Follow these 3 ways to see your blog explode with traffic.

If you want your blog to find its way out of obscurity, we have to fight for our own audiences. We have to earn our authority.

You won’t build authority by copying another writer — even a very good one — but you can improve your influence by following these 3 proven practices.

1. Act against your own self-interest

When you have an agenda, people take what you say with a grain of salt. It’s like a mother saying her boy is the smartest child on the block.

You can dissolve some of this skepticism by, at times, acting against your own self-interest.

This was the objective of the 1960s ad agency Doyle Dane Bernbach when selling the world’s ugliest car: they flaunted its dysfunctions.

When you mention weaknesses before strengths, you lower resistance to arguments and generate more belief.

2. Try the “convert effect”

Consider these two different people:

An all-star high school and college athlete who grew up thin and confident, raised by Olympic-caliber parents. A timid soul who struggled with obesity his whole life and grew up in a family more interested in barbecue than barbells

If both people tout the same fitness program based on eating french fries and sprinting up a 40-foot ladder for 7 minutes every day, who would you believe?

No question you’re going to choose the second person. He is more persuasive because he didn’t start out as a fit athlete — he converted to that status after starting life as a coach potato.

3. Play hard to get

Most customers expect you to say things to please them. They may even sense a little desperation. A little bootlicking. And they blow you off.

This is one of the reasons I don’t suggest you say “I’m flexible”when in negotiations.

Say that, and your opponent will suspect you’ll do anything for money. She’ll suspect you don’t care about quality or integrity. In other words, you can be bought … cheaply.

You do your prospects and customers a greater service when you maintain your independence and integrity, defending your hard work and turning down requests.

People will see that you actually have their best interest in mind because you’re not falling over yourself to kiss their bottoms.