. Have an earnings disclaimer
If you’re making money from your blog, it’s almost an absolute necessity to have some form of earnings disclaimer on your blog.
Whether this is it’s own personal page, or is simply a note you make on your “about the site” page, sharing with your audience that some of your links might earn you a bit of income can go a long way with readers.
Most people love to support their friends – and having a disclaimer can significantly increase the likelihood that your readers might come back and purchase specifically from your affiliate links to support you.
4. Share Your Deepest Success Secrets
You know what’s an absolutely fast-track way to gain the trust of your readers?
Sharing your deepest success stories.
Sharing the best strategies you use online is a sure fire way to build the trust of readers, as well as keep them coming back to your site. If you continually offer new and innovative pieces of information that work very effectively, you will quickly get set apart from the crowd.
The key to long-term success is getting remembered over your competition.
And what better way to do that than create absolutely amazing content?
5. Don’t Try for the Sale too Early
Trying to close the sale too early is an easy mistake to make. I’ve been known to do this in the past (but I’m definitely working on improving this).
Likewise, don’t bore and overwhelm your readers with affiliate links and reviews for products.
Often the most effective way to close a sale is to continually offer amazing content, while only occasionally promoting 1-2 things that you SOLIDLY believe in.
Matthew Woodward is an online income blogger that I follow and he argues this point a lot. Matthew has (in around 12 months) turned his blog into a moneymaking machine.
He earns roughly $10,000 per month and he talks of how he earns the majority of his income from only FOUR posts he’s written on his blog.
He argues that what drives his affiliate sales are that he tries to create unique and high-value content (found nowhere else on the web) that keeps his users coming back — and also buying from his links 🙂
6. Engage and Never Spam
Engaging your audience via social media is another way to earn the trust of your readers, as well as grow your own personal credibility.
I’ve struggled with this myself and have at times been rather ineffective at actually creating engaging content on social media. This was in part due to laziness, and not actually realizing how ineffective I’d actually been at this.
However, I’ve been working hard to employ some new sound social media engagement strategies to improve upon this, while avoiding spam at all costs.
7. Be Genuine with your Audience
There are many people that try to fake their way to success.
While this might work for a while, people eventually see through the superficiality. Likewise, don’t be afraid to be the nice guy. Everybody loves someone who is genuine, caring, and transparent.
It’s the genuine guy that a person trusts, not the guy who seems sneaky and somewhat fake.
8. Persist, Pursue, and Persevere Online
In the end, making money online can be tough.
While it’s certainly doable (and has a lot of potential), it definitely takes hard work, dedication, and persistency.
Don’t sell out too quickly.
Sometimes the tougher moments in life are actually the moments when things are the closest to improving for the better.
“Expect every setback to be a setup for a comeback.”
I think if you live by such a quote you may find yourself ever growing closer towards the dreams you’ve always dreamt of – while building an audience who wholeheartedly trusts you all along the way 🙂
Let’s Talk
What other ways do you use to gain credibility with your readers?