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Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/felipeskroski/2566713455/
During the conversation around The Small Business Website Guide for Business Owners, it was [pointed out to me]({{ site.url }}/small-business-website-guide-marketing-how-to-use-blog/comment-page-1#comment-4015) that it can be scary to post things online that will be representing your company forever.
I want to help alleviate that fear here and now with some simple steps to writing content that you won't regret - and what to do if something slips through the cracks.
Be professional!
Being professional may seem like the first obvious step, but a lot of people overlook simple things like double-checking basic grammar and spelling. Run your content through a spell check. See if you can have a friend read through your content before you hit publish.
Don't let perfection be the enemy of good.
Even if your content isn't 100% perfect, don't let that stop you from publishing. If you have an important message to share, share it. People remember the way that you made them feel, not the exact words that you said.
Keep things open ended.
If you're writing something based on your opinion or a personal belief, be sure to represent that in your message. Let people know that this is not the end all, say all. This is the way that you feel about something, so keep the conversation open for discussion. People don't want to hear you talk from their pedestal, but they will respect you for having an opinion as long as you can respect theirs.
Everything is permanent, nothing is forever.
For all technical purposes, your content is going to be online permanently. That feels terrifying to the business owner just trying to step out into the world of the internet.
Nothing is forever. If you make a mistake, you can make it right. If you are putting in the effort to write professionally, that will show - even if you're not so great at it to begin with. If you're sharing a message that you're passionate about and not preaching from on high, that will show too.
The fact that you fear making a mistake shows that you're in the right mindset. You want to do this right.
It's a learning process.
You're going to mess up - and that's okay.
If you go back and read through the earliest posts of even the best bloggers today, you may be surprised at the number of mistakes they made. The important part is that they realized it's a learn-as-you-go type of job and they allowed themselves to make those mistakes.
You need to allow yourself the opportunity to screw things up a little bit, and as long as you're paying attention, you'll learn what was a mistake and what wasn't. Start slowly and let yourself build momentum on your successes.
Have faith in yourself.
There are so many people that I've talked to that simply lacked the faith that they were capable of doing things themselves. Things that are new can be scary, and that fear of learning something new drives us away from things that actually aren't that horrible.
Have faith in yourself that you can learn to do this. Cut yourself some slack.
Stop waiting!
Get out there and publish something new! Share your fears and how you overcame them in the comments.