An Incontrovertible Truth

21 January 2009
Making writing part of the development of a web site can have advantages for everyone concerned.

An Incontrovertible Truth
There are many types of web site and there are as many ways of creating one, but whatever the design, the logic, the navigation, you are always confronted with one incontrovertible truth; content, or copy if we consider the written word. How to get the most from it? Writing compulsive copy for an audience with little time to troll through reams of sentences and endless paragraphs is a difficult task. Here we are only at the third sentence but some will have given up already. I have often heard that you have as little as a few moments [7 seconds is commonly quoted] to attract your visitors attention, before they move on.
Copywriter Expertise
How do you counter this, write less I hear you murmur, well you should always be concise and avoid verbose composition, KISS [Keep It Simple Stupid], is a good maxim, but sometimes when you have something to say it takes a good number of words to convey the point. If you are able, copywriter expertise can be invaluable and well worth the cost. An advantage can also accrue to you, the developer in so doing, as well as the client, because if you can wrest the copy compilation away from the client you may find that your development time scale is achievable, whereas left to the client I would wager you may be left waiting, and holding the can for the delay! Not fair but not uncommon.
Putting the Words in the Development Domain
However not many clients will readily accept the additional cost of a dedicated copywriter, but one way round this is to get preliminary ideas from the client, possibly as simple as key statements about one topic, allow the copywriter to work it up as per the brief, doing this brings the wording into the development domain, evacuating it from the client company “committee” meetings. The wording can then be reviewed just like the designs and structure making it a part of the process. Realising this the client often recognises that what appears as another cost is actually a benefit.
Happy Client Happy Developer!
The whole project runs smoother = Happy Client, you the developer may get to do more for this satisfied customer and if the project runs to time and budget, you can get on to the next fired up in the knowledge that you are making a decent living from developing web sites!