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Blogging and Mistakes
By Michele Martin | December 1, 2007
One of the reasons many nonbloggers don’t want to start blogging is because they’re afraid of making a mistake, especially on the Internet, where they imagine millions of people are witnessing their humiliation. I’d like to tell these would-be bloggers they have nothing to fear because they won’t be making any mistakes, but of course that’s not true. Bloggers do screw up. It’s part of the territory.
I’m thinking about this today because one of my favorite bloggers, Pamela Smart of Escape from Cubicle Nation, made a pretty public mistake that she’s really been struggling with. She misused a word, but in a way that brought offense, so like any good blogger, she publicly apologized. And then wrote another post on what she learned from the experience. Read the comments on her first post. You’ll see that not only did her readers understand and sympathize with her, the mistake and her subsequent apology made them like her even MORE.
That’s the difference between blogging and other forms of writing. We get to see a more human side of authors, without all the formalities and barriers that arise when you have to maintain a particular persona or when editors start working on your copy. And the thing is, we usually LIKE seeing that human side that makes mistakes, just like we all do.
Some people fear that blogging mistakes make them look less “professional.” I disagree. Mistakes are part of learning and I’m assuming that we all think that learning is part of being professional. Really, it’s better to learn as you go.
So I say, plunge in. Make the mistakes, but then use them as additional blog fodder and an opportunity to learn. You might be surprised where they take you.
Topics: Writing |
December 15th, 2007 at 5:27 am
Such a good encouraging tips ,
All the Best every one out there,
Tracy ho
wisdomgettingloaded