That’s not a typo.

It’s not MY typo, anyway.

But it’s graced the cover of multiple newspapers:

When I was in college, one semester the local newspaper was delivered to every single dorm room. It became an instant sensation on campus the day the “pubic unions” headline graced the front page.

Years later, I got to know people at the paper. It was just as famous there, a cautionary tale to copy editors. There was even talk of removing “pubic” from the dictionary so spellcheck would catch it as an error.

These “facepalm” moments are easier to do than you realize.

That’s especially true when you consider how a technical audience might sniff out inauthentic content.

Consider this piece, for example:

Among the grimace-worthy things here is the repeated heading/headline. But worse, it reads like it was written by someone who doesn’t know APIs.

(“Payload in an API” is the simplest rewrite—one teensy, tiny word can make a big difference).

There are big and little mistakes that can explain Why Developers Are Unresponsive to Traditional Marketing.

They may not be typos, but they’re as dangerously easy to bump into if you don’t look out for them.