The easy way to write new website content
By Paul Green
I seem to meet business owners every week who have made lots of exciting changes to their businesses, but “haven’t got round” to updating their website.
Why? It’s not for a lack of website designers to make the changes (there are plenty of them around). The problem is normally caused by the lack of website content!
And the issue there usually comes down to one of confidence. Of course you can write; you just might not feel comfortable producing content for other people to read.
That’s OK, because there’s an easy way to create new website content without having to pay a writer.
Here’s the secret. Find a quiet room in your office where no-one can hear you.
Don’t bother with your computer – you don’t need that. Instead, get a voice recorder (you can get them pretty cheaply online).
And then talk. Just talk. As long as you like. So long as you know roughly what messages you want to get across on your new web pages, you’ll find this easy.
Whatever you do, don’t try to dictate the perfect web content. Instead just keep talking about the subject you want featured in your new web content.
Don’t be an editor at this stage. Let the words flow and get the information out of your head and onto the tape (OK, the memory card).
When you’re done, get the audio transcribed. If there’s no-one in your business who can do this, there are plenty of audio transcription services online.
Once you’ve got the transcript back, now is the time to become the editor. Go through your transcript with a highlighter pen and mark the most important parts.
Scrap the rest, then move the important parts around until they start to tell a story. You may need to fill in some of the gaps to make sure you have a coherent page, but at least you’re starting with 80 per cent of your page written.
Finally, remember that your website is a living brochure, and you owe it to your business to keep it as up-to-date as possible.
That means you don’t need to stress about getting the content perfect first time. Focus on getting an acceptable draft put together and getting it online as quickly as you can. You can always tweak later.
You should follow me on Twitter here.
Be notified about new articles automatically
Sign up for Publicity Heaven’s free Tuesday PR & Marketing Tips email newsletter: