“Your website is not about you. It’s all about your visitors.” Makes sense, right? Lots of experts say it. I used to say it. Now I don’t say it any more, because I think it has two gigantic problems if you want to create awesome websites.

photo credit: wonderferret

You aren’t Santa Claus

Santa Claus can work all year making toys and then in one night of incredible generosity give his entire year’s work away in exchange for nothing more than a few cookies and a glass of milk. Santa doesn’t have to pay the rent on the North Pole and the elves work for free.

But since you aren’t a mythological figure you need to be getting something of value back in exchange for your labours. It doesn’t have to be money: it can be support, connection, increased awareness, volunteers, inspiration or validation. I’ll mostly refer to money here because that’s where most people go crazy.

If you fall into the “It’s all about your readers” trap, soon you find that you’re completely incapable of asking your readers for anything. When you started this awesome website, it was with the goal of exchanging something of equal value, right? Money in exchange for your services. Appreciation in exchange for your art. Volunteers in exchange for your inspiring story. You believed it was an exchange of equal value then, but now you feel massively guilty about suggesting that they give you anything more than their attention. Stop that! *wrist slap* You’re not asking them to give you money! You’re asking them if they want to exchange it for something of equal value. Your advice is valuable. Your skills are valuable. Your goods are valuable. The rest is head games you have to find a way to get past.

(Note: if your goods and services are not actually valuable: you need to quit, right now.)

Humans are selfish creatures. There is a limited time for how long you can keep giving and giving to make an awesome website without getting anything in exchange. You might not get your first choice (say, bucketloads of money) at the start, but there are lots of other exchanges that make it worthwhile. Comments in exchange for a post. Testimonials in exchange for free advice. Friendship in exchange for friendship.

Of course, this piece of advice exists for a reason. You really don’t want to be the gimme-gimme-gimme schmuck who makes absolutely everything into a cost/benefit analysis: “It took me seven hours to write this free e-book, but I only got six tweets about it, so it wasn’t worth it.” You have to start by giving. Just keep in mind that you can’t sustain giving all the time unless you’re Santa Claus. In which case, where’s the flying pony I asked for?

Welcome to BlandCorp, how may I direct your call?

Another way this piece of advice gets mangled and problematic is by taking a good thing too far. There are lots of business websites that are all about their owner. They’re like the annoying presenter who introduces each guest by telling a long and rambling story about how they met them and what they thought about it and how their lives were changed and you’re sitting slumped in your seat thinking, “Get on with it already! This isn’t about YOU!” Those are not awesome websites.

Note: we aren’t talking about a charming and personal rambling blog like Dooce, which is all about her and that is fine and fantastic. If Dooce ran a plumbing supplies website and was as delighfully inconsequential about washer fittings, she would be much less popular. This is all about what people want from your website. On business-related websites, they want to solve a problem, and they don’t want you to get in the way.

No-one wants to be the “Well, I think” loser. This is good! But in order to focus on the visitor, some people remove all traces of personality from their copy. This is very, very bad.

Corporate writing is the devil.

And not the exciting devil of red tights and horns and some seriously awesome music. Nope, corporate writing is the evil of banal. Boring. Soulless. Non-human. Death of awesomeness and everything fades to grey. Suckitude.

Take the advice of “It’s not about you” too far, and suddenly it’s not about anyone. If you censor out all traces of yourself, your content is dull, and your website is dull. Your content needs to serve your visitors, by providing them advice and insight and information and comparisons. But it also needs to serve your visitors by providing you. You’re an important part of the value of your awesome websites! It’s the reason you aren’t like the other businesses that do similar work. Don’t be afraid to include small details about yourself in your content, and for the love of all that’s awesome write in your own voice! It’s more enjoyable, it’s more effective and it’s more memorable.

Your five-minute mission, should you choose to accept it…

1. Are you asking people to exchange something of value? Asking for comments, telling them why they should sign up for the newsletter, talking about your services and how they can help your visitors? Make a plan to include clear and helpful calls to action. Don’t let the guilts get you: you’re not asking for a favour, you’re offering an exchange.

2. Are you stripping all traces of your personality out of your copy? If so, take 5 minutes to plan a re-write of one key piece of content: your homepage, your About Us page, your sales page… how can you write it to solve their problems but in your voice?

Have you been reluctant to ask for the sale? Found yourself writing like you worked for the government? Tell us in the comments!