Blog Maintenance | Tribal Blogs

Is it polite to point out mistakes made on a blog or website?

Filed under Blog Maintenance, Netiquette, Tips and Tricks by Jennifer Brown on January 21, 2012 at 11:33 am {5 comments}

Is it okay to point out and correct the mistakes on someone else’s blog or website? My quick answer is yes, a resounding yes, please but I may not represent the masses on that one. I ask this question because this morning a friend of mine, and fellow blogger, Mike from We Work For Cheese, sent me an email pointing out a misspelling on a previous post. I had spelled Bloodspot instead of Blogspot.

Freudian slip I am sure. In fact, Mike suggested it was such in his email.

I’m grateful if someone notices a mistake and privately points it out to me so I can fix it and act as if it never happened.* What I don’t want is someone pointing it out in the comment section or worse on Twitter or Facebook. A quick email with a link and an example of my mistake is all I need, thank you very much.

I’m curious to know what BlogRehab thinks about this. I know there are rules of decorum and the goal is to not embarrass anyone when pointing out mistakes. I’m the kind of person who wants you to tell me if I have spinach in my teeth. However, I am also the kind of person afraid to tell someone they have spinach in their teeth.

Hypocrite?

Maybe it depends on the kind of mistake? Some mistakes are worse than others. In this example I misspelled a brand. I certainly don’t want to do that as I work with brands on a regular basis. I want to get their name right. What if the mistake had been a simple typo like beer instead of been? Again, I would want to know. I would especially want to know if it was a grammar mistake. Too instead of to or chose instead of choose, both common mistakes that when made say a lot about the skills of the writer.

Does it depend on the kind of website the mistake was made? It’s easy enough to contact a blog owner of a small blog such as this but what if the mistake is on one of the bigger blogs like MSNBC? Their writers make some of the most careless mistakes I have ever seen in print. Even though people talk about the mistakes in the comments no one ever seems to make the corrections. Of course usually the comments are rude rather than helpful.

What do you think? Is it polite to correct a mistake made on a blog or website?

*Except for my comma usage. I know it’s egregious but it’s hopeless as well. I use commas with utter abandon and while incorrect, I think it displays my quirky side.

3 Writing Mistakes that Erode Trust in Your Small Business (successful-blog.com)
Top 5 Website Mistakes and How to Fix Them – Free Webinar (coverboom.com)
Spelling mistakes ‘halve online sales’ (simplybusiness.co.uk)
Dont be the mistakes you make. (gofullthrottle.wordpress.com)
The Rookie Mistake that’s Holding You Back (problogger.net)

Is it polite to point out mistakes made on a blog or website?

Maybe it’s time to ditch Gmail?

Filed under Blog Maintenance, Blog Strategy, Netiquette, Tips and Tricks by Jennifer Brown on January 20, 2012 at 3:43 am {no comments}

I love Google and Gmail. I’d be lost without Google Maps (literally) and Google Docs (at least until more people got a Mac and joined the cloud). Google is so intertwined in my life that at times I have found myself looking for a search bar in times when I am not on the internet or the computer even.

Ever been out to dinner looking at menu and wanted to learn more about the special but guess what? There isn’t a Google search bar on the menu!!

So I use Google for everything and I also depend on them to deliver traffic to this site and my other websites. The problem is lately I have found that I am nervous about talking about certain topics in email messages. Not because I am doing something wrong or am ashamed of what I am writing about but because when I do write about something the ads I see within Gmail or on other websites are all related to the words I used in my email.

I’ve had instances when I’ve talked on the phone and coincidentally the ads I see are related to words I used in that conversation.

Google is Big Brother

I understand that the people at Google aren’t reading my emails, that my emails are being ‘read’ by bots or spiders looking for keywords that relate to advertisers who want me to buy their stuff. I get that, and it works. I do click on the ads because they are so well targeted to what I am thinking about at that moment. No wonder.

I’ve noticed lately that I use Gmail for light correspondence. I don’t talk business in my Gmail emails and I don’t reveal any information in a Gmail message I wouldn’t want to see on a billboard outside on the street. I now use Gmail when I am conversing with someone whom I don’t know well and wouldn’t share private information with. If I want to share private information I do it over the phone, in person or through my other email account.

I still love Google but I don’t want them to know everything about me.

Here is a funny and yet spot on spoof of Gmail made by Microsoft.

Blog Tip: If you want more web traffic you are going to have to post more often

Filed under Blog Maintenance, Increasing Traffic, SEO, Small Business Blogging by Jennifer Brown on January 19, 2012 at 1:22 pm {one comment}

It’s true. If you want more traffic to your website or blog, and you don’t want to pay for it, you are going to have to post more often.

The days of posting once or twice a week using a few keywords and getting tons of traffic are gone. Long gone. Having a great following on sites such as Google Friend Connect, Networked Blogs or even a huge friend list on Facebook or followers on Twitter can’t get you the kind of traffic that posting to your site often can. Unless you pay for guaranteed seo services you won’t get the quality traffic that posting frequently guarantees.

Bad blogging advice

During the first couple of year of blogging I wrote, maybe, three times a week. I often didn’t post on weekends and I certainly didn’t post everyday or more than once in a day. Occasionally, I might post twice in one day but only if there was a major news story that I had to comment on or wanted to capitalize on. If I posted to my blog twice in a day I would skip the next post because I didn’t want my readers to get sick of me posting content. This was a widely held belief among bloggers back then. Don’t post too much or you will piss off your subscribers. Of course, I never had that many subscribers so I don’t know why I listened to that bad blogging advice.

No clue

It was always my intent to have a large audience. I wanted traffic because I blog to earn money. Sure, I love to write but as my fourth grade math teacher used to say “I’m not doing this for my health” I want compensation. By being polite and worrying about what my audience thought I let traffic slip out of my hands. Since then I have learned that if I want to have a successful blog I have to write for the people who use the search engines to find me. Yes, I love my loyal readers but they already know about my blog. They have made the transition from reader to friend and while I certainly want them to read my posts and enjoy what I write, I want new readers too. It is the new readers that pay the bills by coming to this website.

The internet is competitive

If I don’t post often the search engines won’t place me in their search results. I’m competing (and so are you) with millions of different sites offering the same kind of information. If they are posting once a day I need to post twice a day – or more. Sites like CNN, The Huffington Post and TMZ don’t need to worry about being ranked in the search engines because their brand is well established. They are like the mall, housing all kinds of different stories updated hourly. You could spend you whole day reading at one of these sites and barely make a dent in all their content. Can you say that about your own site? Sites like these post more articles in a day than you will post all year. They don’t need Google or Yahoo.

But you do, if you want traffic.

Take this blogging challenge, if you currently post only a couple of times a week then write every day for the next week. Whatever amount you currently post double it for the next week and keep an eye on your traffic numbers, specifically the traffic coming from search engines. You will be surprised to see just how effective writing more can be. Give it a try and let me know your results in the comment section.

The correct way to Effectively Increase Traffic to Website, Learn in 6 Easy steps to increase traffic to web site (ronmedlin.com)
How to Drive Traffic from Google News (carocomarketing.com)
Google isn’t the only way to drive traffic to a business website (marketing.yell.com)
21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic (Updated 2012) (mt-soft.com.ar)

Blog Tip: If you want more web traffic you are going to have to post more often

Southwest Airlines Phishing Scam

Filed under Blog Maintenance, News, Scams, Tips and Tricks by Jennifer Brown on January 18, 2012 at 10:46 am {no comments}

Photo: devilsworkshop.org

Don’t Get Scammed

Southwest Airlines is one of the latest bait used in a phishing scam that has been going viral and causing all kinds of headaches for people who fell for the incredible offers. This latest phishing scam has been making the rounds since November of last year.

The email is short and to the point:

OMG, Southwest Airline Corporation is handing out 100% free gifts. Hurry fast, Do not wait a minute. Heres the webpage - Southwest Promo (link disabled) There are only 39 more.

This scam has morphed somewhat from it’s original incarnation where if you linked to a fictitious link on your Facebook page and asked all your friends to do the same, you would get two free tickets after filling out a form that required and email address and phone number to participate.

What to do if you fall for the bait

Brooks Thomas, Southwest spokesman, suggests that anyone who falls for this kind of scam to uninstall any program that they may have downloaded, and to change their Facebook passwords. And remember to utilize your virus scanning software that comes with most PCs. If you don’t have virus protection on your PC take a moment to install it today.

Phishing is big business

The official word for these kinds of scams is Phishing, and it’s a growing problem costing Americans billions of dollars each year. Often, these predators set up shop overseas, making it difficult for companies and law enforcement to track them down. While many phishing scams are simply annoying some convince users to install dangerous software that can give thieves access to checking and credit card accounts.

Use common sense when opening emails

Often it is easy to spot the scammers emails due to the senders email address or name. In the last week I have received emails from both a Mr. Smokeweed and Ms. Huneyhumps. Clearly these two have not taken Phishing Scammers 101 yet or they would have never made such a mistake.

As always, if you hear of any phishing scams please let me know.

While Southwest Airlines always has some kind of discount available to its customers it never gives away free tickets.