Back to the Blogging Basics

Back to the Blogging Basics
By Christine Senter

I’ve learned a lot about blogging in the past year. When I first started out, all I knew was that I needed an outlet for my writing. However, since then I’ve learned about widgets, sidebar links, and monetization. I also subscribe to many other blogs that help me in my never-ending quest for knowledge. One thing I’ve learned is that not all bloggers have the ability to self-edit their work.

Beyond Spell Check
We all know how to use our spell check. For many of us, it’s as much a part of our process as finding things to write about. We try to be grammatically correct, and work hard to make sure our words correspond with the correct punctuation. However, there have been many times that I’d be reading a great post and found that words were either misspelled due to being a synonym, or that a word or two was missing from a sentence. I totally understood the meaning, but thought it was odd that someone who was trying to help their fellow bloggers, had forgotten to add certain words.

Self-Editing
We, as bloggers, are first and foremost, writers. When we make little mistakes like these, it makes us look like beginners. If you’re going to advise others on how to make money online, you don’t want them thinking that you’re inept because you misspelled or omitted a word in your post. We have to learn to self-edit our work before we present it to the public. One of the easiest ways to self-edit is to read it out loud to yourself. When you actually hear yourself saying the words, they have a tendency to jump off the page at you. When a word is missing, you’ll be more likely to find it.

Guest Bloggers
I’ve noticed a lot of blogs are bringing in guest bloggers to help add quality content to their sites. However, just because one of your guests seems to be a genius at what they do, that doesn’t mean that their posts are perfect. You need to check out your guest’s post for spelling and other errors before you allow it on your site. Even though it’s someone else’s words, it’s still your blog and it still reflects on you.

Nobody’s Perfect
They say there are two certainties in life; death and taxes. I think there is one more; everybody makes mistakes. I’ve made plenty of them myself, and there’s a good chance I’ll do it again. But, if we bloggers take a little extra time and do a little self-editing in our posts, there’s a better chance that we’ll be seen as true authorities in our fields.

Sincerely,
Christine R. Senter
Editor/Publisher/freelance writer

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