A writer, blogger, or journalist is responsible for bringing honest and true knowledge to the audience. In many cases, it requires a comprise to spice up things and make it interesting for them to consume the content. But that doesn't mean it should come at the cost of our very own image, stature, and authenticity.

Here are 5 Mistakes that you can avoid as a Journalist/Blogger, so your audience loves you to the core.


1. Do not make false claims or assumptions that are obvious in your story

As journalists, we always form our first-hand opinion based on facts we have and how we treat them, which puts our minds into prompting some scenarios and assumptions. When these assumptions are non-validated, they become a vague report of events and bluntly produced content. For a loyal audience looking for trustworthy content that's well-validated and fact-checked, it becomes a major turndown. For every quality content, the authentic audience who loves us for what we do is here to stay forever as long as we give them what they see as value.


2. Misleading Cover Image and Headline

The real reason behind a reader clicking on our link is his intent to visit our webpage, which contains information that they are looking for. It is primarily triggered because they read the headlines/title of the article and internally acknowledge that it is something they have been hunting on the internet. Writing fancy, thought-provoking, impulsive headlines is great but maintaining the same spirit inside the main article is essential to retain the reader on the webpage. When the audience gets disappointed that they have been tricked into clickbait from the Cover Image/Headline, they lose trust and red flag us.


3. Always give credits and source

Many times covering a hot topic or emergency news, the audience looks around many places for first in hand and more details. When we are bringing in news from a primary source which is international or national, to the regional audience, it becomes important to acknowledge them with the source where they can go for further information. It might look like a bad idea to predict our audience to another site, but when we are the regional, locale publisher in a native language, loyal readers will land on us first and stay with us. The credits are source are only a trust-building and validating factor for them to be thoughtful internally. We have done justice to them by doing rightful information.


4. Hyperlinks & Redirects that don't serve the purpose

Often readers are tricked into click baits. They look for something and are redirected to something they don't even care about. The frustration of being redirected is not the primary problem here but the following action. When you open a new pop-up window or a new tab for a link that is clicked, and the reader realizes they are being tricked, they close that new tab and us who are the source. We should call out such links in our articles to avoid such a credibility loss.


5. Don't make them think

The main idea that's emphasized as part of the User Experience design of digital websites is that, in the end, we should not make the audience think about what should be done next. Though it's always a stunning way to leave the readers in awe with a question that might prick their minds with curiosity by the end of the story, trying to do it for so long hurts a little. So guide them to the next action steps with a call to action or read more and similar such topics. Please do not leave them wondering and lost, which will make them think more. Always be that guide for more things to come and earn their credibility.


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