There is a vast array of tasks to be accomplished in
putting together a web site. While writing skills are very helpful, other skills
you have may far outweigh any weakness in your writing.
There are
two main areas in which writing is needed: Creation of web page content and
responding to email.
Let's start with the pages on your site. The content
of a web page is far more important than the writing skills required to put it
together. Think of sites you have seen that you liked.
Excepting those providing
information, there may not be much text on any page. You can often get by with
as few as 400 words. The point here is you do not need to write a book. You only
need to provide what is needed to sell your product or service.
The key is
to write as you would speak to a visitor to your shop or office.
Avoid
cute and clever and avoid formal. Write as you speak.Make your pitch as clearly
and briefly as possible.
Then show your work to a friend and ask
for suggestions. Rewrite as necessary, and seek further criticism. You can
buy this sort of service, but costs can add up. If you need lots of help, you
may be able to barter for someone's writing and editing skills.
Email
will prove to be the greatest challenge, for it needs to be answered promptly
and completely.
Most of your new business relationships will begin with email.
And they will end there, unless you handle it well.
Yet the friend who helped
in building your web pages is not likely to be standing at your shoulder as you
reply.
So what to do. Boilerplate will solve most of your problems.
By boilerplate, I mean content you write prior to receiving any messages at all.
You know a lot about your product.
Sit down and figure what questions
people are likely to ask.
Then write good answers for each one,
take them to your friend, and rework them as necessary. If you load them into
a text file, you can use something as simple as Notepad to load the file, then
copy what you need and paste it into your reply.
While some editing
will be necessary to make your pre-written answer fit the way the question was
asked, you can manage this. And it gets easier as you go along. But what about
a question you did not anticipate? If you do not feel up to answering it from
scratch, write what you feel is a good answer, share it with your friend, add
it to your list of boilerplate, and then reply.
As suggested, Notepad
or Wordpad work fine, as does any text editor. I prefer ClipMate: http://www.thornsoft.com
It's twenty bucks, but I find it invaluable. You can copy as many items of text
into it as you please, assign whatever descriptive title seems best, then select
any item by its title, and paste the content into your message. A great time saver,
for you do not have to search through a text file.
There is a lot
of work in this approach. You will find yourself spending much more time with
your writing than most webmasters do. But regardless of your present skills level,
you will be surprised at how quickly they improve. Not right at first, for getting
started is tough. But once you get the hang of it, you will find it easier every
day. In time, your file of boilerplate will end up being simplified to addresses,
obscure references, and such, that you occasionally want to share with your customers,
for you will be writing as you would speak to them face to face.
Bob helps webmasters grow their sites by showing them how to work smarter
for more fun and profit with less effort. He has been marketing on the Web since
1993.
Visit his newest site: http://SiteTipsAndTricks.Com.
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