Ethical bloggers give.
A hefty volume of online influencers try to get.
Bloggers publish truly helpful content to solve specific reader problems. Readers appreciate the help. Readers trust the blogger based on the depth of the content. People love following practical steps to solve problems. Trusting readers buy blogger products. Trusting customers refer blogging products to like-minded people. Bloggers build a full-time business by following this simple process consistently.
Many online influencers attempt to manipulate people toward a specific end: making money for themselves. You know this because they keep trying to sell you something; usually an affiliate offering. Influencers try to shape opinions or manipulate purchasing decisions based on the word: “influence”.
People who attempt to influence others try to make others think and behave in specific fashion not necessarily to help the person but to get something from them.
Everyone needs to make a living. The world runs on the getting mechanism. Symbolically cannibalize another. Get something from the individual. Move on. The higher you go up the ladder this becomes par for the course.
I am not really of this world though. I live here. But I do not subscribe to common business tactics practiced in the world.
How Do Bloggers Go About Building a Business?
Listen to reader problems. Publish practical content to solve reader problems. Put the ball in their court. Give readers the power of decision. Let readers choose what to do next.
Consider this the “take it or leave it” approach I bandy about here on Blogging From Paradise Dot Com. Take my content or leave my content. I am on to writing the next blog post. Do whatever you want with the content. I publish posts to help you not to influence you to think or feel a certain way based on manipulative methods.
I DO NOT NEED ANYTHING FROM YOU. Sorry. But you should love this truth. I do not manipulate you because I am here to help you. Doesn’t it feel good to interact with someone who tries not to get something from you?
What About the Money?
Readers who trust my free blog posts click through to my Blogging From Paradise Store. Some buy my eBooks. Some buy my online course. Some happy customers refer my eBooks and online course to people who’d benefit from my eBooks and online course. Others buy my eBooks and online course.
This is how ethical bloggers build an online business. No manipulation. No fear. No scarcity principle. No trying to get money from people by influencing them with fear. Nope. Good old fashioned, practical, truly helpful content convinces readers to be customers.
I sleep well because my helpfulness builds my online business for me organically.
How Do Influencers Go About Building a Business?
I hate to say it, but by and large, influencers create content to manipulate people into thinking a specific way then buying whatever the influencer sells.
Can this be done ethically? Of course; some influencers maintain a pristine reputation because their content not convincing does the trick. You always know these folks because it is about the content not the sale.
Is this consistently done ethically? No. Why? Most influencers build business on scarcity.
Monkey See Monkey Do
So…..an aspiring online influencer desperate for money chases topical content that appears to be temporarily popular and/or profitable. Top influencers generally do this. Monkey see, monkey do.
Ideas Include:
- Top 10 Canine Bathrooms in Rome Italy
- 15 Practical Tips to Prevent Dromedary Diarrhea
- 27 Steps to Prevent Your Rabbit from Becoming Rabid in Romania
- 32 Things to Do in Auckland New Zealand for First Time Travelers Who Love Gandalf But Hate Gollum
- 72 Tips for Vampires to Stay Warm in Antarctica (I Can Claim This Because My Grandfather Was Born in Transylvania….Not Joking)
Jokes aside, credibility begins to die at this point. Many influencers stop trying to be truly helpful because most grab the identical popular and profitable topics to be popular and to make a ton of money fast.
I cannot personally condemn these individuals but I also cannot trust a cyber used car salesman either.
The next unfortunate steps are where a dizzying ratio of online influencers jump the shark:
- people who spend 48 hours in a place generate 32 practical tips for the best things to do in the place after spending 2 days there
- people who severely lack credibility try to sell stuff that you need to buy or else! (travel insurance is a biggie because you never know when a Rabid Rabbit in Romania might go All Monty Python on your ass)
I poke fun at the industry because aspects of it became silly a long time ago.
I first visited Chiang Mai Thailand in 2011. Being a digital nomad was not a big thing back then so when expats called me one of those new digital nomads I replied with: “What’s that?”
The online influencer craze really began to take off as First World Escapism reached a fever pitch. Westerners with ample cash wanted to make money online by doing as little work as possible. Hence the current state of the Online Influencer Game.
The fundamental online influencer flaw – among many but not all – is this: using fear, smoke and mirrors to part people from their money versus earning credibility over 1000’s of hours, mastering the skill of being truly helpful and allowing content to organically increase targeted traffic and referral income
I Do Not Dislike People Who Make Mistakes
Everything in this world is either love or a call for love.
You and I know loving people well. Caring human beings help us with no strings attached.
Those who call for love do things from fear. People who do things from fear make mistakes. The majority of online influencers make fundamental business mistakes because they are afraid to lose money. The fear projects greed and/or desperation. I bust their balls but also harbor compassion for these individuals because I know what it feels like to be afraid, to struggle and to make various mistakes in business and life.
Conclusion
Everyone walks their own journey.
Is being an online influencer your path? Maybe. Do it as ethically as possible. Never headline chase. Get to know a place. Gain invaluable experience. Publish highly detailed, practical content. Let in-depth content organically drive referral traffic and referral business.
Stop hustling.
Earn it.
Or….do it like ethical bloggers do.
Ryan Biddulph is the owner and creator of Blogging From Paradise Dot Com.