Authority blogging: 10 questions with Chris Garrett

Posted by Ben on February 27, 2009 | Permalink | Hits: 1238 

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Recently I posted 10 ways to be a blogger people will want to follow. A couple of comments came up that I was unable to answer. Firstly:

"What do you find off-putting?" - bloggers who write with a kind style that sort of implies that they have some authority over the subject that they are writing about.

Secondly:

The one thing I do find off putting is someone who is a "know it all". You can have extensive knowledge on a particular subject but when you're pointing the authoritative finger at your readers, that is a huge turnoff for me.

To answer these points and share some additional insights into authority blogging, along with a few comments on blogging in general, I asked Chris Garrett some questions.

1. In a nutshell, what is authority blogging?

Authority Blogging is using useful, informative content to build an engaged audience of people who really want to hear  from you and most importantly trust you.

2. How can authority blogging be done without sounding condescending?

You have to give overwhelming value and you have to be a real person. It's about finding out what people are struggling with and helping them with solutions. If you can empathize, offer advice that works in the real world, and can be friendly and approachable, then people are going to give you the benefit of the doubt. If are an arrogant tit then not so much! :)

People mistake it for being all me-me-me, or trying to ram down peoples throats that you are better than them but in fact, that just would ruin what you set out to do.

3. How did you start authority blogging?

I got into it without knowing. Years ago I was active on programming discussion lists and forums and would help people out. Rather than repeat myself endlessly, and so I could add more detail, I wrote up solutions as articles.

4. What was the turning point for you?

People started offering me speaking gigs, freelance contracts, consulting work, without me "selling" anything. So I started teaching programming courses, got book deals, and it snowballed. The turning point though was me trying to do it again, in a different market unrelated to programming. That was when I realized I had been lucky the first time, things had kind of just fallen into place naturally which meant it was completely unconscious. I had to work out what exactly I did - take it all apart and put it back together again.

5. Is it possible for every blogger to be an authority on something?

We all have our unique experiences and perspectives which means we all have something to offer. Everyone already is an authority on something, but it isn't a zero or one equation, and it doesn't follow that everyone wants to be an authority. :)

Another misconception people have is that there has to be one authority, that if there is already someone that people turn to that the one and only spot is taken. Not true, look how many marketing gurus there are - we gravitate towards the ones that appeal to us on some level. Same goes for any niche.

There are tried and tested steps that mean pretty much anyone with the motivation can be a go-to person in any market.

6. Who are your top three authority bloggers?

Only 3? Aaargh!

Seth Godin, David Hobby and Brian Clark.

But I have to mention my book co-author Darren Rowse, and I am LOVING Gary Vaynerchuk's work.

7. What do you think is the main reason why a lot of new blogs don't get off the ground?

Lack of clarity - it's like any project, business, adventure,  you have to know what you are doing and why. How can you set off without knowing what you are about? And if you don't know, how can you communicate that to anyone else?

Because people are not focused, their energy wanes after the initial rush of enthusiasm, or because they don't have a gazilaon page views and thousands of dollars in adsense clicks they give up, just because someone sold them the idea that a successful blog should have those things.

8. If you had to start a new blog on a subject other than authority blogging, what would you write about?

I start new blogs all the time, for clients, with partners, or for myself. I just sold my photography blog which was my last hobby. Just started trying to learn guitar, perhaps I will start a blog on that. I am an open minded skeptic on all kinds of "fortean" stuff, that might be fun too. Problem is too many ideas and not enough time :)

9. Which blogging tools do you depend on the most?

WordPress, Firefox, Scribefire, Skitch, Skype, TweetDeck.

10. Is retweeting the new Stumble/Digg?

It's definitely going that way! I use cli.gs to track clicks on my tweets. One of my tweets last week brought 732 clicks. Now that is nothing compared to a stumble or a Digg, but this medium is very new, and the tweet was not re-tweeted as much as a Mashable/TechCrunch/Scoble might be. I think it has real potential, especially for the instant, time sensitive stuff. The after-effects are cool too, sometimes you get additional votes, blog mentions, and if you phrase the tweet as a question, you often get comments too.

Thanks to Chris for answering my questions!

What do you think? Does this help to explain what authority blogging is all about?

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Comments on Authority blogging: 10 questions with Chris Garrett

2

Ben | March 03, 2009 | Ben's home page | 190 comments

Thanks Turnip. :) I agree, comments are often a great extension of the post.