I just read “Engage Your Readers With Typos and Misquotes” over at Copyblogger. Given that the post is the single worst post I’ve ever seen on Copyblogger I was going to refuse to be engaged, but then I thought that I don’t want people to be encouraged to be idiots. Hence this post, combating stupid advice.
1. Typos are errors. Errors are things you didn’t want to happen. I argue that if you intend to misspell something it cannot be a typo, for it is not an error.
2. Misspellings make you look stupid. Taking a few seconds to check your work with a spell checker helps you avoid looking stupid.
3. The attention you will get from misspellings and misquotes will be from people that want to point out the mistake. Don’t confuse comments pointing out your mistakes for actual conversation. It isn’t. Whatever point you were making is lost on those people, because they already judged you by your mistakes, not by your content.
4. Though the strategy works okay for Will Farrell, I contend that if the only way to get people to notice you is by looking stupid you are in trouble. Get better content.
Fabricated words can be fun, and misquoting a saying in a cheesy way might be okay. Most of Nick Cernis’ post seems designed to drive up comment counts without adding any value, though, and in the process it makes you, the author, look dumb. Where is the value in that? My advice is to write something worth reading, use proper grammar and spelling, have a real conversation with your readers, and seem like someone worth reading again.
