Hi

 

So I've recently decided to jump head first into freelance web development, and Im doing basic Joomla template websites for some small businesses.

 

Everything is going great, apart from dealing with clients. After asking one client to provide me with content, I received about 60 images pasted into a Word document and some horrid written content; incorrect use of punctuation, atrocious grammar and personal stories about the client, rather than their business.

 

So basically, I wanted to ask other freelancers out there how they usually deal with bad content. Is it wrong to edit what a client has written? Should I even care?

 

Any advice would be appreciated!

 

Thanks in advance!

Offer them your services as a copywriter!

 

My personal opinion would be to tell them that you don't feel the content reflects the business well, and that it looks like it was written by a child might also negatively affect their SEO or give the wrong impression to customers. You could offer to improve it freely or at a cost.

 

I say this because you have made it clear that you hate what you've been given! Do you want to associate your name with the end result of using that copy?

Edited August 23, 201312 yr by A­­

Thanks A! Great advice and yeah I'm hoping to build a portfolio out of this so having a website with bad content would probably not help my professional image. How would you normally go about writing content? Shouldn't you know quite a bit about a company to be able to do that?

 

Thanks so much

Tell them that there's spelling and grammar errors and get them to re-write it. Otherwise offer the option to correct it for them at a further cost of course, but only if you feel up to it.

 

It's not going to do their business any justice. They may as well not have a website if the copy isn't up to scratch. Don't be afraid to make a few demands yourself, just because they hired you doesn't mean they can do a half-arsed job.

 

Lastly, get this book, seriously.

incidentally if you save a copy of the word doc and then change the extension to zip ytou can unzip it and get easy access to all the images

Thanks A! Great advice and yeah I'm hoping to build a portfolio out of this so having a website with bad content would probably not help my professional image. How would you normally go about writing content? Shouldn't you know quite a bit about a company to be able to do that?

 

Thanks so much

 

'ello and welcome to the forum

 

First off, if you're going to rewrite anything do two things 1) verify with the client how they feel about it 2) give a quote if you're doing a fair amount. It's very easy to get carried away and write in your own style (guilty! lol) when rewriting for a client. You need to convey the image they wish to portray, target the correct audience, yada yada yada...

 

It's not necessarily your job to educate clients (though it doesn't hurt if they aren't pigheaded enough!). Take a bit of tact if you criticise their work as they may take offense (regardless if it was written by an ape). You can ask for some of the clients publications i.e. newsletters, generic correspondence to get a feel of how they project themselves. Just a simple bit of research on the client and their field. As with design work, send it back to them for approval (there may be some back and forth exchanges in that respect). Most important thing is not to write from your own perspective and try be a bit objective.

 

Don't know if that helps, but it might be worth exploring. I have the book Jack recommended and can vouch for it too. A no nonsense approach which is admirable but a little off putting to put in to practice as the author as some balls. Though, I agree with much of what he writes

Tell them. Be gentle and nice about it. Suggest that the content needs editing and either:

 

Guide them and tell them the general idea of what to write.

Tell them you can hire a copywriter to create content for them.

Tell them you can rewrite the content for a fee.

Use bits that you think will be better on the website.

 

I have a client that is in pest control. The content was written by someone in pest control and not somebody in sales. Thats a big difference. So the content from them wasn't bad, infact it was amazingly detailed but not right for the average user.

 

A clients idea of content will be completely different to yours. It sounds like they've sent everything they have to you. The narration about personal life, they thought, would help. Maybe they're happy for you to cut chunks out and fit it in.

 

It's at that point you have to decide whether to charge or do it for free. A lot of people on here hate doing work for free, which is perfectly fine. But then there comes a point where you're charging a client just for the sake of a few quid and not the long term. If I charged every single client for every single bit of work outside of the remit, I wouldn't have any clients left after a few months.

 

As mentioned, tell the client about the problems with the content. Give them the options. If it was me and it was only going to take a few minutes, I'd fix the content myself at no charge. But then it boils down to how much is charged.