The Importance of Editing Your Posts!
Alright, WA people, it's about to get real in here!
Editing your posts before, or just after, you publish them is a MUST! You can't be seen as an authority in your niche if your site is covered with errors. Now, I am not tooting my own horn, I have my own editing errors too, I am NOT perfect, but taking the time to reread your posts is a must.
I don't know how many times I have gone to leave feedback and I point out all the errors that I found only to realize that the comment is a mile long. Then, I look at it thinking that I will hurt this person's feelings if I send this to them, though I am just trying to help. But because it may seem like I am being mean and judgmental, I delete the whole thing only to say that there are some errors and it might need a read-through, or I say nothing at all, instead of letting them know there are issues. I mean, isn't that what we are here for? To help each other out? Isn't that why we pay out money each month, so we have a community that will point out where we went wrong, to help us succeed?
If I go to a website and all I see is error after error, I will click right out of there and never return again because I would think this person is incompetent. Now, a typo here or there is fine, but when your post is one long run-on sentence, you need to get someone to edit it for you. You will NEVER rank high if you keep it up.
Now, I guess the question is, do most of you want that kind of help? If someone notices errors in your post, would you like them pointed out? Would you be offended by a personal message sent to you with a full list of typos and grammatical errors? Would you view it as being helpful, knit-picky, or rude?
In my own opinion, I would welcome the help. Sure, it might sting a little. Maybe make me feel like I don't know what I am doing. But, I would feel even worse if my errors were left unchanged and people refused to go to my site, that I have worked SO HARD on, just to go to another site because I am viewed as stupid. How can someone trust what I am saying and trust me if I can't even spell.
To tell you the truth, I am a horrible speller, but that is what spell-check is for. When you see those annoying little wavy red lines, that means you have an error, so take the time to fix it. You need to take editing seriously if you want to make it with your site.
Recruit someone to read your posts and edit it for you if you don't know how to do it yourself ( I've recruited my mother-in-law). Sometimes a fresh pair of eyes is all you need. When you have been working tirelessly on a post, researching, writing, gathering photos, etc., you may not see what others do because you have been looking at it too long. So see if someone will read through it and preview it first, before you publish it, or right after you do.
What is your opinion on this matter? Do you feel editing is important for your site or not?
Recent Comments
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I do not point out errors in someone's comment box. I leave a sincere genuine comment and I send them a PM here to let them know about their mistakes.
They are greatly appreciative when I do that and I usually make a new friend that way :)
I've done personal messages a few times too, steveo5770. I don't ever put it in a comment on their site, only through personal messages or, if it is a minor error, in the feedback thread they posted the link on. I think posting it on their site would be rude and would discredit them a little. I just want to help, not be mean.
Ah, I misunderstood. I haven't had anyone get offended yet. In fact, they will usually return the favor and proofread something for me so it ends up being a mutually beneficial exercise :)
No problem. I think that was the main reason for this blog post because I have been conflicted about what to do when I come to these sites. My understanding of this community was that we would all be there to help each other out with this kind of thing. But then I would just see feedback that says "great job" or "great post", and all I am thinking is, "wow, the errors!" So, I would start writing a personal message only to delete it because I didn't want to seem overly critical. I want everyone to be a success, so I would want to try to help them out, but I also don't want to over-step my boundaries.
I know exactly what you mean! That's why I do not leave "great post" comments. They are generic and disingenuous. I keep my comment on topic.
I will admit, I have seen some train-wrecks which I have left immediately. I don't like to do that but sometimes, you just don't have the time, you know?
Thank you so much, Amanda ... I resemble your remarks!
I can't tell you how much time I spend trying to read and understand what someone is trying to say and just end up aborting their prose.
Emails from customers and texts from friends are the worst!
Everyone here might consider joining https://www.pw.org/toolsforwriters. It's a must for anyone who writes (which is every human on the planet nowadays).
I just spent 30 minutes proofing this before I posted (hopefully I'm not being a hypocrite).
I will have to check out that website, 1Sunshine, because my mother-in-law is slacking on her editing duties. I mean, come on, it's not like she has a job that she works at constantly, sometimes till 3 a.m., and barely gets any sleep as it is. ;-) She's a workaholic!
I read and reread and reread and reread on and on, lol. I have spell check on and a dictionary next to the computer! I ask my fiancé to read the completed article for his input and I have a friend who often reads my content as well. So yes, I agree with you, it is important.
Well, at least you seem to care, Christabelle. No one is perfect, I know I have mistakes, because my mother-in-law points them out, but I try and I take care of them when they are pointed out to me. I want to be taken seriously and you can't be with an error-filled site.
I agree, an occasional mistake no reader is going to fault anyone on but a site that has a great many mistakes will most likely send readers away!
I agree with what you are saying here. Editing and proofreading is very importent. I would be very happy if someone pointed out any errors in my posts. English is not my native language, so I run my articles by at least two grammar-check tools and get my husband to read it before I publish.
I have also seen a lot of sites here full of errors, and it would take me too much time to point out every single one of them, so I normally just tell the person that the post have some errors and that he/she should proofread or run a grammar check.
This is very importent, so this is a very helpful post, thanks.
I agree that it would take too long to correct everything. It would be different if I was getting paid for it. I try to keep any corrections to one and then say it needs a read through.
Ha! It was a shorter post. My norm is usually higher than that. I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who has high revision #'s. On top of that, it only up's the revision number when you "save draft" or update. I do a lot of changes, then "preview" it, make more changes, "preview", changes...I usually don't save to draft until I need to get off my screen for whatever reason. So if I saved after every change, it would be in the hundreds. :-)
My latest post, katkatskitchen, was 51 revisions. I was wrong on something and didn't realize it. The revisions counter does go up by more than one, sometimes 10 in my case, when you save draft. I found that out yesterday when I suddenly went from 5 to 13 when I saved draft. (I made those numbers up because I couldn't remember the actual numbers, but it was a big jump. :-))
Oh, and I did reply to your post originally but I didn't hit "reply" under your comment. I just put it in the comment section, so you probably didn't get it. Anyway, the post above yours was my reply. Sorry! :-)
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Would you consider editing, structure and grammar for others?