We’re working on a new food website project and in order to create a searchable index of ingredients, my husband the programmer must parse recipes which will be included in the search. You would be amazed at how many spelling errors there are in recipes on blogs.
I know there will be some who honestly don’t know any better but I believe the vast majority either have no clue that it’s important or are lazy. Either way, routinely bad spelling or grammar will reduce a website’s reach. With so many good blogs out there, why would you read a blog you have to struggle to understand?
My favourite from today is 3 bacon rashes. or 2 tabelspons week tea. or all purpoise flower. Spelling like this makes creating a good search extremely difficult. Yes, we crack up at some of the funny ones. I thought I’d write a blog post on my food blog about it so that food bloggers would realise that even after a new post has been created, there are people still going to the older posts. They’re found on Google or Yahoo! or other search engines, links from blogs or from social media.
If we want people to take us seriously, we need to be able to follow the recipe without scratching our heads.
Anyway… I ended up really pissing off a woman I like who’s a non-native English speaker. For some reason she felt that I was attacking people who try to write an English blog when it’s not their native language. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The truth is, it’s the English speakers who are too lazy to proofread their blogs.
Honestly, if someone reads their recipe and doesn’t catch glaring errors, I can’t take their blog seriously. That said, we ALL make typos and we all miss things. If you miss something 3 times proofreading, you’re never going to find it.
I felt really bad that I hurt my friend’s feelings and I regret making the post even though I got a huge amount of comments on the post from people who feel the same way I do. I’m not an unkind person and would not have posted my views if I thought it would cause discomfort. I have apologised and hopefully our virtual friendship can continue. If not, it’s my loss.
Have you ever written something that someone thought you were picking on them about?
We’re all responsible for the words we write. We aren’t responsible for how someone else’s perspective views them.
I can’t think of too many times in my life that I’ve been able to say that. While I know I’m clever and can get a lot done without huge effort, I tend to talk down to myself through that little voice in my head.
Or lack thereof. I have two blogs and an online business that needs lots of support as well as a daily blog post so scheduling my time is really important to me. I decided yesterday that I needed to do a bit of a google on what other full time bloggers try to get done every day.
Blogging is all about communication — I get that. If you write something and I understand it, that’s communication. At what point should grammar and composition enter in the scale of importance?
Are you a secret blogger? Do you have a blog that nobody knows about and few visit regularly? If the answer is yes, I suspect that there’s not enough “you” in there for people to want to become friends with you. Your blog might read like an instruction manual with nothing to really engage a reader. Anyone can get a textbook but people read blogs to engage with a real person.
Another good way to find new blog friends is to look at the blogrolls of the blogs you really enjoy. Who do they like? Who do they think is a mover and a shaker in the niche you’re in? Follow them home and see if their blog fits with your point of view and if so, leave a comment.
I’ve been writing on the Internet for a long time. John and I started our first online business in 1995 just a year after we’d met so we’ve been doing this a long time. We frequently get asked for tips on getting noticed, achieving authority, building a community and even how to come across as an expert.