Comments on: ALA 259: Career and Content

By: Paul May

Paul May — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 14:55:24 +0000

Re: Content Delay – This is the best article on ALA for quite some time; and that’s saying something. We are continually banging our heads against the content wall, but it’s *our* fault for not understanding that sometimes clients need more help than they say they do. Enter copywriters and editors, stage right.

By: sian

sian — Sun, 25 May 2008 22:29:36 +0000

Any way to edit this plugin so I can edit it through css. Color, Fonts, things like that. Thank. By the way, this is a very useful plugin

By: Kristina Halvorson

Kristina Halvorson — Thu, 22 May 2008 16:10:04 +0000

I just gave this presentation at Adaptive Path on Tuesday night:

http://www.slideshare.net/khalvorson/content-strategy-by-brain-traffic

It’s a high level, “Can’t-we-TALK?” argument for content strategy.

Web editing also gets the shaft regularly, but I find that throwing around the word “strategy” with the UX crowd tends to get us more attention earlier in the process.

Really, we just want someone at the table from day one who cares about the content – not the IDEA of the content, but the REALITY of it.

Typically, our first engagement with clients is coming in at the last minute when they’re in a content crisis (you know, like, always) and saving the day. Then, we introduce the concept of content strategy … and next time, they call us earlier.

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 21 May 2008 11:16:29 +0000

Great articles, I’ve had to deal with Content-Delay Syndrome on almost every site I’ve done to date. I can’t think of anything other than the one redesign and expansion where any of the content was ready before the lay out and back end code was done, and even on that one all the new expanded content was the last thing to get done.

The “Why did you hire me” article is also very timely since I’m looking at possibly getting two of my biggest contracts ever, which while not that big in the grand scheme of things, still are bigger than any site I’ve done to date. With all my work being internal sites behind a firewall as an employee of the company, the advice on handling freelance work in the first part was just the sort of thing I was looking for. Quick concise points based on years of experience I don’t yet have.

By: News Feeds - mambo_18071

News Feeds - mambo_18071 — Wed, 21 May 2008 07:55:11 +0000

[...] ALA 259: Career and Content In Issue No. 259 of A List Apart, for people who make websites: The Cure for Content-Delay Syndrome by Pepi Ronalds Clients love to write copy. Well, they love to plan to write it, anyhow. On most web design projects, content is the last thing to be considered (and almost always the last thing to be delivered). We’ll [...] [...]

By: Keith LaFerriere

Keith LaFerriere — Tue, 20 May 2008 14:07:37 +0000

Jeffrey,

Thank you for the vehicle. I’m proud to be included.

Todd,

The article should resonate with just about anyone who’s had a job. I’m obviously quite appreciative for comments such as yours and I hope that not only “employees” read this, but that employers and hiring managers read it and think about situations that require change.

By: Todd

Todd — Tue, 20 May 2008 13:11:42 +0000

I just got hired to do some freelance projects for a local company. We did the paperwork and contract thing and I’ve been waiting all week for them to send me the first project.

Nothing yet… so I am asking myself “Why’d they hire me?”

Great article and great content as usual from ALA. :)

By: Jeffrey Zeldman

Jeffrey Zeldman — Tue, 20 May 2008 10:47:47 +0000

Au contraire, the touché is on me. Thanks for alerting me to the problem. A quirk in the works.

By: Oliver R. White

Oliver R. White — Tue, 20 May 2008 10:39:40 +0000

Touché, my friend.

By: Jeffrey Zeldman

Jeffrey Zeldman — Tue, 20 May 2008 10:38:47 +0000

Oliver: Refresh and look again?

By: Oliver R. White

Oliver R. White — Tue, 20 May 2008 10:28:12 +0000

Is there something wrong with me, or, does the A List Apart homepage still show issue 258?