And yes — this is an acrostic blog post. Just be grateful it doesn’t rhyme.

• Write. This is the hardest part of writing: writing. You have to untangle all the school-age stuff and performance anxiety that gets between you and actually doing it, and just do it. It turns out that not doing something is the enemy of getting it done.
• Revise, revise, revise. As many times as you can stand.
• If you doubt it, check it. Don’t let factual errors or incorrect word choices unhinge an entire piece’s credibility. We can’t catch every mistake. But we can catch a hell of a lot if we just pay attention. See “T” and “G” for more information.
• Trust your editor. When someone tells me they have given me copy that’s “print-ready,” I cringe. I’ve worked many a writing/editing job, and I still seek smart editors (even when they’re actually just smart, non-editor clients) who can help me spot and fix my weak points. In fact, I lust after them. Bottom line: If you haven’t revised it 73 times and had it edited by someone with a fine-tuned sense of how people read — never mind grammar, which can always be fixed — then it’s not print-ready. Trust me. Furthermore, editors exist to make you look better, smarter, wiser, cooler, etc. Welcome them. They are your A-team. Your ego is not.
• If it seems long, it is. This is the hardest lesson of all, I swear. I like to “go long.” I learned, after many an editorial dressing-down, that few topics require as many words as you’d LIKE to use. “If I’d had more time, I would have written you a shorter letter” — live by this.
• Now read it backwards. I read this tip recently and it’s turned out to be the best damn thing I’ve ever done. Everyone has a version of this: let it rest for 24 hours. Read it from last sentence to first. Read it out loud. I suggest trying all of these things and more, shaving off bits and pieces of fat on every pass. I’ve cut pieces in halves, thirds, even sixths like this.
• Get a second pair of eyes if you can. I actually prefer working with clients who work with editors or marketing/communications departments, because I like being edited. I didn’t at first — until I realized that no one ever got better at something by avoiding criticism and feedback. Know any NFL or NBA players who work without coaches? U.S. presidents without a Cabinet? Wildly successful CEOs without formal or informal advisors? The act of writing is solitary, but with the exception of a few notable literary footnotes, most writers need people — editors and readers.

I attended a mixed-martial arts fight with my accountant recently. In between fights, to distract all of us from the omnipresent thonged “fight girls” dancing about 14 inches from our noses, I mentioned that ghostwriting blog posts and web content is one of my top-growing sources of revenue.

After all, there’s a marketing emergency afoot: companies are under the gun to produce content. Unfortunately, what most of them produce stinks. Enter professional writers like me, who will blog, write freelance articles and create marketing copy on your behalf.

He laughed. “Really?” he asked me quizzically. “And how do you know what to write about?”

Since I spend all day working with people who are used to hiring writers, this caught me off-guard for a second. “What do you mean?”

“Well,” he said, “suppose I hired you to write a blog post every month. I would give you a topic, right? How about the alternative minimum tax? I mean, how would you ever know what to write about that?” He leaned back with a dazzling grin; I couldn’t tell if he was declaring checkmate, or if he’d finally noticed the aforementioned dancing women gyrating near my left shoulder.

Writers Can’t Understand Me, I’m Just That Complicated

Kidding aside, there are a lot of people who still can’t fathom what the hell it is us writers do for a living, other than eat Cheetos and read obscure online literary magazines. (Or maybe that’s just me.) There are two main components to the argument:

1. Content itself doesn’t matter, but if forced to provide it, we (i.e. the Company) should be solely responsible for producing it. We’re totally the experts, you know.
2. Businesses should only pay for stuff that leads directly to profits, and the path from content to profit is bafflingly obscure to us.

Woof. I have about 70 bones to pick. Here are at least 8 reasons to hire a writer, and also my (rather melodious) audio rebuttal to the first argument. And not to state the obvious, but do journalists really need to be politicians to cover a campaign beat? Of course not. They need to be good journalists!

More to the point, the main reason you hire a writer is to convey complex ideas in a way your clients grasp (with the exception, of course, of materials that require technical writing or subject matter expertise because they’re destined for use in certain highly codified environments). And one can safely assume your clients are not experts, or they wouldn’t hire you in the first place.

That’s not to say you can’t do it yourself; just that most business owners seem to have difficulty doing it well. As William Zinsser himself notes, “Writing, demystified, is just another way for scientists [and others in specialized fields] to transmit what they know.”

Why Content Marketing is Your Friend

You’re often too close to your business to write well about it. You talk to suppliers more than you do to your lowly clients, so you don’t know how to spot the pain points. ET CETERA. But the very best reason of all is very obvious: the businesses that succeed in creating valuable content (even if it’s largely in video, audio or photo-form) are going to do better than the businesses that don’t, today, tomorrow and long into the predictable future.

So if you can’t write, don’t have time to write, or aren’t getting traction with the content you DO write, it might be time to hire a writer. And a marketing or “content” writer’s job is to make YOUR subject, YOUR business and YOUR ideas accessible and valuable.

Plus, content marketing (the fancy nomenclature for writing value-added content on purpose, to cultivate leads, influence, reputation and improved SEO) is enormously advantageous, even to the profit-mongers. This should sum up why:

In my work as a writer, I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing and talking to a lot of inspiring people: CEOs who commandeer unthinkable turnarounds. Young Mexican government officials who want to do good by their people (and believe me, they have their work cut out for them). Experts and consultants who make it their life’s work to help others, to discover some way of doing things better, living life more fully.

Bakers and bookstore owners, toughing out a world of big box stores to purvey a product they believe in. Big thinkers–academics who devote their lives to thinking, What’s next? What came before? And how can we think about it better?

What do the people who do great work have in common? 

They love what they do.

But wait: not the product. No, not the outcome–at least not all the time. (Just ask a published writer, any published writer, what they think of their last piece.)

The job itself may not satisfy all the time. For some of us, that’s even impossible. Still, the act of doing it, of improving yourself? Of learning to be better in the world–your world, whatever it is? That. That is satisfying and highly motivating. Certainly, producing something you care about is satisfying too. But more often than not, it’s the act of production that brings happiness into our places of work.

Much like the “love” we have for our spouses and families, it’s hard work. Some days it’s harder than others. But doing it again and again gives us value and meaning and motion.

I’m hardly the first person to observe this. But I’m also not the first to forget it and choose the easy road or the fun task. So if you want to do 10 things in 2012, start by doing one better. Invest. Commit. Problem-solve. And you will do great work.

This post was inspired, in part, by the famously over-quoted (and sometimes misconstrued) Steve Jobs commencement speech, as well as this animation (based on Daniel Pink’s book, Drive).

1. Update your business cards. Yes, you still need paper cards. But even if you love your logo and branding, why not change ‘em up instead of reordering the same-old? This literary agent put the cover art from client’s books on the backs of her cards. (With Moo.com, you can have the same text side and swap out pictures.)
2. Find new Twitter lists (or chats) to follow in your industry. No need to clutter up your already-big follower list. If you’re in a prticular niche and feel like you’re lagging in knowledge, why not find some great lists, or hop into some chats once or twice a week? Here’s one I just found and hopped in for: Michelle Rafter’s WordCount Last Wednesday chat (#wclw).
3. Dust off your library card and check out some of the business non-fiction you missed last year. Jim Collins co-authored a new one in 2011, Great by Choice, about businesses that survive, thrive and innovate even when the world is increasingly chaotic.
4. Commit to a blog or social media editorial calendar. Even if you’re a solopreneur, you can help kick-start some web traffic by (a) studying what others in your niche are doing well and then (b) coming up with a monthly calendar and sticking to it. Remember: answer questions (or pose questions) your audience wants you to answer.
5. Take an online class. Both private companies and public and private universities now offer almost every course imaginable in an online iteration. It’s a fraction of the cost of regular tuition in many cases, too. Provided you can focus without a teacher or classmates to prod you along in person, why not add a few credits and gain some needed skills on those evenings you usually spend watching TV? I recently took a MediaBistro course myself. The self-paced versions are jam-packed with knowledge.
6. Comment on others’ blogs. Share the love.  You know you should. So make it a point: if you have 20 minutes to read blogs, you have time to craft a few meaningful comments on the posts that really count. (If you can’t think of something to say, you can always link back instead in your next post.)
7. Plan to attend one trade event. If you’re not ready to buy a booth or table, that’s OK. But going as a guest can be awesome. Listen to the speakers and commit to approaching at least 5 potential clients, partners, colleagues or competitors. Your cell phone camera will come in handy for when you’re ready to do it yourself. This year, hubby and I are planning to attend Comikaze on behalf of our t-shirt company, La Muerta. And yes, some of these events require you to buy or reserve spots months in advance–so start lookin’ now.
8. Host a client appreciation event. Or if you’re an author, a group reading. And if your clients are far-flung, like mine, find another way to show them your appreciation, perhaps virtually, and give them something that counts–an eBook you wrote just for them? A free service? A wet kiss? OK, maybe not the last one.
9. Join a professional association or group. I know what you’re thinking: but this costs money, and what will I get from it? If you’re looking for peer support in-person, you can usually attend a mingler for free. Consider the membership benefits against the price, and also weigh whether having the credential will be attractive to the people you work with or for before laying out your cash. OR, try an informal Meetup or group instead–these are often free, and can yield the same peer-to-peer benefits a costly association would.
10. Unsubscribe to all the crap in your inbox, and choose 5-10 blogs or publications only. Get rid of the retailer emails, the daily deals you never use, and ensure that your work inbox is just that–work. You’ll always have reading material and a pulse on the small business climate without liftitng a finger (or missing an important missive because of all those OTHER emails).
11. Commit to one new piece of software, technique or tool to help automate some of your marketing or tasks. This might be email marketing (using autoresponders), project management software, CRM software, or something else entirely. But pick one. The investment of time and energy up-front will pay off in dividends, trust me.
12. Delegate at least 1 task that left you frustrated and time-strapped in 2011. Blogging? Expense tracking? Writing those email newsletters? Answering email all day long? Find one thing you hate doing and hire someone else to do it for you, even if it’s just a small thing. You can find a freelancer or virtual assistant to do it for you, or a writer (hint hint).
13. Break into that market/product/niche/publication at last. Target one (and I mean ONE) thing you want to achieve that, until now, has been beyond your scope, or too challenging, or too (insert negative word here). And go after it. You’ll be amazed how relaxing it is to take on something big and audacious (to borrow Collins’ word) and realize, Yup, I can do this. Likewise, doing this sometimes reveals a different result: that what you were already doing was good enough. ;)
14. Take a vacation. OK, this isn’t low-cost, but this is one of my BIG goals this year. When we lived in Mexico, we’d take off for weekends all the time–largely because it was cheaper and, well, we lived in the Southern Baja. There were a million places and empty beaches. We’d go camping, or get a room on the East Cape at this grand (if a little decaying) fishing hotel right on the beach that had a great infinity pool for about $60/night. In California, it’s a lot harder to do anything for $60, needless to say, but that means we rarely do ANYTHING. This year, I’m going to set aside money. R&R is an investment in yourself–remember that.

Writers and web designers spend a lot of time thinking about how to please clients. But I suspect our clients don’t spend a lot of time thinking about how to please us which, in most cases, is squarely our fault. What follows is a manifesto list of requests for all would-be clients, mine and yours, in the New Year to come. Many are obvious, but I think a lot of writers and creatives (especially newbies) spend too much time quietly suffering–and the work suffers as a result.

So even if you don’t show this Wish List to actual clients, read it, keep it, and remember to ask for what you deserve (or settle forever for less). It will make your work stronger and ultimately, make both you and your client more successful.

Dear Client(s) — In the New Year, please:

1. Stop price-fishing. Here’s a scenario: I get an email request through a referral (like a professional association or another client’s colleague) for a quote with the barest of details about a new project. I explain that each project is different, but do my best to quote a number or range of numbers. And then I never hear back–not even a thanks. What?! If you’re serious, negotiate. Better yet, get on the phone and ask questions. But do not, do not, do not waste our time trying to get a quote without so much as a “Thanks for your time.”
2. Don’t withhold payment. If you want more work done, or you’re not satisfied with an outcome, talk to your writer or creative pro. Get on the phone. Me? I love to talk. I can talk for six straight hours about a project. But when you hang onto a check or criticize your contractor (rather than pay) on the due date, you’re fired. Client-writer/designer relationships are a two-way street. This is my livelihood. Try this same stunt with a plumber and see what your bathroom looks like after he “fixes” that “leak.” Lori Widmer has a great post about this called What Doesn’t Wash.
3. Don’t ask for work, and then ask for revisions based on third-party feedback. I’m not the first one to identify this issue in the writing world, but it’s also an issue in web design and other creative work. We labor over a mockup or draft only to have the client show it to an “expert.” (Funny, I thought that’s what we were?) The “expert” wants us to break rules and go back to the drawing board. When the expert is paying me, I’ll gladly work for him/her. Until then, you need to take control of your own business, brand and destiny BEFORE you contract creative. (Lori’s post above mentions this issue, too–and using contracts to nip it in the bud.) The confusion and scope creep this creates is never worth the “extra input” you think you’re getting.
4. Listen. Listening doesn’t just apply to phone calls. It applies to emails, too. If you like email communication, make sure you read replies, suggestions and contracts carefully before tapping out a quickie reply on your smartphone. Being a writer, I take all communication pretty seriously; when I write a brief or create an outline with questions in an email to a client, chances are, I spent at least an hour on it. Please respond in kind. A writer’s whole JOB is to listen–but when you don’t listen back (listen also means “read” in this century), you’re shooting yourself in the foot. Good creatives won’t waste your time with small questions. Just big, gnarly, important ones.
5. Say “thank you.” Some clients never, ever thank their creatives. Like the bosses of Christmases past, they’re too busy for thanks. They tell us about their lives and businesses. They confide in us about their own customer gripes. And we listen. So even if they pay on time, it really stings when they never turn around and say, “Hey you. Thank you.” The thing is, sometimes, it’s really all we need to hear!
6. Never give up. Work really hard. Make your creative partners proud. If you pay me $5,000 over the course of a year for work and then disappear or give up, I’m so disappointed I could cry. I imagine it’s what parents feel when their kids daydream at softball and get whacked in the head by that ONE MIRACULOUS ball that makes it all the way out to right field. (I remember the look on my dad’s face, OK?)  Seriously: I invest a lot of myself, personally and professionally, in giving my clients the tools they need to get from point A to point B. When they linger en route or pout, I feel sad and I want to help. So when I say, “Can I help?” I really mean it, folks. I really do. And so does your writer, creative, web designer or consultant.

Ever wonder if I put my mouth where my money is?

Recently, I made a brief appearance on Everything Internet Radio show, a top-notch broadcast whose producers do a very good job covering what small (and large) business owners can and should be doing to take full advantage of Internet resources. They talk everything from website design to SEO and, bless their hearts, content–in an approachable, common-sense way I can really get behind.

I wanted to share the end result here, for my clients, colleagues and fellow troopers/writers to enjoy. Especially #1!

NOTE: Just click play and the audio will start. No downloads required!

1. For those of you needing a little push to just hire a writer already, here’s a few minutes of tape on why content matters–and why hiring a writer is a very worthy investment: 
2. Even if you’re not a Well Versed Creative client, I expect everyone who knows me on or offline will get a kick out of hearing the dirt on how we started our business–so here is the full audio interview (16 minutes). Full disclosure: I don’t own that house anymore. But it sure was nice! 

P.S. The guests on this show are a-fricking-mazing. For example, many of my fellow Young Entrepreneur Council members are making appearances. If you’re a small business owner doing ANYTHING in the Internet space these days, I strongly recommend subscribing to their podcast if you’re outside the Dallas area.

We live in a world that’s moving fast. Faster than fast. Flash is finally dying in a way we at WVC can really get behind. Pixar, while still relevant, is now a metaphor for a new, mobile age. By the end of 2011, Americans’ tablet usage will increase over 150 percent from 2010, when the iPad was first released.

The changes won’t stop. Rest assured, every single service my company provides will change too. Our client questionnaire changes almost daily. Adapt, adapt, adapt.

I don’t mind; after all, the principles of great creative web design and copywriting don’t change. The designs themselves adapt, but not the materials. I’m thinking of changing my job title to, “Lindsey Donner, Copywriter, Editor, Co-Founder and Lifelong Learner, at Your Service.”

But, friends, clients, I have a message. And the message is, don’t listen to the noise with such intensity. There is danger in all this noise. Even that eMarketer data linked to above, which was trotted out today by dozens of bloggers and designers to pitch responsive web design and/or app development services, is just more noise until we push on it a little bit.

A 150-percent increase in using a tablet once a month signals a growing trend, not a death knell. It means that you need to include mobile strategy in your three-year plan, for sure. And if you have the funds, your one- or two-year plan would be even better.

Smart business owners, bloggers, authors and consultants–the kind of small business owners that make up our core clientele–must have a plan. You can’t outrun change, but you can anticipate it. But you’ll have to ask the hard questions. Not, “Do I need a mobile app?” but, “Why am I here?”

The Hard Questions

• Why am I here? Will I be here tomorrow? If I am, what do I need most?
• What can I get rid of? What’s dead weight and what’s core mission?
• What do I do with all this data I’m collecting? What good is it?
  
• What’s next? Why? How do I know?
• What’s NOW? Who am I? And who is reading this?

Unfortunately, I am unable to answer any of these questions for you right now. We’d need to talk it out. Every person will have a unique set of answers.

So walk, don’t run. Focus on the big trends, and cherry pick the ones that apply to your business. Find a web designer, writer or marketer you trust to partner with as you plan your business’ online future. Make investments that are sensible. Start with the necessities–and work your way down the list.

Change = Collaboration

Our clients get smarter every day. Every single client is smarter than the last. If it’s true for us, it’s true all over.

But they make the same mistake, again and again.

They hire a web designer or a copywriter or an SEO in a desperate bid to outrun the changes. To cheat the future. To put exactly what’s in their heads down on paper. To somehow beat reality. And it falls flat. Every single time.

Instead, hire someone you want to partner with. Collaborate with. Or find an actual advisor. Or teach yourself something. Whatever it is, find a company or a person with whom you can really go the distance. Then put your war paint on and get to answering those hard questions first. Attack change with a deep understanding of the who, what, when, where, why and how of YOUR business. Not anyone else’s, please. Yours. Yours is the one that matters. Yours is everything.

Finally, don’t forget something I saw posted on a wonderful consultant’s Facebook profile recently about a client who was stressed out about marketing (please visit and applaud him accordingly):

I told her just to write love letters to her perfect people…And she’s seen a wild increase in her business in one week. People are hungry for honesty + straight talk. No one’s starving for more bullshit.

My clients are pretty cool cats, not easily rattled–and yet many of them are deeply, insanely worried about the new media “future” and the apparently all-consuming need to become business blogging/marketing gurus, on top of running their businesses day-to-day.

Between the terrifying predictions (Google+ is the future! No Facebook! Back to blogging!) and marketing-soapbox declarations (This email marketing software is best! This approach to blogging is superior! You’ll become obsolete if you don’t ___!), it’s almost impossible to avoid a paralyzing bout of noise-induced inaction.

So here’s the deal, at least insofar as content is concerned: Yes, I believe content is the future. From blog posts to Facebook updates to user-generated content, to articles to email to…etc.

And I DO believe that sales today can hinge on the trust, information and access that this wealth of content creates for clients and buyers. But I don’t believe you should sweat any of this; it’s not as complex as the “experts” would have you believe. (Remember, you’re a buyer too–you know the behavior and what works.)

Four (clear) facts about the future of content online

1. Consistency matters. You do not have to be on every social network, no matter what anyone says. You do not have to blog if you don’t want to (have you asked your other team members, though?). Dispersal is good, but only if the content you’re dispersing is worth reading. It’s better to stick to what you’re good at consistently than to inconsistently be bad at a lot of stuff. “Jack of all trades, master of none.*”
2. Being dumb will hurt. Refer to the recent ChapStick hubbub for evidence of this. In the new media environment, your footsteps are public and LOUD. Let the people talk. The people have the money. Also: use common sense. If you wouldn’t like your favorite brand to delete your Facebook comment, don’t delete your fans’ comments either.
3. You need to plan whatever your “strategy” is and stick to it. Don’t throw yourself into (or at) something new willy-nilly, whether it’s a new blog, guest blogging, a new social feed, video, whatever. You will either avoid it, hate it, do it badly, or stop doing it. If you can’t help yourself, the next point is for you!
4. Content is (still) king, even in the future (John Jantsch says so)–maybe it’s time to hire a writer. The thing is, not everyone’s going to do content right, whether it’s evergreen blog posts, advertorial, or even content for other sites or publishers to hawk a product or expertise. So this provides a way for you to excel, no matter how big or small you are. Most normal small business people are not that good at content yet, probably because they have a business to run. Hire a content specialist writer with experience in marketing communications AND blogging who can help you create, if not actually produce most of, your content. Many who do what I do are not that expensive. I could charge more, but I like what I do–and what I mostly do is take people’s great content and make it better. It’s not a matter of “outsourcing” it; I communicate my clients’ messages and missions, in their voice. It’s an act of translation, let’s say. That said, you don’t need a communications department for this either (unless you’re CEO of a large company and can afford it, in which case, go for it). If your business is worth it, so is the (minor) investment. This goes for technical work too.

Having a business that’s partly or fully online today is both powerful and intimidating. But every business is different, and presumably, YOU know yours best.

So be focused, use your common sense, communicate what matters to YOUR customer in a sensible and direct way, and as for the rest? Surround yourself with advisors and people who know more than you. Trust me, it works.

For the first time since then, we’re booked well in advance, hitting our financial goals and starting to look toward the future.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what I’ve done right, what I’ve done wrong, and why I started a business in the first place. Once you get past the bewildering stage of “What next?” that plagues that first year or so, I think it’s natural to start reflecting inwardly on what’s worked and what has not.

And so although I rarely use this blog this way, I wanted to share a few rules of thumb that have seen us both through the toughest parts of owning a business.

1. Live and work within your means. Keep both your startup costs and your cost of living low. We live near the beach, so our rent is a little high, but we get a lot of pleasure (and “free” exercise at the beach, thanks to a bike path and surfboards) that costs us nothing to maintain and helps keep us grounded and healthy. Otherwise, we cut costs dramatically: No fancy clothes. No toys we don’t need. No cable. (AppleTV + Netflix + rabbit ears is a far better long-term investment for us non-football fans.) Just one car – we keep travel local and to two bike wheels as often as possible, both for the environment and our wallets. For the biz, we have unlimited Skype subscriptions and limited AT&T – it’s cheaper and more reliable, too. In business and in life, we simply don’t buy what we don’t need, and as a direct result, we’re happier and more relaxed. We don’t feel deprived, we feel fulfilled–as soon as you stop competing with the Joneses, you’ll find life is slower, sweeter and focused more on what you really want and love.
2. Keep a schedule as much as possible. Burnout is a real thing. It’s a dangerous thing. It will make you heartsick and, maybe, actual-sick. Don’t go down that rabbit hole. It’s natural to want to achieve, achieve, achieve in this phase of your life–and that’s OK. But if you don’t schedule weekends and holidays off (or at least charge overtime to clients who expect you to be available around-the-clock), you’ll start resenting your business and the choices you’ve made. And once you turn that corner, you’re no longer good at your job.
3. Learn from your mistakes. Don’t falter. Mistakes are good. If you told me you had a small business or freelance career and you have thus far managed to scrape by mistake-free, I wouldn’t believe you–I would mostly think, “Good luck with that.” Mistakes are the engine oil. They’re what make you ready for the next, even bigger challenge. They’re the blueprint for how you restructure–a schedule, a business plan, a relationship with a client. Mistakes are the best thing you have. They are evidence of what is not working. There’s too much stuff to determine a single thing that IS working, many times. So you need to know, you MUST know, you must SEEK OUT AND LIVE BY what is not.
4. Have a plan for what’s next. Goals don’t just help you make the best executive decisions for your business today–they help you keep your eyes on the prize. It’s important to have something concrete to work for, and I don’t mean a salary–I mean a goal. When you think of your business in five years, what do you see? Is it bigger? Is it shut down in favor of a new, better version of itself? Is it for sale? Are you still there but perhaps in a more hands-off, chief-executive type of role? Think about what would make you happy AND provide a sustainable path for scaling your business. Write it down. Include it in your business plan and in your life plan, and begin making inroads now, while you’re still small but feisty, hungry and ready to get back up again.

What’s seen you through the scariest, toughest parts of your Years 1 and 2? What keeps you up at night? And most importantly, what keeps you going?

The one that got away.

Excellent web writing is a different beast than long-form print copy. In fact, I think there’s a tendency to assume its informality means it’s a more forgiving form.

I couldn’t disagree more; if anything, the shorter, punchier and more colloquial it is, the sharper the writing must be to get and keep eyes on it.

Fewer words, more eyes

When I do web writing for pay, my clients often describe the assignment as “quick” or “short.”

But I now know what that really means: I have less space to write in and far more eyes to judge me.

Clarity is key, which means I need to refine the heck out of that “short, quick” copy. Ask any writer, professional or hobbyist: The hardest thing to do is to edit yourself well. But in web writing, it’s also the most critical.

Thing is, short web writing doesn’t pay that well (usually). So I found I needed a process to get through the revisions more quickly and accurately.

My stage 1 editing process looks like this:

1. Write down everything you want to include in a rough draft. Don’t worry about word counts now.
2. Create a micro-outline based on #1. The outline should have 3-5 bullets: Intro/Staging; Content/Main Points; and Conclusion/Question.
3. Look at your outline. Cut the bits that don’t fit. They are either filler or brand-new points that need their own home.
4. Headline your post.
5. Revise, then repeat.

Untangling the mess: What this looks like in action

I tried this exercise on a blog post I was putting together just a few days ago. I ended up with a clear intro, a damn fine conclusion, and a tangle of “content” bullet points:

• Paying specialists is better than doing something yourself poorly. (To illustrate, I cited advice from my dad.)
• Sometimes the best specialists are surprising. (Here, I told a story about an eccentric contractor named Gustavo.)
• Customer relationship management isn’t software. (I used an anecdote about my accountant sending me a birthday card.)

You can see that each point falls under the same general category–why and how to delegate, and in whom to put your trust–but you could easily write 200, 300, 500 words on each. And that’s term paper territory.

Unfortunately, I really liked all of these points and in particular*, the anecdotes I used to illustrate them. So I moved on to step 4 of my process: writing headlines. Surprise: I ended up with 3 distinct headlines, too.

• Pay It Forward (Literally)
• Gustavo, Scorpion Eater
• What My Accountant Taught Me About High-Touch CRM

The first headline isn’t exactly a stroke of genius, but it also can’t be combined with Gustavo, Scorpion Eater. I think Gustavo, who rides a blue motorcycle and likes flavored mezcal, deserves his own story. Don’t you?

So I started on a fresh page, wrote down all three headlines, and re-wrote my intros. My intros became the anecdotes (dad, Gustavo, birthday card), each story got a matching title, and my conclusions were adjusted accordingly.

Bingo. Six hundred words of potentially coma-inducing drivel were hammered into three different, shiny, story-driven blog posts.

A little discipline goes a long way

Take your next blog post or email campaign and try this exercise. I’m not suggesting your writing become formulaic–the outline doesn’t determine the shape, size or tone of your story.

It’s there to impose a little discipline when, for example, you find your buttoned-down accountant mingling with Gustavo, a scorpion-eater with a horse-hair motorcycle seat.

The two of them have never met and probably shouldn’t–to have them meet in the course of a single blog post would require more expertise than I possess (especially in the 400-800 word count range).

Upshot: You’re more prolific than you think

Don’t kill your Gustavos off. I didn’t. After all, ideas don’t always present themselves in the right order.

If you’re hot, keep writing. You can cut the fat later, when you’re doing this exercise. An enormous upshot, especially with blog posts and email campaigns for the same company (including your own), is that the shorter form means you can repurpose your material. This goes for your personal blog as much as it does for professional work, so be smart: Put Gustavo in your notes file, along with his headline, and save him for later.

In this story, not only did I rescue a blog post from mind-numbing oblivion, I ended up with two extra posts I could use later. And if I were really feeling creative, I could have found a way to turn these three stories into a series of posts.

Remember, if you can’t get a story out of your head–if you’re just itching to share it–it may have real value. If you believe in it, and you edit yourself, then you can find the right way to deliver on that promise–clearly and concisely, down the road!

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* This said, I do abide by the “kill your darlings” rule–and this is what makes this exercise so valuable. When I go back to Gustavo, I might discover he’s just a little TOO darling–which is to say, I can’t be objective about him or use him wisely. He might live in that folder forever. Let’s amend it to “throw your darlings into folder purgatory” for you sensitive souls!