Jun 23 2008

Can You Be Too Honest On Your Blog?

I never thought I’d actually lose readers (or a reader) for being honest. I’ve always believed having integrity and being honest is an important practice for any business including blogs, at least in my opinion. I’ve been honest so far, why stop now?

Honesty on the Internet

Website Outage

On Thursday Blog about your Blog suffered a short outage, from 10 am to about noon. I spent most of that time trying to get the hosting set-up again. Not only did this site go down, but also many of my others.

Be Careful with Adult Images

That led to writing an article about being careful with adult images. I thought it was an eye opener to anyone really with hosting. Your hosting company could deem one image “adult” and then shut down your entire hosting account until it is removed.

Having that problem could not only affect your website, but also earnings and other factors that involve your website having too much downtime. What if I couldn’t access my network for a day? A week? An entire month?

Some readers understood it was a bit harsh, some didn’t. It was my fault of course, but I didn’t believe in shutting down all of my sites. I was in violation of their terms by having an adult blog. I still felt that it was a bit harsh.

On the other side, one reader said “Wow. I really wish you hadn’t have admitted that you had a site like this on BAYB.” Then promptly unsubscribed from this blog.

I value all of the readers here and their opinions. I’ve done my best to keep the language, content, and images to a general audience. We don’t allow cursing or anything abusive whatsoever. I’ve also never tried to cross promote that site from here or mention really anything else “adult”.

Has being honest actually hurt your business, practice, or blog?

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8 Comments on this post

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  1. Weekly Roundup – Interesting Articles Around the Blogosphere | Blogging Tips & Custom Banner Designs at DatMoney.com wrote:

    […] Can You be Too Honest on your Blog? Well, Matthew sure doesn’t think so. And he also gives a warning about putting adult images on any blog. (I may have to double check some of the pictures I put on here!) […]

    June 28th, 2008 at 9:18 am
  1. sir jorge said:

    i throw caution to the wind, it works for me.

    June 23rd, 2008 at 2:37 pm
  2. Dennis Edell said:

    Well yes and no. Same as in real-world relationships, certain honesty can really dig deep, cut to the bone and all that.

    The big difference is, while blogging you don’t have the “time factor” that you do in life to straighten things out.

    So yes, in some circumstances you really have to watch what you blog, honest or not.

    Now in your case, no. That isnt even a case of being too honest…you were telling a story from start to finish and she was very sensitive to certain aspects.

    June 25th, 2008 at 3:43 am
  3. Anne-Marie said:

    I recently posted a photo of myself and our state Governor and got a bit of flack on my blog. It was an interesting wake up call. I would hate to lose customers over my political leanings yet part of my chafed at the thought that people would buy from me (or not) based on who I voted for. It was a good reminder to write only what I was willing to have people scrutinize for years afterwards.

    June 25th, 2008 at 11:13 am
  4. 2ThePoint said:

    This is probably something you’ve heard before, but You Can’t Please Everybody. Do that and you become less of who you are.

    take care…

    June 25th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
  5. Trent said:

    Couldn’t you just switch to a webhost that allows adult content? There are TONS out there, and often same if not cheaper pricing than your current hosting package. I host some of my sites on servage.net, and it is great.

    June 29th, 2008 at 7:51 am
  6. Parth said:

    Well in my niche, you need to be honest. I take an extra step to be honest, and I do it by filming some of my workouts and putting it on the site. They usually get a good response. It shows people I practice what I preach.

    June 29th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
  7. BioTecK said:

    Being honest is important. People can notice when you’re lying and you’ll get the most when you’re bing honest! 🙂

    June 30th, 2008 at 3:13 pm

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