Lesson 12: Credibility

Lesson of the Week:

What if I Have No Credibility?

In our previous issue, we discussed how proof of an accomplishment is the best way to establish Credibility on the internet. And with strangers. 

Everyone wants to know how you did what you did, but only after they trust that you did it.

But what if you feel like you haven't "accomplished" much, don't have receipts to provide, or aren't comfortable sharing proof?

First, Chris and Louie from the Newsletter Launchpad believe everyone has been up to something and has something to share. It's just that most people aren't placing the right value on their achievements or have fears about sharing them.

But since our beliefs are out of the scope of this edition, we will give you a few other ways you can get Credibility with strangers.

Some alternatives:

1. Credibility by Referral - Like when a friend recommends a plumber, you're relying on someone else's judgment. People with Credibility on a topic on the internet can willingly lend you Credibility; it can be something as simple as a retweet, a like, comment, or any sort of amplification. That amplification signals to their followers that they can trust you know your stuff on the topic. Credible people don't do this willy-nilly, just like your friend would be afraid to recommend you a bad plumber. Saying someone is good when they aren't would hurt their own Credibility. So this is another way to establish Credibility in a networked world.

2. Borrowed Credibility w/ Permission - You can borrow someone else's Credibility by referencing their material or working with them. Eric Jorgenson writing the Navalmanack is a great example of this. Eric compiled this book out of all the material Naval Ravikant generated. By organizing and compiling the knowledge, he added value to a body of work that already had huge Credibility. Other examples are working with a "name" corporation or credible people on a topic.

3. Borrowed Credibility without Permission - You can also borrow Credibility from credible people without anyone's permission. Referencing sources of knowledge does not require explicit permission. In fact, much of the internet is permissionless. This means you can curate someone's work without working with them directly. They may or may not choose to amplify you, but it does not matter because you are referencing their material, like an essay for school.

4. Certification or a prestigious program - A degree from a high-status school, completion of a well-known program - for example, Google or Microsoft certifications. The internet has similar clubs popping up; for example, being selected as a Mentor for a course like Write of Passage establishes Credibility with a small group of high-caliber people. Or teaching something in the Small Bets community again establishes Credibility with a group of high-caliber people.

5. Respected Media - If you're featured or mentioned in media, this can give you Credibility. For example, Forbes 30 under 30.

6. Do It Live - And finally, if you really feel you don't have much from the past to draw from to establish Credibility, you can establish Credibility by building in public. That is by sharing every single step, everything you are doing. By sharing failures and wins, the network has memory; if enough nodes on the network see you do a thing live, they will like, comment, and retweet when you speak on that topic, and you will be credible on it. For example, if you want to be credible in coding but have never coded, start coding and sharing everything you are learning all along the way. Share code snippets, talk about what you built, and so on. Given enough of this, it will be impossible to say you are not credible. Of course, this can take a while, but it works.

These are just a few of the ways you can establish Credibility on the internet and with strangers. We may have missed other ways, but pick a way to do it and get it done.

Remember that without establishing Credibility with strangers on the internet, they may not pay attention to you. Your content will come off as asking; asking content usually goes ignored. 

We have dedicated two issues just to this topic because we feel it's that important, especially to grow the newsletter.

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A Little Shameless Self-Promotion

Next week we will have a free webinar on newsletters. If you decide to join us, you can expect to learn why we believe starting a newsletter is valuable. And what you can expect to get out of starting a newsletter. We will run it twice so folks that may not be able to make one night can attend the other on Tuesday, Sept 6th, and Thursday, Sept 8th at 8:00 PM EST.

You can sign up here for Tuesday or here or Thursday for the free webinar.

For those who are already convinced that a newsletter is valuable and want to start one or fairly recently started one, The Newsletter Launchpad Cohort 2 will start on September 13th. In that live course, you will get all of our lessons on newsletters live and hands-on feedback twice a week for 3 weeks. You will also be a part of a community of people that want to succeed with newsletters long term.

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Newsletter of the Week:

Two examples of credibility in the newsletter world:

Hacker Newsletter - Hacker News, by YCombinator, aggregates technology articles and is read by millions of people. This newsletter curates “the best” of those articles. Hacker Newsletter uses the credibility of Hacker News to produce a product for those who want exposure to the Hacker News content, but don’t have the time to wade through the firehose.

Substack - Substack has a recommendation engine for newsletter writers to recommend other newsletters. It’s a great discovery engine and works on the referral principle we mentioned above.

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Tip of the Week:

Don’t be afraid to experiment with your modules. If one module feels tedious, maybe leave it out. If you’re excited about something, maybe share it. We’re not saying to constantly experiment, but don’t have the thinking that your format is locked in stone.