As a successful freelance blogger, I am often asked by clients and peers if there is a secret to making money blogging. There is no magic recipe, but an important ingredient is building trust.  Any decent relationship is built on trust. Without it, you have nothing more than two people in a room. Violate it…and you’ll spend a lifetime working (often unsuccessfully) to get it back. Earning and maintaining the trust of a significant other is hard enough, but a bloggers’ job is even tougher. You need to earn/maintain the trust of strangers. Hopefully, lots on them.

Building trust doesn’t happen overnight, but it’s an important ingredient to cook up a winning product. Here are few tactics to employ in order to build trust on your blog, and in turn, become a better blogger.

– BE YOURSELF. Successful blogging requires that you insert yourself into the written world. Not every blogging situation calls for it, but if you are looking to build an audience and earn readers’ trust, you need to give them (at the very least) a glimpse into who you are. We trust people we know, and if readers don’t know you, how can they trust you?

– STICK WITH IT. The longer you blog, the better your odds of earning trust. It shows people that you are in it for the “long haul.” In a world where many blogs fizzle and disappear after a few weeks, readers will not vest themselves until you prove that you will not “abandon” your blog. Also, the longer you keep you blog running, the more you prove your commitment (not to mention, search engine love). Quality beats quantity, but standing the test of time will earn you some clout. [Read more…]

I have had the good fortune of hiring lots of bloggers and other content creators over the past 10 years.  When staffing any editorial position, whether it’s a one-time gig or a full-time career, there are certain traits/abilities I look for.  Obviously, strong grammar and command of the English language are essential skills. However, there are other things I like to see in a blogger as well.

CREATIVITY
One of the biggest challenges a busy freelance blogger faces is conceptualizing article topics. Bloggers are a dime a dozen.  But bloggers who can produce compelling content are a much rarer breed. Interesting articles generally begin with a thought-provoking topic. Hiring a blogger who can come up with ideas on their own, as well as enhance the topics I have provided, is a tremendous asset and a big time-saver for me!

A RE-WRITER
You’ve undoubtedly heard some variation of the expression, “every good idea has been taken.”  That being said, almost everything has been written about in some form or other. The best bloggers can take pre-existing content and quickly put their own spin on it, turning it into 100% original content. From adapting press releases to covering a topic that has been explored a million times, good bloggers can customize on the fly and deliver a written product that cuts through the noise. [Read more…]