Are You a Professional?

I'm probably not going to make any friends with this blog post, but I think it is something that needs to be talked about. Are you trying to start a business online? Perhaps you have a product to sell on eBay or another online marketplace and need to write descriptions that entice the lookers to buy. Or, maybe you want get into Internet marketing by providing a service to other online entrepreneurs. Well, I have a question.

Here's the question. Can you spell? Can you write using at least halfway decent grammar? If you want to look professional, you need to act professional and write in a professional manner. In a face-to-face business, potential customers judge you by what you wear and how you speak. In an online business, they initially only see what you write. The first contact with you might be a blog post you wrote, a sales letter they've found on an emailing, a free newsletter you sent out, or even Twitter. You won't appear professional if there are spelling errors, run-on sentences, no paragraph breaks, or other obvious grammatical errors. "Why do I need to look professional?" you might ask. Because 'professional' usually equates to traits like 'competent', 'trustworthy', and 'knowledgeable' for most people.

A program based or web based spelling checker is a first step. Always spell check before sending out anything. But a spelling checker is not enough. You need to proofread what you wrote after correcting any spelling mistakes caught by the spelling checker. Case in point, I was reading a blog post today where the writer used the word incite, when she really meant insight. The spelling checker knows they are both valid words, but with two very different meanings. Just this week I noticed two different people on Twitter who had a typographical error in their blog link that they put in their 'Bio'. Also, learn the correct usage of commonly misused words that sound alike, such as 'there', 'their', and 'they're' as well as 'to', 'two', and 'too'. If your blog posting software or other writing tool doesn't have a good spelling checker, write in Word or another good word processor and then cut and paste into your blog or other media. Then you'll also get the benefit of some grammer checking that the more robust writing platforms provide while spell checking.

Finally, use capitals and lower case as appropriate. That all lower case thing is so last century. And please don't use smileys or acronyms if you want to appear professional.

So, there, I've said it. I'll get down off the soapbox now. Oh, by the way, my grammar is not what my college writing professor would want to see on a thesis. I use a more conversational style, which, while still professional, comes across as 'friendly'. Comments are always welcome.