Comments on: So who is actually going to do the work?

By: Bill Rowland

Bill Rowland — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 04:00:14 +0000

Paul,

"You're preaching to the choir" on this point and I couldn't agree more. In the past I've worked with smaller sites and content was always an issue. Recently I've been working to optimize much larger e-commerce sites and the challenge has become even greater; we need to pull out all the stops to first sell the value of adding content and then to guide the creation of unique material that users will find valuable.

By: Rachel Buck

Rachel Buck — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 16:25:41 +0000

Great post thanks. As marketing coordinator the content for our website falls to me. We find that unless it is actually part of someone's job description the work doesn't get done. But you have to have buy-in from the rest of the business as content doesn't materialise out of thin air and making it part of their job description as well really helps.

By: Wouter

Wouter — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 10:28:01 +0000

I recommend 'Letting Go of The Words', by Janice Redish

By: Wouter

Wouter — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 10:13:10 +0000

Try to have it added to your job description
Prioritize web content over other content. Plan your time and show your planning when 'that time' comes again
Propose to have someone else (internal or external) do the non-web writing
Explain that writing for the web is very different than writing for print (this is why there are so many books)
Try to get more backing (my own mistake when I first started). If possible, explain to your superior and use him as a filter (after all, it's one of the reasons he holds that position)
Prove your worth: use web statistics, surveys, usability testing to show that your web work paid off. If possible, add ROI estimate (for the managers)

By: Julia

Julia — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 21:09:16 +0000

I love this. There is so much truth behind these pictures and words. Although I'd probably get shot if I sent this along to someone that I work for currently, it definitely presents lots of valid points.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 01:19:07 +0000

In the medium sized business I work for, we have an internal communications coordinator who is still studying creative writing, but who had never written specifically for the web before.

With the help of a few pointers about website content writing such as: understanding that visitors don't have time to mess about and read pages of content on the website, simplifying your sentences, making it easy to understand, less corporate-like and more personality (which works for our branding) and with a few helpful articles about web content writing, she is now very good at writing for our website.

I would also recommended reading a book on copy writing as well since most websites need to sell services or products.

By: Lime

Lime — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 11:46:15 +0000

I almost have the opposite problem to this. I’m a full time web editor for a public sector organisation. I have a stack of work to do in order to get our website up to scratch. Yet the marketing team are constantly getting to me to do non-web related stuff because ‘Oh, well you can write better than I can’. I write letters, emails, posters, leaflets and booklets – sometimes even have managers dictating things to me that they need to write for their managers.
I guess it amounts to the same thing though – people are quick to complain about the website underperforming but they don’t understand the importance of giving someone the time and space to work on the content.

By: Lucas

Lucas — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 15:05:52 +0000

What happens instead is that content is copied and pasted from your website, printed material or any other ad hoc source that can be found.

This is so accurate it's scary. That, EXACTLY as you described it there happened to me with a client.

I have 10 years of experience in this field (before this I was doing graphic design), so I did tell the client from day 1 "make sure you take care of the content because THAT is ALWAYS the issue".

The hardest thing to me has always been to get trust from the clients. It takes a while. By the time I got that the job is finished and I move on to another client.

By: Rebecca Gill

Rebecca Gill — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 11:39:06 +0000

Love, love, love this article!

As a web designer I always find myself writing content for clients. It is the motherly instinct and helicopter parent in me that does not want any project to fail. I end up Googling competitors, reviewing old pages, and simply filling in gaps of concepts that the client missed or just didn't care about. Frustrating is beyond words.

Content does not magically appear. It is like birthing a baby and raising a child. It is a painful process that takes time and a whole lot of nurturing and attention.

By: Len

Len — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 11:34:35 +0000

Website Owner?