33 Ways to Enhance Blog Credibility

BLOGthenticity has posted "33 Ways to Enhance Blog Credibility." As they say:

To succeed, a blog must have practical value for its readers, rich content, easy usability, and strong credibility. A blog can boost its credibility and win the trust of its readers by adhering to these basic guidelines.

My comments to their post were as follows:

Sigh… you’re making this sound like real work! But, I guess it is what it is.

I saw no mention of “fun”, nor “passion”. Writing passionately about what you’re passionate about is supposed to be a good thing to appeal to blog readers. And if you don’t enjoy posting to your blog, eventually that fun deficit will become apparent to your readers.

I would also add the word “authentic” — readers are attracted to someone who’s “real” and has some appealing personality, and not some phony, plastic, corporate droid.I think one of the goals of a good blog is to leave readers expectantly awaiting your next post.

The issue of hype is something I struggle with. I think a little friendly hype is perfectly okay. Excessive or deceptive hype is of course not okay. Where the line is will depend on your personality. Some people can do more “good” hype than others. Is all promotion “hype”? Technically, the answer is yes, but most people are actually amused by a little mild hype. The real bottom line is simply “Avoid offending your reader.” Of course, it’s probably impossible to write anything that doesn’t offend somebody.

-- Jack Krupansky