A lot of bloggers, and people in general do not keep it real. Now before I get into this post, let me break down the definition of “keeping it real.” Keeping it real is telling people the truth. Not what you think they should hear, or what they want to hear, but the truth. For the people who know me, they know I always keep it real. Now I’ve had a lot of people dislike me, because I tell them what they need to hear, instead of what they want to hear, but I’ve also had a great deal of credibility come my way for “keeping it real.”
I’m going to share with you the true power of “keeping it real” and how it can not only improve yourself as a blogger, but increase the revenue your earn online and offline. So, as you are reading through this article continue to ask yourself “Am I keeping it real?”
The power of keeping it real
You build credibility
When you keep it real, you’re building credibility. People are going to know that when they come to you for tips or advice, or even when you promote an product/write an article, you’re speaking the genuine truth. Think about it. . . would you want to trust someone who doesn’t tell you the “truth?”
They’re millions of people on the internet that try to scam people and feed you a bunch of crap. Standing out from that crowd of assholes (yes, that’s what I believe those kind of people are) will build you a lot of credibility.
Increases your affiliate earnings
Many people I know I’m an affiliate marketer, and that is no secret. I do not mind telling people 99% of the products I recommend are affiliate products. Shoot, it’s how I make my living online. However, one thing I will add-on though is everything I recommend I’ve used it before and I believe it will provide value for my readers.
I was on a skype call yesterday with Nicholas Cardot, and he was sharing with me a story on how he was misled by affiliates that lie about the product to encourage affiliate sales. When I was interviewed by Jordan Cooper about living the internet lifestyle, he asked me what would I recommend to affiliate marketers? I told him that I would recommend always keeping it real with your audience. If I think a product is worthless, I will be the first to say it. If I think a product is good, I will probably promote the hell out of it.
How this increases my affiliate earnings
Whenever I promote a product, I always receive quite a few people who buy the product I recommended. Why? It’s simple. They know I’m promoting a product that will be beneficial to them. It’s all about keeping it real.
Increase of readership
If you provide quality content, love your readers, you stay consistent with it and you keep it real. Readers will subscribe to your blog, they will continue coming to your blog and they will soak in the information you offer. You may not see it at first, but by you keeping it real, you are standing out from the crowd.
Group Discussion
Gather up your thoughts, and let em out. What’s your opinion on this? Do you think “keeping it real” has its powers? Have you been keeping it real? If so what has it done for you? If you haven’t, why not? Will this post make you think otherwise about it?
Share your thoughts below, I’m interested in hearing your opinions.
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Twitter: lifenotion
I define keeping it real for me as honesty.
Not only do you have to be honest to your readers and any additional audience, but you need to, personally, be ‘keeping it real’. Additionally, you need to accept people giving you ‘keep it real’ advice, which is criticism. They are making these suggestions because they want to have you succeed or not sell your self short.
I have learned to ‘keep it real’ with my friends in the blogging sphere, because I will not be their true friend if I am just agreeing or saying positive comments.
In regards to readership, I feel if you establish these connections by offering them criticism they will more likely support any venture or product you produce (blog posts, ebooks, ecources, etc.). This will then reflect your overall credibility and any new readers you gain, because you will have that strong support.
I’m glad your seeing & understanding the true value & importance of keeping it real Derek
I’m happy we’re able to have these skype conversations with Nick, Jordan, Darren etc. . . and we’re able to ask questions and receive the “honest” truth.
Twitter: BuildThatListCo
I find it is a lot easier to keep it real than to put up a fake front. If you are trying to be someone you are not just to impress people, you can only keep it up for so long before it get’s tiring and you let your facade slip. Great post Rob!
BTW, you made it into my top 10 referring sites last month and got a mention from my latest post!
Tom´s last blog . . .Do I Need My Own Product Before I Start List Building?
Glad you enjoyed the post and it’s even better to see you agree Tom! It’s all about being yourself, and being honest. Good point!
Yea I did! I got a pingback on it, glad to see I helped contribute some traffic to your site
Twitter: wasims
I think keeping it real also means sticking to what you know and sticking to that particular subject on your blog too. I made this mistake when I started my first blog. I like things to do with design but I don’t necessarily like the idea of being stuck on a computer designing something ALL the time. My blog started to show that my heart just wasn’t in it and because of that I started pretending to enjoy it just so I would have something to blog about. My blogs posts became too varied and I must have lost readership and value too.
I totally revamped my blog and just started everything from scratch and now feel much more focused and it is all to do with being honest with myself. I’ve only been blogging consistently for 1 month now and (don’t know if you were the same but …..) got excited that someone actually left a blog comment.
I agree with what you added in, sticking to a particular subject, but I also think that falls under being “passionate” about what you do as well.
Reading how you fell into design and it wasn’t your passion, reminds me of myself. I don’t know if you knew this or not, but when I first started off a year ago, I was teaching others how to make money online, but I wasn’t actually “making money online” so I had to totally delete a lot of my articles and make sure I talked about making money, when I actually was doing it. The good part is, you found your error and your on track now
Twitter: wasims
Yeah thanks. I feel like I’m on track but also I’m still struggling with exactly what it is I like doing. It’s as if all I like doing is blogging and I want to master it like an art better than what I did with design stuff. Can I ask whether you had contacts in the blogging world before or was it all trial and error? Not sure if this is the right post to be asking you this.
Wasim´s last blog . . .Doing Things Backwards
Part of blogging is finding your passion, so do not put yourself down if you change your niche. When I first started off I wasn’t blogging about blogging, i was more of a tech guy before i got into blogging.
When I first started off, i knew one sucessful blogger &
as i’ve got bigger, so has my contacts
I feel your word is who you are. That boils down to character of a person.
You’re right on spot with that one Tina!
Yes I also agree that keeping it real is very important. I run a few websites and one of them is Mass Home Help – site to help people get their financial life back on track if they have credit card, mortgage or car loan issues. The site mainly walks them through steps I’ve taken in the past to help other clients. I only offer 1 product on that site, but my clients would rather have me do the work for them and I think it’s because I keep it real with them about how I work.
I have faced hardship before and hate the though of people struggling when they don’t have to. There is so much info on the Internet, but it’s hard to tell which products are really useful. I keep it real because I know offering value is so important.
Twitter: mlwebco
Honesty always wins out. I can see right through someone’s lies in matter of seconds. It’s your language, the words you use that lets someone knows if you’re telling the truth. People generally do business with people they can trust. Trust comes from being transparent, being honest and just keeping it real. Nice post.
Michael Locke´s last blog . . .3 Ways to Improve Conversions on Your Website
I’m right with you Michael, kind of ashamed I didn’t include that. If you’re honest with people, you’re chances of others doing business with you will increase.
Shame, no room for it, an opps is all that’s needed. Nice post. I do often think your real is not another’s real. But honesty is honesty as far as one knows it to be for them. Speaking for myself, I always like to be up front about what is so for me, whiling letting others have what’s so for them. No one likes to be had, what the world would be like if we all could count on the truth, or as you put it “keeping it real”.
Right on point with your comment. But I’d like to hear more on what do you mean by “your real is not anothers real”
The best way I can think of to explain it is to say; we both witness a car accident, we see that someone has been hit, along with 4 other people seeing the same accident. When interviewed about the accident we each have our own interpretation of what happened. One car hit the other car, but we will put in what we saw and it will be close to the others but different.
I might find a certain product to be really really great, your experience with it on the other hand may be a bad one. Does that make it not real for me? Or make it not real for you?
You statements “about keeping it real” are right on, keeping it real for ourselves is what we can do. Being honest about what we say and do, hoping this will spread throughout,as in having others want to do business with us.
Debra´s last blog . . .Giving to the homeless
Twitter: ewealths
How do you do it, you always just hit hard, right on the spot, am truly grateful, Liza(2buildawebsite.com) did something on you.
About keeping it real, that involves more than just writing, it would involve your whole person and really spell out who you are before everyone,thank you for keeping it real
Glad you enjoyed this post
seems like I hit home with this post ay? I was actually kind of skeptical at writing this post at first, but I told myself to just go ahead and see how my readers like it, and sure enough it’s being loved 
I’m always keeping it real here, so be sure to keep it real with me back
Twitter: redeyeblogging
I totally believe in keeping it real. I know many gaming bloggers that never have anything negative to say about games. It is like every game out on the market is the greatest game ever.
I see my readership growing because I tell them like it is. I think other gaming bloggers are too scared they are going to make one of their readers get mad, and unsubscribe so they always just talk positively about all games even though some they probably hate.
Brian Inman´s last blog . . .Using bit.ly for your Gaming Blog Marketing
So glad you keep it real Brian
or else I might have to delete your comment because I’ll be afraid you’re NOT keeping it real. LOL, kidding.
However, I do agree that a lot of gamers do feed other feedback about a game that’s not even true. So by you taking the upper end and “keeping it real” you are definitely standing out from the crowd which is a good thing.