Daily Archives: November 19, 2012

Buying a house with resale in mind | Pound Ridge Realtor

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At the end of the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, homeowners in many areas cashed in big profits when they sold. This enabled them to trade up to a bigger home, sometimes in a better neighborhood.

Homeowners used their homes as piggy banks through the use of home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) to buy cars, pay for vacations and medical bills, renovate their homes, and pay for college educations and retirement.

The recent housing recession brought a halt to this as home values dropped 30 percent or more, depending on location, wiping out equity for some and leaving many who bought with a low cash down payment with negative equity. More than 24 percent of homeowners in the U.S. today have a mortgage value that exceeds the market value of their homes.

2012 may be a pivotal point in the housing market. The decline in home prices has subsided and prices are actually moving higher in some markets. Buyers, instead of being reticent to buy a home that may lose value, are now anxious to buy before prices rise further. Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, projects that home prices nationally will rise 5 to 10 percent over the next three years.

Does this mean that we’re moving back to a housing market that will enable homebuyers to treat their homes as an investment opportunity rather than just as a place to live?

There are still possible bumps ahead for the housing market. Millions of foreclosure properties have yet to come to market. The global economy is slowing, and U.S. economic and job growth are meager. Even so, some buyers who purchase in choice locations today could realize substantial gain when they sell.

HOUSE HUNTING TIP: High-demand neighborhoods are usually located close to centers where job creation is high. A good transportation system enhances home values, particularly if your neighborhood is near a hub that provides the means to travel in several directions. Some areas have benefited from foreign homebuyers.

Location has been touted as the key factor determining home value. That is still the case. Buyers want quality housing in close proximity to green spaces, recreation, good shopping and transportation.

One strategy is to buy a home that lacks curb appeal and could use updating that’s located in a neighborhood of superior homes. The neighborhood is already known as a winner. Your challenge is to bring the property up to the quality of the neighboring homes by making cost-effective improvements.

Shoddy renovations will be seen for what they are when you sell. Hire quality contractors at a reasonable price. Some homeowners do not make back what they paid for improvements when they sell. To ensure you don’t overimprove for the neighborhood, find out what buyers want and how much they’re willing to pay for it before you renovate.

For example, in California, a study conducted by UCLA and the University of California, Berkeley, showed that homes with a “green label” sold for approximately 9 percent more than comparable nonlabeled homes. A green-label home is labeled by Energy Star, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), and GreenPoint Rated.

There’s a certain amount of luck involved in making a profit on a home sale. For instance, buying a home in the next hot spot and waiting for the neighborhood to turn around before you sell could yield a tidy profit. A neighborhood that’s adjacent to one that’s already highly desirable might be a good place to look.

Patience will work for you if your aim is to come out financially whole or ahead of the game when you sell. Plan to hold for the long term. Don’t sell in a down market.

THE CLOSING: If the market presents an opportunity to sell sooner, take it, unless your home means more to you than profit.

via inman.com

Being A Pushy Used Car Salesman with Social Media! | Chappaqua NY Realtor

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The reason is simply because of. Thanks to thought leaders like Mark Zuckerberg, the whole way that we perceive salespeople and marketing tactics, is changing at a rapid pace. Plus now we have a way to stay connected and engaged with our clients/prospects in a seemingly real way. It’s every salesperson’s goal to be the first person your past clients think of when they are ready to buy your product and services again.

Thanks to social media you can make that happen. You just have to be cool about it.

Social is Visual

We are becoming more visually stimulated beings. We want to look at content with infographics. We want to look at facebook posts with pictures.

On a side note: I think it is all fault. Things that really stand out and are aesthetically pleasing to our eyes are the only things that matter these days. It’s no longer a world were cold hard sales calls full of feature dumping, are the most effective way of marketing.

Matter of fact they are the least effective.

Is Email Effective?

Let’s talk about the variety of ways you can stay in touch with your past, present and future clients. First up, let’s look at email. Email is no longer considered one of the highest ways to market. The truth is, that the average email open rate is only 12%. Don’t EVEN allow me to go there on direct mail. Most of it gets thrown away, and only 7% of direct-mailers actually show a positive ROI.

Even traditional media is becoming less and less influential. (unless you’re in politics) Only 16% of all TV and Radio marketing campaigns yield a positive ROI. Now, don’t get me wrong. If you are doing these things, you are good at them and getting above average results, DON’T STOP. Always keep doing what works.

Solve Problems Rather than “Selling”

What these numbers tell us, is that our audience is getting smarter. They’re getting more hip to the same old sales pitches. The marketplace is demanding for someone to listen to them. Someone to give them transparency in marketing. Someone to show them where their pain actually is, and then cure that pain. You need to step into that space, and step out of being an old school pushy salesperson.

You are now responsible for being THE , with a much needed solution to their big a$$ problem. It’s at this point when your sphere of influence becomes a buyer from you. It’s at that point that you become a “Closer”, the sales equivalent of a “Made (Wo)Man” It’s that plain and simple.

So you might ask “That’s all fine and cool, but how do I go about doing that?”

My answer to you is simple. “Follow the steps below.”

Step 1: Listen to your audience.

How do you listen to your audience with out physically talking to them? The best way to listen to your audience, without having to pick up phone and have a conversation with them, or without having to really get to know them better is to stalk them online. Take a look at their page. Take a look at their Twitter, their LinkedIn page, find out the things that they’re saying. Actually read their posts. Look at their pictures and familiarize yourself with their online character. Chances are, what they care about on SM and in life are usually the same.

See if your prospects talk about their family life. See if they are into sports. Look and see how often they post about their business. This gives you instant ammo to start a conversation that they also WANT to have. With a little finesse, you will have them telling you what you need to hear in order to close the deal.

Step 2: Connect and engage with your audience.

We all know that it takes seven touches in order to influence an individual and for them to become familiar with you. We also know that people buy from people they know like and trust. With these things in mind the easiest, fastest, and most influential way to accomplish the seven touches you need, can be done easily via social media.

  • The first touch comes from the prospect seeing your post.
  • The second touch comes from when they like or comment on your post.
  • The third touch comes from you @taggging them in your response comment.
  • The fourth touch is a gimme, everyone likes to see their name written and hear it spoken.
  • The fifth is when almost all SM sites automatically send an email when you mention them, retweet them or whatever.
  • The sixth and seventh are when you keep the conversation going by keeping the comments engaging.

Remember this: Statements end in a period. To really engage your sentences should end in question marks. There’s the six and seven touches that you need accomplish to immediately gain influence and familiarity with your audience. this compels them to buy from you, without you having to jam features and verbally vomit why they should be buying from you.

Let them come to you and say “this is why I’m with you, it’s because of your expertise.”

Step 3: Question the confession

So what does question the confession actually mean? Well first off, that’s my saying. I believe you have to ask the right to make a sale. Too often times salespeople try to tell tell tell tell tell tell tell. If I’m constantly just telling you stuff/features, and even if you’re listening, you’re only trying to convince them of something you’re not closing,

A true closer is waiting for the prospect to talk about the bad. Many times we are on sales calls and listening but to only the good things. Who cares about good things? If things were good, you would not be talking. You poke around and ask the hard questions. The ones that make them uncomfortable and realize they need improvement. Then once they tell you what that pain is, you tell them you can make that pain go away. Easy, simple and a lot less words and energy.

The Sales Conversation

One more thing you must know though. There’s a big difference between just a conversation, and a SALES . A conversation is someone that you’re just talking to about your business, and has no inclination of buying your stuff, and is not even remotely interested in your services. A sales conversation is knowing you have someone on the line that has the ability to buy your product. A sales conversation is with someone who can significantly and immediately benefit from what you have. So now with that being clear…

Ask More Questions

So we are having a sales conversation, then what? Turn that conversation over completely to them. You ask short questions, they give long answers. If their answers are short, ask more/better questions. This requires a great deal of patience. In the end, they will have told you what they are good at and if you are good, they will have told you what they are bad at. It’s at that very moment you offer the solution you know will fix the problem. If they show resistance your response is simply “but you did say that you [insert what they said here]” it is at that point they usually say “you’re right, thank you, let’s do this”

Three simple steps you can use to convert social media friends into great customers that you know and like working with. Try it. it is not easy, but it is simple. If you will simply have a little patience and wait for them to tell it, you can SELL IT!

via secure.campaigner.com

Ads by 19 Mortgage-Related Companies Probed by Regulators | Waccabuc NY Real Estate

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U.S. regulators are investigating 19 mortgage-related companies over potentially misleading advertisements, including some that used Facebook Inc. (FB)’s website, the agencies announced today.

“Misrepresentations in mortgage products can deprive consumers of important information while making one of the biggest financial decisions of their lives,” Richard Cordray, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director, said in an e- mailed statement announcing the probes. “Baiting consumers with false ads to buy into mortgage products would be illegal.”

Ads by 19 Mortgage-Related Companies Probed by Two U.S. Agencies

Ads by 19 Mortgage-Related Companies Probed by Two U.S. Agencies

The consumer bureau said in the statement it had opened investigations into six companies. The Federal Trade Commission, the other agency involved in the probes is looking at 13 firms, Thomas Pahl, the FTC’s assistant director in the division of financial practices, told reporters on a conference call.

Neither agency released the names of the companies.

The CFPB and the FTC also announced they had sent warning letters to 32 mortgage-related companies that the agencies said may be violating the Mortgage Acts and Practices Advertising Rule. Of the 32 letters, 12 came from the CFPB and went to mortgage lenders and brokers, the agency said.

The rule, which was approved by the FTC in 2011 and is jointly enforced by both agencies, does not apply to traditional depositories, so today’s actions affect only non-banks.

The agencies’ warning letters from the agencies urge the companies to review the rule to assess compliance, and do not accuse them of legal wrongdoing.

Preventive Measure

Since the housing bubble burst, mortgage advertising has been down and may rise in the future, Pahl said.

“One of the things we wanted to do through conducting this sweep was to make sure that when mortgage advertisers start disseminating claims again, that they are aware of their obligations to make sure that none of those ads contain deceptive claims,” Pahl said.

The actions grew out of a joint review of about 800 randomly selected mortgage-related advertisements that appeared in newspapers, on the Internet and in direct mail and e-mail, Pahl said. The Internet ads included ones on Facebook, he said.

Some were provided by state attorneys general including Kamala Harris of California and Lisa Madigan of Illinois, Kent Markus, the CFPB’s enforcement director, told reporters.

The CFPB focused its review on mortgage advertisements, particularly ones targeting older Americans or veterans, according to the agency’s statement. The FTC looked at ads by home builders, real estate agents and lead generators, services that collect consumers’ information and sell it to service providers.

Potential Violations

The review turned up four potentially illegal practices, according to CFPB. Some ads contained seals that appeared to imply a government affiliation, while others promoted potentially misleadingly low interest rates. Some understated the costs of reverse mortgages, and others may have misrepresented the amount of cash available to consumers by for example, including a mock check.

Markus said the dividing line between warning letter and enforcement action depended on the severity of the potential violation. A “clearly false” statement brought an investigation, while something that might be technically true would prompt a warning letter, Markus said.

“It’s not a technical reading of the ad,” Pahl told reporters. “It’s as if an average person is reading the ad.”

via bloomberg.com

Existing-home sales and builder confidence rise | Mt Kisco NY Real Estate

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The housing market recovery showed signs it is continuing to strengthen as sales of existing homes increased 2.1% in October from the previous month and a measure of home-builder confidence jumped in November to its highest level since 2006.

Sales of existing homes rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.79 million last month, up from a downwardly revised 4.69 million rate in September, that National Assn. of Realtors reported Monday. Sales were up 10.9% in October from a year earlier.

Stronger demand helped push up the median home price nationwide to $178,600 in October, an increase of 11.1% from a year earlier, the group said. It was the eighth-straight month to show a year-over-year increase, the first time that’s happened since 2005-2006.

Fewer houses on the market also helped drive price increases. There were 2.14 million existing homes for sale in October, down 1.4% from September. That translates to a 5.4-month supply at the current sales rate, the lowest level since February 2006.

Sales by distressed homeowners still accounted for a large chunk of activity. Foreclosures and short sales made up 24% of October’s sales. That was the same level as in September, but down from 28% a year earlier.

Superstorm Sandy had some negative impact on sales, the group said.

The Northeast, which was hit hard by the storm, was the only region to show a decrease in sales in October from the previous month. Sales were down 1.7% there, while they increased 1.8% in the Midwest, 2.1% in the South and 4.4% in the West.

“Home sales continue to trend up and most October transactions were completed by the time the storm hit, but the growing demand with limited inventory is pressuring home prices in much of the country,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the Realtors group.

He expected more of an impact in the Northeast in coming months.

The improving housing market led to a boost in builder confidence, according to a measure released Monday.

The National Assn. of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index rose five points in November to 46 from the previous month. It was the seventh straight monthly increase, lifting the index to its highest level since May 2006, before the crash of the subprime housing market.

The index remained below 50, indicating that builders who view sales conditions as poor still outnumber those who view them as good. But the index is up sharply from its 19 reading a year ago, the home builders group said.

“Builders are reporting increasing demand for new homes as inventories of foreclosed and distressed properties begin to shrink in markets across the country,” said Barry Rutenberg, a home builder from Gainesville, Fla., and chairman of the builders’ group.

“In view of the tightening supply and other improving conditions, many potential buyers who were on the fence are now motivated to move forward with a purchase in order to take advantage of today’s favorable prices and interest rates,” he said.

via latimes.com

Fed Gov. pushes separate lending rules for community banks | Waccabuc NY Homes

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The threat of losing community banks in the home lending space, prompted Federal Reserve Board Governor Elizabeth Duke to propose the creation of a separate regulatory regime for smaller banks this week.

While speaking to the Community Bankers Symposium in Chicago, Duke said one-size-fits-all regulatory structures ignore the unique burdens community banks face when dealing with Dodd-Frank Act rules and Basel III capital requirements.

“Balancing the cost of regulation that is prescriptive with respect to underwriting, loan structure, and operating procedures against the lack of evidence that balance sheet lending by community banks created significant problems, I think an argument can be made that it is appropriate to establish a separate, simpler regulatory structure to cover such lending,” Duke said during her speech.

Duke is one of the first Fed Governors to go on the record, saying she believes regulation is starting to reach a point where its benefits are now outweighed by the risks of overburdening community banks and forcing them out of home lending altogether.

For starters, higher-interest rates and balloon payments have become targets of lending regulations tied to Dodd-Frank and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But community banks have successfully used these products time and time again in the past.

Unlike subprime lenders, which abused these tools to drive volume and then sold them through the securitization channel, community banks generally hold the risk on their balance sheets, Duke asserted.

“They use higher interest rates to compensate for the lack of liquidity in these loans or to cover higher processing costs because community banks lack economies of scale, and they use balloon payments as a simple way to limit their interest-rate risk,” Duke said.

Concerns over new capital requirements and additional operating procedures could push community banks away altogether, Duke said.  This is a problem when considering banks and credit unions together represented 25% of all originations in the U.S. marketplace last year.

Rather than imposing the same regulatory structure on all institutions, Duke proposes the creation of a separate regulatory regime that possesses the skills to evaluate smaller banks on the disclosures they make and through on-site bank supervision.

via housingwire.com

BofA offers 30,000 borrowers $4.75 billion in principal reductions | South Salem NY Real Estate

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Bank of America ($9.12 0%) approved 30,000 mortgage customers for principal reductions on first-lien mortgages with a total value of $4.75 billion as part of its consumer-relief mandate under the national mortgage servicing settlement program.

Bank of America executives participated on a teleconferenced update to the settlement.

They said that, through September, BofA completed or approved $15.8 billion in mortgage debt relief for 164,000 homeowners.

The progress report comes the same day that four other banks are expected to release their compliance updates with the national mortgage servicing settlement. The $20 bilion-plus settlement, which was reached between the big banks, state attorneys general and the federal government, outlines consumer-relief mandates and servicing requirements for the nation’s largest mortgage servicers.

BofA said in addition to $4.75 billion in principal reductions, the company has extended $230 million in pre-settlement forebearance.

And to date, 45,000 homeowners with mortgages serviced or owned by BofA have received $2.5 billion in relief through programs offering extinguishment of home equity loans and lines of credit.

Another 62,000 BofA customers were greenlighted for short-sales or deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure offering another $7.4 billion in relief on unpaid principal balances.

By Oct. 31, 23,000 homeowners had been offered assistance via interest rate reductions, with most of that activity occurring in just the past month.

Through September, about 1,000 rate reductions were completed with interest-rate aid totaling $250 million in unpaid principal balances.

BofA notes that when evaluating the gross amount of forgiveness activity, the relief is not always calculated dollar-for-dollar, so the aid amount is often higher than what is credited.

via housingwire.com

Weekly Online Video News Round Up – Dead Camera Edition | Katonah NY Real Estate

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On Monday we were on site for a night of shooting and the brand new, less than a month old, Canon 60D stops working and won’t start up. ARGH! A whole day lost. But that doesn’t mean you lose out on the weekly news round up. So here’s what’s what, who’s who and the hows and whys of what happened this week in online video.

Google Stomps Print!

During the first six months of 2012, Google generated more money in advertising revenue than all U.S. print publications combined. Google brought in $10.9 billion in ad revenue in this time period, while U.S. newspapers and magazines brought in $10.5 billion.

There are a couple caveats to this, however. First off, the data here factors in Google’s global ad revenue, rather than just the ad revenue it generates in the U.S., so it’s not entirely a fair comparison. Second, this analysis does not factor in revenue that comes from ads placed on newspaper websites.

Source: Mashable

YouTube Updates Android App For One-Tap Sharing To Google TV

Google has announced a new YouTube feature for Android and Google TV that pushes YouTube content from an Android phone to a Google TV. Now you can watch all your favorite YouTube videos on your HDTV — if you happen to own a Google TV set-top box. Initially, the feature work only with Android (2.2 and later) and Google TV (2.1.2) only, but Google hints that other platforms getting the feature in the future.

Source: Wired

Android Power!

Nearly three out of four smartphones in the world are now running on Google’s Android operating system, according to a report on third quarter sales released Wednesday.

Android now accounts for 72.4% of the market for smartphone operating systems, up from 52.5% in the period a year earlier. A big chunk of that gain was attributed to Samsung, which sold 55 million smartphones. The bulk of Samsung’s smartphones run on Android.

Source: LA Times

Vevo Expands Into Europe, Partners With Yahoo On Ads

Vevo, the music video website founded by music majors Universal and Sony, is to break into mainland Europe, launching in France, Spain, and Italy. Other markets where Vevo is available include the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Brazil.

The service, which is also backed by EMI Music, is aiming to attract music fans who currently watch hundreds of millions of videos each month via its channel on YouTube to its own Vevo.com website.

Source: The Guardian

Brightcove Cloud App Update

Open Plugin Architecture and Partner Integration

The new App Cloud plugin model makes it easy for developers to extend the native functionality that is built into App Cloud. Other hybrid app technologies offer native plugin capabilities, but developers soon find that the available plugins are frequently out-of-date, largely unsupported, and more trouble than they are worth. App Cloud developers can choose from a growing library of fully tested and fully supported App Cloud plugins, such as a native media uploader, native audio player, or in-app email composer, as well as plugins that integrate with third-party cloud services such as Google Analytics or comScore Digital Analytix.

Adding a pre-built plugin is as simple as copying a directory into their App Cloud project and including a JavaScript file. Brightcove’s cloud compilation service then automatically embeds the new functionality in the customer’s application and produces binaries ready for distribution through app stores. Developers will also be able to build custom native plugins of their own using the soon to be released App Cloud plugin development kit (PDK).

New Push Notification APIs

This release also delivers a significant expansion of App Cloud’s integrated support for push notifications. App Cloud developers can leverage a new set of client and server APIs to send individual push notifications to a particular app user or group users into custom-defined segments. For example, a news application could create segments focused on topical areas, allowing users to specify their interest in particular topics, while opting out of others. By targeting notifications by segment, developers can increase user engagement by notifying users only when content is relevant to their interests.

Availability

App Cloud’s new plugin architecture is now available to all customers, including users of App Cloud Core, the free open source version. The native media uploader and in-app email composer are built into version 1.12 of the App Cloud SDK. Additional free plugins, including the native audio player and Google Analytics plugins, are downloadable from the open source plugins repository hosted on GitHub. The comScore Digital Analytix and DRM plugins are currently expected be released later this year. The new push notification APIs are available immediately to customers with subscriptions to the App Cloud Pro or Enterprise editions.

AOL Expands Video Reach With Kaltura Partnership

The AOL On Network announced that it has partnered with Kaltura, the leading open source video platform. The partnership will make the entire AOL video library of more than 420,000 premium videos available to companies using the Kaltura Platform.

Kaltura’s publishers will be able to access and search the AOL video catalog, then add premium, short-form video to their own accounts. By having access to this massive repository, Kaltura publishers will be able to expand their own video library with more premium content, increase total inventory, and leverage a number of revenue options to boost revenues.

Source: Herald Online

Live TV Viewing Dips, Cross-Screen Digital Use Up

Live television viewing continues to lose ground — albeit slowly — as time-shifted programming and multitasking with smartphones and/or tablets gains ground. Nielsen’s new cross-media platform report shows live viewing in the second quarter of 2012 averaged 4 hours and 18 minutes a day, down five minutes a day from the second quarter of 2011.

YouTube Pairs Android With Google TV

On Tuesday, Google announced a new YouTube feature for Android and Google TV. The feature pushes YouTube content from an Android phone to a Google TV. Now you can watch all your favorite YouTube videos on your HDTV — if you happen to own a Google TV set-top box. Initially, the feature works only with Android (2.2 and later) and Google TV (2.1.2) only, but Google hints that other platforms getting the feature in the future.

Source: Wired

Encoding.com Updates

Universal Closed Captioning

The most powerful and flexible closed caption workflow in the market

Supporting closed captions is a critical component to expanding the size and demographic of your video’s audience. The FCC has now mandated that all content broadcast on television must include closed captions when delivered to Internet and mobile devices. Closed captions are delivered in many different formats and require a diverse set of tools to automate within your media workflow. We researched production broadcast workflows in detail and built a feature set that is more robust and flexible than any other on the market. Using the API, you can now extract, mux, or copy closed captions files in all major formats, including cea-608/708, DFXP, SAMI, SCC, SRT, TTML and 3GPP Time Text

Brand New User Interface

Our enterprise-grade API feature set is now available in the browser

While we have continuously innovated our API based feature set over the last 5 years we felt the industry was long over due for a professional video encoding workflow in the browser. After 9 months of intensive development, we are proud to announce a completely redesigned browser based toolset for professional video encoding in the cloud. New information architecture and a many new features are available including a complete management interface for vid.ly, universal video service,

Ultra Fast Desktop Uploader

Up to100x faster than FTP, powered by Aspera

Now you can rapidly upload batches of huge source files to the cloud with the Ultra Fast Desktop Uploader powered by Aspera. After the accelerated upload, you can configure multiple output renditions and delivery points using the Encoding.com web interface.

Source: Newsletter

WebM for Wii

Just when I thought WebM was dead…

YouTube launched its first-ever native Wii app Thursday, making it possible for users of the game console to watch videos without relying on the game console’s Opera browser. The Wii app looks somewhat similar to YouTube’s recently-launched PS3 app, with an interesting technical twist: Most videos consumed through it are streamed in Google’s WebM open video format.

Source: Gigaom

So YouTube is still using WebM on its backside transcoding it seems.

Optrix Expand Video Capture with New XD Sports Case Accessories

Product Highlights:

Glidepro – Hand Stabilizer
–    Ideal to capture smooth and steady videos anywhere
–    Eliminates the shakes typically associated with hand-held filming
–    Utilizes same technology found in professional filmmaking equipment

Dolly – Flexible Roller
–    Ideal for tracking shots, time lapse, artistic work and capturing travel videos
–    Large wheels provide smooth movement
–    11” adjustable arm allows for unique angles and positions

Monopod – Extendable Arm
–    Ideal for self-portraits, high/low angles, self-videos and POV shots
–    Extendable arm provides access to hard to reach camera angles and positions
–    Lightweight portable design extends up to 3 ft

Flex – Flexible Tripod
–    Ideal for usage from unique angles, including poles, tree branches and more
–    Flexible legs secure your XD Sport to virtually any surface
–    Compact size makes it a perfect travel companion

via reelseo.com

The 4-Step Guide to Building Your Authority | Bedford Hills NY Real Estate

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If you want people to visit your blog—and stay there—you have to be an authority figure.

This is definitely true if you are trying to solve a common problem. You have to know and understand what you are talking about.

When people know you’re an expert on a topic, it gives them comfort. They know that they can trust you. They are going to put their faith into you over and over again. That means you cannot fail your readers. They have to be your main focus. They deserve an expert, they deserve great advice, and they’re expecting it from you.

You have to deliver.

How do you become that expert? How do you become that person that they go to for advice and guidance? Here are four steps you can take to help build your authority.

1. Write about something you already know or are willing to learn

This one tip can make the process very easy. You must focus on something you know or are willing to learn.

If you are interested in your topic, writing for your blog will be much easier. If you are already an expert, you shouldn’t run out of things to write about.

If you are an expert, your advice will be sound and your readers will be able to achieve success with the information you provide them. Good advice builds credibility. Your audience will return to you more often if you’ve proven that you are an expert.

You may not be an expert in the topic you choose to write about, but being passionate about it can go a long way. You’ll be learning as you go. You will be able to supply information to your readers about was or was not successful for you. It may take longer to build that credibility, but it is definitely possible this way.

Another benefit of building yourself up to expert status from scratch is that you can relate to your readers. Very recently, you were in their shoes. You are searching for information, just like your audience. You will be able to form a connection that few other bloggers can establish.

Take a look at Darren here at Problogger. He has become the expert on blogs and monetizing blogs. Darren knows his stuff; he has been through it all. He gives out quality posts consistently.

If you take a look at his posts, you will see he speaks with authority. Darren is the authority to anything related to blogging, and people trust him—expert and novice bloggers alike.

2. Speak with authority

This is a huge aspect in the development of your blog. It will definitely keep first-time readers on your blog while keeping long-time readers coming back for more.

If you speak with confidence in the information you are supplying, it will spark your readers’ interest. They will definitely be more willing to try out the advice you’re giving.

How do you speak with authority and confidence? Good question. The biggest point is to watch the words you use. If you use words like might, could, and may, then you are not putting confidence into the information you’re supplying.

If you are giving your readers good information, and they follow the information you give them, then there should be no question that they will be successful. Not only should you be confident, but you should instill confidence into your readers too.

Have you ever visited The Simple Dollar blog? Trent Hamm has emerged as the expert in saving money and creating a stable financial future. Bring up one of his posts on simple money saving tips. As you read, you’ll notice quickly that he knows what he is suggesting works. There is no question in his mind.

He gives you specific examples. He tells you that if you do X then you will save Y. No maybes, no mights, no coulds: only results. That’s what people want—results. They want to know that if they do what you say, they will have success. Trent does a great job of this.

3. Speak from experience

If you are giving your readers advice, then you’d better have tried it out yourself first. The easiest advice to give is advice on what has or hasn’t worked for you. You have to give your readers information that you know works.

If you speak from experience, not only will your information be more detailed, it will also be more reliable. This is a great way to establish credibility.

Readers love to hear about your experiences, too. This adds a personal level to your writing. And so your credibility builds, because your readers know that you tried each piece of advice you are sharing with them. Besides, how can you be confident in something you’ve never tried?

The first time I visited Life Without Pants, I was hooked. Matt Cheuvront shares his life experiences on overcoming challenges and working towards goals. Not only does Matt do a great job of describing his experiences, he’s great at making the lessons he learned relevant to his audience. This is powerful, because he is doing two things.

First, he’s sharing his experiences, which most audiences love. We all love a good story. He also gives the reader something to walk away with and incorporate into their lives. Whether it is a philosophy or a specific action, Matt is giving his audience usable information from his own experiences. That’s pretty powerful!

4. Be honest

If your give information that’s supposed to help your readers, but it doesn’t, think about how bad you’ll look. Those who give out bad information do not tend to last in blogging. People can tell very quickly whether or not you are lying.

Real experts will also know when you are lying. If you have a comments section, they will point out how wrong you are very quickly. You can’t just post something telling people it will help them of you really don’t know if it will. This is a big credibility- and authority-killer.

Don’t take an article written by someone else and market it as your own. This is another huge issue that will kill your authority. Come up with your own unique material. People want new and useful information. If you steal other people’s work, you will lose all respect from the blogging community.

Blogging is all about building relationships with readers and other bloggers. Taking others’ content will make others never want to work with you. It will forever tarnish you and your brand and. Keep it honest and your authority will soar.

Neil Patel at Quicksprout is well-respected around the blogging community. If you have never heard of him, just visit Quicksprout and see how popular his blog is. Neil has had his share of successes and failures. He makes that very public. He is also very open about things that do and do not work.

He has established himself as an authority figure as a result of this. His posts are honest and genuine, and include loads of valuable information. Model yourself after Neil and be honest and helpful when you write. You’ll have a following similar to his, active and hungry for knowledge!

Are you an expert?

Well there you have it. These are four ways of increasing your authority and expertise. If you practice these tips regularly, people will learn that they can trust you and the information you provide. They will come to you more often for the information they need.

Become an authority figure and success will find you!

via problogger.net