Online Communities Are Built On Trust
Commanding Influence: Build A Strong Online Presence
I grew up in a small town where everyone knew and trusted everyone else. We didn’t lock the doors on our houses or our cars.
If I saw the neighbor kids sneaking around our house in the dark of night then I knew that it meant only one thing…I could run outside and join in a festive game of hide and go seek.
We didn’t need to organize some program or post neighborhood watch stickers. All of our neighbors were watching our house and we were always watching our neighbor’s houses.
If we forgot and left the garage door open when we left the house, nothing would be stolen. One of the neighbors would walk over and close it for us.
On one occasion, I had just arrived home for summer break from college and I had arrived a few hours earlier than I had told my family I would be getting in. My family wasn’t home. They were out at Wal-Mart or something. I parked and let myself in. I didn’t need a key. I just let myself in using our secret button.
My dad had installed a garage door opener button inside of a wall where it couldn’t be seen. He then drilled a small hole in the wall and set a nail in the hole so that it barely stuck out of the wall. It looked completely like part of the wall. I pushed on the nail and the garage door opened and let me in.
A few minutes later, I received a phone call from my mom. “Are you already home?” she asked.
“Yeah…why?”
“The neighbors called and said that someone in a PT Cruiser just broke into the garage.”
Apparently the neighbors couldn’t tell it was me from a distance and they just wanted to play it safe so they called my folks. I had just been gone for several months so I can’t really blame them. But the bottom line is that they were watching out for us.
A Good Community is Built on Relationships and Trust
That’s just how it was where I lived. Maybe it’s because of the size of the town. There were, after all, only 950 people in my hometown of Franklin Grove, IL. Soon my RSS subscribers will pass up the number of people who live in my home town. I certainly wouldn’t trust my neighbors here in Washington DC to watch out for me in that same way.
That hometown community trust was comforting. We all enjoyed it. We built great relationships around that trust that impacted the way that we did business together.
If the neighbor girl was selling Girl Scout Cookies we would always buy several boxes to support her and her Girl Scout troop. When the neighbor boy sold Boy Scout wreaths during the Christmas season we’d always get a couple.
Why? Because they were our friends. We wanted to support them and they did the same for us. We didn’t feel like they were trying to take advantage of us or trying to get all of our money. We trusted them and we believed in and supported their goals.
Too many bloggers are looking only at the technical aspects of running their websites and they’re forgetting about the human side of it. It’s certainly important to build a beautiful theme, to provide amazing, entertaining content and to focus on traffic, subscribers and stats. You’ll hear me advocating all of these things and a whole lot more right here at Site Sketch 101.
But here’s the kicker. If that’s all you’re doing to build your blog then you’re missing out on the real key to success in this line of business.
If you want to make it big, build strong traffic, sell affiliate products and call people to action, then you’ve got to focus on building trust with your readers.
Focus on caring for people. As you consider what you’ll write about, how you’ll design your site, how you’ll optimize it for search engines, think about how it will benefit your readers.
A perfect example of this is the dofollow debate. Every link at Site Sketch 101 (including the comments) is dofollow. I won’t get penalized for doing that but I wouldn’t care if I did. It’s a great way for me to share page rank with my readers and that’s what I want to do.
Personal Reflection
What about you? When’s the last time you took a break from all the how-to’s of building traffic and actually focused on building a community around trust and common interests?
I hope and pray that you all will understand that I have your back and that I want to do whatever I can to help you as much as I can. That’s why I try to answer all the comments. That’s why I try to correspond with everyone and I invite everyone to feel free to contact me on Skype of GTalk. I want to help people grow and develop their websites.
Is that how you feel toward your visitors and readers? Are you actually trying to help them or are you trying to use them to move toward another click on your Adsense banners?
Remember online communities are built on trust.
Nicholas Cardot
Nick uses his blog Site Sketch 101 to express his passion for helping bloggers and webmasters connect with real people through brilliant designs, unique content, and genuine creativity. Nicholas Cardot has 199 post(s) at Site Sketch 101
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- Online Communities Are Built On Trust | Blog Mixer
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42 Vibrant Comments
I would love to hear yours!
Phaoloo said:
I like the place you told “I grew up in a small town where everyone knew and trusted everyone else. We didn’t lock the doors on our houses or our cars.”
Totally agree with your point here. Building authority and responsibility on social media sites, blogs, forums etc. is a lifeblood task that every blogger should do now. It is even more important than getting traffic and creating quality content. It takes time and effort but it’s worth to do.
However, we can still easily see some guys out there active on internet using product names or blog names. So what happens when they launch a new blog or a new product? They build the trust from the zero?
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Phaoloo –> That’s a good question. That’s why I’m so adamant about branding myself as a human being. I want people to see my face and recognize me as Nicholas Cardot and not just as Site Sketch 101. This way if I launch a book, people will notice my name on it. If I launch a new website people will see my name. Whatever I do, I want people to relate to it based on the fact that I’ve built the credibility as a real person.
Robomaster said:
Something cool I noticed – When I first started blogging, I started at 0. No trust, no traffic, and to tell the truth, no money. The cool thing is that the trust is what got me the other two things: Once I got a few people who trusted in me, I got traffic (stumbling each other’s posts, promoting each other) and money (Guest post for $150).
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Dana @ Online Knowledge said:
Really agree. Strong trust from others which will stir our success in this blog world.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Dana @ Online Knowledge –> Trust is what it’s all about. You’ll absolutely magnify your success when you can build solid trust among your friends and followers. But remember that you can only build trust by demonstrating day after day that you are trustworthy. You don’t earn trust by demanding it.
izzat aziz said:
After reading this I think I should open to my reader more. I like you idea to openly accept people to gtalk or skype you.. i not even have contact form, that the first thing i will do in my next blog time, I also think I should send my thank you email to all who comment in my blog.. I want to do that before but I’m afraid they don’t like even I really want to say thank you.
This really great post and you have almost perfect town.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
izzat aziz –> I’m convinced that creating meaningful relationships with people is so much more important than just making quick sales or working to get a boost in website traffic.
Steven said:
I completely agree with you on this one Nick.
Although sometimes it is hard for new bloggers like me to focus something else rather than the subscriber and traffic stats. We could just feel so needy for the attention that we forget how people are not just stats but…actual human beings with fears and desires just like me.
I try to keep that in mind when I write my post and I believe my sincerity and appreciation of my readers has really helped as an indirect result of traffic.
So I thank you for stressing this idea, because it is very VERY important.
Steven, I shall tweet this.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Steven –> Thanks for the tweet. I appreciate those so much!
When you’re starting out or when your traffic is low, it can be very difficult to actually train your eyes on your readers and off of your stats. It can be incredibly hard. But if you do it, if will absolutely multiply your effectiveness.
Chris said:
It’s true that sometimes we post content in hopes of attracting “numbers” not “readers”. Lately, I’ve been trying to put myself in the reader’s shoes and ask myself, “What would I like to read most?” Sometimes it works but sometimes I just get writers block. It’s not an easy task, but I find when I think about it long and hard, I find a way to bond and build that trust with my readers.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Chris –> We really have to do that. If we don’t ask ourselves those questions and look at the answers realistically then were going to fail miserably at attracting and keeping readers in our blogging communities.
Robomaster said:
Wow that’s such a nice post! The image of a small town where everyone looks out for everyone else was such a great one – I can totally see how this fits in the blogosphere. Let me tell you firsthand, Nick, you’ve got yourself some loyal readers, and I’m one of them!
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Boni said:
This is a great posting, the story reminds me about peace in village… yeah, i think community needs believe each other.
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Robomaster said:
Sadly, no-one seems to trust anybody nowadays…
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Robomaster –> That’s because so many people are trying to take advantage of everyone around them. We’ve got to set ourselves apart and demonstrate genuine reliability to our followers.
Robomaster said:
True; this again supports the reasoning that true trust is essential.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Robomaster –> Exactly. It sure does. Trust is so essential. Even major corporation are trying in their commercials to convince people that they can be trusted. Just think about the commercials that you’ve seen lately.
chandan said:
Hi Nick I really agree with it that online community can help us for build trust.
I always try to use my own picture and my own thoughts for build my online community, for making our blog more popular we should have build one good relation with people.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
chandan –> I don’t know if an online community builds trust but I do know that trust can build an online community. I think that it’s important that we don’t get those things backwards.
Renz said:
for me, blogging is a better online community than web forums based on my experience.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Renz –> I suppose that just depends on the community. Some forums foster a great community and some blogs are able to do the same.
Robomaster said:
Good idea Chandan, using a picture of yourself helps build trust.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Robomaster –> Pictures actually do help. The more people are able to see you and identify with you as a real, legitimate person then the more you will be trusted and accepted.
Gabe | freebloghelp.com said:
Honesty is always in the top four traits leaders must have to succeed according to many references.
Anyway, many folks fail to establish credibility and even the ones who do, fail to maintain it. IMO, that’s one primary reason why so many blogs can’t get off the ground.
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Robomaster said:
So true! It doesn’t matter how ‘trustworthy’ you are if you can’t maintain it.
You have to sincerely care for your readers, not just fake it, or else you’ll never be able to keep it up.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Robomaster –> That’s exactly right. If you’re faking it then you are the exact definition of a con-man.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Gabe | freebloghelp.com –> What are the other three in your opinion?
Seraph said:
I really like how you wrote this article around the small town community idea. You are right about the trust thing. Great work!
Nicholas Cardot said:
Seraph –> It’s easy for me to relate with that because that’s really were I come from. That’s the mentality that I have and that I want to spread to my readers.
Robomaster said:
Hey Nick, what are you using to display the “My Latest Tweets” section in the sidebar?
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Robomaster –> It’s called Tweetable.
Robomaster said:
Two more questions: (apologies for buggin’ ya!)
How did you get your subscriber + follower count in the top-right hand corner? On my blog (the link is right above me), is there any way I could do the same thing?
Also, how did you add the “Email Newsletter” box into the sidebar?
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Robomaster –> Here’s a couple of links that mention how I post the subscriber and follower counts and I’ll write up a post about the email newsletter box sometime within the next week.
Display Your Feedburner Counter As Text
Display Your Twitter Followers As Text
Renz said:
The place I grew up is also good but not as good as yours. We can not leave our things unattended or keep our house and cars unlocked because, there are a lot of poor people leaving around our village. These people keep on stealing our properties. So, although we trust our neighbors, we do not trust poor people around our village.
In blogging, I also agree with you. We bloggers must build our relationship with our readers and for me, that’s more important than monetizing your blog.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Renz –> Me too. In fact, I think that it’s one of the most important things that we can do. I think that good relationships will take you a lot farther than making a quick sale while taking advantage of someone.
Robomaster said:
Something that doesn’t seem to be quiet as mentioned: we must maintain a steady trust not only for our readers, but also for each other! I can’t tell you how many times helping out other bloggers who are at a similar level with you will love to help you out if you help them.
In the end, it’s almost like the three Musketeers motto, “All for one and one for all!”
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Robomaster –> That’s exactly right. I’ve learned that in human relationships it really is better to give than to receive. I learned that when I actively work to outgive those around me that they often reciprocate by trying to return the favor by taking care of me. But we have to be the ones to start that cycle. Not often will you find others that will reach out to you before you reach out to them.
Robomaster said:
And that gets to yet another ancient saying, “Give before you Receive.”
And if you don’t receive, keep giving. That, ladies and gentlemen, will build trust.
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Claire said:
I completely agree – I feel it’s very important to engage with your readers. I certainly want to make my blog feel as interactive and as much like a community as possible. I want to know what they think and whether they have any suggestions to make things better.
When I’m surfing round, reading various blogs, I always find I engage more with those who have made an effort to use the personal touch rather than those who make the whole thing very ‘perfect’ and techy at the expense of their community.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Claire –> You’re exactly right. I think that engaging with your readers is absolutely essential to building a strong and genuine online community. What is it that draws you into a blog? Answer that question and then put it to work at your site. I’m constantly asking myself if I’m engaging with my readers in a way that I would like to be engaged by another blogger.
Olusegun Adedokun said:
I grew up in a university community and almost everybody knew everybody else too and it was great.
Trust in such a setting is built over years and neighbors grow into becoming close knit friends or at the worst respectable acquaintances.
I also know that gossip spreads very quickly though.
But the pros far outweighs the cons and usually most of us have an emotional attachment to our little community
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Kok Siong Chen said:
Yes! I agree with you. Like a couple, we need to give trust to each other to maintain a good relationship. However, how can we build up the trust between each other? I think sincere is important.
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