Thank you!
With that out of the way, here’s the deal. I’m probably not going to go in and fix the typo. Why? Because unless my typo changes the overall meaning of my message, it’s a waste of time. When something is too full of typos that it hinders your reading experience (most small mistakes and typos don’t), I’ll go make necessary changes, but I rarely, if ever, worry about the small things.
Why?
Because I’m a side blogger, dammit! I don’t have time!
And also, I think my long-time readers understand what I’m saying, and they probably find the content valuable enough to come back to my blog. As a reader, I do not judge other bloggers and content creators for making minor typos.
In fact, plenty of my favorite writers — some of them are not only bloggers but also authors of books published by reputable publishing houses — make plenty of typos. CoSchedule CEO Garrett Moon even wrote an entire article on this topic. Moon has this to say about why he and his team don’t sweat the typos:
It may be counterintuitive, but I think typos and grammar mistakes are actually chances to humanize your brand. It shows there are real people behind your screens, keyboards, and products. We make mistakes. But guess what? It’s okay. Because the incorrect usage of “their” or “you’re” doesn’t make our content unclear.
And you know what? I agree with him! (Also, read Moon’s post that I linked above if you have a couple more minutes; his 10x approach is pretty interesting.)
Now here’s the deal.
Being lazy while writing isn’t cool. I do check my work after writing every single piece, by myself, and also with the help of Grammarly. But even so, often, a typo here and there would make its way into my writing. If I spot a mistake during the editing process, I’ll fix them, however tiny those details or typos may be. But after that, after a piece has been up and my typos haven’t changed my message entirely, I try not to let them bother me much.
There’s only so much time we side bloggers have at our disposal, after all.
I mean, imagine the kind of work it takes to fix a typo. Locate the typo in question (after a reader lets me know that I’ve made one), log onto WordPress, locate the specific page or post, fix the typo, update, go back and check my work again… whew… thanks, but no thanks.
But also, I understand this approach isn’t for everyone. If you happen to be on the other side of this conversation, that’s fine too. I get it. I respect it. But at the same time, I’ve learned to embrace my mistakes, the innocent ones at least, ones that do not impact lives and livelihoods.
So, what do you think? Which side of the conversation do you fall into? Feel free to share away in the comments.
12 thoughts on “Why I’m Cool with the Typos”
Hi Maliha, I see you do short-form! LOL. I used to dread those typos but now I know there is an edit button and I have Grammarly as well to help out. So I don’t make as many as I used to. I tend to work fast so I can make errors. I have to try to slow down more.
I know, right? With Grammarly and a couple of read-throughs before publishing, you can get rid of most of your silly errors. But occasionally a few little ones will find their way in, and honestly, I think that’s totally fine and not worth worrying about as long as they don’t change the meaning of your message.
Hey there! As a college student one of my favorite English professors mentioned that even as skilled as she was, nothing she ever did was quite perfect. She just always made sure it was readable and made sense. When she said that It made me realize that even the most accomplished people still make errors but don’t beat themselves up over them. Also I do believe some people just want to nitpick. I remember I wrote a blog on Tumblr one time and while I had over 100 something notes it was that one person who tried to tear me to shreds because she felt it was a mess of an article. Meanwhile the other 30 people that commented understood perfectly and were having a great time. So to be honest it’s usually just a handful of people that want to troll or be difficult. All in all great article! Glad that I’m subscribed 😄
So true! Thanks for reading, Antionette 🙂
Agreed! And, for the record, your points set me free to move forward with less trepidation, because you made me realize It Really Is Okay To Be Human! (Even capitalizing two letter words and no clarifying punctuation!) I might just get somewhere with my own side-blog. It has been under construction far too long!
Thank you!
Get that blog started!
Thanks, Maliha. You rock. I love your content, and so much fun to read. Keep coming, girl.
Thanks, Iwoba!
We are in the age of do-it-yourselfers. I used to shake my head at spelling errors on other’ sites. But today I’m more lax if it’s someone such as yourself. And I know that I have been there when creating something and you go back and notice an uncapitalized word, misspelling or double wording and wonder “what in the world was I writing?” But if it’s big businesses where I know they can hire a bazillion editors then that’s when I say, shame on them! 😄
Thanks for your comment, Tania 🙂
Hi Maliha, I agree with you! There is an edit button and we can fix things. Too many bloggers wait until everything is perfect which is never. I love when people let me know in a message or email vs. tweeting out the error for all to see. We are human and all make errors. That’s how we learn and grow!
True! Thanks for the comment, Lisa 🙂