Popular Wine Blogs = Credible Wine Blogs

Credibility is a strange term to me. When I sit with the word, the first feeling that comes to mind is trust. Am I trustworthy? Can people trust what I say as true and accurate? Can they come to me knowing that I will continually do my best to give them advice and information that is valid based on my experience or on the experience of others?

Feels heavy, as if I have a thousand eyes looking at me saying “are you a good and honest human being”?

I hope I am. I try to be. But I can’t guarantee that I am successful everyday.

I bring the term credibility to the floor today because many people, both in print and in the internet, have debated the credibility of a blogger.

In short are bloggers trustworthy and honest? Are we ethical?

Allow me to turn this debate around a little and ask a very important question, who wants to be known as lacking credibility, as a liar or a manipulator? I personally don’t know anyone who wants to be viewed in this light, but instead would much rather be spoken of with respect for the knowledge and wisdom they do have?

Maybe I’m hanging out with a different crowd, but if I sense that someone’s moral character is sketchy, I personally won’t go to their site, read their work or chat with them in person. I won’t link to them, I won’t talk to them and I won’t ask to get together for beer on a Thursday night.  Consequently, they don’t get my traffic.  And less traffic means that less people will see them, read them or suggest them.

Granted, there are times I may get the wool pulled over my eyes, tricked by a sly dog who knows just how spoon feed me information I’m looking for, but as I consider those out of my control, and infrequent, I choose not to even enter into this debate. They are the exception and not the rule.

The blogs that have a considerable amount of traffic are those that have been judged by their readers to be credible, honest and ethical. Readers are the blogger’s investor. They invest time and energy to read people they trust. And occasionally they will make a bad investment into a blogger that is not of sound morals and ethics; but just as print media can attest with the NY Times scandal when a journalist plagiarized and created false stories, sometimes we lose on the investment, but we don’t give up on the medium.

It is the readers who decide, because it is they who will keep coming back over and over and over again, because the content, the research, the relationship is trustworthy.

I am a wine blogger and I have a strong sense of ethics, morals, character and self-respect. I have no interest in distorting the truth, but bask in the feeling I get when I provide others with accurate and relevant information they are looking for. Therefore, the blogs I link to, talk about, and support are bloggers that I trust, that I respect and for whom I sincerely care about. And if we error, many of us do our best to remain open minded and receptive to suggestions or constructive criticisms; whereby we strikeout the error in our piece, while leaving the information transparent for everyone to see, or add an addendum at the bottom of our post.

Again, we want nothing less than to be honest not just for ourselves, but to provide those who read us accurate and trustworthy information.

Wine blogging is hard, hard work. To gain notoriety, respect and a following takes a considerable amount of time and energy publishing, commenting on other sites and generally getting your name, which your brand, recognized. Money is not a deciding factor in starting a wine blog at this point in time, therefore, the majority of wine bloggers soul intention is to share their passion for wine.

And because they are passionate about wine, they’re dying for someone to step up and comment, “Hey, great article” or “Maybe you weren’t aware, but Rioja is not in Germany“.

Blogging is a beautiful medium because we all have the ability to be both the student and the teacher. We can immediately leave a comment, sharing our perspective, and banter back and forth on the accuracy of the statement.

Here’s to wonderful, heartfelt bloggers who are providing great information for the world.

Cheers,

Ryan and Gabriella