Trust is a big word and it doesn't come at a cheap price.
Either you can build trust from day one or it takes years to build that trust factor and boost your blog's credibility. 
Be it ShoutMeLoud, Problogger, DailyBlogTips, every blog needs to have a trust factor, or in the end you will find it hard to convert visitors into regular readers and customers.
The good thing is, as a blogger most of you are aware of a few factors that increase the trust factor for a blog.
Here is one question that you should ask yourself:
- What made you subscribe to a blog for the first place?
- What factors made you hate a website?
If you know the answers to the above question, you are already on the right track. In this article, I will mention a few things which increase the trust factor for your blog, and help you look like an expert in your niche.
How to increase the Trust Factor of Your Blog
Do remember one thing, there is a huge difference between a content Website, and a blog. When it comes to a blog, people look for a Face, a person and someone they can connect to. Before you create your blog, look around, and make a list of the top blogs, every one of these blogs has a face associated with it. This helps people connect and eventually make it easier for them to know like and trust you.
When it comes to Websites, it works differently. For example, a Website selling product, I usually look out for Verisign signature. I prefer to read testimonials, and so on. But with blogs, you can achieve trust factor with following tips:
Pages on your blog:
Every blog needs to have few pages like (About, contact, archive, social/subscribe) and many others. These pages are the building blocks for your blog's trust factor. Specially, when ever I check my analytic, my blog about page is one of the most viewed page on my blog. A good about page is all about you and your blog. It should not be mechanical, and should let your first time visitor know what your blog is all about, who is the person/company behind the blog. In fact, if you have a great about page, you can use it to get more Email subscribers, and more social media fans.
Blog design:
Think of your blog design as first impression. A good blog design is a turn-on, and a cluttered design is a turn-off. It doesn't matter if you are using a Premium WordPress theme (like the one used on this blog), free theme or a custom design, if your blog design is not appealing, you are sending your visitors away. If you have never made any major investment on your blog till now, spend money on getting a unique design for your blog. It may cost you anything from $300-1000, but it will be one of the best investment for your blog.
Your Social media accounts:
We all know how important social media marketing is for any blog, and Facebook is one of the best places to market your blog. A simple fan page will do all the magic you need to get started on Facebook. Facebook offers the like box, which will let you add a fan page like button on your blog. This helps your readers to connect with your blog on Facebook and provides a way for you to eventually promote your blog for free. I usually recommend to wait for first 200-300 fans, and than integrate like box on your blog.
I have also tried Facebook embed widget, which helped a lot in increasing the number of fans on my page. Do remember, your social media profile is all about being social, and connecting socially with your blog readers. So, make sure it's not a ghost town.
Make use of 3rd party apps like Post Planner and Bufferapp to schedule updates, and keep your page engaging. An active social media profile of your blog, certainly helps in increasing the trust factor for your blog.
eBook:
Every blogger have something great about them. I could talk endlessly about Blogging and SEO. Similarly, you can talk something about Email-marketing, raising a child and so on. You might have covered about the topic you write about in different posts, and now how about combine them in one single blog post and giving it away for free. This will not only help you in gaining new readers, but also helps you to establish as an expert.
Creating an eBook might sound like a very tedious task, but you can always follow this simple trick, which will help you create the eBook in no time.
Follow my video called: How to Convert a Webpage into PDF in Mac Without Software
Once you have created a draft of your eBook, use Canva to create free eBook cover. With a mere investment of 2 hours and $30-$50, you are actually creating an asset for your blog, which will give a great ROI over the time.
Author Bio:
Blog is all about connecting with reader. When ever I read an awesome content on any blog, first thing which I want to know about is the author of the blog post. Author bio is one of those thing, that hangs out at the end of blog post, and work as a connecting channel between readers and you.
Depending upon your creativity, you can always spice up your author bio box, and use it to convert visitors into readers. You don't have to be a coder to add an author box below your blog post, you can use a plugin or link in bio page to quickly add with no coding requirement.
Don't forget to update your social profiles and register your email with Gravatar then upload a beautiful mugshot of yours.
Internal linking:
To become an expert in a niche, you have to be consistent with your writing. Internal linking will help readers to read other articles on similar topic on your blog. There are more advantages of internal linking, as it reduces the bounce rate, improve avg. time spent on the site, and to get more views. There are many WordPress plugins which helps in internal linking.
Do remember, link when it's necessary, else no linking is better than an irrelevant link.
Treat your blog as a brand:
If you are a professional blogger, you have to suit up like a pro-blogger. If your blog is making money for you, it's time to treat it like a business. For a business to succeed, brand value plays major role. Start treating your blog like a brand. Focus more on branding your blog with logo, videos, design, social media profile and other ways possible. Create a business card for yourself, and consider hosting a giveaway for your audience.
These are some of the basic tips to create a trust factor for your blog. I have tried most of these tips, and they worked great.
Though, by the end it's your honest content, that will win millions of heart.