Narcissism in Blogging

I was recently talking to David Hamilton over at the WHIR (Web Host Industry Review - read our post about acronyms) about blogging, and he brought up the very good point of how to avoid narcissism in blogging. It does seem like blog writers can be a little full of themselves. After all, they are portraying themselves as experts on a particular subject.

So how do you avoid this situation?

I can’t write a resume to save my life because it sounds like bragging, but I can go on for hours about keyword marketing research like I’m the savior of the industry. I think egotism in blogging is something that every blogger needs to work on. Perhaps acknowledging that others can be correct will help, but I honestly think that the style of blogging would need to significantly change in order to avoid this self-absorption problem.

One way of doing this is to reference other experts in your field within your blog. You may know a lot, but chances are that you learned from people who were, at some point, more knowledgeable than you. Give them credit, reference your sources with proper linking, and you (and they) will get more reward in the long run through backlinks and general good etiquette.