If you’ve been blogging for a while, you’ll know exactly what I mean when I say that lately I’ve been facing the “I-Take-That-Back” syndrome.

You probably don’t use that phrase exactly, but you know what I mean.

It usually starts out very innocuously:

  1. You’re blogging along merrily. In fact, chances are, you’re writing what you think is a great post.
  2. Then you happen to mention a fact. It can be a small fact, and often it is, but it’s just a fact, that’s all it is. For example, last week I wrote a post to my Internet Marketing blog on loving the holiday season, and at the end of it I added, as an afterthought: “Oddly enough, my Adsense for all of November has been only 50% of what it was back in October. It’s not because of a drop in traffic - the amounts I’m getting per click have been lower than normal.”
  3. And then, before you know it, that little fact that you so blithely threw out there becomes a not-a-fact-anymore. Without you having to do or say anything. It’s like some sort of weird Murphy’s law. Going back to my example, that very night my Adsense income for the day not only crept back to my daily October average, it went beyond it. Nicely beyond it. Because suddenly, the amounts I was getting per click almost tripled. And so far, it’s been staying up.

Most of the time, it’s such a small thing that’s exposed to the “I-Take-That-Back” syndrome. I mean, in my little example, no-one really cares, except me, of course. I happen to be delighted, but other than that, it’s not like anyone’s world is rocked by it.

But I’ve been thinking about I-Take-That-Back for the past few days, because the syndrome is on the brink here at Working Blogger, too. Last week when I was posting about being an “entrepreneurial freelancer“, I wrote (again near the end of my post), “Not necessarily being a full-time blogger, because I’ve got too many things I love to do to want to pursue any one thing full-time.”

And wouldn’t you know it, since then, four separate opportunities have come up, and if I take up any two of them (I haven’t decided what I’m going to do yet), I will be dangerously close to full-time blogging.

But I’m glad to say I sidestepped another potential I-Take-That-Back situation. I actually had a little paragraph in that same post where I waxed melodically about how I definitely didn’t want a traditional business, with employees and stuff like that.

And now I realize, if I want to take advantage of these opportunities, it actually does mean I will have to turn one of my offline things into a business. A “real” business, with employees and stuff like that.

Ouch.

Anyway, I figure there are only two things you can do when you find yourself facing the “I-Take-That-Back” syndrome:

  • Ignore it. It’s like you never wrote it. Keep blogging away, totally contradicting yourself, secure in the knowledge that no-one even remembers that once upon a time you wrote THAT as if it were a fact of life. Note: this is NOT a good approach if you’re an A- or B-list blogger.
  • Liberal use of strike-out. And if you find yourself thinking about actually editing out the offending not-a-fact-anymore into oblivion, you should think again. Google’s cache will trip you up every time. Strike-out is a much better way to go.

Personally, I like the second method the best. I mean, you don’t even have to explain yourself if you don’t want to.

And think about it. Haven’t you seen the liberal use of strike-out in lots of blogs? So now you know why. It’s a great solution to the “I-Take-That-Back” syndrome. Which truly does hit everyone once in a while.