Comments on: Focus your blog writing on a specific niche topic

By: A

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 10:21:06 +0000

Hello,Marko.It’s my first time comment in your blog.I feel your blog is very good for me who is learning to a blogger.You see my name is chinese,so you can guess where am i,english is my second language like you,but i can’t write so beautiful article as yours.Wish you have more good post.

By: jan_geronimo

jan_geronimo — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:05:22 +0000

@Mary Kate: Kindly loosen up already. It’s hard enough to summon the guts to leave a comment in somebody else blog. Please don’t make it more difficult for us. As a reader, I can overlook some grammatical lapses or awkwardness in sentence construction. I go for the meat or substance of the post. With you in the same room, I’m likely to bite my tongue instead of bothering to leave a comment.

But not today. Simply because I want this said: When I’m in another blog, I do not flash my credentials to startle people. I’m just me, just another enthusiastic reader who’s eager to learn.

By the way, I also learned from you today, if it’s any consolation. So it is not such a loss after all. “,)

By: Julie M

Julie M — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 16:27:31 +0000

‘Writing’ is my niche, it is not narrow, but I write from the heart with passion. I think there are successful blogs without a narrow niche. I just wrote a blog post about this very subject, well NOT having a niche.

By: Marko Saric

Marko Saric — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 10:24:00 +0000

@Mary Cate – Thanks for the comment! I understand it, I enjoy it, and I am looking forward to hearing more from you in the future.

By: Mary Cate

Mary Cate — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 05:53:08 +0000

Marko. Touché on the name. My apologies. However, you are not off the hook. You are an excellent writer, whatever your first language. As a professional editor, I offer my advice to contribute to the topic and conversation.
When I see writing as good as yours, I can’t resist wanting to tweak the details to go from good to great. That is what editors do. Blogs, after all, are first and foremost about writing. If I thought you, or Kai Lo for that matter, were not already good writers, I would not have bothered.
From you I am learning all about blogging, more so than any of the many other sources out there. I ventured to be more active in this community, which for me was a big leap. I am doing so with all sincerity.
Of course there will be mistakes in my writing, as well. (Each written piece requires the writer to challenge himself to rewrite and an editor or at least a proofreader to catch the details.) I am sticking around and look forward to pissing you off in the future.
And Kai Lo – no disrespect intended. I love your perspective. I hope there is room for mine. I will not make the mistake again of using another person’s comment as an example.
Cheers!

By: Marko Saric

Marko Saric — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 23:57:08 +0000

@Mary Cate – English is not my first language, so it is natural that I can make mistakes. Personally I am like @Kai Lo and I care more about the point of the article than about some grammar mistakes here and there. Just wanted to say that when I said “focus on writing good and quality content” I referred to content and not to writing. Basically I meant “good and quality content” and not “writing good and writing quality content”. I hope it helps. Also if we are talking about small things, I wanted to note that it is impolite to spell someone’s name wrong. It is Marko with K and not with C. I am glad you liked my blog.

By: Mary Cate

Mary Cate — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 19:21:46 +0000

Kai Lo, my apologies. I did not mean to single you out, it was just for illustration. Even I think comments are off limits. They are quickly written and the exception. I am here to help. Not judge. I agree with your original comment, but even a mediocre blog will not become a “must read” for long if grammar is ignored.
My purpose was not to make anyone self conscious. Truly. My grammar sucks. And I know blogging is more organic than more “formal” or printed forms. However, the topic, and even the sentence, was about good content. And that includes grammar, whether bloggers like it or not.
Good writing is all about the reader and not stopping them even for a millisecond, if you truly want to have an impact. It is part of the writer’s responsibility and credibility. As an editor, I want to hone the writer’s skill, not force fit it into rules. However, the basics are important.
With the fall of newspapers and move to citizen journalism, people forget the importance of good editing. Every blogger should have a copy of the “Little, Brown Handbook” It is the easiest reference, very well indexed, and super clear on the rules. Writing is the art of revision.

By: Kai Lo

Kai Lo — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:53:37 +0000

@Mary Cate – Thanks for the correcting the grammar. However, I believe getting the point across is more important than worrying about grammar. I assume you understood the entire post that Marko had posted. I’m not here to speak for everyone, but if I am too worried about grammar, I would lose my train of thought. This isn’t exactly an article for CNN, and nobody is perfect. It is very difficult for me to write this comment because I am being very careful with grammar. I probably made a thousand mistakes in this comment alone. I am not myself when I am worrying too much about grammar. Hope you understand the difference between a blog and the perfection of the work from CNN.

By: Mary Cate

Mary Cate — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:14:38 +0000

Grammar is my niche. For the sake of better blogs and because the_gman is sending a link on Twitter about this blog, I am compelled to point something out. I hope you’ll fix it, then delete this comment, because I am not doing this to embarrass you or get attention for myself. (In fact, please delete it.)

Marco, you say “focus on writing good and quality content,” It is “writing well”
One person making a comment does just the opposite: “regardless of how well the content is”. It is “how good the content is”
Here’s why: “good” is an adjective, “writing” is a verb.”Good” needs the adverb “well”.
“Content’ is a noun. It needs the adjective “good”. Always match adverbs to verbs and adjectives to nouns.
I love your blog and suggest careful proofreading for any blog.

By: Marko Saric

Marko Saric — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 10:01:55 +0000

@Kai Lo – Of course, there are exceptions to the rule, but for a blogger it is a much better option to be focused on a niche as it is easier to market and “sell” your blog to the potential visitors that way.
About experience, if you do not learn much from your first blog and do not improve your starting the blog / promoting the blog / writing of content skills, then something probably went wrong with your first blog as you definitely should learn a lot from the experience.