Why writers must earn the trust of readers

Readers want stuff, information on how to live their lives, increased incomes, a better world, how to make better films, whatever – and if you can’t credibly get it to them, your message is unpersuasive.

It’s not that your arguments don’t work, it’s that you aren’t a trusted messenger, and you can’t win in a low-trust fight because low trust channels are dominated by corporations, big media, and their emotionally appealing spokesmen and women.  (HT to Naked Capitalism from whom I stole the idea of low and high trust messengers and much of the text.)

The only way to beat this overwhelmingly powerful system is to become a trusted messenger.  like Seth Godin became a trusted messenger to thousands by writing valuable, helpful daily blog posts for years. He is so trusted that he was able to raise $300,000 for charity with one blog post.