We've all heard the old adage "honesty is the best policy." In the world of network marketing, there is no better advice. Being dishonest or attempting to deceive your prospects will always come back to bite you in the rear. Bottom line - lies will inevitably come back to haunt you, and once the lie is out there, it's pretty difficult, if not impossible to take the deception back.

Building your business and your personal brand online can be tricky, since you're not meeting your prospects face-to-face. But there are ways in which you can build credibility into your brand. Here are 7 secrets to being an authentic and trusted marketer:

Secret #1: Be Yourself- Wherever you venture - blogs, forums, Twitter, Facebook, your own website. When you're authentic, even people who have never met you, can sense your authenticity and will appreciate it. When you can be yourself, it tells your prospects you have nothing to hide and no reason to be anything but authentic. Everything you do and say on social media sites and your websites will be a reflection of you and your brand. Being yourself will help you feel more confident with all your marketing strategies.

Secret #2: Consistency - As you begin to build your brand, you should be increasing your visibility. One way to build your credibility is to be consistent with your message wherever you are visible. Don't write about the benefits of pay-per-click advertising in your blog and then condemn this as a marketing strategy in your ezine article. Try to use the same photo, language, voice, catch phrase, theme, etc., everywhere you appear online. People trust consistency.

Secret #3: Tell Your Story- Share your own story about your adventure in network marketing. Reflecting on your own struggles and triumphs helps your prospects relate to you on a more personal level, building a sense of familiarity and trust. If you are willing to share your mistakes and what you did to fix them, this goes a long way to foster credibility.

Secret #4: Reveal Flaws Early - Every opportunity or product has some aspect which could be seen as a flaw or disadvantage. Rather than trying to hide a flaw from your prospects, present it, and present it early. Bringing it up right away actually serves to reduce the negative impact of the alleged disadvantage.

Your prospects are smart, so don't think you're going to fool them. If you feel your opportunity or product has a negative aspect which your prospect may notice, bring it up right away. You come across as honest and your prospect will be more open to the advantages of your opportunity or product.

The next step would be to provide a solution to the perceived flaw. This is fairly easy if you have brought up the negative aspects in the beginning. After that it should be all the positives relating to your opportunity or product, which diminishes the flaws in the mind of your prospect.

Secret #5: Be Honest - This is basically what I've been saying all along, but this is important enough on its own to bear repeating. Be honest - in everything you do and say. You need your prospects to equate your personal brand with integrity.

Your prospects appreciate the truth and you can't fake the truth. If your prospects sense something is not quite right with something you've told them, it's sure to destroy any credibility you have created up to that point.

Be careful not to exaggerate. This can be an easy trap to fall into with network marketing. We think our prospects need to hear stories about the barrels of money we've made in order to build our credibility or convince them to join our opportunity.

Secret #6: Value, Value, Value - See a theme here? In all your messages to prospects - email, blogs, websites, forums - offer your prospects a lot of high-quality value. This builds credibility into your brand, because prospects will know they can count on you to make it worth their time to visit your sites, blogs, etc. over and over again.

An important goal in building your brand, is to have people associate your brand with VALUE. Always strive to add value to your prospects' lives and you will build a loyal following.

Secret #7: Become The Expert- Find a niche and learn all you can about it. Position yourself as an authority by building upon your own knowledge. Then write about it, share it, live it. Prospects are looking for two things when considering whether or not to join some one's opportunity - strong leadership and marketing skills.

Increasing your own knowledge and becoming the expert positions you as a leader, forces you to improve your marketing skills, and will go far in building credibility into your brand.

So, to sum it all up: be yourself, be consistent, be someone your prospects can relate to, be revealing even if it hurts, be honest, be someone who offers lots of value, and be the expert.

If you can incorporate these 7 secrets into all of your marketing strategies, it will breed credibility for your personal brand, which will in turn breed success.

If you have your own great tips about how to build credibility into your brand, please leave them in the comment box below. Thanks!