Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

Thinking, writing, business ideas … You're only a stranger once.

October 13, 2009

How Do You Transition or Repurpose Content for the Web?

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 8:21 am

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Anyone who has had to give a demonstration, deliver a report, or teach a class knows the importance of tuning the information to the audience. Anyone who been to a class that involves learning software knows that students is likely to include folks new to the subject and the most savvy experts who want to refine their skills.

Sharing information with people is easier, more efficient, and more meaningful …

It’s hard to do these when we’re working with a group that is all in the same room. This problem becomes even more difficult on the web. Here, we’re tasked to share information meaningfully when we’re in a new genre and blind to the audience. We’re writing for an unknown number of people who could be from anywhere and know absolutely nothing on our subject or have significantly more experience than we do.

How Do We Write Meaningful Content for People We Can’t See?

Writing for the web gets easier when we realize the words carry a different load than words in print. Words online are lit and hit the eye differently. People access them with a different intent. It’s a different experience to read a device than to read a book. It’s different experience to read and respond to a blog than to read a newspaper and write an email back.

I’ve been repurposing content and publishing online and offline since the 20th century. Here are some tips about transitioning and writing content for the web.

Great titles, short paragraphs, small words, subheads for navigation, a learner’s voice, and content leveled and chosen by you as a partner with the audience <-- that's a formula for transitioning content to the web.

Have you repurposed content for the web? What have you found works best?

--ME "Liz" Strauss

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Filed under Comments, Marketing, Successful Blog, Writing | 11 Comments »




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11 Comments to “How Do You Transition or Repurpose Content for the Web?”

  1. October 13th, 2009 at 9:29 am
    Jennifer said

    So glad I stumbled upon this blog today, I needed to read these extremely valid points again. It’s so easy to witter on when there’s no one there to interrupt you. :)

  2. October 13th, 2009 at 9:33 am
    Alex said

    Hi! Great article but I think you have a spelling error in a subhead title: How Do We WRITE Content…

    Love the info you provided!

  3. October 13th, 2009 at 9:59 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Jennifer!
    I’m working on a seminar on this subject. I realized I should be writing about it too. If folks are asking me to teach it, other folks might want to know what it is that I’m talking about when I do.

    Thank you for letting me know that was a right thought.

    You’re not a stranger anymore.

  4. October 13th, 2009 at 10:00 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Ah Alex!
    Thank you! As you now know, I can’t think and see at the same time. I appreciate you pointing that out.

    Liz

  5. October 13th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
    mary klest said

    Each venue has its challenges. As writers we determine how the audience can best receive our message. Online that mean concise, directed, and interesting.

  6. October 13th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Mary,
    Your comment is a great example of concise, directed, and interesting. I am always impressed when people walk their talk even as they are saying it.

    What’s the biggest mistake you think people make?

    You’re not a stranger anymore.

  7. October 21st, 2009 at 4:50 pm
    Carl said

    “Write for someone … who wants to know or be reminded of what you know. ”

    This is an interesting idea and theoretically, for me at least, a good technique to re-focus my efforts for an unknown audience.

    I’m trying to find the flaw in the plan, since I recently faced a difficult project where this idea may have helped. Instead, I tried to “sneak round the outside”.

    Hmmm.

    Nothing immediately springs to mind.

    Your idea seems to be founded in courage, which is admirable and only increases its worth.

    Sure beats being sneaky. I won’t do that again, even if it worked.

    Regards,
    Carl.

  8. October 23rd, 2009 at 6:59 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Carl,
    Not sure what you mean by being sneaky, i.e. sneaking round the outside. Does that mean you didn’t go as deep into things as you might have wanted?

  9. October 24th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
    Carl said

    It sure does.

    In it’s simplest form it’s looking for approval. In a practical sense, it’s getting paid.

    More specifically, being sneaky in this context means creating concepts that could be intepreted any way a listener chooses; your ideas can have an almost polar opposite meaning, for example, the style of phrasing you’d commonly hear from a politician. It’s common to find this kind of writing in fiction: one reader might interpret the hero’s actions as admirable, another reader views them as disgraceful. It all depends on your audience’s personal values. If you know that a readership or audience has a likely tendency, perhaps they’re businessmen of a type, a contact sports club, an eco-political organisation, a blog that attracts people interested in personal development…you can say what you want to say in your own code and get approval from the audience by appealing to a value higher on their collective hierachy of beliefs while masking any issues of clarity.

    To come right out and say what you want to say clearly requires first that you know what you’re talking about – and a lot of guts if your words mean your income. Some people will disagree, it’s inevitable, and if it contradicts something they believe in deeply they’ll disagree violently. That’s when you stop getting talking engagements, your publisher starts making noises about you scaring your reader base and your blogsite traffic falls. The only thing that remains is for the author to wonder if what they are doing is good, that the new direction and change of audience is something they should persue, or if they have stepped off the better path for whatever reason.

  10. October 24th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Carl,
    Ah sneaky … leaving room for the reader to understand what he or she wants. That’s hard work for you and for the reader too I would think.

    Taking a stand, showing what we know, makes us real and vulnerable. That’s attractive in ways that skirting the real feelings will never be. We like folks who know where they’re going, because we can count on them to be who they are. I think it’s something special that you explained this to me. I used to do the same thing. :)

  11. October 28th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
    Emperor said

    Definately a worthwhile entry. You have to always remember your audience in everything you do, whether it be a blog, or say, a guided tour that you host in town.

    The reason I bring this up is because I am a Tour Guide, and I find that the better I incorporate effective blogging strategies into my tour, usually the more tips I make.

    However, blogging is different as you dont suffer for size of the audience. With say, a guided tour, the size of the audience decreases the inter-personal communication and usually puts a dampener on my tips.

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