Confidence isn’t about making yourself seem bigger and better than you are. It’s about KNOWING YOURSELF and BEING YOURSELF.

Readers connect with what is REAL! They need to know you’ve failed, they need to see where you began and watch the growth. No one magically just turns up on the web someday and produces a check like Shoemoney. He started small and grew. If you track his history back far enough you might even see mention of his excitement about a smaller check.

When you’re beginning, accomplishing even a $100 check with google adsense is BRILLIANT! It is worth bragging about to your readers because those readers are following the little guy, they want to know about YOU, and reading that you did 100 gives them the confidence to do 100 or to cheer you on to do more.

The same can be said about your social bookmarking and traffic accomplishments. While you are small, talk about small results. Don’t pretend to be an expert if you’re not. Be a learner, readers prefer to learn along with you anyway. Yes, we tune into the experts too but it would be a lonely journey feeling insignificant and looking at impossible goals if we couldn’t share the growth with others who are growing at the same time.

Also, while researching can be a brilliant way to develop your topics if you simply regurgitate what you’ve learnt from other blog entries and articles online rather than sharing your unique experiences and personally gained knowledge then all your doing is writing what readers have already read or could read elsewhere. ADD VALUE! Not just for your readers but for the blogsphere in general. Link to those sources to share their information but in YOUR post, write about you and what you’ve learnt along your own journey.

Yes, you can ‘fake it till you make it’, show more confidence than you feel but be REAL. I mightn’t FEEL like a professional 100% of the time but I strive to, so I do what I can to reinforce that sense. It doesn’t mean I know it all, it just means I conduct myself as a pro. ProBloggers (and pro anything) are those who have learnt to grow continuously, to continue learning, each and every moment.

So, confidence? It’s all YOU! It is your belief in yourself and your ability to BE YOURSELF!

I like to tell folks starting blogging that they are always an authority on their own perspective or experience.

Obviously, that didn’t work so well – and it blew up in his face when it turned out he couldn’t even afford to pay his contractors and writers! The emperor had no clothes.

The lesson – make sure you can walk the talk and live up to the image you present! All the branding and marketing in the world can’t save you if your foundation has cracks in it.

http://davidnotes.com/2007/11/23/bear-with-a-stick/

You could say “Everyone knows that you made that up”. But this is just an example and illustrations are often oversimplified versions of a more subtle point.

Steven, one of your comments is rather… alarming to say the least.

“This might not have been my best post and left lots of room for disagreement, but I’m sure John is enjoying the traffic.”

John probably gets more than enough traffic – I doubt that one guest post will make much of a difference to his stats.

More importantly though, if this wasn’t your best post then why submit it to John Chow? Guest blogging is not simply a link to your site that gets you loads of traffic regardless of what you write.

Think about people who will have found your blog for the first time as a result of that guest post. What impression does it give if that’s the way people find out about your blog?

I think you really need to consider what you want to achieve before you submit a guest post to a high-traffic blog.

And as far as bragging? I Can’t stand people that go around constantly bragging at work. I sure as heck don’t wanna be reading about it! Nothing wrong with talking about ones successes…but not 24/7…

These five recommendations would appeal to a gold-toothed rat with a hare lip. Not someone many of us would want to hang with.

There are probably some culture differences. Shouting your own praises is more American than Australian.

What it looks like to me is that he’s basically described John Chow’s blogging style which I find to be about sucking people in by telling them half truths. From what I hear on the grape vine he’s not quite as successful as he says he is on his other businesses. Today he linked to an article in Entrepreneur magazine which said he’s earning approaching $1m – that’s complete rubbish. He’s bluffing his way to success and everyone is letting him.

Covering another point you disagreed with: shouting about your successes. I do agree that if you do this too often you will drive readers away from your blog. Last night I came across a post about John Chow, and in the author’s post, he talked about how Mr. Chow does this too often, as well as other mistakes he sees with John’s blog content. When readers of the author’s blog commented, many of them are leaving (or have left) John’s blog because of this and other reasons. If you have the time, you can read my take on the author’s post here: http://mistisandefur.blogspot.com/2008/01/john-chows-blogging-mistake.html

But in one or another way, Steve’s post on JC and Darrens response here sure do teach you some really nice things about blogging and on reading what a blogger has to say (write).

That doesn’t mean you can’t be pissed off! I’ve heard juuuuust a touch of acrimony in Darren’s “voice” in recent weeks. That’s not a complaint. On the contrary, it’s just an observation and somewhat of a compliment — he’s being honest and being who he is. I’ve refrained from saying anything on my blog about Google… because I haven’t gotten over being… hurt. Yeah, those “love letters” were very appropriate. It might sound dumb to some people, but I get it. Ouch.

I’m glad I got your take on it. Thanks.

Likewise, it is a big turn off when you realize that a blogger is writing like he is an expert but his knowledge of the topic is actually very limited (say, that he only read an entry about it on wikipedia). I am interested in history and have become disappointed with a few blogs when i notice the author is writing like he has all the answers and yet he’s really reciting fourth grade textbook stuff which serious authorities in the field have rejected.

I write about a range of subjects on my blog but try to avoid this trap by doing research, linking to source material, and letting the reader know when my knowledge of the topic is limited or where i’m not certain about something.