My readership is growing, my friends. How do I know this? For one thing my site stats are pretty sharp. Secondly, I’m getting criticism. Daily. Yep. Daily.
In the year of yore (and by ‘yore’ I mean 2007 when I started this blog), if I got one comment that was anything less than total gushing I’d lose sleep over it. Seriously. These days, it’s like water off a ducks back. My sarcasm and penchant for addressing my audience in an aggressive first person tone, (yes… I’m talking to YOU!) doesn’t mesh well with everyone who visits my corner of the web. Am I going to change the way I write? Hells to the no. Here’s why.
Negative comments are actually awesome. For both you (if you’re a blogger)* and me.
It Means You Are Reaching (lots of) People
Of all the people reading your blog it’s a fair assumption that a decent percentage, say 5% will a) miss the point, b) take offence. Even if you have a modest 100 daily readers, that equals 5 offended people, and 5 offended people will almost certainly guarantee you 1 nasty comment. Basically, the more people who leave negative comments, the more popular you are. Think about how many people know about Lady Gaga and think about the percentage of those people who hate her. Now think about whether or not she gives a crap. Apply this to yourself and go be awesome again.
It Makes You Question Yourself
If someone takes genuine offence to something I have written, I take it very seriously. If the person is a total troll and has been rude, they can get stuffed. I won’t reply. If they have taken the time to construct a good argument, then I always reply. Sometimes, it’s been politely pointed out to me, that perhaps a particular sentence I wrote wasn’t very sensitive. I welcome criticism like this because it helps me become a better writer. If I’m covering a sensitive topic, I’ll always construct my argument carefully because I want to be able to defend myself. When I first started blogging I had a few ‘oh crap!’ moments, where people quoted me back to myself and what I had written sounded awful. I’ve now learned to read my work with neutral eyes and I’m proud to say it’s been a very long time since I’ve regretted something that I wrote.
It Gives You Perspective
The first negative comment I ever received was on a post in 2007 on ballet style. The comment went like this. ‘WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH BALLET??? WHAT A WASTE OF F*CKING TIME!!!!!!!!!’. At this stage, I had been blogging for one month. I was devastated. Now? I get at least two or three comments like this per week and I just laugh. Why? It has nothing to do with me when I get comments like that on my blog. And guess what? It has nothing to do with you either. It’s the same as when someone road rages you when you’ve done nothing wrong. They are just angry little people, shaking their cranky fists in the wrong direction to try to make themselves feel better. Let’s pity them shall we? Then let’s never speak of them again.
Bottom line? You can’t alter your behaviour to please everyone because a) it’s not possible and b) it’s really dull watching someone try.
Be yourself, have opinions, back them up, be respectful, create discussion.
Don’t let anyone stop you.
*If you’re not a blogger then, here. Watch this instead…. then come back and read this anyway because my posts have layers. Peel the onion, people.