Blog writing can be fun, educational, rewarding, and a boon for your business over the long term. If you're blogging just for the fun of it, then you might not spend the extra time to edit each blog post before publishing it. A quick read through for spelling mistakes and simple grammatical corrections might be all that's necessary.
Those of you blogging for business should take a slightly more professional approach to your blogging and spend a little more time on the editing process.
I've been blogging since July 2010 and in that time I've learned a lot about editing, and I pay attention to what my editors have said about my writing style, and what I should correct and not correct. I try to remember these corrections so my future writing can get better.
Most of the time I give these Daily Golden Nuggets to my editor so he can review them for grammatical mistakes, sentence structure problems, and anything that needs to be rewritten because it's too confusing. Having an editor for a blog is a luxury that most of you won't have. Maybe you can ask an employee to read the blog before publishing, but time constraints might not even allow for that.
I've collected 6 of my thoughts about editing, and having an editor to help you on your own blogging journey.
Here they are:
- You should have someone else read your blog before publishing it. This could be your spouse, an employee, business partner. This person should be your sounding board and basic editor to help point out mistakes you can't see yourself.
- If you don't have an editor, then wait at least 24 hours and reread the blog yourself, out loud.
- Reading out loud is the best method of self editing. Make sure you pay attention to when you pause to breath, and where you verbally trip on your words. Those are places where you may need commas, or where your words need to be rewritten. Make sure you read exactly what you've written. Don't allow yourself to fill in the sentences in your brain as you skim; you may mentally insert words that you forgot to type.
- Reading your blog out loud while editing will help you learn how to write conversationally. Your readers will likely prefer the conversational blogs because they sound less like sales messages.
- When self editing, it's better to view your blog using a different method than how you wrote it. I use Microsoft Word and I write in the Calibri font, and sometimes I edit using the Times New Roman font. Sometimes I copy the blog into a different program, like Notepad, or even the Thunderbird compose window. This trick takes me out of my writing comfort zone lets me see writing mistakes that I was blind to in Word.
- I can be my own worst editor. There were plenty of times when I was editing a blog and thought "oh I should add this new tidbit of information." Although this might sound like a good edit of forgotten information, what I've discovered is that my method of thinking is reproducible when triggered in the same way. Invariably, after I waste time adding "new tidbits" I often find that same tidbit was already written in the following few sentences. Bottom line, while editing your own blogs, you should always read a little further before adding anything new.
This post is part of a series of what I've learned from writing 1000 blog posts. Maybe one of these other topics will interest you too:
* Content Tips
* Managing Your Blogging Ideas
* Writing Tips
* Editing (this one)
* Attracting an Audience
* Organization Strategy
* Search Engine Optimization
