Research is Mandatory for Success!

bySelenityjade

661 followers

Updated 5 years ago

It's been awhile since my last blog, but I thought I'd cover something vitally important to content creation: research.

Even if you're an expert, you can't know everything. Information that is available is always changing, everyone is always learning. Even if you're a genius with a photographic memory, you'll do research to write informational articles, right?

Experience vs. Information

Let me tell you a fun story!

I have a five-month old foster kitten named Peabody.

Here he is! He's the little black guy here getting tag-teamed by the two tabbies (who aren't related).

He later had a fit they were bothering him, but that's another story.

Peabody came to me at 2 days old, rejected by his mother at birth from two ladies who found him but had no time to bottle feed a kitten that young.

I took him in for the weekend, I thought. But I ended up keeping him until he could be cleared to find a permanent home.

Anyway, Peabody here is fun! He doesn't purr except when he's kneading the blankets occasionally. He will only eat hard cat food and he once stole a huge piece of lettuce off my burger. He also peed in front of the door instead of the litter box, where he did go poo.

He's not scared of anything. He's also had a chronic case of diarrhea and he came down with ringworm at one point. You can see his hairless tail but he's finally getting fur back, though.

You can see in this picture he's friends with other cats. He also met a dog, kids, and other people. He says hi to them all by walking right up to them. But he doesn't purr or rub against them.

He's also quite small still for 5 months.

Now, from all that experience with ONE foster kitten I've raised since almost birth, should I just assume that ALL kittens don't purr and eat lettuce?

He won't eat wet food, either. I started weaning him from milk to wet kitten food and he would have nothing to do with it. NOTHING. Wasn't even curious and didn't even smell it. He has no interest.

Even today as I type this, he has no interest in wet food. He'll go right over and eat kitten or cat dry food, but while the other cats give me big eyes or meow and holler for their nightly dinner of wet food, he will not eat it.

Should I assume all kittens hate wet food?

Do you guys see where I'm going with this?

He has no fear of other animals or people. Should I assume all cats love other cats and dogs? Anyone who knows cats should be laughing in my face right now.

We only have the experiences we have, but ONE experience does NOT make you an expert! Even multiple experiences doesn't make you an expert.

So Wait... What About Research?

So, Peabody is my first neonatal bottle feeding kitten. I've bottle fed before, but they've always been older bottle kitties. That's why he was only supposed to be temporary, I was very worried as they're super fragile at that age and bottle feeding is the last resort.

Because he was my first, and I had some experience with older kittens, I made sure to ask someone who does this often.

Then when he wouldn't wean off the kitten milk, I started up Google. Then when he wouldn't eat wet food at ALL, I went to Google again. Then when he ate lettuce, I went to Google. (He was way too young, BTW, lettuce is perfectly safe for cats and kittens. They don't digest it right, but it doesn't hurt them.).

When he was peeing in front of the door, that was more my own experience, so I didn't have to hit Google, thankfully.

But you see where I'm going with this?

Experiences plus research equals expert.

Okay, You Get It. Why am I Writing This?

I have seen training and articles in Site Comments and Site Feedback where people are writing a bunch of stuff and they are very misinformed.

By misinformed, I'm saying people are writing things as true when they aren't. They aren't lying, exactly. What they are doing is posting something based off limited experiences and assumptions that aren't factually accurate.

Yes, you heard me.

There are training and tutorials being published with very wrong information and articles some of us are writing that aren't accurate at all about subjects. I don't mean opinions. I mean facts. We all make errors. I'm not talking about errors. I'm talking straight up not doing your research before writing and posting stuff.

Why Is This Important?

What do you do when you're reading an article or training and come across grossly inaccurate facts? I don't mean outdated, I mean wrong.

Back button!

You just lost all credibility with your audience if they're actually knowledgeable about the subject you're writing about.

You just lost a potential customer on your website.

You just lost a potential follower.

You just told a bunch of newbies on Wealthy Affiliate something is allowed or not allowed, when it is. Or vise versa. Or you told them how to do SEO the WRONG way and Google penalized them, or whatever.

Even if you have experience, you need to look at the wider picture. Do you know everything there is to know on that subject? No? Me either!

Not to mention, you can get into serious legal trouble if you post misinformation that hurts someone professionally, personally, or financially.

Content is King but Research is Queen

I may be considered an expert on cats by some. There are others who have more knowledge than I do, however. Some areas in medicine, some in behavior, some in genetics, etc. I don't know everything. I know a LOT, don't get me wrong, but I know a lot of general information. I also double-check everything I know occasionally by reading articles and such.

Am I guilty of using experience as a substitute for research? Probably a little. I am very factual. I know a lot of random bits of information in my head about a lot of different things. You cannot convince me of something ever without giving me actual factual data.

Sometimes I forget that people don't have all this data and sometimes I remember slightly wrong as I definitely don't have a photographic memory, but I'm usually great at thinking about it and looking it up if I'm not 100% sure I'm right.

We all make errors.

You need to be accountable for what you're writing online if you're hoping to make it in this business or hoping to help others make it in this business.

The training here should be as accurate as one can make it. Update it. Research it. Do not lead your fellow marketers down the wrong path!

Your articles on your website can land you in legal hot water if you're posting made up information or inaccurate facts. There are reasons that newspapers and respected news sources publish redactions when they make a mistake in an article. They are covering their butt by making sure everything is completely true factually.

If your readers know anything about your niche at all, and you don't research your articles, they will be able to pick up your factual errors immediately.

If you want to succeed, you need to research even things you're experienced with. No one knows everything.

You aren't writing on your Facebook wall or Twitter feed anymore and it doesn't matter if you're right or wrong. In business, it DOES matter!

Lovies!