Some of my friends publish fake review sites which organize product recommendations by using the following quality measurement and rating system (affiliate payout per conversion * conversion rate). If people buy it, it must be good.

I have other friends who do real in-depth reviews, but they use such poor formatting that their content looks less trustworthy and more advertisement-like than fake review websites.

Adding Signs of Trust

Smart affiliates know how to convey a sense of trust and look editorial to enhance conversion rates. Editorial rating systems, privacy policies, headings, subheadings, security symbols, pricing data, reviews, features, a clean site design, and consumer generated content increase conversion rates. Assume I am only skimming your page. Assume the little things matter.

A Well Done Affiliate Site

While I do not agree with all the reviews, I can appreciate how well done Mike’s Marketing Tools is. Most of the reviews look impartial. And some of the reviews, like the Optilink review, even link out to a thin affiliate site owned by Mike that passes as the official site after Google banned the official site!

A Poorly Done Official Site

 Take a look at how spammy and thin affiliate AnnualCreditReport.com looks. It is the official site (required by law) but it looks like crap because Experian does not get paid if you use it. In fact, it even kicks you over to the Experian site before seeing results, requires you fill out identity verification surveys, and tries to upsell you on a paid reporting service before showing you your free report.

Compare its drab look and nasty conversion process to the look of FreeCreditReport.com. Which one looks more trustworthy? Yup, its the one that is charging your credit card recurring for something that is "free".

Does Your Site Look Legit?

Thin slicing information credibility is often about evaluating appearance. Unfortunately many of the people creating real content don’t put as much effort into formatting and marketing as the people creating fake content do.

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BlogWorld: All About Your Credibility

WebProNews presents videos and stories from the BlogWorld & New Media Expo taking place in Las Vegas. View our interviews and coverage of the event today.

Steven Van Yoder, author of the book, Get Slightly Famous, told his BlogWorld audience not to forget about the traditional media when seeking fame. " It’s not dead and never will be dead," he said, even as traditional media makes more use of blogging itself.

"Position yourself as a thought leader," he recommended. That means learning one’s niche well, and being able to blog effectively on topics related to the niche.

Being able to do this puts a person in position to start self-promoting. Yoder suggested a traditional public relations plan will help: identify target media; build a media list; study publications; and pitch editors.

Publications at the top should receive priority. "Magazines are hungry for content. It especially helps when you’re an expert offering free content in return for credibility," said Yoder.

"It ca’t be guaranteed that you will get in the NYTimes, but it is absolutely possible."

Yoder also noted bloggers should be ready to syndicate their work in many ways. Podcasts, speeches, or even as part of a book, blog posts have many possible destinations beyond their original appearances online.

WebProNews Video anchor Abby Prince contributed to this report.

Well, “give” may be too loose a word.  Torsten Kleinz and Craig Morris of heise online report, “Germany will be setting aside part of its budget to improve information about renewable resources in Wikipedia.  Over the next few years, several hundred articles will be written on this issue.”

Unless you’re feeling picky about how Germany spends its tax revenue, it’s hard to construe this development as a bad thing.  Indeed, state sponsorship could grant Wikipedia the kind of credibility it has long lacked.  As for what Wikipedia can do for Germany (or for renewable resources, as the case may be), Kleinz and Morris turned to project director Florian Gerlach.

“There are enough printed publications on this topic,” admitted Gerlach.  “But if you want to look something up you will probably go to Wikipedia.”  So that’s where the exchange seems to occur: popularity for cash.

And it’s not so strange that all of this is taking place over renewable resources; Germany has a long history of conservation and environmentalism.  Thanks to the its involvement with Wikipedia, wind and solar power are liable to get a boost, and user-generated content may come out a winner, as well.

“The Changing Face of Marketing and Communications in Today’s Creativity Economy,” by Weber Shandwick and KRC Research, shows that top execs are getting the clue – half (49 percent) realize that using traditional media is no longer enough and 76 percent of senior executives are already experimenting with “alternative” media. (defined as any advertising or marketing besides television, radio and print media.)

They call it the Creative Economy – others have called it the Attention Economy

Consumers are tuning out traditional messages and alternative communication methods are the key to reaching your audience now. Companies are turning to social networking as a way of communicating with customers: nearly seven out of 10 (69 percent) executives use this strategy today, says this survey (a figure that’s on par with company use of traditional magazine advertising -68%)

So they are aware of the effectiveness of social media. Yet I see many an online newsrooms that has no social media elements in their press releases. This is a huge missed opportunity. If you are putting out regular news and press releases, syndicate them in an RSS Feed and offer easy ways for people to share and syndicate your content.

You’ll be surprised at what this can do for you in terms of reaching new audiences, attracting more traffic and gaining higher search engine ranking.

See this case study

“We’re in the early days of a totally new media era,” says Billee Howard, executive vice president and managing director in the Global Strategic Media Group at Weber Shandwick. “Those companies that do not combine the new media paradigm with the best of traditional media will most certainly do so at their peril.”

Good point.

• Executives finding their way to blogosphere
  Blogs have attracted new employees, customers and shareholders.
• The Future of Social Media
  The corporation will be forever changed, traditional media will adapt before dying completely and all companies will become media companies thereby shrinking the advertising pie

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Sally is the author of Website Content Strategy blog: Information about the shifts in media consumption and the use of
technology in marketing and PR so business can stay in touch with
their rapidly moving audiences.

As an IT Integrator you need to be seen as having high credibility. This is what will set you apart from your competitors.

Building credibility however, doesn’t come overnight. To build up your credibility stock you need to get involved in the community.

You need to send the right message to the small businesses in the sweet spot that you want to get active with. I have been successful building my credibility in a variety of ways.

I once sponsored a congressional press conference at our offices. It was for some initiative developed to bring more IT related businesses into the region.

My credibility shot through the roof after it was through. Being involved with high profile events is an excellent way to build credibility. People see you as an expert and lots of people see you.

Another credibility building event I was involved in was doing the CAT 5 work in the governor’s office. Again, this is high profile. When you make network contacts in places that enjoy high credibility your credibility factor increases just by association.

Securing famous clients is yet another way to boost your credibility. We always talk about the work that we did for Microsoft’s channels years back. I also let people know about the work we did for the Intel corporation for their Citroen product launch last year and when I did some writing for Inc magazine online. When you have famous clients you need to advertise that relationship and promote your credibility.

Bottom Line on Credibility Credibility must be nurtured and developed. It is not something that happens overnight. Think of creative and high profile ways you can get involved in the IT industry.

Credibility builds as more and more people hear about you and learn about your successes. Use your involvement in well known activities to build your credibility and don’t forget to promote your involvement.

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Joshua Feinberg helps small business computer consulting firms get more steady high-paying clients. Sign-up now for Joshua’s free one-hour audio training on Small Business Computer Consulting secrets at http://www.SmallBusinessComputerConsulting.com

How far does free speech go online? Dutson’s role as defendant in a case brought by the creator of a tourism ad campaign for the state of Maine, Warren Kremer Paino, may determine that. Dutson has been a critic of the state government and of the contractors Maine brought in to do this work.

Dutson copied an ad created for a January 2006 presentation made to the state government for the tourism program. The ad was part of a PowerPoint presentation, and is still available on the state’s website (hat tip to Publishing 2.0 blogger Scott Karp for pointing to it.)

The firm claims copyright infringement has been committed. It probably did not help that the sample phone number on the ad just happens to connect to the kind of phone service a lonely person might call out of sexual desperation. Or that Dutson made note of that.

Predictably, fallout online has begun to take form. TechCrunch founder Mike Arrington drew from his legal background in criticizing the plaintiff:

Pop!Tech is a technology conference held in Camden, Maine, in October; Microsoft blogger Robert Scoble also suggested he may skip the event as well, but Dutson urged him via a comment in Scoble’s blog to attend anyway.

John Palfrey from the Berkman Center at Harvard Law posted about the issue. Palfrey’s view: “My view is that a lawsuit of this sort should have to clear a very high bar before a court awards damages to the design firm, especially where the core discussion is a matter of political speech in which a citizen is commenting on the activities of a state agency of his home state.”

Now comes the kicker. Dutson competes with the state of Maine’s Office of Tourism for keyword advertising on Google AdWords and Yahoo’s Overture:

Dutson, a member of the Media Bloggers Association, has picked up legal representation through that organization.

“This case is nothing more than an attempt by a deep-pocketed litigant to bully a blogger for criticizing state officials and state contractors”", said MBA President Robert Cox in a post. “We have successfully defended MBA members in nine previous cases and I don’t expect the outcome here to be be any different.”

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This got me thinking about the still-continuing debate from last weekend about blogger credibility versus authority where making it clear in what capacity the blogger writes on his or her blog – personal opinion or reflecting a company view – is something I don’t think anyone in that debate would disagree with.

So here’s Vogel’s disclaimer:

This is a personal weblog. That means that the opinions voiced here are purely personal and they do not in any way represent the opinions, experiences or directions of my employer Amazon.com. If you take any of the statements on this weblog and use it as an official statement by Amazon.com you are knowingly misleading your audience. For official statements by Amazon.com visit the Amazon.com Virtual Media Room.

If I do write something worth referencing, and you feel strongly about the need to reference my affiliation, you should also mention in your reference that this is my personal weblog: “Werner Vogels, CTO of Amazon.com, mentions on his personal weblog that the Seahawks have a good shot at the Superbowl this year”.

If you can not play by these simple rules, please do not reference this weblog at all.

While precise wording may differ from company to company – and many employee blogs I see do have something like the first two sentences that are in Vogel’s statement – I’d say any employee of any company who blogs in public ought to have such a clear and complete disclaimer as this one. Avoidance of doubt.

Conversely, if that blogger is writing in some official or authoritative capacity, then he or she would reflect that in the appropriate wording.

Assuming a statement such as the above is legally watertight (so a company’s legal counsel would need to be consulted), then it seems very simple to me.

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Neville Hobson is the author of the popular NevilleHobson.com blog which focuses on business communication and technology.

Neville is currentlly the VP of New Marketing at Crayon. Visit Neville Hobson’s blog: NevilleHobson.com.

According to Robert Scoble, it’s flat-out not true. He says his view is backed up by a number of other Microsoft employee bloggers.

I posted on this story last week and that post attracted some discussion over the weekend, in which Robert was a lively participant. The thrust of that post was to do with the FUD surrounding the Vista story and the need by Microsoft, rather than an employee blogger, to squash the story flat if it isn’t true.

In one of Robert’s comments, he makes a remarkable statement:

[] if ANY Microsoft employee signs their name to a denial, it’s official. Why is that? Because you can quote it. [] I’m an official source for the company now (if I say anything that doesn’t match the truth not only do my readers jump all over it, but so do my coworkers).

The ensuing conversation – a little heated in part (words IN CAPITAL LETTERS usually signify shouting) – to’d and fro’d over the credibility of the journalist who wrote the original story about the Vista rewrite and what Microsoft the company needs to do, if anything, when Robert says that the only place anything about this issue will be discussed is in blogs.

My view remains as it was yesterday. Blogs can be a highly credible source of information. But in a situation like this, with so many different opinions about Vista, some kind of code rewrite (or not), what it means, etc, I wouldn’t rely solely on blogs (and employee bloggers) as my only outlet for clarity in a consistent Microsoft message.

In a comment overnight, Shel Holtz expresses it well:

[] Who has the authoritative statement of record for Microsoft, as a business, to which all can point and say, “That’s the authoritative statement of record”? Not a bunch of employee bloggers, because to some degree, they’re all saying different things. While the value of employee bloggers is indisputable, they’re not the source of the authoritative statement of record.

Shel and I will be discussing this issue in today’s edition of FIR: The Hobson & Holtz Report which we’ll be recording at about 6pm Amsterdam time.

What do you think? If you have a view that you’d like included in today’s show, please leave a comment here (or in the other post), or email it to fircomments[at]gmail[dot]com.

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PR Blogging guru B.L. Ochman sent me an email today noting that Forbes had made a fairly significant error in an article by Tom Taulli on blogging. In the article, he quoted Bob Wyman of PubSub. Ochman, on her own blog noted that the quote seems a bit odd and out of character for Wyman. It seemed to have been taken out of context:

“To get noticed by bloggers, companies should appoint internal bloggers and start them blogging,” said Wyman. “Of course, the blogs must be authentic. Also, companies can sponsor blogging events and meet the bloggers themselves to see what makes them tick.”

After she posted the comment about the quote on her own blog being out of context, she received a comment from Salim Ismail, Wyman’s co-conspirator on PubSub that said:

Very perceptive of you… “In a quote no doubt taken out of context…..”

Posted by: Salim Ismail at January 27, 2006 11:34 AM

So, what’s up with this? I wouldn’t necessarily call this bad journalism, certainly nothing like Jayson Blair did, but it’s certainly sloppy. I’m not always the bastion of absolute perfection, but something like this comes under the category of sloppy journalism.

In their defense, people have some pretty unrelenting standards for journalists of professional publications like Forbes and lots of others. It’s just that in the past, Forbes has been particularly vicious toward bloggers and their quality. While this article doesn’t suggest anything bad about bloggers, one would hope they would maintain the kind of standards they’ve attacked bloggers for not having in the past.

Just like lots of other things on the Internet, there’s good and bad examples. With many traditional media people, bloggers have had a hard time gaining credibility even though many of them produce quality news reporting and insightful, thoughtful commentary on whatever they’re speaking about.

The problem for Forbes here is blogger buzz. They received a lot bad blogger buzz when they published their story back in November ripping bloggers to pieces. It was open season on Forbes. Now, in the article that looks like a “kiss-and-make-up” story about how good the blogosphere is and what it can do for business, they get their facts wrong by attributing a quote to the wrong person.

If bloggers are to be held to a higher standard, the communicators who were their first must set the standard by the quality of their own work.

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John Stith is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

You’ll still be creating splash intro pages, having pages with massive download times and using more images than you can shake a stick at. Well, back in Earth these days have long gone and today web usability rules the web development world. For those of you who have been on Mars please read some of the things that Jakob Nielson has to say at http://www.useit.com/alertbox and try to catch up.

As for the rest of us Earth-based developers, well we’ve learnt a whole bunch about usability and we’re all using it as best we can in our websites. Right, guys? After all, web usability does have huge benefits (see http://www.webcredible.co.uk/benefits/web-usability.shtml).

Now that usable websites have become so commonplace, especially among the major web players, it’s time to start looking to the future. Suddenly, a usable website isn’t going to be enough to separate us from our competitors (apart from those using the developers who’ve been based on Mars). There is a solution. It’s two words long. Enter our new best friend…

Web credibility.

What is web credibility & why is it important?

According to BJ Fogg, the world’s leading researcher on web credibility, web credibility is about making your website in such a way that it comes across as trustworthy and knowledgeable. Don’t just take my word for it – read his book if you like (http://www.persuasivetech.info).

Fogg will tell you, as can I, and numerous other organisations, that a credible website can reap huge benefits on to your website and your business. So, here’s a few statistics to prove this point: Just 52.8% of web users believe online information to be credible (source: UCLA) Four in five users say that being able to trust the information on a site is very important to them in deciding to visit a website (source: Princeton Survey Research Associates)

So, web credibility’s pretty important then. But how do you implement it on to your website? Fear not, all the answers lie within the realms of this article. Now, before I go further, I must stress that most of this stuff falls under the category of ‘it’s obvious once you know it’. You know, like if someone sets you a puzzle and you can’t do it but when they tell you the answer it’s really obvious. Web credibility is all common sense – you just don’t tend to think about this stuff. So without further ado, here are five guidelines for making a credible website.

1. You must prove there’s a real organisation behind your website

Anyone can put up a website promising to deliver the ‘best service at the lowest prices’. Web users must be able to believe there’s a real organisation behind your website. A few things you can do are: Make it very easy to contact you Link to external websites that reference your organisation Provide staff bios Show photos of the office, staff, products etc.

This basically says that you should have a really good contact us and about us section. Don’t bury your contact us link in some obscure place in the website or on the page. Make out like you really want your site visitors to get in contact with you. In fact, I won’t talk anymore about your contact us page because Miles Burke’s has already written an excellent article about it, The Lost Art of Conversation – Encouraging Contact Online (http://www.sitepoint.com/article/encouraging-contact-online).

As for the about us section, don’t underestimate its importance. Don’t be afraid to show who you are (stand tall and be proud!), what you stand for, what your goals are, and a bit about your history (of the organisation, not you). People will read this stuff – it certainly won’t be the first thing they’ll read on your website but it could be the last thing they read before deciding whether or not to do business with you.

Can you think of other ways you can prove your organisation’s real? Have a look at a website you visit quite often – what is it about this website that you trust?

2. Your website needs to provide ‘sensitive’ information

A website is akin to a one-way conversation between you and your site visitors where you have 100% control over the dialogue. If site users perceive you to be lacking in credibility then you’ll be unable to defend yourself. As such, you must ensure that you answer any questions your site visitors may have, for example: What is the purpose of your organisation? How much does your product cost? What happens if I’m not happy with your service What will you do with my email address once I give it to you?

There are about 35 million websites on the Internet – by 2014 there’ll be an estimated 150 million, not including personal websites. With so many people online and so many websites competing with yours, if you can’t persuade Internet users to be loyal to your website then someone else will.

3. All statements should be backed up by third-party evidence

“We helped our clients achieve an average of 70% growth last year.” Really? Well prove it! Every single point you make on your website must, without fail, be backed up with hard evidence – preferably from a third-party website. How else can a reader know for sure that you’re telling the truth?

Client testimonials, for example, are great – they’re even better if the testimonial links to the client’s website. You can improve them even more if the name of the person making the testimonial is linked to their bio on their website. You could notch up even more credibility points if the testimonial itself is on the client’s website and you link to it!

If you’ve won any awards or belong to any industry bodies, then proudly display these emblems too. Even better, have them link to the external website. Better still, would be a direct link to the section of the website showing your membership details or a list of the award winners.

4. There has to be proof that the organisation is growing and has clients

An organisation that can prove it has clients and is experiencing growth instantly achieves credibility. By showing you’ve offered your services plenty of times before, and expect to do so in the future, your organisation comes across as being firmly established within your industry. You can prove this by providing: A client list Testimonials Case studies of your work A latest news section A jobs page Free newsletter

5. Your website needs to have an air of professionalism and confidence

Your website is your organisation’s online representation – it’s essential that it matches up in quality to the rest of your marketing materials. Even if you don’t think your website’s important to the success of your organization, (potential) clients will make judgments about your organisation based on your website.

So, what is the number one most important aspect of Web credibility? The about us section? No. Quality of outbound links? No-siree. Studies have consistently proven that the most important criteria of web credibility is… the way the website looks. That’s it.

It’s been suggested that this is due to the short amount of time we spend on websites so we tend to rely on initial judgements. Make sure that you create a great first impression by having a crisp, professional layout with sharp graphics. Other good things to do are: Provide some free information to prove your expertise Ensure there are no dead links Send out an automated confirmation e-mail when someone contacts you

There are many more! Just visit any website you perceive to be professional and confident and see what they do.

This article was written by Trenton Moss. He’s crazy about web usability and accessibility – so crazy that he went and started his own web usability and accessibility consultancy ( Webcredible – http://www.webcredible.co.uk ) to help make the Internet a better place for everyone.