credibility

make money online blog It doesn’t take a lot to figure out that most of the bloggers who are trying to make money online is blogging in the dirty polluted make money online niche. Simon from Teenius.com has written a superb guest post here in this blog on whether you can still make money from the mmo niche or not. I’d recommend you to read that post as he has pointed out valid points about that topic.

Only a small fraction of bloggers in the MMO industry is actually making money (not a secret) from talking some craps about making money and the rest simply do not make anything. Listen, if you are a noob reading this and you’re planning to start a make money online blog then please don’t. Don’t and you’d thank me later, I swear. 😉

Credibility

In any niche, before people could even notice you on something you must establish credibility first and foremost. A good reason why a huge chunk of bloggers aren’t getting read is because they are not credible enough to pay attention to. Who would like to read an “expert” tip written by some Average Joe? “Heck, how would I even know this guy is for real?”

In MMO Niche, the only thing you need is…

…The actual experience of making money online. Yep, that’s right. In this business, today, you’ll never ever succeed talking about making money online if in the first place, you have no idea on how to do it!

I know what you are talking. How about the “follow me as I make money online” or “track the journey of a 12-yr old student on making money” kind of concept? The answer is those concepts are already obsolete. It doesn’t work anymore. A good number of people have probably had some success with that but right now, it’s already outdated and lame!

People are critical. If you speak on something that you really don’t know, even if you’re claiming it’s just your personal opinion, you’re gonna get busted. And the news that “your blog is just a crap” spreads faster than good mentions. You don’t want to ruin your ENTIRE name just because of this mistake.

Dig Deeper in what you really know

“How about you Melvin? You are blogging in the dirty niche; do you have an experience with the crap you’re talking about?” The answer is yes. If you are a long time reader of this blog, you probably already know everything about me. How I started within a sports niche, got into the beginners mistake of using Adsense ONLY, getting into internet marketing, making a ton of money (ton w/c is equal to my standards. 😉 ) with affiliate marketing, engaging into some blackhat, doing freelance work (for startup cash), doing SEO-related stuffs, and a whole lot more.

I probably am qualified (or not) to talk into this niche, but I beg not to. Why? Because mmo is already a niche that has a lot of qualified people to speak into. In fact, these are people who know MORE than what I know.

So instead I just dug deeper and went into the marketing part of blogging. I am an internet marketer, have bought tons of stupid eBooks, got enrolled in a lot of quality coaching programs and have about 3 years of experience. And that’s why I try to incorporate all of this into blogging where I know I’ve done well because of the fact that I have the knowledge on how to market my sites.

Ok enough self promo. We all want to make money online and become (or look like) expert in our own areas. But don’t do the mistake of getting into something, just because you feel it’s ideal. You cannot claim yourself as a blogging expert if you just write crappy articles, you can’t fool people you are a loss weight expert if you yourself aren’t fit.

Hmmm.. Is there something fishy that we need to know about you? 😀

Image Credit to: Paradigm Business Consultancy

It’s not Being Controversial, it’s just being me

I don’t think a lot of bloggers have this attitude but when I write, I just speak myself out. I try to be as spontaneous as possible and I think it speaks very well on how transparent I am. But that doesn’t mean that I am being irresponsible. Obviously when you write based on how you feel, you’re most of the times wrong. And that’s what I try to avoid. I can always assure you that I do my research or own study before really speaking on things. For all those people out there, it’s crucial. If you don’t do your research first, it may ruin your credibility.

Back to being transparent, I think most people here have liked my spontaneity and personality. That being said, it’s equally important as well to try to connect to your readers by just being your own. Sure at times we feel quite pressured not to sound too personal (and quirky) fearing to lose our credibility, but the truth is what all our readers care for is our own view on things. You could talk about this, talk about that and talk about all those latest trends but at the end, our readers will only care on our own tack on those issues and that’s why they comment on the first place. They either agree or disagree.

Controversy gives more risk as a blogger

A lot of people have gone down to this path. They start a blog, and to make a shortcut or to get noticed quickly, out of nowhere they hit big bloggers/people. They try to criticize them even though it’s not reasonable, they tend to create a lot of controversy so that they can get traction in as little time as possible.

I would tell you first and foremost to avoid that tactic. It’s an old blackhat practice and I don’t think it is going to work if you do it solely for bullshitting other people. Sure it can yield you great spikes in traffic but unless you give people enough proof on those, all of those craps are just deemed claims. And claims are just stuffs that you should never believe into.

Striking a balance

All in all it boils down to striking a balance between both. I am always a firm believer that you can get more people to read you by just being yourself, not pretending to be a lawyer or what. On the flip side, more people will actually then BELIEVE you by doing your research, thus boosting your credibility as oppose to just reading you.

Striking a balance is quite a work if you ask me. Sometimes we tend to be not fair but that’s where our readers come and rescue us. I always feel glad, actually really glad when a commenter opposes to what I believe and then explains his side on the comments.

What do you think about this topic?

The Only Thing You Need When Starting an MMO Blog