It might be that you’re thinking “Are you mad? Blog buddies? Whatever for? ” I totally get it why you might think that way, so I am going to explain why it may be very useful to have one, because this is particularly important for you.
You may feel resistance about the notion of correcting your blog posts, or having your texts being proofed or edited. All I’ll be sharing with you here, however, stems from my experience as a full time translator, which I was for fourteen years. Correcting your own texts, is a highly important part of the process of content writing and blogging. It has everything to do with getting your message across in the best possible way to your reader.
A reader of your blog post will read by himself, on his own. Each form of distraction means that the reader will click away from your blog. Never to return, to that blog post. Each hiccup can happen in a flash, at the blink of an eye. And if you don’t brush up or polish those hiccups that can be avoided, before publishing your blog post, then you have a problem. That problem is that a number of your ideal readers won’t continue reading and won’t read until the end of your post. You have lost those readers. For something that is easy to prevent. By you. By taking full responsibility, and by making it as easy as possible for your readers to digest your message. There is no good reason not to want to do that, is there?
PLEASE NOTE: statistics show that every text has room for improvement. Not because the text is wrong, or because you’ve done something wrong, but just because you – as the author – already know what the text should read, so that is what you will see and read. And, because another person will read what is actually there, on top of which this is done from the perspective of a reader. Your proofreader, your blog buddy, offers you something you can never do yourself: reading from another person’s perspective.
Oh, and before your feel resistance again… this isn’t caused by you! It’s caused by your ego. By the sense that you must do it all by yourself, that you must be able to do this, that you don’t need any help. That you know best. Another reason lies in the practicalities of communication and language, in general. Nothing wrong with that. Just decide to see resistance as an opportunity, and go and get yourself a blog buddy!
No, this is not about grammer and spelling. This goes much further than that. A blog buddy can do something you can never do yourself – and that is to read through the eyes of a reader, instead of reading through the eyes of an author, the blogger, i.e. you!
A blog buddy will let you discover what:
- is illogical about your text
- is unclear in your blog
- a reader is missing in your text post
- is redundant or superfluous in your article
- could be improved in the phrasing of your text
Now, before you’re thinking, well, I can’t afford a proofreader, a blog buddy… Stop. You won’t have to pay anyone. You can do the very same for another blogger, in return. So find yourself a proofread buddy, an accountability buddy, a blog buddy. Find another entrepreneur who also blogs and you can do this for each other, by way of exchanging services.
Your blog buddy will become your best blog buddy when you convey exactly what it is you need. Be very clear and specific about this, because focus functions. You are the one who determines precisely what your best blog buddy will be doing for you. Preferably with issues and aspects you know that are 1) not your strong suit and 2) a talent or strong skill of your buddy.
Here, I’m giving you 15 suggestions for what you can ask your blog buddy to look for and correct:
- spelling errors
- grammatical errors
- proper names
- numbers
- dates
- amounts
- interpuntion
- layout
- logic
- gaps
- simplicity
- images
- repetitions
- terminology
- consistency
Choose from this list which points you want to have checked. Leave out what you consider unnecessary and and what is important to you. Hand your list over to your blog buddy. That will give him or her the opportunity to be your best blog buddy and this will make this a lot easier. Saves time, creates clarity and all this is done out of respect for your readers!
Well, I hope and trust this will help you take off some of the pressure for you, if you are in any way feeling stress about language and perfection. That pressure is not necessary. You’re the expert, you’re the source of the value shared in your blog posts. It is totally fine to have someone support you for language details. Oh, and one final thing… Pick someone who has a penchant for language 😉
Now it is time to kill my curiosity 🙂 What are you going to do? Will you be working with a blog buddy? Tell me please, in your comment. I always appreciate your reading and your commenting… Not in the least because I learn a lot from it, as do others!
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