Debbie Weil, the author of The Corporate Blogging Book (of which I provided my feedback about her book), has gotten herself in a mess. She asked her colleagues by email to leave comments on a client’s new blog. Not everyone was happy about this and called her request backhanded. With the responses she has received, Debbie wanted to “crawl under a rock and pretend I’ve never heard of blogging.”
I know what it’s like to post something on your blog, only to regret it after seeing the reaction from readers, colleagues and other bloggers. While some crucify Debbie for her faux pas, I will instead post links to some of my not-so-flattering blog posts. There were only 2 that I can remember, so I posted them below.
Need Endorsers for Podcasting for Profit
I made a call for people to read my manuscript and provide feedback in exchange for free publicity. One of the people whom I interviewed for the book, Michael Geoghegan thought that my “shopping for endorsements” was in poor taste. After reading his post, I agreed and went on to change my post eight hours after publishing it, but not before Michael captured a screenshot of the original post.
My Industry’s First Magazine Falls Short of Being Inclusive
I launched into an unflattering tirade about the fact that the new Blogger & Podcaster Magazine ignored the female voice in their inaugural issue. My response was so tasteless that after publishing it, the post stayed on mind throughout the entire weekend. My readers also thought that my language was quite angry and there were 14 comments on my blog saying that I was full of sour grapes. I modified the blog post 2-days after posting it, deleted the comments as they were no longer relevant, then posted this follow-up to explain what I did. Not everyone agreed with my approach, but most people were supportive.
Have any blogging missteps, muck-ups or mistakes to share?
Not as of yet. But really, the fact that you got so many comments only shows that you said something that made people think about their own opinion and then it was compelling enough that they went to the effort to comment! I think that is what is so exciting about blogging and what one should reach for in terms of garnering other people’s interest. I’m impressed you have such an audience and then ability to comment on your own experiences. Good job.