Making Money is about Trust

If you want to make money on the Internet, you need to earn the trust of your readers. Trust is something you have to earn, it does not come easily. Readers have to trust that you are telling them the truth. Unfortunately, we live in a culture that does not trust. While the reasons are many and varied the reality is we don’t trust. Businesses value the bottom line over people and all marketers are liars, trust is not easy to find.

We all find different reasons to trust the businesses/websites we use. One of the online businesses I use regularly is Amazon. I trust Amazon because my experience of them has been good. The items I order ship quickly and the prices are fair. I have also read many good reviews of the company and I believe that I will receive the same level of service. Amazon has earned my trust and gets money from me because I trust them.

The same is true of the blogs I read. I trust the bloggers I read to give good advice and be truthful. For example: Problogger. I trust that the information from Problogger is good advice on blogging. He has been doing it a long time and from what I can tell offers good advice.

How do you earn people’s trust? Everyone will have different reasons for trusting your website or blog. Some people trust the bloggers that publish their monthly earnings. If those bloggers can make $xx,xxx amount of money obviously you can trust what they say. Some blogs you trust because they have given you helpful advice or because of how long you have been doing something. There is a reason I say that I created my first website in 1994 on my about page. It helps people trust that I know what I am talking about. How you earn people’s trust will depend on your website, but if you can’t earn people’s trust you will not make any money.

Here are some ways that you can help people trust your website:

• Have an about page.
• Have a contact page that people can use to get in touch with you.
• Create a blog to get to know people and let them get to know you.
• Reply to email, the sooner the better.
• Create a testimonials page or add testimonials to your website.

What are some ways you build trust with your website?