Am I missing something here? The discussion is on determining expertise, and what defines expert for you. Do you have a definition?

you don’t ?

well how perfect your life must be ?

Ex meaning ‘has been’

xpurt or spurt meaning ‘a drip under great pressure’

quid pro quo
a has been drip under great pressure

Good for you. You are one of the proud and few. Many take for granted what is found in print, even when they know they shouldn’t.

Still, my point is for bloggers who want to claim they are experts. If you are a blogging expert, then you better understand what people are looking to judge you as an expert. It often isn’t your expertise but the presentation of your blog persona via the look, ads, content, history, and surface stuff.

For example, if someone proclaims themselves an expert in something and they have made the mistake of displaying their Archives showing only 3 posts, I don’t trust them. Sure, they may be the leading expert in the world on their expertise, but they have nothing to prove to me that they are, just their word.

I understand new to blogging. It takes time to build content, but this is one of the little things that makes me doubt them, especially when they shout from the roof tops that they are experts. Boils down to show me the money. :D

I don’t know Lorrelle, I tend to question authority no matter how established – sorry about that. I guess, it’s kind of like that Judge’s explanation of obscenity – I know it when I see it.

I think most of us have sufficient BS detection abilities to sort the wheat from the chaff. Perhaps I overestimate.

BTW, Despite my previous comment I largely agree with you.

You are so right. I think your work in promoting authority bloggers is excellent. It’s a way to educate and set examples, as well as mentor others, helping all of us understand the importance of identifying the real experts from the ones who tell you they are experts.

As the article states, what gives anyone the right to tell another how to do something is a mixed bag that brings up trust, emotional, and historical issues. There is no right or wrong, but a quality that makes or breaks an expert. Unfortunately, so many are still swayed by snail oil salesmen, which is why splogs, spam, and the other evils on the web continue to proliferate. They will always have customers.

I look forward to watching your work with Authority Blogger grow, helping so many understand that you can make even more money with integrity and honesty – and transparency – in yourself as well as your product.

We respect you because you have been in the blogging trenches for as long as there have been blogs (or longer?), and have become through your own hard work the go-to person about WordPress (without having to translate page after page of geekology to understand it, heh). But also, we like reading your stuff :)

So there are logical factors and then there are instinctive and emotional elements.

I heard a phrase that I think helps me understand how to perceive who has credibility; “Lions don’t need to roar”. I think the more people have to tell you to listen, the less real authority they have. It’s that “show, don’t tell” thing.

Demonstrate authority, provide real value, give people something that will not necessarily improve their lives but maybe give them some inspiration or make their day a little better.

If a physician is a success in their practice, as an example, making money hand over fist, then what good does putting ads on their blog bring them? $200 a month? Is that why they are blogging? For $200 a month of Adsense ad income? If a doctor paid $200,000 to $750,000 a year blogs as an expert in their field, and their blog features viagra, casino, and other totally unrelated Adsense ads in the sidebar, header, and in between the posts, I think “cheap” and “tacky” don’t you? That doesn’t feel right to me, no matter what kind of expert they are. It doesn’t make them less an expert, but it does make me question their blogging motives. For me, it’s a point against them, but not a reason to totally dismiss them. If there is other evidence that meets my criteria for “faking it” and insincere in their expertise, then I’m gone, usually not to return and definitely not to recommend them. So they lose because their blog doesn’t speak well for their expertise.

Did I say these are hard and fast rules? No. I said that these were some of the things I think about, but not all of them, when judging a blogger as an expert through their blog’s evidence. Like any surface, first impression-based judgment, it’s based on insufficient evidence. However, articles like these get bloggers to think about how others judge them through the evidence on their blogs.

If a medical student, stuffed with expertise from years of training but still not making the big bucks blogs with those same ads, I think she’s adding some extra income in a creative way, though I’d love to see her make wiser choices.

It’s all about the presentation being in balance with the blogger’s purpose and goals.

As for community, as said in the article, some of the best “experts” are made by the community around them, whether or not they are really qualified by certification and training. If they continue to supply us with the information we need consistently, over time we label them our experts and experts they become as a source and resource. This kind of expert requires a community.

There are no rules here, only examples and questions. And my question is: David, what is your litmus test to determine what defines an expert blogger?

What do those things have to do with knowledge about a subject or ability to perform a task? If an artist works in seclusion (isolated from any community) does that compromise their expertise? When Attorneys advertise does that make them less expert? How about Dentists? Physicians?

Perhaps advertising diminishes the dignity of their professions, but does it really have anything to do with expertise?

You can add anything to the list. This list is just a few of the things on my mental check off list for judging the “expertise” of a blogger, so I’m eager to hear your list.

Can we add a potential criteria to the mix? I think that a verifiable record of success is an integral part of the authority blog. For example, I can’t blog authoritatively about Google Page rank (yet) because I don’t have any. But I can blog about making a living writing online because I’ve done it for half a decade.

Good form!

I enjoyed the review of what it means to be an expert or authority – I think they have slightly different meanings, esp online where as you say the level of community suggests or demonstrates authority because other people have come to understand, recognise and trust what that person is saying (and can take their readership and loyalty away with one simple click)

Joanna

It’s a shame that those horrible blog herald link ads flashed up a red link just by your point on red fonts… undermined your point slightly…