Artist, writer and good friend of mine Ophelia Chong asked me to post something for her. I told her I would as long as she made it incredibly entertaining. If you’ve ever read any of Ophelia’s stuff in the past, you’ll know she never disappoints in that regard, so without further ado, today’s post.

The origin of “Ps and Qs” go back to the pubs of the 17th century in merry old England. Bartenders would watch the patrons intake of alcohol by minding their pints and quarts, the ones that had a bit too much would be dragged outside and thrown into a trough (that last part I made up, but it sounds about right). Or it could of came from the printing business of setting type back in the time they set type, before digital, lowercase ps and qs could be reversed and words would be a jumble of “puote” and “qunk”. Now the cliche is used most often to remind people to mind their manners. Most of us remember the sound of an adult admonishing us to “Mind your Ps and Qs” and a hard tap on the head would follow. “Ouch, sorry Mom.”

Now the internet has made politeness a quaint tradition of the past, when it does occur, we are awash in gratitude that someone said “thank you”. Too often we are beset with anonymous comments that
reek of mean, posters that have only an agenda to play bully on the public playground that hide behind a cloak of invisibility and unaccountability. To fight these people is to punch the air and swat at windmills like Don Quixote.

Enough of the Mean, Now Let’s Get to the Good

Lets ignore the Trolls for now and talk about the Good. Good is being Polite. Being polite has widened my world, my reach. Each Thank You and Please has opened doors for me – for instance on Flickr, for each comment on my work I will say “thank you”, I can’t tie it to hard evidence, but my work has been published in six books and featured on numerous websites through word of mouth on Flickr. I truly believe it is because I am mindful of the fleeting touch of Acknowledgment and to be thankful is to honor it.

Hey Read My Blog

Want people to read your blog? Read theirs and leave a supportive comment. Someone commented on your blog? Say Thank You. Acknowledgment of someone taking time to read or view your work is just good manners. There are too many bloggers out there who never reply to a comment, and those are the blogs that do the slow dance to obscurity. Why should I come back when you don’t even think that the time I took to comment was important?

Thank You for Visiting

In July I will be speaking at Imaging DNA about how to market yourself online, there will be the rote “do this” and “do that”, but what I will emphasize is that the most important marketing tool is “Minding your Ps and Qs”. A Thank You goes further in this day and age of “Please Read My Blog” than it has ever before. With so many of us talking at the same time, it’s nice to read “thanks for listening”.

If you enjoyed that why not find a job or read our guide to working in the 21st century. You can also join our Kiva team or hire me for your project.