I received an email today which discussed how he treated a particular negative comment on his blog.

The comment he received was apparently very critical, rude and insulting - effectively calling him dishonest and claiming he owed the commentor something.

Obviously, the blog owner could have deleted the message and been done with it or left it and replied to it. However, he decided to leave it and not comment on it straight away. A few more negative comments were added to the discussion - other people agreeing with the first commentor. But then, some of the blog owner’s loyal supporters jumped in - they defended the blog owner and strongly criticised the people making negative comments.

The blog owner had expected this and he took is as a chance for an active discussion, a controversy that increased traffic to his blog and some independant highlighting of his good points.

It was effective in that he had a discussion and it would have helped his blog and site rankings. Personally, I’m not sure I would have followed suit.

For one thing, some very negative comments were on his blog and they were first - some people may never read long enough to reach the positive comments. As a potential client, I wouldn’t be impressed by a blog discussion like that for two reasons - 1. why didn’t the blog owner make any response to his complainers and 2. I was probably reading the blog to learn something not hear about the person behind the blog.

I also didn’t like the fact that he was happy to have his supporters attack and flame his detractors. I prefer to not have any defamatory or hurtful comments in my professional dealings (blog, discussions, in person, whatever) so I would not allow a situation to build if I expected that outcome. It just doesn’t some across as professional to me.

I will write about how to deal with negative comments separately, but what do you think - is leaving a negative comment like that on your blog to spark a discussion a good thing or not?

Writing a business blog may have the purpose of promoting your products or services, and that’s fine.

But making a blatant sales pitch in every post isn’t going to win you any friends, or many sales.

I have seen more than one blog which ends every post with something like “Did you like this tip? Why not buy my book/enrol in my course to learn more? Here are 3 features of my wonderful book/course” BORING!

Sales pitch after sales pitch means people will either stop coming to your blog or (if your tips are good) stop them reading the end of each post.

Much more effective is to build a relationship, give some great content and have links to your products/services in the static parts of your blog. If a product or service some up naturally in the course of posting, by all means mention it and add a link - just don’t make a habit of it if you want your blog to be well regarded and seen as credible.

So what ending should you use? In short, use a natural ending to the topic or use a friendly good-bye message. That’s it!

Happy writing!

Writing spam? Don’t you just want to delete it rather than create more of it???

Occasionally, I read a piece of spam that gets into my inbox - mostly by accident and sometimes as research

I can see various spam emails being useful as examples of bad writing so I can show you how to improve your writing - or give you a giggle at bad writing anyway!

For instance, I got one yesterday that started with “Kind time of day of ladies and gentlemen” - why limit yourself to good morning or good afternoon when you can cover both at once! Obviously, a simple “Greetings”, “Hello” or “Dear friend” would be my suggestion.

Then, there was “Get $999 you download our casino.” Hmmm, a casino that will give me money to download them? I am very curious as to how I could possible download a casino - but not so curious I clicked on the link A better way to say it would have been “Get $999 when you download our casino software” or “Join our casino and get $999″.

And “same problems. somewhere in the world.” could probably have been better written as “The same problems occur throughout the world” or “Someone in the world has the same problem as you.”

I could go on and on, but thought I’d finish with mentioning a blog entry that shows you how to write better spam - enjoy!

I did a bit more driving than usual over November and I noticed a few idiots on the road. You know the type - overtake every car they can, speeding well above the limits, but somehow staying in sight and stopping at the same red lights as you.

Honestly, it is costing them in stress and petrol use, and greatly increases their risks (of accidents and fines).

Yet travelling safely & steadily gets you where you’re going with less risk, less cost and you arrive ready for whatever awaits.

Thinking about these drivers, it occurred to me that driving is like running a business. Some people start a business and run at it, trying to make a fortune in the first six months, changing direction as each new opportunity or distraction arises. These people are often stressed and overworked.

Others take their time - do some research, study up on various topics, gather advice and opinions, set up systems, and so on - and develop strong foundations for their business. These people may sometimes be frustrated at things not going fast, but they stay the course and develop a good business.

Consistency, steady progress, solid foundations, patience, planning deliberate moves - all of these traits will make business growth a little slower but a lot stronger.

So how do you run your business? And how do you approach a major writing project?

Writing a complete list can be tedious, so we tend to write out part of a list as a sample instead. Implying it is a sample even when we think we have written out the entire list, can also be useful - it protects you from giving an absolute.

So how do we imply it is part of a list? We start the list with something like ‘for example’, ’such as’, ‘including’ or ’something like’ OR we end the list with ‘etcetera’, ‘and so on’, ‘and more’, ‘or another…’ or ‘and similar.’

The key word is or - we start or end the sentence to indicate it is an incomplete list, not both.

“For example, we offer red, blue, orange, pink, etcetera” is unnecessary.

In fact, example means here is a subset of the whole while etcetera means there is more or the rest is to come. So the above sentence means “The subset is red, blue, orange, pink, and the rest”

“For example, we offer red, blue, orange and pink” or “We offer red, blue, orange, pink and other colours” makes more sense, is shorter and is correct!

So please don’t write example and etcetera in the same sentence!

Outsourcing is a valuable activity in business - you gain expert assistance, time and completed projects.

Yet many business owners choose to not trust their suppliers. Now obviously you need to maintain control and ensure suppliers are providing you with what you’re paying for, but you are also paying for their expertise.

I recently did some webcopy for a client. Amongst other things, I rewrote their about us page - both adjusting the content (as requested by the client) and improving the flow and grammar of the page.

The feedback from the client was ‘that’s good thanks, but we made a few changes to the about us text’. That’s great - they should take ownership and make changes so it is accurate and they are comfortable with the final copy.

However, when I looked at their changes I saw that they had replaced a lot of my text with their grammatically incorrect text again. By grammatically incorrect, I’m talking about sentences like ‘we started our business because my son needed…’ without indicating who ‘me’ actually is. It ended up not making much sense and looking very amateurish, unfortunately.

The point is that if you’re going to pay a professional writer, then take their advice on grammar, flow and style, even if you want to change the tone or content of the work.

I’ve heard graphic designers, accountants, web designers and database programmers express this frustration, too. In all instances, the professional has done what the client wanted but is disappointed in the result as they are aware of the errors. The professional is also unlikely to add that project to their portfolio so you won’t get any free advertising that way, either.

Question a professional by all means, make a suggestion even, but listen to what they tell you before you assume your way is best.

If you are not ready to take professional advice and direction, then maybe you aren’t ready to give up any control of your business and outsourcing won’t help you.

Outsourcing will help you and save you time, but only if you are ready to accept that help.

My newsletter has been sent out today. It is fairly short this time round - an article on file names, a correction of a bad writing example and a guest article about personalised gifts.

The Word Constructions newlsetter is also available online each month for anyone who wishes to read it but hasn’t subscribed.