Be Transparent to Your Readers
By Ronald Huereca on Mar 23, 2007.
Being transparent to your readers will encourage trust and loyalty. In a world of first impressions, being transparent can mean the difference between a loyal reader and a reader that jumps ship.
Following in the footsteps of Tony Hung, I feel transparency is the most critical element of your blog. Nobody likes a “shady” blogger and I personally will stop reading a blog if I feel that I can’t trust the blog author or authors. Here are some steps to ensure that your blog is as transparent as possible.
Have an About Page
Tony Hung said it best when he described how to be transparent in an about page:
Do reveal as much as you can about yourself in the about page; Do reveal potential influences on your blog, particularly the monetary ones; Do communicate how advertising and content are separated; Do communicate when your content isn’t because its sponsored.
Adding on to Tony’s points, if you are going to run some type of contest (such as Reader Appreciation Week), do reveal what you will (or hope to) get out of it. Disclose that you hope to get more comments, or more visitors, or more feed subscribers. Be open. Tell what your readers will get out of the contest and then tell your readers what you hope to get out of it. Be forthcoming.
Disclose Paid Posts
With sites like ReviewMe and PayPerPost offering bloggers money to post blog posts, it is incredibly important to let your readers know that you are being paid.
ProBlogger had an interesting question posed based on if readers would be willing to read a post knowing it was paid. Some of the comments on the post were rather harsh saying that they would unsubscribe from a blog if they knew the post was paid for.
Regardless if you feel that readers will unsubscribe or your credibility will be tarnished, it is important to disclose that you are being paid. It is better disclosing up front rather than a reader finding out from somewhere else that you are hiding the fact that you are being paid.
In my opinion, not disclosing will be far more detrimental in the long term than disclosing up front.
Be Open About Your Sponsors
If you have an Amazon Associates account, any other affiliate-type accounts, please disclose these in your about page. On my personal site, I disclose that although I do have an Amazon Associates account, I do not try to make money (nor do I).
Don’t be Manipulative
It is pretty apparent when a blogger is trying to manipulate his readers into performing an action. This manipulation may be to persuade more feed subscribers, more comments, more sign-ups, or something else.
Please do not give “guilt trips” to your readers for not performing certain actions. If readers want to comment, then they will comment. If readers want to subscribe, then they will subscribe.
Conclusion
Being transparent with your readers can build loyalty and trust between the blogger and the reader. Although being transparent may lose you some readers, I believe that in the long-term, transparency will build a stronger and loyal readership.
Thank you for reading.
Transparency can be scary, though I think it is a beautiful thing. Sure, readers may not click on an Amazon link if they know you will make a commission from their click, but since you let them know that your blog will make money and the readers will still get the same Amazon prices as if they were not buying through your link, many readers still go ahead and click.
I like how Daniel is open about his sponsors. Recently he announced a new sponsor to his site. In my view, that is disclosure. The site already lists the sponsors under a heading “Sponsors”, though announcing and bringing up new sponsor developments to light helps readers realize that the site they are visiting has sponsors and that the users are probably not being manipulated into trusting the sponsors unconsciously.
Transparency shows others that you are willing to share some personal things that you are not obligated to, but sharing those things will help the other person benefit more through realization and knowledge about how something works.
Comment by Bes — March 24, 2007 @ 5:54 pm
[...] biased towards web hosts in their writing in any manner? Should you worry or not worry about being transparent to your readers in your [...]
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