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
Popularity: unranked [?]
17 comments
Good stuff Christine, This post should be printed and placed somewhere close, we always let the basics slide over time! Thanks for the reminder. I find that reading out loud makes a big difference. Of course everyone in the house thinks I am always talking to myself, lol.
What a wel-writin post, christine. And so tru! I thank my mucky stars taht i haveb een blessed with such great writin skills of the english language so I dont have t worry about making suc mistaks.
LOL
Here’s something I learned in journalism class, back in the day: read your stuff backwards. Doing so helps you focus on one word at a time and prevents your brain from filling in the gaps that are easily overlooked when you read it left to right.
Christine,
You will be happy to know that your article landed an amazing spot in Google. It got picked up within just a few hours of publishing. You can see it HERE. Very nice work, this is one of those type of article that can help everyone. Thank you so much for writing it and volunteering to publish it here on GCDC.
Cool, I just checked mine here. But doesn’t that mean it’s only if someone enters all the word in the title?
Mark,
You can search by copying the exact title, this lets me know kinda where I am at with the indexing… from there, you can play around with it and see all the different ways your article can get found.
Here is a KILLER example of yours by the way…
Tips To Stay Organized.
I see. I like the results with the word “bloggers” removed because that’s more general and something I think would be more likely to search on. Oh and speaking of typos – aargh! – I just now realized my error in the title: it should be “bloggers” without the apostrophe. Guess you should have posted Christine’s first so that I could learn from it. LOL Would you mind making the edit in the title and the one in the post?
-Mark, Tips To Stay Organized is a nice Long Tail keyword, gets around 5 searches a day, probably every day of the year. This is a great example of what a lot of bloggers overlook, the Long Tail stuff may not drive a ton of traffic each day, but you get 100 articles that get 5 searches a day, and you got a nice little flow of traffic.
SHAMELESS PLUG GOES HERE…Like the stuff we are blogging about at Blogging Calendar
Thanks for the tip, David. It’s starting to come together for me.
Thanks all.
@ Dave–I’ve read a lot of blogs over the past year, and I don’t half of them realize that they are writers, not just bloggers. Thanks for the sweet comment.
@ Mark–Scariest part of your comment is that I totally understood every word of it. LOL I never thought of reading things backwards, but that’s a great idea.
@ Garry–I wasn’t even trying to do something that would hit the front page of Google so quick. That was amazing. LOL. Thank you for allowing me to post this here. When you said you were looking for guest writers, I really didn’t think I would have anything to contribute that could help someone else. Thanks for proving me wrong.
@ Mark,
I got that fixed for you!
@ Christine,
I love to prove people wrong for the good of my readers!
I personally enjoyed your article and I know that everyone else does too! I am sure that everyone who stumble upon it from Google will too!
[...] just felt a little rant coming on and Christine Senter inspired me with her guest post on GarryConn.com, along with a comment there from Mark at [...]
This post inspired me today to make a video, thanks to Cristine & Mark!
I just watched David’s video and was honored that my article inspired it. I don’t know the first thing about coding, but I can see how really scanning your code could help in finding the little things.
It’s a great video.
You speak the truth, David. It’s all too easy to blame things on reasons other than ourselves, and that, of course, is something we see offline as well. It’s about being accountable and learning from our mistakes to make us better people, better bloggers.
David,
What an awesome video from your heart. Nice work man! Next time, please don’t hesitate to link directly to your stuff from the comment here.
For everyone else, David has created a wonderful personalized YouTube Video inspired from this post, you can watch by clicking THIS LINK. Be sure to hook him up with some comments and link love. David, like the rest of us, works very hard to communication his messages, views and points. Nice work bud!
Hi Christine, cool post. It’s good to be reminded of the basics now and then.
Question: did Garry check your post before it was put live?
??? I don’t know, and I’m sure there’s at least 1 snafu in my post. LOL
Thanks for the comment.
Leave a Comment