Responsibilities of a Health Blogger

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.