This morn I tweeted a link to Four Ways To Become An Authority Blogger, a guest post by Roko Nastic on Donna Fontenot’s blog about making money online.
The executive version of that post:
- Write less
- In every post write more
- Don’t comment or speculate; meditate on past events
- Attract high quality guest posters
Minutes after tweeting the link Lisa Barone commented:
Both Lisa’s comment and the original post demonstrate two more ways in which you can become an authority blogger.
One: Disagree
Especially when something is stated with an absolute kind of authority, an emphasis that leaves little room for “well, I mean, what I really meant to say is…”, disagreeing with what is stated immediately casts upon you the Aura Of Authority (movie music moment). Heads turn towards you and people wait to see what you’ve got to back up your “yeah… rrright” <eye roll>.
Disagreeing with someone says “I know better” – and if you’re a good writer you can actually follow that up with an “here’s why”. The “here’s why” is what convinces people you do know better. Bingo, “authority”.
Also, depending on the status of the person you’re disagreeing with, disagreeing can be a sort of authority or expertise by association: “Here’s why Bill Gates is wrong on Windows’ core code”. See what I mean?
Now Lisa is one of the best bloggers out there with a well established reader base and obvious authority so she doesn’t actually need to follow up her disagreement with details on the why: the ball would, and is, automatically in Ron’s court this way. Other less established bloggers would preferably do a quick tweet or post on the why’s.
Two: Cause Disagreement
This works especially well if you cause disagreement in a field somewhat related to your own but isn’t the core of your expertise.
By stating a sort of half-truth or something ridiculous you can cause people to come out of the woodworks and go “that’s wrong!”. Now here’s the funny thing – obviously for people to disagree with you you’d have to Be Someone (more boombastic movie sounds). That is how people – from your readers to potential customers – experience that.
If what you say is plausible and – even better – a populist view or experience, people demonstrating just how wrong you are aren’t seen as correcting you … your readers think they’re disagreeing with you; you have your expert opinion, they have theirs…
Amazing, isn’t it?
Here’s What You Can Do Today
- You know what you know; you’re good at what you do: be the teacher in your posts
- Share your knowledge
- Don’t disagree to disagree but do point out incorrect information that could harm your reader base
- Don’t be afraid to state what you think; use your own voice
Have you seen these strategies applied “in the wild”? Do you use any of these strategies accidentally or on purpose? Or do you use other ways to establish yourself as The Authority?
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Hey.
Normally I probably WOULD have followed up the assertion, however, I'm in the middle of liveblogging a conference so there's not really time. 
I just happened to see that pass through my tweet stream and was disappointed. I may follow up once I get back later this week, though. I do think it starts an interesting conversation.
Hm, here's the thing though. If the person disagreeing, does so in a venue that's separate and removed from the original post, then it's highly likely that the original author can't respond. He'll probably never see her authority play, so in essence, she never has to back up what she says. (Knowing Lisa, she probably will, but she doesn't have to. The original author won't have a chance to disagree, and so Lisa wins by default).
Still, in terms of an authority play, you're right. It's a great move by Lisa. Instant authority! Bam! (Again, not that Lisa necessarily needs it, but we're just showing here what the possibilities are).
It would be better however, if Lisa would comment on the actual post. At least then, the original author might get a chance to respond. (Currently, I'm the only one who is responding though, so I'm not sure if the author will come back around or not).
.-= DazzlinDonna recently posted: Ways To Make Money Online =-.
I totally agree, Donna. Had I been home I definitely would have commented on the post and created a discussion there. As I mentioned to Ruud, I just happen to be at a conference liveblogging right now so I was just making a quick comments. It is something I plan to come back to.
Uh-huh, I too think it's an interesting conversation. Looking forward to the conversation, Lisa!
Donna, you point out some great ways to establish authority through disagreeing. Actually the poster not seeing it would be even better, no?
Well, I think it would be better if there was a back and forth, Ruud. All kinds of good info might come out of that.
Personally, I can see both sides, and I think it may come down to personality, subject matter, and audience as to which is better. And maybe the real answer lies somewhere in between.
In any case, it's fun to see different viewpoints emerge.
.-= DazzlinDonna recently posted: niche research =-.
Regardless of authority, it'd be nice to know what Lisa thinks about the alternative ways of earning one and why the suggested ways are wrong.
I don't see why anyone would have to defend himself without an open insult response post about the topic.
.-= Yura recently posted: About Yura Filimonov =-.
Yura, I wasn't really thinking the author needed to defend "himself" so much as just defend the position he took. I see it as a debate of sorts. Everyone should get a chance at rebuttal in a debate I'd think (not that I'm an expert at debate). I don't think it matters a great deal, but it just makes the discussion more interesting. Rather than a one-off tweet, getting the two sides together would be a good learning experience for everyone.
Oh, and if I have to refresh that darned recaptcha below another 100 times like I've had to do each time I comment, I'm going to go all AUTHORITY on that captcha and kick some captcha @ss! I can't read any of those danged words.
.-= DazzlinDonna recently posted: 35 ways to increase blog traffic =-.
Hi..thanks for this great article..it's something that I think can be taken into consideration when someone really want to become an authority blogger in a specific niche. To me it really depends , what I mean here is as a blogger , it's recommended he/she really knows what they're writing about. In other words , do some reading , do some research and then only what you share will benefit readers rather than writing something based on thought. Then lets say if they want to disagree on something they can backup the disagreement by pointing to the source of information just like what we see in a court where every lawyers must backup all their disagreement with facts. Same goes if someone want to become an authority blogger.
.-= Dos hanif recently posted: How Anyone Can Get Paid To Blog With Google Adsense =-.
[...] immediately after my tweet I received some well-deserved comments from Ruud via a new post and Donna Fontenot that my tweet didn’t do anything to help since the author would never see my [...]