Truths about blogging

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I read the BlogHerald pretty often and yesterday there was a post by Lorelle VanFossen that is totally in line with the topic for today – writing.

In her post, Lorelle says that blogs are public documents and if you put it out there, you simply open yourself up to everything – “compliments, criticism and condemnation.” She lists some truths about blogging that she says you need to know:

• It’s your blog. Blog what you want.
• Want traffic, blog for traffic, but don’t expect to turn them into readers.
• Want readers, blog for the readers. Readers return.
• Writing well pays off better than not.
• Blog consciously.
• Don’t surprise readers.
• Blog consistently.
• If you open the door to comments, be prepared for comments.
• Blog comments are content. You control them.
• Blog comments are content. Comments are mini-resumes that speak for their author.
• Expect insults.
• Expect nasty commenters.
• Expect spam and splogs.
• Expect inconsiderate and thoughtless commenters.
• Expect nasty, inconsiderate, and thoughtless fellow bloggers.
• Expect unexpected, random acts of kindness.
• Expect fans to feel like they are your friends.
• Expect a support group and network to form in and around your blog.
• As a blog reader, you are not judge and jury. You are the audience.
• As a blog writer and publisher, you are the entertainment. It’s your stage. Use it wisely and well..

And I completely agree. Blogging may be a different form of media – writing – but that doesn’t mean it’s “safe” or free of criticism. Blogging, in my opinion, is journalism. It might be personal journalism, but it’s journalism. And just like any journalist, you’re subject to that same scrutiny. If you don’t want that kind of publicity, don’t put yourself out there. But then, what’s the point of blogging?

You could, of course, close comments on your blog but then it kinda defeats the purpose of a blog – to communicate with your readers. To me, that’s entire point of blogging – to communicate in near real time with others. That doesn’t happen in many other media avenues. They’re pretty much one-sided. I think this is why blogging has such a huge appeal to a lot of people and businesses.

I especially like Lorelle’s assessment that “writing well pays off better than not.” I couldn’t agree more. Using proper grammar and spelling are important, not just because it looks more professional (even if that’s not your aim), but also because it’s so much easier to read something that is well written.

When we learn to read as youngsters, we learn to read words and sentences in proper structure so when we see something written wrong, our brains have to stop briefly to decipher it. Even if you’re a bad speller, you will find it a bit harder to read articles and what-not with spelling mistakes simply because your brain and eye have learned to read things in their proper structure.

Now, I know there is an email floating around out there that demonstrates you can read garbled words because your brain and eye will fill in the gaps based on the beginning and ending of words. I have no idea if that’s scientifically true or not but I do know that typical spelling and grammar mistakes don’t follow that pattern. So the bottom line is, write as well as you can, write clearly and check for errors before you publish your posts for your readers’ sakes. After all, that’s who you’re writing for, isn’t it?

You can read the rest of Lorelle’s post at http://www.blogherald.com/2008/03/17/blogs-are-public-documents-bloggers-and-commenters-beware/.

PS – I’ll post the links I meant to post yesterday here in a little while. Sorry about that!