You wouldn’t think that a simple little thing like spelling could get in the way of building a successful internet business that satisfies plenty of customers every single week would you?
And yet that is exactly what is happening to lots of internet businesses all over the world – and the sad thing is that a lot of them don’t even realise it. Many who start a business, don’t get very far.
Spelling is a measure of how well we can perform as people. When we build an internet business we hope that people will come and view it and eventually buy items from us.
First Reactions = Sink or Swim, Success or Failure
But what is your first reaction if you visit the website of an internet business and you find the spelling to be rather bad? The chances are your reaction would be the same as mine – you would wonder what else they might be getting wrong if they can’t even get their spelling right.
Of course we aren’t talking about regional or national variations in the spellings of certain words here – that doesn’t count. What we’re talking about are internet businesses with websites that are peppered with spelling mistakes all over the place. It simply doesn’t look good and it doesn’t look professional.
Get Someone to Check
In reality most people know if their spelling isn’t too good. If you fall into that category and you know that you can’t really trust your own spelling, then get someone who is good at it to check it for you before launching it onto your website. Don’t trust the spellcheck function on your computer, since it often won’t pick up misspelled words that are the same as other words – your instead of you’re, for example.
Your internet business should look the best it possibly can. It should be presentable, correct and as professional as possible, since all of these inspire trust.
And that is exactly what you want people to be able to do – trust in you.
About Sean Rasmussen
YES! YES! YES! Just brought this subject up on Twitter. SO, so important! Thanks!
Hi Sean,
This is great advice. I think we can sometimes forget how important it is to ensure that our spelling and grammar is correct. I guess it’s the attention to details that show you care.
The other thing I have found is websites that I have checked for ghostwriters work and it is obvious the webmaster hasn’t reviewed it.
I have across some articles on article directories where it is obvious the writer doesn’t have english as their first language. How they got approved is anybody’s guess
Spelling mistakes don’t look good, make it hard to read and give the impression that the author didn’t care enough to check the post. And that is not a good signal towards me as a potential client. Because if they don’t even care about their first impression, what do they care about?
I agree with you Renee. First impression is a MUST!
Hi Sean,
It’s very important not to make spelling or grammar mistakes when wanting to be recognized as a professional in any field as it gives an amateur appearance and one that is extremely noticeable.
Accuracy is also important when making comments on blogs and is a goal of mine to be accurate. Practice makes perfects, as they say.
Hi Sean
I have to agree with you totally about poor spelling. It really is off putting to be reading an article with good content and have your eyes assaulted by spelling mistakes. Obviously, we are not going to be perfect all of the time, sometimes a little spello will slip in while you say you weren’t looking, but on the whole when you are submitting something for the public to read, check and double check.
I used to edit assessments for University students and the spelling in most of them was really poor. Some of the University lecturers complain about the terrible lack of spelling skills of their students and were concerned about how they were going to cope in their professional lives with writing reports etc. The mind boggles!
Is Spelling and Grammar Really Important YES !!
For those of us who sometimes find it difficult, the spell check is just the best thing since sliced bread.
I always write my post first in Word, there it not only has spellcheck, but it will pick up grammar mistakes too.
I am a lot better than I was and it is improving all the time.
Hi Rita,
I love Microsoft Word. Spellcheck makes life really easy and the fact that it picks up grammatical errors is a huge bonus. If you know how, there are a lot of tools to help you get your writing into tip-top shape.
Spelling and grammar are really important for your professional image. Use bad grammar and incorrect spelling too frequently and you start to look careless and idiotic.
I know as I get older I occasionally have to stop and check the spelling of a word. It really annoys me if I notice a typo after I hit the Submit button. It would be nice if these blogs had a facility for us to edit our comments if we notice an error after submission.
When it comes to grammar the one error that really bugs me is the misuse of “then” and “than”. I cannot believe the number of times I come across that error. It really jumps right in front of my face.
And one error that I make frequently make, which likely has my High School English teacher spinning in her grave, is starting sentences with “and” or “but”. But no one has chastised me for it frequently.
So true Don, would be much easier if the blogs had a facility for editing. I did some spelling and grammar errors and realised it few seconds after hitting the submission button and was difficult to edit or even delete and re-post.
I guess this will also help Sean in adding the edit/delete feature onto the future blogs!
Perhaps not here, but the UWC blogs we have been given all have preview options before publishing. It’s standard from what I know of WordPress.
Hi Sean,
Thank you for sharing this very important Internet Marketing tip.
Though we all know by heart that Spelling and Grammar is a very important Marketing Tool. And in any article writing we always tend to make this mistakes without realising it.
A very important task that we MUST do is to cross check and always get someone to proofread what we write before submitting, especially the bigger articles.
First reaction is the key factor to building a successful internet business as your Sink or Swim, Success or Failure is decided right then.
Cheers
Rose
I think it also a courtesy to readers to spell correctly and use adequate grammar. It also makes your material more acceptable in the long run
Thanks Peter that’s what I always do and will do for the rest of the remaining weeks in this competition as there’s so much tasks here to complete as yet. Damn! Just by looking at what I wrote above in a rush, I could pick out several typos and grammatical errors.
I will have to be very careful with this one in the real situation.
Yes, Rose. I am sure folks in this comp are understanding of our typos etc! At least I hope so as I make so many.
With articles in blogs and, even more so with publishing articles in Ezines, doing a preview check before submission is de rigueur.
What great information and as mentioned – so true! I find I just turn off if it isnt spelt properly because if they can’t spell – what type of research information am I going to receive. It is so easy now-a-days to get it correct with spellchekeckers and if you can’t take the time to edit the post – well i don’t have the time to read it and decipher it! (wow – that was quite blunt for me
)