Credibility and Affiliate Links

Maybe you have your blog search engine optimized. Maybe you made it usable. And accessible. And you favor lightweight code, using XHTML and CSS. And you got the most interesting content. These are all cool
features, indeed.

But once you've been blogging for a while, you realize credibility is your most important feature. And you can't make a backup of that. Because once you lose it, some readers may be gone forever -- or if they'll stay, they won't read your articles the same way. Imagine me jumping around the stage now, sweaty, a maniacal gaze, Steve-Ballmer-like, shouting "Credibility! Credibility! Credibility!"

You can lose your credibility in a variety of ways. In the past, there were several things I did on my own blog which have then be criticized by my readers. And I'm happy for that feedback, and after sleeping on it for a night, usually realize it's right, too.

Take affiliate links, for example. I used to write about books in my blog, and then I "affiliatified" the links using my Amazon affiliate account. Now, two things to keep in mind here. I never made a living out of that. In fact, I couldn't even pay a coffee a day for that. Or a coffee a week. I just chose to make affiliate links out of them because it didn't cost anyone anything, and the money would otherwise have been wasted. Second, and that's even more important, I never wrote about something just so I could cash in on affiliate sales. (In fact, even if that would have been my intention, my readers would have noticed quickly and left the building.) Also, I might add, the affiliate status of the link was easily visible to anyone hovering the cursor over it, so it's not like I had anything to hide.

And I still stopped using affiliate links after initial feedback. Thinking back on this issue, I wonder how I could ever feel like including them was OK. Credibility! You should never, ever mix ads and content. And affiliate links are a form of "sponsorship." Never, ever. Even if Amazon would pay well, this isn't worth it.

"Like separation of church and state," someone who wrote articles for my blog agreed when I declined for him to advertise on my blog as well. Whenever you think of a "harmless" way to mix ads and content, it still might put you in a weird position -- so better don't.

Or, take another issue; certain text links. I used to link to Directories (I clearly labeled them as "advertisement" or "sponsored links"). These days, I wouldn't, and even though I had offers for such links, I decided to reject them. Why? Because too many directories are spammy -- that is, they're large zombie farms with AdSense stuck on them. Now I personally know many great directory makers, and many great directories. The point is, the whole "genre" is so contaminated, a few good directories won't help the reputation. Credibility! If the text link is completely unrelated, ask yourself if your readers may find it annoying (or more than that). And if it's at all shady, run. I can't tell you if this will make money in the long term, but indeed it's your only long term chance at all at making money.

My advice here; find one or two sponsors you trust, and give them all your ad space. It helps your blog if it's not too much crowded with ads, too (it increases the ad relevancy for your readers as well as your sponsors).

One of the most serious offenses against credibility isn't related to ads. It's simply related to truth. In a nut-shell, the more truth you output in your blog, the more trust your readers will have in future scoops. And the more they do, the more they'll help you communicate such scoops to other blogs, or mainstream news sources. And along come more readers. If, however, you are known to transport rumors, people will stay away from your writing.

Now that doesn't mean you can't report on rumors. Where's all the blogspace fun if you're not allowed to do that? Blogs are often faster than mainstream news (there's a reason for that; people expect us to break news, and we aren't financially backed in such ways that we could spend a month to go out and research). Speed is our best attribute -- but speed without quality is worthless. Thus, when I report on rumors, I end my post title with a question mark (like "this?"). And I mention the word "rumor", or a variant in my post.

"What," you may ask, "if I don't know if it's true?" Well, that's a tough one. First of all, you can tell your readers openly what you know and don't know. You can say, "So and so said ..." or "This blog wrote ... but I don't have any confirmation from company x yet" or "A trusted reader who wants to stay anonymous emailed me that ..." Over time, you know who to trust, and your readers will tip you off on scoops if you're a news blogger. Credibility! Just don't commit the sin of simply trusting a website, or trusting someone who emails you, no matter what the website says is true, and no matter who the emailer tells you he is. Do confirm by checking different sources. Do try to see how much a certain source can be skewed (say, a Wiki entry).

"What," you ask, "you never make a single error? Impossible!" Well, that's impossible indeed. So the best thing to do for me is to report in my blog when I did make an error. That clarification should get the same weight as the original post; strike a balance between the wrong you did, and the good you now do trying to correct it. Your readers will always offer you corrections to your post in the post's comments, and you should react on those fast and change what's necessary. Because without credibility, you lose the ground you stand on -- whether you use your blog tool as non-commercial means to communicate to many people at once, or you're communicating while trying to make money from it at the same time.