Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, people blogged only for personal enjoyment. All they needed was a story to tell, a perspective to share, or a unique position in life, and they could write about it — and the whole world could read.
But that was then, and this is now. Today, people start blogs specifically to make money. Others start blogs for their own personal enjoyment, and a year later, they find themselves with thousands of followers, an agent, and a book deal. It’s no secret: when a blogger has a faithful following of thousands of readers, that equates to a built-in patronage for their future business ventures.
While these popular blogs go from zero to ‘business’ in what seems like seconds, is the person behind the blog really ready for that change? If they had no intention of making their blog a business, are they prepared to deal with consequences when their blog becomes more than they originally bargained for?
Bring on the haters!
We’ve already discussed the fact that you are a brand. Along the same vein, you are a business. You are a professional. Whether you’re writing a book or cookbook, recording an album, planning a conference, or participating in any other activity that came as a result of your blog, you are a business. You have to act the part.
When the naysayers start weighing in on your blog comments, Tweeting ish about you, and sending ‘negative Nancy’ e-mails, how do you act like a professional without losing your own personal identity? How do you make sure not to forget about the “little people” (your blends and original readers), and how do you address negativity without sounding like a hater yourself?
- Stop PAT’ting! We’ve covered this before, but when you make the shift from “blog” to “business”, it becomes more important than ever to Tweet responsibly. Cryptic Tweets about your readers will only turn them off. You are a business, and you need customers. Don’t piss them off.
- Don’t Delete! Rachel has already given us a full set of tools on how to deal with negative comments. Read it, live it. In addition, no matter what, no matter who, no matter where, when, what, or why, never ever delete them. On the same token, editing is only allowed to fix a typographical, grammatical, or factual error. If you post something scandalous to your blog at 8AM and a reader riot ensues, you can’t go back and change the post. If by 10AM, you’ve changed everything to reflect sunshine and kittens, you’ll look like a complete phoney. Stop it. Own your words. Stop being sorry. You might be a business, but you’re still a person with opinions and words. You’re allowed to use them.
- Get Over Yourself! Yes, you’ve achieved great things. Yes, you have a book/cookbook/contract/agent/TV appearances, but believe it or not, the world will still turn without all of those things. If you fell off the face of the universe today, we’d all be sad, but we’d get on with our lives without you and your books/cookbooks/contracts/agents/TV appearances. You’re important, but you’re not that important. Your blogging or business status does not give you a license to badmouth your customers and your readers.
- Don’t Get Over Yourself! You are an important part of the blogging world, and you need to cherish your hard work and protect your reputation and brand just as any other company does. Enjoy the work that you do, and recognize its value.
- Be Diplomatic! This does not mean you need to be to be a pushover. As a writer, you must be authentic enough to maintain your own identity in the face of adversity, without being dictator-esque. So you received a negative comment. Big deal. Your brand is not going to be affected by that one person’s negative comment. It might be affected by how you handle it.
- Don’t Take It Personally! A negative comment on your blog is not the end of the world. Even in real life, we all have haters. Unfortunately, in real life, people normally don’t have the guts to speak up. Although the negative comments sting, suck it up and move on. It’s their issue, not yours.
Although keeping an eye on your image at all times is an important part of the equation for growing your business, the most important aspect of being an effective writer is authenticity. If you’re constantly concerned about your image, you will eventually move so far away from who you were that you will eventually lose sight of why you started blogging in the first place.
Sometimes, we have to come full-circle in order to realize that we’ve made a wrong turn. It’s also important to realize that even if you’ve made a wrong turn somewhere along your blogging journey, it’s never too late to turn around or ask for directions.
A great example of this comes by way of Jenna from Eat, Live, Run. Jenna recently decided that she needed a change. Despite the fact that she has stuck to a certain blogging and business “formula” for the past three years, and has built a successful blog and sold a book based on it, she decided to launch a “New ELR,” and let her readers know that she hoped that she didn’t lose them in the process. Jenna decided to step outside of her previous “business model” of chronicling everything that she eats daily, and instead give her readers more authentic content by way of recipes, stories of food, and more mindcasting as it pertains to her celebration of food.
I had stopped reading her blog (sorry, I’m not sorry), but Jenna honestly drew me back in with this change. I have been genuinely interested in her recent posts, and I feel that her authenticity has added a new dimension and credibility to her business model.
Sometimes you’ll have to make executive decisions to do your own thing, and sometimes, you’ll have to give your customers what they want. Businesses — and bloggers — are allowed to change, but they should strive to remain true to their brand and transparent to their customers.
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
**STANDS AND APPLAUDS**
I adore this.
MizFit´s last post ..Heartrate monitors & reader email backlog
HA!! Apparently you’re the only one!!! There is clearly not much going on over here in the comments! lol.
Elisabeth´s last post ..Six Weeks To Sottero
Excellent, sound advice. I never originally thought about blogging as a business. I guess I could be called a “hobbyist” – a term I learned at a blog conference! But as time goes on, I realize the amount of time and energy I put into my blog is basically like a job! A job I love, of course
Anyway, I’m starting to think more seriously about trying to earn a few dollars doing it while maintaining the integrity of my blog. I’m not into hocking stuff I don’t use or believe in and I think my readers appreciate that!
I also like your tip about dealing with negative comments. They do sting, but the way one responds to them really shows their true colors. I often see people complaining on Twitter after they’ve gotten a nasty response to a post. They take serious offense and proceed to bash the commenter all over Twitter. For me, it definitely changes my perception of that blogger. I think it’s okay to say a comment bothered you or made you upset, but bashing the commenter brings you right down to their level. Silly high school stuff
Marisa @ Loser for Life´s last post ..Let’s Get It Started
@Marisa: That is SO true! I immediately unfollow on Twitter when someone starts talking poorly about their blog readers. I feel like it’s a violation of some sort of unsaid blogging law.
If a blogger is talking bad about “that” reader who disagreed with them, what will stop them from badmouthing me when I don’t agree with them on their next post!? It’s the type of negativity that nobody needs to subscribe to, and it ruins people’s opinions of the blogger who badmouths!
A negative comment is just that…ONE negative comment. Even if it inspires a whole slew of negative comments, I think that part of my “blogger job description” dictates that I need to just shrug my shoulders and move on.
Elisabeth´s last post ..Six Weeks To Sottero
Sing it, sister. A very wise blogger friend of mine once told me (as I was agonizing over a not so nice comment) “If everyone likes you, you’re too vanilla.”
I think it’s great to handle situations with grace, and lord knows the world could use more Good Customer Service.
Great post.
@MrsFatass TRUE THAT! How about the whole “customer service” aspect of blogging?! That shines through on all fronts…negative comments, prompt responses (as prompt as possible), customer retention–it’s a business!
Elisabeth´s last post ..Six Weeks To Sottero
Usually bloggers start with a plan, then keep working at it and when the blog grows the owner is ready for it, in some other circumstances, the blogger is casual about its progress and mostly the blog stagnates and does not grows and it remains the same as it was when it was started. However, in some very unusual times, i have seen some very active bloggers, without really having an intention of growing their blogs, kept blogging and finally ended with a very popular blog with poor bandwidth and errors, they even get hacked because they are not updated and they hardly have backups. So, it is really important for a blogger to grow with the blog, else you will have a popular and authority blog with no one to take care of it.
About the deleting of comments, certain comments are rude but as a blogger you need to take it as it comes, unless it is really racist or abusive. I keep the, “no shit” wordpress plugin, it automatically censors most of the bad words. Though, i know of a blogger who used to delete all comments that was against its sponsors or the items reviewed. We actually had a long discussion about it. But if you are deleting posts then it means you can never stand by your words, which is really sad.
about being Diplomatic, when replying to comments i often become diplomatic, but when it comes to making reviews am always real and straight foreword, that way you often gives out an honest but negative review, but it justifies and fulfills your first and most important point about “blogging responsibly”
Over all, i feel that bloggers should start growing a bit thick skin. Initially, i had problems when harsh comments were targeted towards me and i had to really eat them hard, sometimes it was personal and tough to handle. I guess over the years, i have developed “thick skin”, and now i can handle a lot of negative comments.
Health Votes´s last post ..Health Care Reform or Sick Care Reform
Great post.
It is amazing how many people have created fufilling careers out of blogging. I also want to say that I had stopped reading Jenna’s blog, but now that she has switched things up it is once again one of my favorites. She shows that change can reinvigorate your blog, not deaden it.
-Lauren
Lauren´s last post ..Another Giada Success