Laura Spencer over at Business and Blogging did a follow-up on my Would You Trust an Online Friend post, but with a slightly different twist. She takes the business blogger angle, naturally, and rephrasing the question like so.

In fact, I would ask the question in this way: Do your readers trust you enough to do business with you?

This is a valid question if any, for any blogger really, although the business could be swapped for if there is trust enough to follow a shopping advice, or even returning to your blog for more at all. Laura provides five suggestions on how business bloggers can build trust:

1. Be genuine.
2. Be reliable.
3. Be consistent.
4. Be responsive.
5. Be current.

Naturally, she’s got explanations for these in her post, all worth to consider.

I would, however, like to add another one, often overlooked for business bloggers and others alike. The presentation.It is not so complicated, actually. A solid presentation will always strengthen and enlighten content, be it good or bad. Just as you can’t save crappy content with an excellent presentation, you can’t avoid weighing down on good content with a poor one.

Think about it. You are more likely to read a blog post if the actual blog design is appealing. It doesn’t matter how good the content is, if it’s not accessible. People will skip it, there’s too much out there that screams for our attention to strain with small font sizes, poor contrast, and other nastiness that might seem like a good design decision, but actually just looks cool.

It is actually quite simple, really. Content focused sites should present the content in the best possible way. That means not Flash intros, not a bunch of floating boxes you can open and close, nothing fancy that isn’t all about highlighting the excellent content. There are times for all these nifty and cool bells and whistles, but if you want your content to be read, then this is not it.

Good Practice for Good Content Presentation

Design is a personal thing, of course, and what I think is good design doesn’t necessarily fit what your personal preference is. However, there are a few things that you just can’t mess with if you want to make your content presentation readable and sound.

• Don’t use small fonts. Small fonts is good for non-crucial information, explanations that aren’t always needed, copyright notices and such. Not for actual type, so stay away from it.
• Use high contrast. Light grey on white might look classy, but you can’t read lots of text that way. Almost black on white, or almost white on black (although lots of people have issues with this) is the way to go. If you think you can pull a Gruber, then do try, but be very careful and listen to the reader input.
• Have decent line height. The default line height is way too small, adding extra space between the lines will make the type easier to read. How much is debatable, but 150% is a good starting point at least.
• Add whitespace. Don’t cram everything together, be it sidebars, logos, or other elements. Your content needs space, and that includes space between it and other parts of the design. Let it breathe.
• Use images and sub-headings. These additions to longer pieces will give the reader some breathing space, and will make them look better. Looking better makes them easier to read.

There are other things you can do as well, but these very general tips can be incorporated into just about any design.

What About the Trust?

I claim that a good presentation builds trust, and it goes beyond just highlighting your content. Sure, it might be the designer in me talking, but I would bet a fair amount of money most of you have turned away at the door when stumbling onto an e-commerce site or similar, finding it to look spammy, ugly, old, unkept, ugly, or whatever. The way you present yourself online will spark the initial standing point with your visitors.

It’s pretty much the same in real life. You won’t go to a job interview dressed in rags, you want to look your best to make a good impression.

This is the same thing. Your design is your first impression, so you need to take it into account when building trust with the readership. You can change that initial impression of course, but just as in real life it is hard, perhaps even harder online since it is so easy to just close the tab and surf somewhere else. At least in real life you can be persistent and try to prove yourself.

So make a good impression, build trust, and elevate your wonderful content. That’s the way to go, for business bloggers and others alike.