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How to Improve Your Blog – Learn to Take Criticism Well

Posted By Darren Rowse 16th of July 2009 Miscellaneous Blog Tips 0 Comments

This comment from Jannie Funster caught my attention earlier in the week on my ‘best and worst’ post:

attitude.png

There are many attributes that go into becoming a successful blogger but this one is key – taking criticism well.

There’s nothing more disheartening than getting a comment telling you that you’ve done something badly – but it’s also an opportunity to improve your blog and make an impression upon your readers. Nice work Jannie!

Struggling to deal with criticism? Here’s a few posts in my archives to dig into:

How do you deal with criticism?

About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Comments
  1. Awesome post.How nice ideas do you get.Wonderful!!

    Regards
    Salman
    http://www.tips4blogging.co.cc

  2. It does happen sometimes when some people criticize your blog. I feel that instead of arguing with that person, we should thank him for telling about your shortcomings. Try to correct that mistake and again ask the same person whether he is satisfied or not. This helps in the long run.

  3. Every time a reader posts a “negative” comment I improve something, so I like them to tell me what am I doing wrong.

    (Sorry for my bad English)

  4. Boy does this one resonate with me. My first blogs first 6 months were beyond atrocious. My first ever report I put out was littered with misspellings and terrible grammar. I had several people that out of “love and concern” that pulled me to the side (Virtually speaking of course) and said you gotta improve this.

    They knew the content was good and would have a great impact on the readers but it was over shadowed by the misspellings, grammar and writing. I was able to suck it up and get better in order to get my message across better.

    People say that failure isn’t an option but it better be because it’s the only way we learn. Falling down getting back up and improving. Thank god I took criticism. Matter of fact I ended up in one of Joe Vitale’s books Expect Miracles because of not only taking criticism but publicly addressing it on my blog. I not only won over a lot of people but like this post above I was able to use it to empower and educate others which won me over a lot of subscribers and attention from Joe’s book!

    Definitely take criticism and use it to your advantage.

  5. “How do you deal with criticism?”? Bad. Terribly bad.

  6. Criticism is dealt with in different ways on my blog depending on the type of comment. If it is not exactly relevant to the post and is downright an attack against my blog, post or content, I just decide not to publish the comment at all. If the criticism sheds light on something that I may benefit the post and conversation in comments, I thank the reader for commenting and either explain the purpose of the post, perspective or content that they are criticizing or I reassure them that I have taken their account into consideration.

    I make an effort to try not and publish any criticism that contains profanity and capitalized text throughout the entire comment. These two usually go hand in hand, do not have any substance and serve no purpose to my blog or its readers.

  7. I take a different approach to criticism. First I cover my ears and yell “I CAN”T HEAR YOU”. If the criticism does not go away I then try “LA LA LA LA LA LA”. Most of the time this does the trick, but in some cases I will respond to the commenter with “I know you are but what am I”, delete the comment, or troll his website posting “your mom” in various places.

    Is this what you had in mind by taking critcism well?

  8. One should always take note of criticism and use it to improve their blog. Some people criticize for no reason, while others really have a problem. But taking this into make some changes where necessary to improve your site. You may see your return visitors grow!

  9. I agree that you should take criticism well…but only when it’s done in a constructive and respectful way.

  10. You need to listen, almost completely disregarding the tone of the feedback. Everybody knows people get a big head when they’re not talking to someone face to face. When you get a negative comment, picture getting it in person, almost automatically taking the level of rudeness in the comment down. I think it’s a lot easier to take in the message of the negativity when you downplay the way it’s said.

    And there’s almost always a useful message in the negative feedback, even if it doesn’t appear so at first glance. As bloggers, we hope and pray we’re doing things correctly at all times…frankly most of us aren’t, none are doing every minor thing perfectly. So take the message, turn it into something positive, make more money for yourself!

  11. Criticism is part of blogging, and part of life, period. Use the criticisms to improve your blog and your writing. We encourage readers to contact us letting us know how to improve our site, and we ask them to let us know about hot money saving deals they have found as well. Our readers make our site better, and by sharing bargains and deals with each other, we all save money in the end!

  12. What a great story and well done Jannie on handling it so well. Taking criticism and do what you did shows that, unlike the anonymous said, you’re well ahead.

  13. I am very open to criticism… mostly constructive one :D

  14. Oh yeah.. it is tough to take criticism… and it’s true it can help a lot. Because if you are not talked about in any way, than you don’t exist..

  15. Criticism is a great thing as long as it is constructive. I think I would have a hard time approving one that was stated that way. As it is very “spammy” in nature. But, I think I would definitely take another look at the post.

    Thanks for the story!

  16. Someone left a critical comment on an Examiner.com article of mine about Twitter asking how I could write about Twitter when I wasn’t on Twitter. (Why he made this assumption I have no idea, although it is very hard to find someone on Twitter if you don’t know the exact name combination to look for.)

    I managed to write a civil response how I had been on Twitter for over a year.

    And then I made one change: Every time I write an Examiner.com article about Twitter, I include my Twitter username somewhere in the article. I decided going on the offensive rather than being on the defensive is a better policy.

    Phyllis
    http://twitter.com/ZimblerMiller
    Examiner articles are at http://www.InternetBizBlogger.com

  17. Criticism always help.
    May be in any field, if you want to succeed, you have to take up criticism in your stride, and move on.

  18. well there is bound to have bad comment to us, but we should focus on the positive.

    We all need encouragement.

  19. That’s an excellent tip. I haven’t received any criticisms yet, though my blog is fairly new and I’ve been on a hiatus. However, I do get many critiques from myself. I always feel I could polish up my posts a little better and shoot for posting for frequently. Criticisms are usually a blessing in disguise!

  20. I’ve just started my own blog: http://www.fxceed.com Excited about how will I be “examined”
    Being a speaker of English as a second language, often I wonder if I use English correctly. Whenever anyone points out my wrong spellings or usage, I feel so thankful. Unless it’s about attacking my profile which is nothing to do with my work competency, I always try to deal positively with the critique. Further, I would rather take this as an opportunity to make a friend who can give constructive criticism even to a stranger, whom I consider to have potential to be a good person with respectful characteristics.

  21. Well, there are always good comments and bad comments as well, not just in our blog, but everywhere. And we get a lot of spam comments too. Certainly the comments that points out our fault and our weaknesses should be and are always preferred which helps us to further strengthen our blog.

  22. I know, I know!

    I have never been the best at accepting criticism wether it be for my homework as a child, or for someone offering “advice” about one of my websites!

    I’m getting better at accepting the criticism and I hope that as time goes on I will be able to improve my sites!

  23. Taking constructive criticism and learning from it is great, but what Jannie Funster did was commendable. She took a mean comment, one that wasn’t constructive at all, and made improvements. In my opinion, comments like “”your writing is atrocious” should be ignored because it’s just basic name calling. It would have been more helpful for Anonymous to say what he/she finds atrocious. Is it sentence structure, spelling, bad narrative – what’s so atrocious?

  24. Well, this is a big surprise to be linked by ProBlogger, whee-hoo! Thank you, Darren.

    Yes, now that I’m becoming so Highly Enlightened And Stuff from reading so many inspirational blogs, (my favorite is Liara Covert’s “Dream Builders Australia” http://blog.dreambuilders.com.au/journal/ ) I realize teachers are everywhere.

  25. Sturggling? kinda. In fact when i submitted in a forum and solicited for feedback: i was so suprised that most are negative. *sigh* but really open rebuke is better than hidden love.

    hmm Darren, I’m amazed you really find time reading comments! You Rock!

  26. People in general aren’t very receptive to criticism. If they were, a lot of bad things would be great now.

  27. when i first started my blog, someone said it was great, but it needed better photography. i rolled my eyes and said my photography was good enough. now i wish i had paid more attention and integrated original professional level photography much sooner.

  28. I started blogging and soon joined problogger group .In just few days of my start I had an honorable blogger just on the forum letting me and others know how bad my blog was , my grammar mistakes and how it sucks .
    It was weird because I would have thought such comments would be more appreciated by me if in private rather than open forum .
    But telling you all I think so if i look back , if it was not for that forum comment … I slowly made changes and edited and re edited my post to be upar all the time
    So the moral .. Take positive criticism all the time ..

  29. I make it a rule to wait at least 12 hours before responding to a negative comment so I don’t bark back like a cornered dog. I give myself time for logic to take back over. Also — it’s actually welcome for people to criticize something I post. It keeps me on my toes and also sparks discussion. As long as it’s not inflammatory and you have a “subscribe to comments” feature, you should welcome controversial or negative comments. If it’s something too personal and doesn’t add to the discussion, take the comment “off the air” by removing it from the blog — but if it’s someone who has contributed interesting comments in the past, take time out to email them personally with a response (and make it sincere).

  30. Yes, true… criticism is like an acid test which makes the blogger honest to his work. Everyone should be ready for both the aspects of the picture. Appreciation and criticism are the two faces of the coin, which leads the blogger to be more involved…and…
    … Darren… you are one of the best example of the blogging world.

  31. Yikes. Criticism is OK, but how about being constructive and pointing out something specific.

    A friend of mine has offered a lot of lot of criticism. Some has been implemented, some doesn’t really fit with how blogs work, and some wasn’t implemented due to personal preference.

  32. Just curious…when you’re cross-posting in your own blog, are you using your search box to find the articles, or do you go through your posts manually on the back end? I can only imagine how many posts you would have to dig through.

  33. Wat to go Jannie. Like the saying goes “success is not measured by how high you climb up, but how many times you get up when you fall.” or something like that…

  34. I find it easier to take criticism in the virtual world of blogging when compared to a real “in your face” person.

    I had a slightly unkind comment yesterday, and I was surprised that it just didn’t bother me as much as it would have six months ago!

    Jamie

  35. Criticism is key to growth. But everyone needs to understand that if they are putting themselves on the internet in anyway they are open to criticism and probably will get some. But thats good!

    If your not getting criticism your not putting yourself out there enough. Trying something different.

    Just take things with a grain of salt and dont lose sleep because some random person said something dumb about your work.

  36. If the criticism meant well, then I’ll humbly accept it with gratitude, while thinking how shall I improve according to suggestions or advice (if given). However, if the attack just plain vicious and no reasons given, probably I would still feel a bit bad, and will try to recall what I did to create such negative feedback; but most probably I’ll try to forget and move on. I agree with Jared, it’s part of our growth as bloggers. It’s not the first, and certainly won’t be the last time, so learn to deal with it positively. =)

    @wchingya
    Social/Blogging Tracker

  37. I like it how you chose to highlight a comment. I think you should highlight more Z-listers and give them some traffic.

  38. On one of the first YouTube videos I did, somebody commented, “You’re ugly.”

    OUCH.

  39. This post sucked.

    You’re welcome. :)

  40. Critics and negative comments are common thing in blogosphere. They usually comes to some types of post that can invite pros and contras fast. For example: MLM stuff. Some people hate it and some other like it. If you write about it, expect to get negative and even flaming comments. That’s normal

  41. Great post! It can be hard to take criticism well. I’m still fearing the day I’ll receive my first. Hopefully it never comes, though I’m sure it will.

    So far, my health blog Salad Sticks is about to turn 1 month old. I already have a decent number of readers and can’t thank this blog enough! I’m a heavy reader of Problogger and have found that I wouldn’t have gotten so far without the help of your devotion to packing this blog with valuable content.

    Thank you!

  42. I’ll take it into account and look at whether it’ll make my writting better. I’ve always liked my writing even if it can be pretty bad though, so sometimes I take it but don’t use it.

  43. Hey, it’s Jannie!! Woohoo!!

    See, I knew you were famous Jannie!

    You’re so good at this, at dealing with people. That’s a skill, and one you excel at.

    Good work turning a bad into a good! (hey, I think you know only good….)

  44. I’ve had to deal recently with some criticism tirades full of ad hominem attacks and personal insults. Instead of responding to those remarks, I isolated the actual legitimate grievances and responded only to them. That response defused the critic and improved my worklife and habits. Life’s too short, right?

  45. I had the same thing happen to me. Someone commented on my blog in the same manner. At first I was offended but when I tried some of the suggestions it was actually a great improvement.

  46. I’ve had to deal with my share of criticism, but wow–that comment from Anonymous was just downright mean. People should at least learn to be respectful when commenting. I got a comment last week sometime where the person just swore up a storm. I took the advice, but it I sure don’t respect the one who left the comment. I may have actually deleted it because of the profanity if I recall correctly…

    I agree with taking criticism, but also knowing that some people just like to leave nasty comments to feel better than everyone else. For the example above, I believe Jannie handled it perfectly — improved the post, but didn’t shut own her blog of course!

  47. i never take bad comments seriously :)

  48. Darren, this was the lamest post ever. Using a comment for 90% of your post? Get real. I come here for real input and expertise.

    Just testing you. :)

  49. Hi! I think it’s a matter of just how we perceive criticisms also. By acknowledging that we did something wrong we also acknowledge that we are willing to change and to be better for the greater good, in this case… our blogs. Nice post and Greetings from http://www.kristovblue.info I hope you also criticize my blog. It’s newly set-up so… thanks in advance!

  50. I can take criticism if it is handed to me in the right way.

    Posting a comment with lots of swear words and insulting me will just annoy me.

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