Content Mastery Guide

Editor and Ghostwriter

Is it okay to go back and edit your published blog posts?

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As part of the process of writing my books, I’ve been reviewing a lot of my archived blog posts. That’s brought up the question of whether it’s okay to edit blog posts, essentially changing history (as I was working on this post, Jeff Korhan published one about how to rewrite your life story with social media).

My answer? It depends.

If there are typos, spelling errors or broken links, I would absolutely encourage you to edit those immediately, whenever you spot them (or someone else spots them for you).

If there are things you wish you had said differently or better, you can make those changes as well, however in that case I would add a note where you’ve made the change, e.g., [Edited on May 16, 2010] or at the end of your post, e.g., [This post was edited on May 16, 2010].

With my own blog recently celebrating its three-year anniversary, I’ve also been thinking a lot about how a blog is really a public chronicle of our evolution as writers, marketers and entrepreneurs.

While some older content may make me cringe and wish I’d known then what I know now, I try to celebrate my learning and how far I’ve come.

Can you edit your blog posts and change history? Certainly. Should you? That depends on your relationship with your past self.

American spelling? Canadian spelling? British spelling? Oh my!

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Style Guide reader Lee Strauss asked: My audience are Australian and American. Should I use American spelling or British spelling?

Great question! Here's what I replied:

Thanks for your question, Lee. It's a tricky point, especially when your clients are in different countries.

In the Style Guide I say that it makes sense for Canadians (and other non-Americans) to use American spelling since so many of our clients are American.

However, since then I've taken on the role of Editor for VOICE, the newsletter of the International Association of Coaching, and I love their approach of publishing each article with the spelling conventions of the author's home country.

So now I mostly stick with Canadian spelling, as a proud Canadian.

For me this also relates to the willingness to stand out and be who you are, even if someone else may think that is "wrong" (like the VOICE reader who wrote to point out my spelling error of the word honour).

Note that you'll see plenty of examples of both American and Canadian spelling on my blog and website – this is definitely an instance where I have not always been consistent. And an example of how a blog is a public record of our evolution as writers and entrepreneurs.