Writing a first post for a blog or coming up with a large amount of content for a site launch is hard.
The site is done, everyone is ready to launch, people are all but wearing party hats, but there are pages (and pages) of filler text that need to be written. Suddenly, what should have taken several weeks of drafts and proofing needs to be done tonight so the site can launch.
Some issues with this:
- You’re not sure what to write.
- You’re not sure if anyone is going to read it.
- You’re probably more concerned with finishing the website/getting it launched on time than writing content.
- People are breathing down your neck.
If your in this situation, go do the best you can. Come back and read this for next time.
How to Feel Good About Your Content
For some reason, we tend to skip over the most important part of our websites: the content. We fret over fonts, colors and placement, but we cannot be troubled to take more than five minutes to write a web page that hundreds of people will read.
The best policy for us is to write drafts of all the text, and everyone reads it and proofs it. The goal is not necessarily to have all the writing done the second the development is done, but to at least have solid drafts to use. Take some time, and write several good drafts while the project is in development.
How to Feel Good That Someone is Going To Read Your Content
Another issue with writing your not sure who is going to read the content. After all, you are going to launch the blog tomorrow. No one knows this is out there. Google won’t find your blog post for several weeks (to several months). Once search engines start displaying pages from your site, you know deep down you are a new blog and that Google will not likely be sending millions of people to your site.
So, really, why not throw out some crap and call it good?.
- You need to have as much content as possible for search engines to respect your site.
- More content = more chance someone will link to your site. Search engines like links.
- Excellence matters to your visitors. No one wants to get information from an amateur site.
Man up and write some good content for your site. If you really think no one is ever going to read it, why are you writing this stuff anyways?
How to Care About the Content
The single biggest issue facing a site launch is making/proofing the site. Everyone involved is concerned with the site, not silly things like content. It’s not uncommon to have the site completed and ready to go, and have the whole project on hold because everyone needs text. The boss is suddenly on your back, wondering how something so silly as text can be keeping your site from launching. No longer do people bother doing multiple drafts, because dangit we are in a hurry here!
It’s not that no one cares about the content. It’s just that the content was pretty low on the priority list.
- Take some initiative, and write content during the whole project. It’s so much nicer when you get to the end of the project and at least have some drafts put together.
- Don’t let people forget about content. Seperate out who is going to write what, and get them to write on it.
- Use collaborative editing. Something like Google Docs can go a long ways to eliminate frustration. With Google Docs, you can all edit the same copy of the document, so no mass emails with updated Word documents.
Keep in mind that even if you are a web developer, content is what matters on the site. If the content turns out weak, the project suffers, so it may be worth getting involved to help proof/write things.
As always, we welcome comments and hope that you will add us to your RSS feed.
Seth Stacey, the Web Hosting Guy
How to Create