How You Can be Just Like the Top Bloggers Today

ConfidenceSince I’ve been blogging, I’ve noticed something that sets apart top bloggers. Other than huge amounts of traffic, what do these bloggers have in common? As part of my ongoing blog traffic series, I’m going to share the single most important trait these bloggers share and how you can have it, too. What is this magical trait?

Top bloggers write with confidence. There are bloggers who write so confidently that their opinions are accepted as fact. Bloggers who convey an air of competence (whether they really are competent, or not) tend to build a following much quicker than those who don’t write with confidence. In other words, confident writing leads to a big increase in blog traffic. Not only does writing with confidence bring more readers, it also creates loyal readers. In fact, writing confidently is one of the surest ways to link that “guru” title with your name.

Whether it’s inherent in your personality or not, you should write with confidence if you want to see a steady increase of traffic to your blog and develop a loyal readership. If you don’tfeel confident, you can still sound confident. Keep writing confidently, and soon your feelings will catch up.

So, George, what makes a post sound confident?

A large part of communication is non-verbal, but as bloggers we’re limited to written communication. So, the single most important thing you can do to convey an air of authority is to watch your vocabulary and your voice. Your vocabulary is the words you choose, and your voice is your style.

For example, if you’re using a lot of words like “sort of”, “maybe”, “it could be”, “sometimes”, “perhaps”, etc.— you’re not writing with confidence.

If you find yourself saying things like, “some people think the program is a rip-off” when what you mean is “I think the program is a rip-off”, then you’re not writing with confidence.

Over use of qualifiers, such as usually and often, makes you seem wishy-washy. So does referring to the experts for things that are a matter of common sense. Do you really need to say that experts indicate not writing on your blog for a year will result in a drop in your traffic?

Just say what you mean. We know it’s your blog, which implies everything on it that doesn’t quote a statistic is your opinion, so we don’t need to read “I think” or “in my opinion”. Just spit it out. Remember what I said at the beginning about experts whose opinions are accepted as fact? That didn’t happen by pointing out that everything they say is just an opinion.

If you are beating around the bush, trying to be politically correct or afraid someone’s going to call you out if you make a misstep, your readers will smell your fear a mile off. And when you say, “listen to me” their response will be “why should I?”

Here’s a quick exercise to boost your confidence as a blogger.

Often, people write about their biggest mistakes on their blog (I’ve done it myself). Used in a very limited way, this can be appropriate and may lend you an air of approachability and relatability, but does it boost your confidence or your confidence rating with your readers?

No!

So, here’s what you should do. Go write a post about 5 things you did right or 5 successful experiences you’ve had in your niche. What makes you an expert worth reading? Here are some ideas to get you started:

“Five reasons I am good at ”
“Five Things I Did To ….” (increase traffic, make a million dollars, etc.)
“5 Things You Should Copy From Me”

Let me know about your posts in the comments. Writing about your positive achievements will not only make you feel more confident, it will show your readers how competent you are, thus giving them confidence in you. Go on now, get to writing…