Health blogging is not like talking about getting your new car and how you wash it every day or discussing about financial matters and keeping your money well invested. Because money and other earthly possessions can be gained back if you lose it or part of it but health is something that you can’t take chances with. I have seen health bloggers and posters at health forums who talk about life and health in such childish and sometimes in an irresponsible way that it can cause big damage to their reader’s health. So, in this article, we will be talking about a few basic rules that every health blogger should take care of.
Responsibility
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Incomplete research – Many bloggers try to make 3 posts a day and in the process they end up writing posts without doing the full research on the subject. This can lead to mis-information. Internet is already filled up with plenty of wrong information, thanks to the yahoo answers where everyone is allowed to post their heart out or the Wikipedia which is edited by just about anyone. But on the topic of health this little mis-information or lack of crucial information in certain posts can be very harmful to the health of a reader.
Lack of linking – Most regular internet surfers has got no idea about how the internet works. Some believe that if it is on the internet, it is correct. They will not research twenty articles, they won’t open mayoclinic and webmd to look up your content, they will just believe you at your face value and whatever you have written, good, bad, evil! They will follow it without thinking. So make sure to link to related articles so that your reader has a wider area to research on.
Pretending to be an expert – I know you don’t pretend as an expert on purpose but if your attitude is more like an expert that you are not(at least unqualified), then perhaps it is time to change your writing style. On articles where you feel that mentioning about visiting your local doctor is required, do that. Sometimes bloggers do give good advice, specially with things that they have firsthand experience of, but still mentioning that you are not an expert on the same page with improve your credibility. Make it casual, for example, “hey, I am no doctor, but drinking 8 glasses of water a day will surely help improve your health.”
The missing disclaimer – Put the disclaimer on the front, mention the link to your disclaimer at the footer or the sidebar of your blog. Let your readers know that you have a disclaimer and let them read it properly. I have seen disclaimers and privacy policies written in the legal language or in very small fonts which is no good. Make the finer points clear, let you readers understand your disclaimer properly.
Also, make sure that you provide a detailed disclaimer stating that you have no medical or health certification or degree, and that you are no professional, just a blogger with life experiences and that you are just a health enthusiast and nothing more. If you are qualified then make sure to mention them so that your readers know exactly which field you are an expert in, I mean I won’t be taking your kidney stones related articles seriously if you are a fitness trainer, but I would take those more seriously if you are an MBBS or MD.
About us – one of the first places that I look on a blog is the about us page. From the about the author page, we can quickly find out what the blog is all about, what qualifications and experiences does the writer have and which topics the blog covers. So, if you are a serious health blogger, make sure to have an about us page which has more content than the default, hello world of the wordpress.
Contact us – let your users contact you easily, be it the social media profiles like facebook or twitter, or an email id or the contact form, make sure to make it easy for your readers to communicate with you. When we write an article, we make sure to cover as much as we can, but still there are plenty of things left for which we rely on the comments section. But comments are publicly visible, what if your user has something private to ask you. Let that option be open with a proper contact us page.
Preach good health habits – good health habits can be simple but there is no end to it, be it drinking coconut water or eating foods reach in fiber, or drinking water throughout the day to keep you properly hydrated… good advices are plenty but a patient would hardly find those off line and even less from a local doctor. I know people that have complained about lack of sleeping and were promptly given sleeping meds from the doctor. But the same doctors will never advice on alternative remedies for sleeping. As a blogger you can fit in there and help cure those problems naturally.
Next, why not just hire a health professional to proofread your articles and make them error free. That way your health articles become a bit more accurate. There are so many freelance websites on the internet, hiring a doctor to proof read your blog content is not so difficult and not even expensive. Give it a try.
Twitter: danalingga
says:
Really agree. There is a huge responsibility if blog about health since it will effect the health.
Dana´s recent blog post ..Knowing The Cell Phone Camera Terms
Twitter: healthvotes
says:
hi Dana,
thanks for your comments, and glad you agree on it,
it is been a long time since i see you around, hows letsupdate going? i see that you are having a new blog, good to keep expanding.
regards,
uttoransen,
uttoransen´s recent blog post ..Health Benefits of Green Tea
Twitter: danalingga
says:
Yeah, it has been a long time. LetUpdate is still doing well. Thanks for asking.
Twitter: pinklockermom
says:
Great post and very on target. I work for KidsHealth.org and recommend it as a pediatric resource for bloggers.
Twitter: healthvotes
says:
hello Debra Moffitt,
thanks for your comment and glad you liked it,
i have always recommended kids health as an authority resource and it is a great honor to have you here,
regards,
uttoransen,
uttoransen´s recent blog post ..Health Benefits of Green Tea
You make a lot of excellent points. I agree with you about checking research and credentials. As a paid health & fitness writer/editor, it makes me concerned for the consumer when I read some of the wild, inaccurate, unverified “information” that is out there. I like blogs where people write of their personal experiences, but as an industry professional, I immediately leave the site if I cannot find the credentials to back up some of the claims. Yay for research! And accuracy!
alexandrafunfit´s recent blog post ..Get Fab 6-pack Abs- Part 2
Twitter: healthvotes
says:
hi Alexandra,
thanks for your comment and support,
the article that motivated me to write this guest post was on adult health so i did not linked, but that one still haunts me, the things that were written and how much damage it could cause or is already causing for god only knows how much desperate people have applied it…
(anyone needing more details on it can contact me..)
regards,
uttoransen,
uttoransen´s recent blog post ..Health Benefits of Green Tea
Twitter: FirstFound
says:
The points about experience and expertise are valid for any type of blogger. Don’t overstate your standing or skills!
Andy´s recent blog post ..WikiLeaks ‘Hacktivists’ Declare War on Web Banking
Twitter: healthvotes
says:
hello Andy,
thanks for your comments,
you are right, experience is important, i see that bloggers on the make money online niche says a lot about earning money while they do not make any money themselves, so it is like when you fail to make any money online, start a MMO blog.
But then again, at worse you will either lose money or not make anything at all, but you won’t get any lasting health problems… but if you follow a health blogger or forum and it advices you something that can damage you health too badly… that is where i feel the greater problem of health blogging.
uttoransen´s recent blog post ..Planning Your 2011 New Years Weight Loss Diet
Twitter: online_drugs
says:
Let me congratulate about the title itself Responsibility of a Health Blogger. This is not just about a health blogger, this is about the whole bloggers community. It is bloggers responsibility to provide reasonably right information to the society.
Andy King´s recent blog post ..Buy Actos Pioglitazone 30mg Online- Generic Actos Pioglitazone 15mg at Discount Prices
Twitter: healthvotes
says:
hello Andy King,
thanks for your comment,
i agree that all bloggers, whatever niche they are blogging on, should be responsible about what they blog,
uttoransen´s recent blog post ..Planning Your 2011 New Years Weight Loss Diet
Twitter: makemyvision
says:
Really for a healthy blogger need a more care and required to be spend a regular time with the blog and readers and as you said need to be care of your subscribers and followers.Yes very true required a responsive nature for your reader.
Twitter: healthvotes
says:
hello Yogesh,
thanks for reading and commenting on the article and glad you liked it,
regards,
uttoransen,
uttoransen´s recent blog post ..New Drug Combination Invented for Blood Cancer Patients
I recently started my healthy living blog and find this is useful information. Many times my writing is just my own personal experience or heresay from articles I’ve read. So, a disclaimer is probably a good idea!
Katie O´s recent blog post ..Burning off weekend feasting
Twitter: healthvotes
says:
hi Katie,
thanks for your comments and glad you found this information useful,
surely, a disclaimer is a must, and best of luck for your healthy living blog,
regards,
Uttoran Sen,
uttoransen´s recent blog post ..Depression Symptoms – Causes And Treatment
Twitter: unique_tips
says:
Hi,
Thanks for the quality article.I now realized what I done wrong these day’s.
Madav´s recent blog post ..Why you should give more importance to Keywords
Twitter: healthvotes
says:
hi Madav,
thanks for your comment, and glad you liked it,
hope you have not done anything terribly wrong that can’t be reversed…
all bloggers make mistakes, and then learn from it, best of luck with your future blogging,
regards,
uttoransen,
uttoransen´s recent blog post ..Depression Symptoms – Causes And Treatment
I completely concur. I take what I say very seriously and often over research most topics.
Joe´s recent blog post ..Running For Weight Loss
Twitter: healthvotes
says:
hi Joe,
thanks for your comments,
glad to know that you research every topic that you blog about,
regards,
Uttoran Sen,
uttoransen´s recent blog post ..Best Baby Care Tips
Twitter: lbblive
says:
Great tips for any health related blogger, this is one area your facts have to be right!
I recently launched my site and didn’t include an About Us, I’ve gone for a Biographies page where I list qualifications etc.
Sylwia´s recent blog post ..beef and water
Twitter: healthvotes
says:
Hi Sylwia,
congrats for launching your site, best of luck and hope it becomes huge some day,
biographies page sounds good, will check it out, the more information and qualifications you mention, the more reliable and credible your site gets.
P.S. – I was on a vacation for the last month of so, am going through all the comments now, excited to find so many comments even after a month of posting the article. comluv surely rocks,
uttoransen´s recent blog post ..Getting Adequate Information about the HCG Dietary Program
While these points are correct in principle, I feel the need to put forth a dissenting observation based on my own experience in biochemistry, medicine, etc. When reading an article you must ask yourself the following questions:
1) Even if this person has an MD or a Ph.D, do you know who they work for or who funds their grants?
-often MD’s or researchers will lose their funding and silently destroyed if they do not tow the line of Big Pharma, the FDA, ACS, USDA, AMA, etc. Most doctors who genuinely wanted to help people found out the hard way that if you cure someone, a big and powerful company loses a patient.
2) How much practical experience or actual field research have they performed? Doctors receive zero training in exercise science and only a very small amount of training in nutrition. Yet they are the “authority” when it comes to so many things where they have no formal education.
3) Check out the background of the people who they advised in the past and if there are any complaints or lawsuits filed against them. In many professions, like artists, architects, engineers, lawyers, etc, their favorite achievement is a portfolio of their clients that they can show to future clients. But sadly in the field of health, nobody dares to question the benevolence of doctors, researchers, or anybody else with a white coat for that matter.
The bottom line is that doctors who tow the mainstream line have been historically wrong about very big things more often then they have been correct. Those doctors who have spoken out were literally assassinated, like in the case of Dr. Max Gerson, MD who effectively found a natural cure for cancer using food. Imagine how many hundreds of billions of dollars would be lost by corporations if there was a cure for cancer that was allowed to be published in the mainstream. Until these drug companies find something that they can exploit, there will never be a cure for cancer….at least not in any of our lifetimes.
Question authority…always. The more dogmatic someone sounds, the more likely they are covertly selling something or otherwise diverting your attention away from the truth. And as the saying goes, if one finds out they will tell 10 more and on and on…
Britney´s recent blog post ..Conspiracy reality for boy and girls hot and bothered over Chris and Rhiana
Twitter: healthvotes
says:
hi Britney, thanks for your comment, lots of important points there,
firstly, i do agree, if you are curing a patient, some hospital is going to lose a patient, but i will consider it good no matter what the economic consequence comes out of it. health is firstly about healing, business is always second. if a doctor can heal without the bills, he should.
about the second point, i do recall reading a full article about it somewhere, but i can’t remember the link now. most doctors do not advice on the exercise thing, but a recovery from a disease can not be done on medicine alone, and hence the idea of a personal trainer sitting beside a cardiologist is not a bad idea i guess?
about the third point that you make, i hope people do the research and get it promoted, even risking their life if they have to… if you see a cancer patient struggle with chemotherapy, am sure you will like the idea of a better and easy cure, even cheaper as not everyone has the money, and it is something worth dying for and the monetary loss of the companies, no matter how much it effects them, is still worth it.
uttoransen´s recent blog post ..Getting Adequate Information about the HCG Dietary Program
Twitter: AlisonMSmith
says:
Very good info. Blogging ethics should reflect our values. Treat others” health with caution.
Alison Moore Smith´s recent blog post ..Losing Weight After Pregnancy
Twitter: healthvotes
says:
thanks Alison Moore Smith for your comments,
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