This approach doesn’t usually translate well for professional website content, but it can work if you change your thoughts on standard web design and write casual, conversational copy. I know of two companies that have done this and mastered website content storytelling. But before I tell you about them, I want to first outline a few standard web usability rules, which say:

• Websites should contain multiple pages.
• Each page should serve its own function (e.g., services page describes your offerings and about page describes YOU, etc.).
• All web pages should be independent of each other. You never know what page a visitor will land on first — it’s not always your home page.
• Web content should sell the sizzle right away, not contain too many details, and focus on a strong call to action.

Now that you know the rules, let’s see two examples of professional website content that break away from the norm and have a strong storytelling appeal.

37signals’ unconventional home page

37signals is a software development company that offers wonderful online applications such as Basecamp (popular project management tool). The company has an assortment of things to talk about on their corporate site, which they could segment into dozens of individual web pages, but they don’t. You land on their home page and see one long page that reads like a story.

There are a few exceptions. 37signals.com does have a company history page and a product sales page that follows a storytelling format similar to the home page. And for more information on a particular business line you can click a link and visit a microsite.

When No. 2 Pen asks new clients for examples of professional website copy they like they often mention 37signals.com. People enjoy the “clean” layout and the “straightforward” writing. I do, too.

Diablo Media asks you to follow along

Diablo Media, an online ad network, asks website visitors to read through their home page content by scrolling or clicking. The red arrows and buttons make navigation a no-brainer. Well done.

Each screen, or each scene, is entirely different than the one before it…just like in fiction. The background imagery is different and so is the main pain point of the copy. No repetition on DiabloMedia.com.

What do you like about these professional website examples?

What’s the difference between a personal website and a personal blog?

Put simply, a blog is a journal of sorts that usually encourages conversation, while a website is a static set of pages that informs. Not a lot of talky talk going on within a website.

Your personal website could include a blog or not include a blog. Either works fine. Take, for example, SaraLancaster.com. This is an example of a personal website without a blog. Whereas my husband’s site — JasonLancaster.com — does have a blog.

Who benefits from a personal website?

• Consultant
• Artist
• Graphic designer
• Researcher
• PhD student
• Grant seeker
• Photographer
• Musician
• Coach
• Author
• Speaker
• Fitness instructor/personal trainer
• Entrepreneur
• Freelancer
• Job seeker
• Hobbyist
• Politician and community leader
• Website collector (Do you have too many websites to list on one business card?)
• Social media junky (Do you have too many social media profiles to list on one business card?)
• Anyone who wants to be famous for anything
• Anyone who wants to be hired
• Anyone who likes the web and wants to preserve their online reputation

Why is a personal website better than a LinkedIn or Facebook profile?

It can be argued that you don’t need a personal website, especially with so many fantastic social media sites and profile sites such as About.me. However, when you invest in a domain, design, etc. you have purchased real estate in the world wide web. It belongs to you. You don’t have to worry about changing privacy policies, terms and conditions, etc. You have control.

Besides, if you care enough to have your website, then you probably care enough to have your own social media profiles. It doesn’t hurt to exist in multiple locations throughout the web.

Personal website examples

Now for the nitty gritty. Check out these personal website examples.

Celebrity – AdamSandler.com

Crams in far more information about different business ventures than most of us need, but AdamSandler.com is a good example of how one person can represent their entire career in one place.

Consultant/Coach – GiselleChampman.com

A straightforward site that promotes consulting, coaching, and speaking work. A great personal website to model.

Creative – MartinCappelletti.com

While it’s light on content, this site has the two critical components every creative independent needs on their website: portfolio pieces and a contact form.

Speaker/Author/Marketing Consultant – MattMcgee.com

The MattMcGee.com blog covers a variety of topics specific to Matt McGee and his work. You can never go wrong with content that focuses on the personal.

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Thanks to @ryantoddrose and @s_debaets for bringing a couple of personal website examples to my attention. Gotta love Twitter!

Big brands need to use their blog to reveal that personal side. A blog is a chance to showcase the fact that a company isn’t only a bunch of suits looking to build on the bottom line. Most people behind most big brands actually care about their business and the people that support it. That’s what I call personal.

Check out these three examples of corporate blogs with that personal angle.

1. MoonPie The MoonPie blog doesn’t scream BLOG. It could be argued that it’s not really a blog at all, but I classify it that way because it’s a designated area on the website that is set up to publish new content in a stream.

MoonPie wants you to supply the blog content by sharing your MoonPie memories. You submit the details and they publish it. The posts can easily be shared on social media…just like a typical blog post.

How smart is it to have your customers do the blogging for you?!

2. Sharpie

I’m not alone in my love for The Sharpie Blog. It’s gotten quite a bit of credit for its innovative blog approach. A whole team manages the blog where they feature all the kickin’ things that people do with their Sharpies. From the company president’s motorcycle to a special campaign supporting breast cancer research, the blog is home to compelling feature stories about people.

3. Johnson & Johnson The about page on the JNJ BTW blog sums it up perfectly.

Everyone else is talking about our company, so why can’t we? There are more than 120,000 people who work for Johnson & Johnson and its operating companies. I’m one of them, and through JNJ BTW, I will try to find a voice that often gets lost in formal communications.

This is a big step for us as a company. Anyone working for a large corporation will appreciate that there are many internal limitations on what we say and how we say it.

Kudos to Johnson & Johnson for asking their staff and partners to write blog posts. This is an excellent way to nix that corporate speak and build a community.

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I know what you’re thinking. It’s so much easier to have a personal company blog when you have a globally-popular product instead of a local service that’s not-so-easy to grasp. You’re right. Service-based businesses and small, local businesses blog differently.

In future blog posts here on No. 2 Pen I’ll feature additional business blog examples. Stay tuned.

A media center contains all the basic information that a traditional journalist, blogger, or marketing pro would want to know about your business or organization. And it’s all in one tidy section of your website.

Not all businesses would benefit from a media center (also called a news room or some other variation). However, if you field calls from the media or if you would like to field calls from the media, then a media center could provide incredible benefit.

Benefits of a Web-Based Media Center

1. Create one central place to post images, videos, releases, newsletters, media mentions, etc. It’s just good web feng shui to have your site organized with the reader in mind.

2. Tell the story of your business with the hopes that the media will relay the message positively and accurately.

3. Stroke the egos of your execs and directors by labeling them media experts who are available for interviews on behalf of your organization.

4. A media center makes your business look large and in charge. Impress your customers, investors, friends, and your mom.

5. The more content on your website the more content the search engines have to index. This results in more website traffic (hopefully).

Business Website Examples with a Media Center

The World Water Council has a stellar media center. This is one fine business website example. However, the website is outdated. It looks as though they gave up the effort in 2010, which is a shame.

I particularly like that the World Water Council included a story idea section. While many media members probably won’t use these story ideas (most journalists and bloggers would rather break a story than repeat one that’s already been told), they do serve as great idea starters for other stories.

For more business website examples with media centers let’s look at the real big brands to see what they’re doing.

• Johnson & Johnson has a media contacts page equipped with links to their blogs and background information.
• Adobe has a press center that contains a news room, media resources, and more. All of the sections contain useful information, especially the media resources section where you can find b-roll and images. It’s very helpful for journalists to have high-quality images and video at their fingertips.
• Some companies disguise their online media center by calling it something like “Investor Info” or “For Advertisers.” Merriam-Webster did that. You can find their media kit by navigating through their site to the Merriam-Webster advertising section. The media kit has all the critical info, but it’s old school. I would prefer a non-PDF version.

Have any other great business website examples? Do share in the comments.

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Creative Commons Photo Attribution: Koi Fish Pond by Eustaquio Santimano

1) The site has been designed and the designer is patiently (or not so patiently) waiting for the words to fill in the blanks.

2) The owner of the site wrote the copy and the designer had to be brave and say that the writing stinks.

Your web designer is in a tough spot. Don’t take it personally. Be grateful he or she is looking out for you at all. Chances are they just want to give you the best site possible –– and your web content is a vital part of that.

If your web content sucks, hire someone to write new content for you.

Forgive the shameless plug, but I want to remind our readers that No. 2 Pen can work as a beginning-to-end web content writer or as a writing coach to help get the ideas flowing. We’ve also published a series of posts here on the No. 2 Pen blog that feature sharp website content examples. Click around and see if what we do works for you.

One of the questions on the form reads: Are there other websites with content that you like? Please provide the URLs for those websites and state what you like about each one.

Disclaimer: We don’t ask this question so we can copy the content. Never! A website content writer simply wants to know the style of writing that the client is drawn to. Do they want conversational copy? Corporate-sounding copy? It’s much easier to point to what you like than it is to imagine it up on your own, especially when your job doesn’t have anything to do with writing website content.

Now, the reason I bring all this up is because one out of four new clients will answer that question with “Apple.com.” Here is what a few of my clients have told me about Apple.com:

“I like the clean layout and minimal copy.”

“The white space makes it easy to read.”

“It’s just crisp. Super easy to figure out where you want to go.”

“Every button tells the visitor what to do.”

“It feels so modern.”

Exactly. Apple does have a modern feel, and that’s why I’ve chosen it as a modern website content example.

The design and copy on Apple.com are integral. It would be tough for me to write content similar to that on Apple.com without a design that allowed for such active copy. Plus, the beauty of Apple is that they’re always announcing or expecting something new and shiny. You’re not going to get the same kind of excitement out of, say, accounting services or medical equipment, but you can get close.

While I’m not a graphic designer, you don’t have to look far to find designers who articulate the quality (and popularity) of the design. The folks over at Web Designer Depot talk about it in their post “22 Website Designs Inspired by Apple.com.”

“…it’s no wonder that many software companies and web designers would choose to follow Apple’s style of branding. The Apple website is one of the best websites out there due to its ease of use, functionality and the beautiful environment that it creates.”

According to Scott over at Spoonfed Design, “The Apple menu is probably one of the more well known and most copied navigations there is. You are likely asking yourself what makes this relatively plain and very simple navigation so great. Well, first is the consistency. The menu stays exactly the same throughout all pages, which is a simple way to avoid confusing the user.”

Scott goes on to list several other reasons why Apple has succeeded in design. Navigation is a big part of it, but so are the crisp images. (Read his usability analysis of Apple.com).

Apple’s modern website design is something to admire and mimic (without plagiarizing), because it works. What do you think?

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Check back with us again soon. We’ll feature more modern website examples to give you inspiration for your next website project.

1. The people behind the website tell the story of Goosetown Tavern. There really were geese that inspired the name of this joint. Website content writing is story telling.

2. Goosetown Tavern wants to be known for its spectacular happy hour, and so they make their happy hour the focal point of the site. Having a niche makes it easier to market your business and set yourself apart from the rest.

3. The website has a clean design with easy-to-read copy. Crisp!

In addition to the three items mentioned above, Goosetown succeeds at making their menu easy to find (critical), and they have a link to their Yelp profile on the home page. If you don’t know Yelp.com, you should. This review site can be a  major boon for any business, especially a restaurant that responds to negative reviews appropriately.

My only recommendation to Goosetown would be to freshen up their home page copy. It’s repetitive of the about page and it doesn’t invite me to visit the Tavern. The average person needs a call to action. Make me move!

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Check back in a couple weeks for another example of a business with sharp website content. And if you have a restaurant and are looking for online marketing / web development, check out Spork Marketing’s restaurant Internet marketing services.

The Rio Grande a/k/a The Rio.

The team behind the Rio Grande website has done so many things right that I don’t even know where to start, which is why I’m starting with the one and only thing I’d do differently: Add a tad more written content to the home page. Remember, it’s recommended that you have at least 200 words on your most important web pages to satisfy the search engines.

The Rio Grande is succeeding in many ways. Here’s what I see on the Rio Grande website that qualifies it for this week’s sharp website content example.

• Right off the bat I see links to the menu and to their location information. This should be priority number one for a restaurant website.
• They create intrigue with the copy. Above the fold, I see a reference to “Sanctuary” and “Team Rio Grande Racing.” That makes me want to click. Excellent!
• Because the margaritas are so strong, you can only have three. But instead of making that a no-fun rule, The Rio created a sound bite out of it. I see the text “Good things come in three!” several places on the site, and I think that’s creative marketing. Very smart.
• The Rio has prominently placed Facebook and Twitter links, which is great, but the more important piece here is that the Facebook and Twitter accounts have been recently updated. If your team doesn’t have time to update your social media accounts often, then don’t prominently display the links.

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Check back in a couple weeks for another example of a business with sharp website content. And if you have a restaurant and are looking for online marketing / web development, check out Spork Marketing’s restaurant Internet marketing services.

During the day I searched for writing gigs and at night I worked with various promotions companies in Denver. Since that little adventure, I always take a flyer or a free sample when it’s offerered to me.

Why? Because the person handing out those items can go home when all the items are gone.

When I stumbled on the website for Zag Marketing I quickly reflected back on my days in promotions…because that’s similar to what they do. The series of jobs I held was a great learning experience for me. It taught me about people. It taught me about marketing. It taught me that a pair of Dansko clogs will prevent sore feet and blisters.

While I was on the Zag Marketing site, I also marveled at their use of testimonials on the home page, which is something I strongly recommend to No. 2 Pen clients. A website content writer should never write testimonials for you, but he or she should provide guidance on how to incorporate those testimonials into the copy.

The people at Zag Marketing did it right, which is why I’ve chosen them for this week’s example of sharp website content.

The screenshot above shows how Zag Marketing included a portion of several client testimonials on their home page. In order to read the entire testimonial, you have to hover over the line with your mouse. Click here to see how it’s done.

Not only has Zag Marketing included testimonials on one of the most important web pages of any website, but they also added an interactivity component to keep visitors engaged. Double points for sharp website content!

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If you have examples of sharp website content, send it on over. We’d be happy to give it a look and possibly feature it here on the No. 2 Pen blog.

After talking with a few of you, I realized that you’re not looking for advice on how to write; you’re looking for inspiration on how to conduct business online. As a result of that feedback, you can expect to see bi-monthly posts that feature quality websites across all industries. The goal is to show you how successful businesses present themselves online.

With that out of the way, let’s look at the first example of great website content. This comes from our client e3 Real Estate Group.

Before e3 Real Estate Group brought No. 2 Pen on board to write website content, e3 had already designed their real estate website and put filler content in place. Some of that content included a series of numbers with brief explanations. When we took on the job of rewriting content we insisted that the numbers stay.

Hard facts and statistics make for great website content. Numbers let you show instead of tell.

You can see what e3 did in this screen shot, but I invite you to visit their Georgia real estate website to see up close.

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If you have examples of website content you’d like to have featured on No. 2 Pen, send it on over. We’d be glad to give it a look and possibly feature it here on No. 2 Pen.