How to Make Sure Your Content Never Goes Naked

How to Make Sure Your Content Never Goes Naked

Reader Comments (37)

  1. As always, excellent post! This is the best analogy I’ve seen on writing well. My content thanks you as I will strive to have it well dressed for every occasion. Thanks for the great advice and the laugh!

  2. Love, love the analogy! Bespoke content, suitable for the occasion. Clever checklist is going straight into my content creation file. It will be so much more fun. Merci, Quebecois.
    All best, Jan

  3. First impressions to do count and we all need to remember that. Formatting, images, breaking up the text etc is all vital to making easily readable content.

  4. An excellent analogy & tutorial James. There is a whole industry for tangible products (packaging) based on this very concept.

    The best content poorly presented will turn off many readers, especially so many of us who are time challenged these days.

  5. Thanks for this spicy insight!

    I’ve found that not enough people give their content the flair and pizzaz needed to make their words jump off the screen.

    My fave: “Give your content a flair of personality”

    I crave content with personality.

    I find myself searching high and low for those blogs and sites that know who to give me content with panache.

    Thanks for sharing your insight! I enjoyed every finger lickin’ minute of it!

  6. Wonderful insight- I love the part about switching the content around- and if it doesn’t make sense in that new format, it’s time to keep trying on new shirts until one fits just right.

    Awesome.

  7. @ Kirsten – Thank you!

    @ Tom – I’m constantly surprised by how many people forget the basics.

    @ Marty – Tell me about it. I’m a sucker for great packaging.

    @ Latarsha – Same here; I love that flair of personality that just helps drive content home. Brian himself is a master at this, and he makes just about anything look great, from complex down to basics. Hopefully, my blog hits a little bit of that personality you crave 😉

  8. @ Lawton – Yeah, that’s a good little trick that work well. Rather than ditch a piece you’ve worked on when you’re struggling, sometimes switching the shirt with the pants does wonders. I mean, it’s hard to walk that way, y’know?

  9. What a great way of putting an image and meaning into what you’re trying to get across. Your post is well dressed in an expensive Armani Suit.

    I wonder what the post would have been like if you reversed everything? Start well dressed and then end naked? Sounds like that’s what some bloggers may do even when their experienced but get lazy or overload themselves with work.

    It’s funny how we can relate developing web content with just about anything.

    Good post James.

    The thing I love about your blog is you not only teach people how to write, but you also teach them how to think as well.

  10. So does this mean I have to wear pants while writing in order to produce writing that has pants? Because that would be too bad.

    There’s just something about the word “pants.”

  11. Great article. You obviously read your own article before writing it. Wait… chicken or egg..?

    Wonderful choice of metaphor. Fits the topic like a glove.

  12. Good way of putting the point you’re making into practice… Though I notice your content didn’t have the ‘cufflinks’ or ‘hemmed pants’ of bullet points.. came across as polished nonetheless

  13. @ Simon – I’m Canadian. Our underwear are your pants, and our pants are your trousers.

    @ Shane – Nah, no cufflinks for Brian. I’m not so sure about John’s Armani suit, either. I was aiming for casual slacks and a clean T-shirt 🙂

    @ Elijah – Thanks for your support.

    @ Sonia – A bathing suit, perhaps?

    @ John –

    The thing I love about your blog is you not only teach people how to write, but you also teach them how to think as well.

    That’s high praise indeed. Thank you.

  14. My blog is having a hot-pants-with-fur-coat kind of day. Or maybe silver raincoat with sequinned bellbottoms. Or possibly nothing but wellies and a smile.

    Silliness attack, sorry.

  15. @ Maria – That’s my hope!

    @ Jacquelyn – Ha, I never thought of that, but that’s a good place to use it. I personally love when they answer the question “Who’s your target market?” with “ME!” (NO, dude, NO!)

    @ Sonia – Work it, baby, work it 😉

  16. Well, James, sorry to be late for the party on this one (catching up on starred feeds in my reader–good intentions and all that), but this is some of the most entertaining and practical writing I’ve seen on this. Wonderful analogy, carried through all the way. And congrats on landing a guest spot here. I’m totally not surprised.

  17. I just found your site a few weeks ago and wish I would have found it earlier. From now on, I’m going to incorporate more of your techniques in our own site.

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