Dealing with unwanted advice and comments as a health blogger
No one likes to be criticized, especially me. But when you are blogging and especially about health issues, it's bound to happen. So how do you handle negative comments and unwanted advice?
The best example I've seen in a while was by WEGO Health member Kerri on her blog Holding Your Breath to Breatheregarding her asthma. The commenter offered some unwanted advice but Kerri gently and kindly let her know that even though she appreciated the comment, the kind of treatment the commenter was talking about wasn't something Kerri was interested in.
I've had some very negative comments that I've deleted. I always delete anything with profanity. But I usually either ignore the comment and give someone else the chance to take the lead and dispute it, or I engage in a manmner that I find to be professional and try to keep the conversation going.
You can read my entire post with suggestions here.
As a health blogger, how do you handle negative comments or unwanted advice? Do you have any examples of things that have worked for you in the past?
The best example I've seen in a while was by WEGO Health member Kerri on her blog Holding Your Breath to Breatheregarding her asthma. The commenter offered some unwanted advice but Kerri gently and kindly let her know that even though she appreciated the comment, the kind of treatment the commenter was talking about wasn't something Kerri was interested in.
I've had some very negative comments that I've deleted. I always delete anything with profanity. But I usually either ignore the comment and give someone else the chance to take the lead and dispute it, or I engage in a manmner that I find to be professional and try to keep the conversation going.
You can read my entire post with suggestions here.
As a health blogger, how do you handle negative comments or unwanted advice? Do you have any examples of things that have worked for you in the past?
Tags: blogger, blogging, health, health blogger
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Diana Lee on -
I mostly try to ignore it. If I think the advice might be useful to my readers, I go ahead and publish the comment. If the advice is dangerous or ignorant about the realities of the conditions I write about I delete the comment. I refuse to give people a forum to give off the cuff, uneducated opinions to my readers.
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Permalink Reply by kerri on -
Hey Janeen,
Thanks for the mention! Fortunately, I haven't had too many of these. I think I've had some that I've deleted as well, but mainly just spam that the WordPress spam filter didn't catch!
Most of my readers are fellow asthma patients/parents/respiratory professionals, so, fortunately, I don't have to deal with these too often!
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Permalink Reply by Janeen on -
Kerri,
I saw how you handled this the other day and it gave me the idea for the post:)
Gotta love that spam. I get that too and I definitely delete those.
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Permalink Reply by beka on -
Simple - Ignore them and see if they are meeting social networking site agreements between users. If not, you have every right to ban them from a social networking site especially if it is your blog. However depending on the discussion, it is lively to hear nurses voice their varying positions on current matters. So really , depends on the blog and reply. Or use the DELETE KEY !
beka
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