Six Blog Credibility Tips

1) Use proper grammar and spelling. Sure, there's a lot of bad grammar on the web, and that's to be expected of the average uneducated schmuck. But if you are passing yourself off as a writer you have no excuse for bad writing. At least check your spelling.

2) Publish original content. Prove you are an authority on your subject. A good way to kill your own credibility is to offer nothing but regurgitated material, like summaries and links to other blogs, articles, and news. If you don't have, at the very minimum, an extremely unique point of view about something, why are you blogging anyway?

3) Provide evidence and supporting material for what you are saying. You can gain credibility by backing up your thoughts with stories, studies, examples, references, quotes, and other evidence. Just remember point #2, and don't create posts with nothing but stolen material.

4) Blog only when you have something worth saying, not simply because "it's time to", or someone said you should. I blog about once or twice a month. Others blog several times a day. Don't be influenced by what others say or do. Unless you blog for an audience that's illiterate, quality rather than quantity will sustain your blog over the long term.

5) Don’t ramble. Edit large posts into smaller ones if possible. Remember, there are blogs and then there are full-blown news, opinion, and editorial pieces. People are busy. Blogs should be concise, on-topic, and easy to read.

6) In terms of the physical layout of a blog, don't make advertisements the focus. First, that's a violation of most terms of service, and second, it will be obvious you are just making stuff up to blog about in hopes of making money from the ads. Having ads on a blog is fine, but if your content is nonsense, no one will ever come there to click the ads anyway.

Credibility Checklist For Business Web Sites

1) Eliminate All Typos And Poor Grammar: Spelling mistakes, incorrect use of punctuation, incorrect use of words, and other grammatical errors are more than embarrassing. Don't minimize the importance of this. Visitors who are literate can find this almost unbearable, regardless of the industry you are in. This sort of thing is particularly inexcusable because fixing this type of mistake should take a webmaster just minutes.

2) Correct And Up-To-Date Content: Your site must be accurate and current. Any changes, updates, or redesigns can easily be created offline and posted in one shot. You should never have to say "Sorry, we no longer offer that product/service", or "We just haven't put up the new prices yet", or "We're in the process of updating our site".

3) Prove You Are Real: Have photographs of key employees, photos of your office or facility, photos of products, photos of you with clients. Give real contact info, phone numbers, and street address. (Never reveal too much personal information about your people or your other clients.)

4) Prove You Are Legitimate: Make prominent use of client testimonials, employee credentials, courses, awards, community endeavours. Mention past accomplishments of employees and/or management. Tell how you created specific tangible results for a previous client.

5) Educate Visitors/Potential Clients: Giving free advice, free articles, free videos, useful internet links, and/or a routinely updated blog are all good for establishing credibility. If you can help your visitors learn or discover something new, it will stick in their mind and set you apart as an authority on the subject.

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