Looking For Transparency Online

This post is about transparency when you’re blogging!

When you’re a writer, you are effectively giving people a free peek into your life, and it is always balancing act when it comes to how much you can share without it being an invasion of your own privacy. I’m quite happy to share about my own life, but I try to protect the privacy of those around me.

What about my authority to write about certain topics.

You don’t need to be a mechanic to write about cars, (though it would help to know something about them).

So if you were writing about a certain model being recalled due to brake failure, you could reference the manufacturer’s or distributor’s site, and maybe write about how you feel as a consumer.

To me, it’s no different to chatting in every day life in a sense.

I remember talking to a workmate years ago about his health concerns. he showed me a lump on his neck, and I urged him to go to the doctor and get it checked out. I didn’t need to be an expert.

He knew who I was, and that I wasn’t an expert, but he took the advice anyway.

You can do the same thing on your blog, by letting your readers know who you are.

For example, a little while back, I wrote Tell Me Again How Resilient Kids Are When It Comes To Divorce

I mentioned the fact that I was a father and observer, and that if people needed help that they should seek the help of a professional.

You don’t need to be a professional, but you can help!

We all have life experience that we can use to help others.

Over the years I have worked in the nursing profession as well as in the transport industry, and owning my own businesses.

That’s a lot of stuff that I have learned, and from a lot of people, many of them professionals.

You should never put yourself down because of a lack of qualifications, but you should be open about who you are!

Apart from the post on “Catfishing”, this post has also been influenced by a podcast by Darren Rowse!

I have included the the link to the podcast below.

http://problogger.com/podcast/121-2/

Never be scared to admit you’re still learning either.

At the moment I am learning to use new photographic equipment, as well as playing with images.

I’ve got a long way to go, but I still write about those things, because in my research for posts, I’m learning even more!

And you learn new things every day about a lot of things along the way.

Today I learned that rather than worry about an image for a podcast, if I just paste the link it resolves itself! Easy!

Remember, be yourself, everyone else is already taken! (Oscar Wilde)