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How Important is a Blogger’s Online Reputation?

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How important is a blogger’s online reputation, you may ask (especially if you are a blogger). Well, the answer is easy – pretty darn important!

Readers want to trust the people they read. They want a kind of relationship.

It’s a lot easier to forge one when the blogger has a good online reputation, which can add to that trust factor.

Credibility

A blogger’s online reputation can add or take away from their credibility.

Credibility is one of the most valuable parts about blogging. If someone is credible, it can override other things. Maybe you’re not an expert, but you’re genuine and credible. You’ll pull readers in.

One of my favorite bloggers isn’t an expert; she has no degrees or certifications. But she is honest and real, and I can relate to her; there’s a connection. Maybe it’s her tone or the way she openly shares her stories, but I enjoy reading her style. I think if I found a lot of dirt on her reputation, I may have to think again about her, because part of her allure is the connection due to her credibility.

Readers want to believe and trust their bloggers, just like their news anchors and long ago newspaper columnists. If someone’s online reputation is discovered to be a mess, that believability can be much harder to garner.

Trustworthiness

Related to credibility is trustworthiness. When readers are investing their time on a blog on a regular basis, they begin to feel connected to the blogger. Maybe they’ll never contact the blogger or even add a comment to the site, but they are comfortable knowing they could if they wanted to; they feel safe in that venue with that particular blogger.

But if a reader comes upon a soiled online reputation, this trust may fade, if not completely disappear. A blogger’s online reputation can have a great impact on their trustworthiness and in turn, on their readership. Once something negative comes up about a blogger, it’s hard to regain that trust. That’s why it is so important to safeguard your online reputation.

Related Aspects

As a blogger, you may be looking for other outlets and opportunities. Maybe you don’t even want a writing job, but something else in your field, the one you blog about. A lot of bloggers do get noticed due to the success of their blogs, but if upon further investigation their reputation isn’t the best, this can interfere with any other job opportunities.

Again, people want to work with others they can trust.

Managing Online Reputations

Because anyone can write or post something about someone else online – true or not – anyone with an online presence should maintain close watch over his or her reputation. There are some ways to combat a bad online reputation, but it does take time and work. If the thought of managing this yourself seems too daunting, there are companies available that specialize in online reputation management.

The most important thing is to stay credible and trustworthy, and stay abreast of your online reputation just in case.

About

Heather Legg is a writer who blogs about small businesses, reputations, and she makes it a regular practice to stay positive in everything around her.

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{ 15 Responses }

  1. Tony Nguyen says:
    Google gives authority reward to blog that maintain good readership level, and people are looking only for blogs that they can trust. Online reputation is the key to success and if people aren't looking to build credibility, he/she shouldn't be in blogging business.
  2. Avnish Gautam says:
    Creating reputation online is the key of success of new age blogging. Because readers want to read blogs of trusted bloggers only. And trust generates after long time regular work of sharing useful and right information on blogs. Thanks.
  3. Gajendran Megajolla says:
    now a days online reputation is good way to create a great goal. it is really amazing. keep sharing.
  4. Tushar Thakur says:
    Agree with you. Blogging increase truth on that person. I have my friend example. He is a logo designer, because of blogging he is now famous amount the blogger community and getting more and more logo designing work. :)
  5. tushar thakur says:
    Credibility, quality content and your social networks are the most important to stand with great blogger. these three will help us to make our online reputation as higher as possible.........
  6. Joe Hart says:
    I think maintaining credibility is a more difficult task than gaining credibility...One small error could cost a lot of readership...There needs to be constant efforts to maintain quality while providing frequent posts..Really enjoyed this article..Thanks for sharing.
  7. Lewis LaLanne says:
    Hey Heather, This idea of managing your reputation is oh-so important and more so if you have any dirt on you that is easily accessible by public sources - bankruptcies, time spent in jail, etc. and you're gaining popularity. With popularity comes haters. Haters thrive on digging up dirt and "revealing" what you're hiding. This is why I think it's so important to diffuse the bomb before it blows up in your face and find a way to make it serve you. Now of course this strategy will scare anyone who is a genuine dirt bag mega-criminal psychopath because there's some things that are pretty much unforgivable in the eyes of the public. But if you've gone bankrupt or you've gone to jail for getting in street fights when you were younger or you've been in trouble with the IRS before, these are all problems "normal" people have experienced. Privacy is dead. All your dirty laundry is floating around in space somewhere. So it's better you bring things up and frame them the way you want to so that no one can hold you hostage and say you were trying to hide something. There's a reason there are no enduring invincible comic book heroes. No one can relate to perfection. Batman, Superman, Spiderman, etc all have weaknesses. One of the worst positions I feel any blogger could try to take on is that of being the perfect person. Especially if they're not even close to it. We all have our flaws. Some more than others. But by relaying them to our audience and letting them see how we've overcome dumb decisions/limitations/crises and how we currently manage current bad habits, we let them see we deal with the same human issues they do or someone they know personally does. People admire honesty and resilience. We root for the underdog. We love a comeback story. The key though is to be an example of someone who has successfully overcome disasters; not someone who is a disaster. If you're a disaster right now, best you stay away from the light, straighten yourself out, and then come back.
  8. Rashmi Sinha says:
    Great point to keep in mind for anyone trying to carve an online niche. As a fellow blogger, I second your thoughts about the kind of reputation that should precede a blogger for better opportunities and wider presence among his peers. Great post. Thanks for these valuable "food for a blogger's thoughts!!!!!"
  9. Mohd Aktar says:
    Nice strategies you have outlined here, Wow really amazing article you have written with so many new stuff.
  10. Cathy says:
    "The most important thing is to stay credible and trustworthy, and stay abreast of your online reputation just in case." I agree. Reputation is hard to build yet very easy to wreck. That's why there is a need to keep abreast of our online reputation daily. As well as monitoring our connections and contacts can also prevent anything that may give a probability to lessen our reputation online.
  11. Deepanker says:
    Online reputation helps in creating a big brand and attract good advertisers. We must take care of it. This post remind us not to forget this while blogging :D
  12. Donatella says:
    I fully agree with you, managing online personal branding is strategic for all of us expecially for bloggers. It is a strong commitment to be done on top of every other kind of marketing of promotion. I found the Google Authorship feature useful in this way Thanks Donatella
  13. Servando Silva says:
    Nowadays, not only in the eyes of your readers, but also on the eyes of Search Engines (Author Rank). Reputation matters, and you have to build it. This post is a sweet reminder about it.