Build A Blogging Empire with Deception – The TRUTH Behind Successful Blogging
Posted on December 24th, 2008 by Jim under Blogging Tricks, Observations
How many people could you name off the top of your head that have great looking websites and blogs? Probably quite a few!
My second question is how many of these people actually write solid content?
About half.
This disturbing fact has gotten me flustered over the course of blogging up to this point, I’m not going to hide that fact at all. In fact, it seems that when I advise people about starting their first blog… or even how to make money online in general… the problem is not how you are doing it… but your ability to project a professional appearance! I want to talk to you today about how to build a blogging empire online simply by deceiving your users, simply because so many people have been able to do this. Sometimes, it’s not about the content that you write, but how well it is received on the other end.
Deception? What Are You Talking About?
That’s right ladies and gentlemen, you are being duped by many bloggers into the belief that because they are putting up content… they are the “real deal.” In fact, it stretches far beyond this. While some people simply make blogs on generic-looking templates that have some level of credibility… but never really get over that bump… quite a few bloggers go the extra mile and order custom templates that make them seem downright immaculate. Once a blogger orders a custom template and you visit their blog, simply seeing their personalized settings immediately triggers in your brain the notion that “oh, they have a custom built blog… they must be good… I think I’ll subscribe!” Let’s take a look at an example:
Which blog would you subscribe to?
If I were to show you the two websites here, you would probably think I was crazy if I were to recommend you actually subscribe to the second one… right? Well as it turns out, the one on the left is theNetFool.com. The one on the right… is theNetFool.com.
For about 4 months I operated under terrible conditions with around 20 RSS subscribers (including myself) at the peak. Why? Simply because my design was generic. I decided to invest a few hundred in a professional template… and boom! My quality of work didn’t go up at all, yet my RSS subscriber chart was off to the races! The bottom line here is that you could be the best blogger in the world with money-making ideas that will feed a family. If you cannot relay your information on a professional-looking website, you will never succeed.
Sounds Simple Enough… What’s Wrong Then?
I consider myself to be a writer that gives you useful information and a reason to read. I don’t trap anyone into scam deals, and I sure as heck don’t waste your time with posts about my personal life, my next contest or even constant advertising. The problem is that for the same reasons 
that you would rather choose blog LEFT over blog RIGHT are the reasons that there are so many success stories out there that don’t deserve it. It’s not your fault, it is human nature to trend toward the aesthetically pleasing, eh?
No, I am not going to name names… that wouldn’t be fair or very nice of me. I like to be constructive, not destructive. Because of this, I want to challenge you to go through your list of “favorite blogs” and really take a look at the content. Have a quick glance at the archives and see if they are still writing interesting content! Chances are… if it is a fashionable blog, they are giving you about as much information as (insert metaphor here). I could run off a list of bloggers 20+ in length that I know personally, that only exist because they have “cool” looking blogs that people subscribe to because they associate good looks with good content.
Using Deception to Your Advantage!
Let’s turn it around, eh? 
Perhaps you are a fantastic writer and you are still using a “premium WP theme” that is completely free for anyone to download. A quick news-flash to these “blogging hopefulls:” anything “free” is by definition not premium. In fact, if I visit your website and I see a design that I have seen somewhere else, I am already half discrediting your authority in my mind! It’s sad, but it’s entirely true! If you want to 
be a successful blogger in a tough niche, one thing that you absolutely need is a customized theme… or at bare minimum a fancy logo that will designate you from the pack. Heck, you can grab an awesome logo for under $20 if you set up an auction on GetAFreelancer.com, DigitalPoint or WarriorForum.
Another great tip is to create a mascot for your blog. With me, I represented myself in a cartoon rendered version. There are many professional cartoonists out there on the internet just waiting for you to drop a few bucks in their direction. Think about it this way, the cost of an RSS subscriber is somewhere around $10-$18 as estimated by comparable blog sales in the past. A new mascot will run you anywhere from $40 to $100 depending on the quality of work you choose. Because of this, any cost you take on the front end will be almost immediately recovered by an essentially automatic RSS boost.
Bottom Line: You NEED to upgrade your blog to stay competitive! With the amount of bloggers that run around with professional designs these days (and not much else), you need to be able to make a name for yourself with a flashy new design, new logo or a new mascot for your blog. Never sacrifice your content to put out what only has the appearance of professionalism, but remember that it’s not always what you write… but how you write it!
-The Net Fool
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!Related Posts
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This is sad but true.I know a lot of blogs that I am subscribed to that are successful that to be honest dont really have a solid reason to – except they are good promoters of themselves.
However, I do recommend getting a custom theme and logo for your blog, as this helps your blog to stand out from the millions of other blogs and it lets people know that you are taking blogging seriously.
Awesome post. I do accept with you Jim. We need to look professional for getting exposure as well as for the blog getting sold
What a confession and what a story! Thanks a hell of a lot.
Well said. The whole content factor is something that has been peeving me quite a bit lately. I visit these blogs with hundreds and thousands of subscribers and all I see is generic content that exists on at least 500 other sites on the web. I know my content is unique and better, but I guess I will be investing in a bit more of a customized theme soon.
I actually don’t agree with you here. Just because you have a snazzy blog that blings doesn’t necessarily mean that you won’t be successful. Case in point-
http://makemoneyforbeginners.blogspot.com/
This blog is a blogspot blog and probably has more readers than most of the social blogs out there and has a very large readership (just look at the comments…there are very few with less than 70 comments per post).
A good looking blog such as shoemoney’s blog (which says very little but has a large readership) may be attractive but I think that the real reason isn’t the look and feel of the blog….
People go where there are people….and that is what the johnchow’s and shoemoney’s of the world enjoy.
Anyway…just a different viewpoint…Oh, and by the way…my blog is probably the ugliest blog on the planet (no header…no nothing…)
I have been thinking about this and you just give me some more incentive to do so.
Great post.
Cmon dude, you are giving out bad information. You don’t need a good blog design to make money. YOU NEED TO BE ON TOP OF THE SERPS. Sad to see you steering bloggers in the direction of RSS feed subscribers equals success. Get to the top of Google serps and you will make more money than readers who don’t buy anything.
I don’t believe that this is true at all. You can be an SEO mastermind, sure, but the number of bloggers that are actually amazing with SEO are 1 in 1000. For the most part, we find people putting up amazing designs and essentially faking people out into thinking they are good writers because of their looks.
Jim, Leo and Shawn are both right. How can that be true? Well, there is more than one type of successful blog. You have to decide how you want to get your traffic.
If you are trying to build a social blog that gains readers by being a part of the social blogging community in your niche, then I think that you definitely need to invest in a custom blog theme at sometime in the future. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you need this right away. Make sure that you like blogging and are in it for the long haul.
On the other hand, if your primary strategy for getting traffic is from search engine traffic, then you need to be more focused on SEO than aesthetics. You need a theme that will help you in the search engines over a fancy dancy theme.
I would also like to say one thing about the blog mentioned above, http://makemoneyforbeginners.blogspot.com/ . The author of this blog is a search engine genius who writes great content. This shows the power of content. The author of the aforementioned blog is Grizzly. He provides his readers with very valuable information. If you provide great information, it doesnt matter what theme you are using.
-Fred
Well said, but this post was really about how people are deceiving you with good designs, not about how to be a good blogger. I think people took this in the wrong way… I really just wanted to highlight the fact that good design does NOT equal good blog. Conversely, you can use this myth to your advantage to rake in subscribers who will believe falsely that you are something special when you might be a run-of-the-mill guy.
Thanks for the insight Fred, good stuff
Jim,
You are so right about people deceiving their readers with good designs. The two bloggers that fall into this camp are Shoemoney and John Chow. These two bloggers have a ton of subscribers, including me at one time. However, after reading their posts for about 3 months, it donned on me that I did not learn anything in those 3 months.
-Fred
Getting a new theme gives visitors an idea that your blog is unique, then with your classic content (SEO) that will reaffirm in the visitors mind that your blog is really unique.
But weighing on between SEO and unique theme, SEO weighs more than unique theme.
Deception is all in the look your website portrays to others
-Mike
This is a great post on how important site design is. I think the only real use for those stock themes is personal blogs or starter blogs that are only seen by family and friends. If you are trying to show that you are an expert and have authority within a niche, you need to look it as well.
Thanks for this quality post
You are right to say that a good design is KEY to a succesful blog. Its all a case of percieved proffesionalism essentially.
However, I believe that if you find a decent free theme, and edit it slightly then a fully custom theme is not necessary. A cartoon mascot is a good way to set yourself apart from the crowd without spending $200 on the theme. Although jason runs a premium theme now, he used to run an edited version of Kubric over at and he doesn’t do too badly.
Hey guys, what do you think of grabbing a free theme, customizing it with a logo and custom buttons and a custom menu bar? Isn’t that practically the same effect?
See my blog and tell me what you think of the design.
Some feedback would be much appreciated!
Depends just how customized it really is… it’s hard to give a yes or no answer straight up. I’m sure I could pull an example of a free template done RIGHT and a free template done WRONG if you really wanted it, but I don’t feel like hunting, haha. Let’s just say that I think you did a good job with your blog, rantblogger.com, and that it looks legitimate enough
Design attract people but if there are low quality content, they would leave it immediately.
I think that beginners should have a free “premium” design at first to start blogging, just to see if they are able to manage their blog and get friend with Wordpress, just to test it. And then, he could change his free premium design to a true premium design when his blog would have more visits.
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