Something I very much admire in some of the people I follow online is a willingness to fail in public.

What I mean by that is that there are a small number of people (though growing) who are on a path to becoming seen as experts not by figuring things out in private and then unleashing their newfound genius on the world. But by letting us see behind the curtain as they try, fail, try again, fail again, then eventually succeed.

One case in point is Aaron Orrendorff. He's a writer I connected with after he wrote an article on the top 10 experts on email marketing that I was named in.

Aaron sells his services to organisations as an expert writer of content. That could be blog posts, articles, landing pages, adverts.

So you'd think that he'd do his very best to only let the world see all his successes, his testimonials and the big name companies he's worked for.

Well he does that. But he also lets you see his work in progress. He has a project going on right now he calls “#letsgetrejected” where he's on a quest to write for big prestigious magazines like Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc etc.

His end game, I believe, is to sell his services teaching others how to do the same. But instead of doing his learning in private and then emerging as a fully formed expert, he's letting us see his progress as he goes along.

On his Facebook page he's documenting the places he's trying to write for, the ones he gets accepted for, and the ones he gets rejected by.

He's not playing the “know it all” game at all. He's asking for help and ideas when he gets rejected. 

And all the time he's building a following of people cheering him on. 

It doesn't matter to them (I should say “us” really, as I'm one of them) that he's not getting a 100% acceptance rate. We feel like we're part of his journey. And it feels more realistic too. It feels like we can learn more from him and all the hard work and learning he's done than someone who seems to have been a natural. 

I've not yet been brave enough to make all the thing I do public. But when I do (like when I challenged myself to get 10,000 new email subscribers in a year but had to change tack mid-way through) it's worked out incredibly well for me. People seem to love following the journey and it raises rather than lowers your credibility to see you grow and develop.

I guess there's a reason People magazine has about 5 times the circulation of Business Week. We're interested in people and their stories.

Could you be more public about your successes and failures? Could you do a public project where you document what you're doing and let people see behind the scenes?

It's a great way to build a following and learn as you go along.