MSNBC has a story today warning job seekers of the 5 most common ways to ruin a resume.  It got me to thinking about how we a bloggers can potentially do the same harm to our blog and credibility. So, in my opinion, are the 5 ways to ruin your blogging credentials.

1. Post without researching – nothing pegs you as an idiot faster than false statements that could have been checked quickly.
2. Speak in condescending tones – I’ve read a few blogs where the person was very knowledgeable in their chosen subject matter, but they spoke in a way that they thought they were a god.
3. Lack of focus – you don’t need a blog that only discusses one topic.  This blog, for example, is a mixture of topics even though the overall theme is blogging itself. While it’s important to have fun, if you don’t focus your attention in a general direction, your the cyber equivalent of a kid with ADD.
4. Commenting on other posts with questionable language – some people will debate this as a First Amendment issue, but the internet is such a large community, and since we are looking to have intelligent discussions, let’s clean up the language and leave the juvenile name calling out of it. I don’t care what kind of language you use with your friends, if you plan to leave comment somewhere, you can get your point across without that area of language.
5. Bad grammar – If someone does not take the time to construct their ideas in a way that is coherent, logical and spelled correctly, you don’t project yourself as someone who puts much care or time into your toughts.