Blog for your Community, not for Everyone
Apr 27
Over the past few days months, the local blogosphere has been abuzz with talks about blogger credentials, bloggers being used by PR agencies, changing writing styles, and so many other issues. I would just like to take this opportunity to share my sentiments on this. There’s this common misconception that bloggers write for everyone. I strongly disagree. Bloggers write for their communities – their readers. If you try to please everyone, you’ll stretch your content and writing style to the limit that you’ll just turn everyone off. In this post, let me try to put into perspective the idea of blogging for your community and how to deal with negative comments.
It’s all relative
Yes, credentials are important – to readers who find credentials to be important. Yes, a loose informal writing style can work – to readers who can appreciate it. At the end of the day, what matters is whatever works for you and your community. If you are able to make a connection, sustain that conversation, and add value to them by giving them content that they deem good, then you are doing your job. This is one of my favorite quotes from one of the most prolific value blogs in the world – the Art of Nonconformity.
“Remember, there is no everyone. You want to attract the right people, and part of that process is gently steering the wrong ones away.”
Why do I say that you should focus on your community? Because there will always be nay-sayers and one-sided critics. There will be people who find their self-worth in trying to sabotage you. They find pleasure in doing nothing but sucking the life out of you and they will not budge no matter what you say or do. These are the kind of people who will not stop in trying to destroy you.
The question is should you be affected?
How to deal with negative comments
You can get really good feedback from comments, but at the same time you can also get really bad ones. The key is to recognize which comments can be action points for you to improve your blog, however, always remember that the commenters are not the total representation of your reader base. There’s a high probability that only 2-3% of your actual readers participate in the discussion.
No other medium exemplifies the phrase “silent majority” better than blogging. You should not stop just because a few people criticized your writing or your stand in a particular issue. There will always be conflict, and good writing will always polarize people. My advice to you is if you believe what you’re doing is right, and you know that you are connecting with your community, then please go on. Continue to write and give value to your readers. Share your life, expertise, opinon, or whatever it is you write about. Another cool quote from AONC:
“The person who says something is impossible should not interrupt the person who is doing it.”
Again, let me stress that you shouldn’t totally ignore comments, but don’t get to affected by it. Try to discern which comments merit actual changes and actions that will improve your blog make a stronger connection to your community.
Time and energy is finite. Don’t waste it by pouring majority of it into trying to convince people who have decided from the get-go not to listen to you. Instead, give more value to the people who matter – your community. Go to a coffee shop, order a drink, sit down, relax, and write. 
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Great post Carlo. I agree with you that we all have our own communities that we serve. We adjust with the times and change as well. Some we will get the opportunity to grow together while others will outgrow us much faster.
Whenever we get criticized, I think, in my experience, it is also tied to perceived authority and credibility on the subject. It is a reminder to keep our feet on the ground and work harder. Cheers Carlo!
I have always written to my community, my readers, my subscribers. When someone wrote about my credibility, I didn’t think that person even read my blog. But yes, I still picked up something and learned from it.
Long ago before I started doing technical blogs, my mentor gave me a book titled Fight Club. I learned a lot from it and still think about its principles when I write. But like what we all experienced, there will be people in our community who will challenge our ideas. This is not bad. Like what Ms. Janet and Ms. Noemi mentioned, we pick up something and learned from it and constantly reminds us to work harder.
Also, these challenges are like To Do notes telling us that we need to add more value to our communities. We cannot please everybody and chances are, we will always have a 50/50 kind of audience. Awesome post Carlo and you rock!
brands have their respective market and community, brands clashes too. Exchanges of opinion is both educational and entertaining.
@Sonnie: Brand Clashes is okay if the discussion is constructive. What I’m trying to point out here is that there will be people who will do nothing but destroy, lol. They won’t bother listening to you and will even twist whatever you say to make it look like you’re wrong and they’re right.
@Rob: I read that book. Loved it.
Thanks for the kind words bro.
@Noemi: Yeah, we talked about this when we had coffee in Mega Mall during the Joy Rojas event.
@Janette: Nice insight on criticism and credibility. We really shouldn’t ignore all the comments being posted. We should keep an eye out for issues that we can act on and that can actually make us better writers, bloggers, and professionals.
This point has to be communicated to all the bloggers in the world. With the fast-spreading influx of blogs, businesses and organizations, people have to learn to find a specific audience they should address for specialized value.