AdSense Case Study: The Power of Authentic Stories

It's funny how things work out. Seth Godin's latest book, All Marketers are Liars, talks about the importance of telling authentic stories to gain the trust of your customers. The key words here are “authentic” and “stories”: you're not telling the truth, you're telling an embellished version of the truth that nonetheless rings true to its audience. Hence the title, “All Marketers are Liars”, since marketers use white lies to get their message across. Interesting reading, for sure.

Telling authentic stories is one way an individual can compete against big companies on the Internet, especially when building information sites. The Invisible Fence Guide I'm developing as part of my AdSense case study is one example of this. To grab the visitor's interest, I'm telling them a story about why I ended up installing an Invisible Fence system. After all, if they want the facts about Invisible Fence they can just go straight to the official Invisible Fence site. No, what I've tried to do is attach a human element to the facts, something that the reader can relate to his or her own experiences. A few things in the story have been changed from real life — the names of our dogs, for one — but those changes are immaterial to what the story's about. The story keeps its authenticity despite those changes.

One of my readers recently asked me a question about how to go about building a site for a medical condition he has. Again, this is where the story idea comes into play. I told him to do more than just put together a list of facts. Again, there are big sites — many government-run and very authoritative — full of medical information. You can't compete against that. What you can do, though, is tell the world your special story. Make it engaging. Make it useful in a different way that just listing the bare facts. Make people relate to your story. That's how the small guy can succeed.

Telling authentic stories is not limited to the Internet, of course. The stories in my AdSense book are entirely fictitious, but they're still authentic. They're authentic because they're based on my past experiences explaining the Internet, the World Wide Web and AdSense to different people. The overall story of my book — that anyone can make some money with blogs and websites using AdSense and similar programs — thereby gains authenticity from its use of those authentic stories. After all, if you tell someone that they can “make easy money”, whether or not it's with Google, they'll look at you dubiously since “make easy money” sounds like a scam, some get-rich-quick scheme that only benefit a few people. So right away I have a barrier to overcome because of my book's title. But anyone who starts to read the book quickly realizes that it's not about getting rich quick, it's about building a small income stream by exploiting what you already know and do today. My story rings true because it really is authentic, even though the way I tell it is via fiction.

Authentic storytelling isn't just limited to websites, it also works with blogs. Think of the blogs you read on a regular basis. What attracts you to them? Some are corporate blogs reciting facts and figures, sure, but you've probably got ones in your list that are more personal and off-the-cuff in nature. Why do you read them? Do you really need to know what a person ate for dinner last night? That they've just seen a doctor to have some warts removed? Not in the least. You're reading these blogs because they have something to say that isn't expressed as a bare recitation of facts. They may drop or embellish things, but underneath it all is a core of authenticity that keeps you coming back for more. It's what makes great novels. It's what makes great television. It's what makes great songwriting. It's what makes a great site.

Strive for authenticity. Read Seth's book. Ignore the big guys. Tell the world a good story and they'll come beating to your door.

Eric Giguere is the author of Make Easy Money with Google, a real (printed!) introductory AdSense book for non-technical people, available at all fine bookstores. Be sure to download the free sample chapter for more information about the book.

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