Copywriting, Content and UX Planning for customers of Wild Apricot

Because it's often hard to write about yourself. And you're too busy for busywork.

Who I am

I'm a UX Writ­er "UX" is "User Exper­ience" — making the website and its content clear and easy-to-use and Copy­writer, with ten years of exper­i­ence using Wild Apricot, and decades of experi­ence writing marketing communi­ca­tions and articles online and in print. I also have coding, admin, and photo exper­ience.

How I can help with Wild Apricot

• "Debrief" you and your people, pulling your story together
• Assist with site architecture and usability (UX)
• Make the writing go quicker
• Focus your message and "say it shorter"
• Edit expertly, while retaining your desired tone and making it consistent
• Make pages and emails more enticing and readable
• Write, edit and/or produce your newsletter
• Make your messaging more productive
• Handle the busywork, such as event setup, data entry, event emails, and registration forms.
• Improve on default templates for automatic and manual emails
• Improve confidentiality
• Find, retouch, optimize and organize images
• Perform administrative tasks, such as regular backups
• Set up a blog, wiki, or Content Management System
• Write editorial content (articles)
• Many other ways

Details

Although I have written for, developed and/or managed dozens of websites (using various systems and programming languages), I am not a full-blown Wild Apricot developer. If you need sophisticated programming services or a Wild Apricot site built from scratch, you may want to look further, or set up a collaboration.

If you like a particular Wild Apricot Partner or other developer, and they don't have in-house content creation geared to your subject matter, I'm pleased to work with your choice; I often work with and for web developers.

Fresh ideas, or routine administration. Or both.

If you run your site yourself and your needs tend more toward wordsmithing, conceptual development, marketing strategy, usability (UX Design), content research, article- or blog-writing, photo aquisition and preparation, and such, I am well qualified and eager to help. As you'll see here at my own pages, I am familiar with a wide range of consumer and business fields, and have demonstrated my ability to learn quickly. I know my way around Wild Apricot's Admin View, having served as Corresponding Secretary and Webmaster for a Wild Apricot client for several years. So I can also help with routine or complex busywork. My work in business-to-business and technical and financial marketing has taught me the importance of efficiency and attention to detail. Contact me to learn more.

Information Architecture and Usability (UX Design)

If you and/or any of your members need a fairly simple non-membership website built, that I can do. I've developed simple sites and online stores for several of my copywriting clients. If interested, please ask for details about various sites I've worked on.

Wild Apricot's range of templates makes it easier to set up your site design, content, and admin interface, making it all more usable and easier to communicate your message. You can develop a distinctive site without having build it from scratch.

But actually, your first steps in building a website should not be "building" it. Even with simple sites, first you should plan. That involves more than listing the pages you need. You should know ...

• Your primary and secondary objectives.
• Visitors' needs, expectations and habits
• Your Most Wanted Action
• Members' expectations
• What is typically overlooked? By new visitors, and by Members
• User path through site
• How the site and search engine results fit into your marketing
• Desired features (such as a Search function, reservations, payment processing, incoming communications, images, etc.)
• Data to be collected and managed
• And more

Notice that none of that involves choosing a template, immediate coding, menu structure or wireframing. It's about identifying your objectives so you can achieve them. It's also about avoiding blind alleys. I have seen too many major sites go off the rails or fail to meet expectations because their developers did not start the project by preparing a Planning Document. Of course, you're not planning a major airline system, so maybe you can answer all the above questions over dinner. But trust me, your plan should require more than a napkin.

I can help flesh it out.

How to recommend me to your organization

I admit ... My own website's "plan" has become rather obscured by it's huge amount of content. The site is extremely "bush-like," as I've added onto it over a couple decades without subtracting much — to the point where it's part business website, part blog, part educational, even part entertainment. It's not what I would create from scratch. On the other hand, its content represents even more decades of experience with content, marketing and usability. (For focused presentations, I refer people to certain parts of my site.)

So, to help you refer my services to others without overwhelming them, here are two simpler presentations:
FullStackUxWriter.com ConceptualFlow.com

For now, you can see my technical proficiency and range of experience.

But enough about me. From here on, this is about you.

Whatever your need, first we should talk about your organization and your goals.

For an idea of which capabilities might benefit you, start at my HOME PAGE or my list of services, or explore on the top menu. Then email wawriter@Rensch.com or call +1 718-577-0005 (New York City), and let's talk about ways to run, publicize and grow your organization more easily.