I was mean to someone tonight, but it all worked out and I made a new blogger friend instead.
He’s Jun Loayza from Living the Startup Life. I noticed him after one of his posts came up on the Brazen Careerist homepage.
When I clicked over to his blog to leave a comment, I was pretty shocked by his original title.
The editor for the Brazen Careerist network (of which I am a member) decided that “In My Experience, Sex is Probably Overrated” was a stronger title than the original “Sex is Overrated.”
Really, Brazen Careerist editor? Really?
For one thing (and correct me if I’m wrong, gentle readers), “in my experience” is already implied. The Brazen Careerist is a network of personal bloggers. Just about any post on the network could theoretically be prefixed with “in my experience,” but that adds no meaning or value. It only adds extra wordiness to an otherwise eye-popping, attention-grabbing title.
But the bigger crime is the “Probably.” What a surefire way to sound like you lack confidence! In the edited title, it sounds like Jun is unsure of his central thesis when in fact he is opinionated and articulate.
However, this isn’t an attack on the Brazen Careerist editor(s). (Even though they never feature my witty, witty posts… grrr.) I’m sure they’ve got a lot of blog posts to deal with and didn’t give this title much thought at all.
This is a life lesson. Really.
The lesson is this: Other people do not care about you. Not as much as you do. At the end of the day, you’re the one who looks dull when your article/report/blog gets edited into mediocrity.
Is this particular an example a big deal? No… well, not to me. But that’s the point: Maybe it’s a big deal to Jun. What if this blog post had been his personal shining moment of glory?
I run into similar scenarios nearly everyday at work, where I help our clients develop websites. There are generally two types of client.
- The “you deal with it” client
- The take-charge control freak
Guess which one ends up with the awesome website?
It’s the control freaks, of course, but not necessarily because they have undiagnosed OCD. They’re the ones that care about how I’m crafting their online reputation. They’re the ones that argue with me about their sites.
It’s not that I purposefully don’t try as hard for the lackadaisical clients. I try to build everyone the best website possible—but the client’s business is not my business. I can’t possibly know their businesses like they do.
It’s the same with you and the middle-men with which you choose to associate. Every time you join an organization, get a new client, or start a new job, you’re handing over the keys to a little piece of your personal reputation.
Sometimes it’s not such a big deal. Sometimes it is. Either way, it’s your butt on the line when interlopers muddle your own personal brand.
Well, lest you worry, when you build my Web site one day I am beyond OCD. I’m sorry that this is going on - “editing” without permission is beyond stupid.
@Corinne, well it’s not exactly without permission. Everyone at the BC network knows there’s an editor who sometimes changes titles. The problem is, the editing just is less than spectacular.
Hey AJ,
Love the post. I’ve been meaning to write one as well about how they change titles. Maybe it’s about time that I write that post, hahaha
Good thing you were “mean” to me, or else I would have never resolved that issue.
Look out for my post which should be coming early next week :)
- Jun
AJ,
Glad you wrote this post. It’s a controversial subject. One our team struggles with every day.
On the one hand, you have titles like Jun’s (which probably shouldn’t have been changed, and was a mistake), but on the other hand we have great bloggers who don’t care about their titles, but create great content that we want to feature to the Brazen audience.
So where does the middle road lie? That’s the question we are trying to answer right now. And I would love your feedback.
Believe it or not, the community we’re both a part of means a lot to the people behind it (including myself, of course). We want to make everyone happy. Sometimes that backfires.
But that’s what is so great about a social media company. Your community is so honest with you that it’s easy to learn from your mistakes.
Thanks for putting up with us :)
AJ -
Just discovered your blog tonight via a link from Jun. This post is COMPLETELY ON POINT. I too am a BC blogger and it totally drives me insane when the editor utterly ruins a post by changing the title. Each author puts careful thought into what they want to convey via the title. In many cases the whole tone of the post is changed by changing the title. Ahhhh.
Anyway, I’ll end my rant now :) Overall BC has been a great experience and I’ve met some great young professionals through it so I suppose I can overlook the wacky editing.
Glad to find your blog. Keep up the good work.
Adam