I read a blog post the other day on SEOmoz.org called “What makes an SEO?” by Rand Fishkin where he shares the top three qualities he believes a person should posses to be validated as an SEO by their peers.

After reading Rand’s post and all of the great comments I realized that I needed to have more than just those three qualities to be validated as an SEO.

In order to be validated as an SEO and to create professional credibility for myself I need to have one key thing!

Peers!

Even if I believe I posses all three qualities of an SEO how can I truly create credibility for myself as an SEO if I don’t have peers to continually validate that statement for me?

It’s scary to think that without continues validation from your peers, how can I be anything?

After giving it some thought I decided to share with you some ways to create your OWN professional credibility online! The great thing is that the following concepts can be applied to ANY profession!

So how do you build a following of peers in order to create your OWN professional credibility online?

Discover your Passion:

You first have to discover what your talents and passions are. What is it that gets you out of bed in the morning? What is your favorite thing to talk about with others? What are you SO passionate about that you could talk about it and write about it every single day for the REST of your life? If you’re not passionate about it, why would anyone else be interested in it?

Create and Share Valuable Content:

When you’ve found your passion it’s time to create valuable content and share it with your peers. Sharing valuable, FREE content with your peers is a great way to start creating credibility for yourself. Create blog posts, videos, podcasts, photos, screenshot demos, etc. that relate to your passion. By sharing quality content about your passion,  your peers will be able to judge and decided if you are a credible source of information.

Judgment of your Peers:

Now that you’ve created and shared valuable content with your peers it is time for them to judge your content. Each person will have their own idea of what it means to be an SEO, an animal lover or a personal trainer. This is why it is SO important that your content is unique and relevant to your passion. Your content should exhibit that you are truly are passionate about it and that you are a TRUE professional.

Acceptance of your Peers:

You can easily tell if your peers have accepted you as a professional by their response to your content. Are the responses good or bad? If your comments are good and encouraging it makes it easy to tell that your peers have accepted you as a professional. If your comments are not so good you might want to consider creating content that is more relevant and useful for your peers.

Continuous Validation from your Peers:

Here’s the important part! Now that your peers have accepted you as a professional you have gained their trust. Your peers now trust you as a credible source and will be willing to share your content with others. In order continually be validated as a professional you must continually provide useful content for your peers to share. Communication is also key. Be sure thank  your peers for supporting your content. You should also return the favor by validating your peers as professionals and sharing their content with others. That way they will be happy to do the same thing in return.

Professional Credibility

Now that you’ve shared great content your peers trust you as a credible source of information…..you’ve just created your OWN professional credibility online!

Now I would love to hear from you!

How have you created professional credibility in  your industry? Do you think it’s possible to create any sort of professional credibility with out your peers?

Thanks so much for reading! It’s been a pleasure sharing this valuable content with you today! If you liked this content and don’t want your friends to miss out on this important message about creating professional credibilty online, be sure to retweet it!

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Keep Searching,

Success means different things to many people and I had the chance to attend an event last night that really made me feel like I made it.

Last night I got to attend the Search Marketing Expo (SMX) after party thrown by the SEOmoz Team at The Garage in the Capitol Hill area of Seattle, WA.

Shaylee Gregg and Matt Cutts

This was an exclusive party for SEOmoz members who attended the SMX conference. I got to meet and talk with great minds in the industry including Matt Cutts, Rand Fishkin, Marty Weintraub, Jeremiah Andrick, Brent Payne and many of the members of the SEOmoz team.

It was a real honor to meet like-minded, down-to-earth people who are passionate about search!

Shaylee Gregg and Rand Fishkin

What was the most exciting was to meet the people who make my career possible! In college I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and these individuals helped create an industry that I’ve become very passionate about.

I want to thank the SEOmoz team for hosting such an incredible event that allowed us to network with each other. I would also like to thank Rand Fishkin for being such a big inspiration in my life! It was a great honor to meet him.

To write about this event is a little be overwhelming but it’s inspired me to keep pursuing my dreams!

Colleen Deborah and Matt Cutts

I also want to give a shout out to my girl Colleen Deborah who I’ve grown with personally and professionally! Love ya!

Thanks to my boss, Barb Jacobucci for inviting me to this event and leading our team!

It was an incredible night and I hope that next year I’ll actually be able to attend the SMX conference.

I have to say one thing though…when you leave an event like that and Matt Cutts waves goodbye to you as you’re walking out the door and @relpy’s to you on twitter….freakin’ awesome! I’ll be smiling for days!

Be sure to check out the rest of the pics on my Facebook and Twitter!

Keep Searching,