Tell the truth!
I find it funny how the reputable bloggers of the world become the most successful based solely on telling the truth yet oodles of bloggers struggle because they do not tell the truth. Anyone with eyes to see easily understands how gaining blogging credibility is a matter of:
- following your blogging passion
- practicing your writing
- creating generously by solving reader problems
- connecting generously by serving fellow bloggers
for a long time.
But during this process fear seems to dominate the minds of most bloggers. Fear calling the shots? Bad idea. At best, you struggle, fail and quit blogging. At worst, you begin lying to create an image of success you have not honestly, truthfully achieved on your own. Or you teach success-promoting methods with reaching these goals yourself or giving full credit to fellow bloggers who taught you these methods. Sorry guys; being truthful means giving credit where credit is due.
Mick Meaney is one of the top internet marketers in the world. Do you want to know why? He has put in over 2 decades of work to master the skill of internet marketing but he did so in genuine, credible, truthful fashion. His painstaking practice, diligent work and value rendered positioned him to be the best but his honesty rocketed him to the top in a sometimes less than honest niche.
How does Mick attract upwards of 30,000 visitors daily to a single website? He patiently and generously worked to position himself to experiencing this level of success but telling the clear truth propelled him to experience these gaudy numbers.
On the flip side, some internet marketers allow fear in their mind to influence them to not tell the truth. The split second these individuals omit or hide the truth – or outright lie – resistance begins to form. Perhaps these less credible folks attract 5,000 site visits daily to their blog through their skill work but a curious thing happens; a growing army of critics hellbent on exposing these fraudulent types come out of the woodwork, administering a sense of cosmic justice, damaging reputations and putting a cap on the daily number of visits to 5,000.
I have seen this happen many times during my 13 year career online. Someone experiences some sweet success, begin lying or simply hiding the truth, and their success partially or completely vanishes due to lying-related resistance.
How do you avoid this nightmare? Tell the freaking truth to gain credibility.
I am far from perfect but I simply do not lie when it comes to my blog and business. I cannot recall even embellishing or hyping up the truth once during my 13 year career online. If I did, I heartily apologize but even so, I built up my karmic brownie points by being brutally honest about my wins, losses and all in between for my blogging career. I truthfully explain how anyone can become a blogger who circles the globe but this is hard, sometimes highly uncomfortable work to put in daily for many years of your life.
Be credible by telling the truth. This sounds not like rocket science but you may be surprised at how scared people driven by fear, greed and desperation begin not telling the truth to squeeze money out of people. No one succeeds long term by lying; most fall flat on their face pronto.
Tell the truth. Be seen as being credible by being honest, transparent and upfront. Share only your accomplishments to be genuine. If you do share someone else’s accomplishments link to the successful blogger and make it abundantly clear how THEY achieved this feat, versus either taking credit yourself or never mentioning that you did not achieve these goals.