Forum Moderators: LifeinAsia
From a services standpoint I do web sites for this group all the time. The site is basically a more elaborate version of their brochure. Now no sooner than I finish adding the last tag to the page and they say...
See if you guys have heard this one before...
"How do we get our site listed in all the search engines so that when you type in blah, blah, that we come up?"
This sparks a long conversation about SEO and how it really works as opposed to all the myths out there. I have discussed this element on another post.
I explain that the best way to get the most from their web site investment is to develop good content. I explain with good content several things will happen...
1. More value to their clients
2. Better SEO
3. More incoming links because of good content.
I explain adding articles, white papers, tip sheets, etc. is a great way to make their site stand out. During the entire discussion they are nodding and agreeing and I think, "great, they get it." Then 12 years later they haven't made one update to the site and it still sits there as a brochure on the web.
This prompted me to start offering content development services to clients. Of course that brings into keen focus the cost. They don't want to pay me to actually write all of this stuff, mind you they won't do it, and they know they need it.
So I decided to create a post here to see if we could all brainstorm about ways to develop content for web sites that meets two basic conditions...
1. They don't have to write it.
2. I don't have to write all of it.
I know that might be a mighty tall order, but I thought I would post it out here and see what others think or even better have actually done for their clients.
The few clients I take on these days must agree that content creation is a partnership. I'll sit down with the folks and try to pull some ideas out of them, do the research to see what areas competitors cover, suggest better ways to present it or holes in the coverage that can be filled. After that it's up to the client to churn it out as they know their industry and its jargon much better than a person coming in cold ever will. I don't give them any "SEO guidelines" for writing; I take the copy, edit it and run it pass them one more time.
It's made for more solid content that's truly targeted to the folks searching for it. (And saved me a lot of agita over the years.)
content on a site for a specific industry must be much more specialized and needs a writer steeped in that niche.
Actually, I should have put in my post above that I wouldn't offer this service to clients where I knew absolutely nothing about their industry already. My qualifier is that I have to at least have a working knowledge or be interested in their industry. If their industry bores me to death or I know nothing about it then we need to go the partnership route.
I realize what you are saying about the partnership, but I have been doing this for a while and the same theme keeps poping up over and over again. They are too busy to write it and don't have the budget to pay me or anyone for that matter to write it for them. Which is why I started this post. I figure I can't be the only person having this problem.
