The subjects worth writing about are already occurring in the business: questions customers ask, problems found on jobs, and decisions people struggle with. The work is capturing them rather than inventing them.

Why the blank page happens

Not because there is nothing to say. Because the moment of writing is separated from the moments when the material appears.

The useful subjects occur on jobs, on the phone, and in quotes, spread across weeks. By the time somebody sits down to write, none of it is in mind and the only available approach is inventing something general.

Which is why most business writing reads as general. It was produced from nothing at a desk rather than collected from work.

The fix is a capture habit rather than a writing technique.

The sources that always have something

Questions asked more than once

The most reliable source in any business. A question asked twice in a month is a question hundreds of people have and are typing into a search box.

These also write themselves, because you have already answered them aloud several times.

What you found on a job

Something behind a wall, under a floor, or inside a unit that explained the problem. Specific, local, and impossible for a competitor to copy.

Decisions customers struggle with

Two options they cannot choose between, where you know which suits which situation. Repair or replace, one material or another, whether to do it now or wait.

Mistakes you see repeatedly

What people did themselves that made it worse, what a previous contractor got wrong, or what nobody maintains until it fails.

Seasonal reality

What should be done at this point in the year, in your specific climate, on the housing stock in your area.

What a quote actually covers

Explaining the parts of a job customers do not see and therefore do not value. That is both content and a sales argument.

Capturing rather than remembering

The practical mechanism, and it has to be trivially easy or it does not happen.

A note on a phone, a message to yourself, or a line in a notebook in the van. One sentence, at the moment it occurs, with no attempt to develop it.

What kills this is trying to capture properly. A system requiring a form, a category, and a description is a system nobody uses on a job site.

After a month there are fifteen lines, which is more than enough for a year at a sensible publishing rate.

Where else the material already sits

Three places most businesses have not looked.

Your sent messages. Long replies to customer questions are already written content. The explanation you typed to one person works for everybody.

Your search data. The queries bringing people to your site show what they wanted, and the ones where you rank poorly show what is missing.

Your quotes. Anything you explain repeatedly in quotes is something the site should explain instead.

The sent messages source is the most immediately usable, since the writing already exists and needs editing rather than composing.

What not to write about

That last test is the most useful filter. Write what you know from doing the work, and leave the rest.

Judging whether a subject is worth it

Three questions, quickly.

Would somebody search this. Do you know something specific about it. Does it connect to work you actually want.

Two out of three is enough. All three is a page worth writing this month.

A subject failing the second is the one to drop, because a page you cannot say anything particular about is a page indistinguishable from everybody else's.

The list that removes the problem

Twenty lines, collected over a month, kept somewhere you will find it.

That converts writing from an act of invention into an act of selection, which is a completely different task and a much easier one. Sitting down with a list and choosing is possible on a busy week; sitting down with nothing is not.

Where the subject sits with somebody else in the business, the material is extracted by conversation rather than by asking them to write, which is described in getting content out of people who do the work.

Frequently asked questions

Why is the blank page so difficult?

Because writing is separated from the moments when material appears. By the time somebody sits down, nothing is in mind and the only option is inventing something general.

What is the most reliable source?

Questions asked more than once. A question asked twice in a month is one hundreds of people have, and you have already answered it aloud several times.

How should ideas be captured?

One sentence on a phone at the moment it occurs, with no attempt to develop it. A system requiring a form and a category is one nobody uses on a job site.

Where else does material already exist?

Sent messages containing long replies to customers, your search data showing what people wanted, and anything you explain repeatedly in quotes.

What should I avoid writing about?

Company news, industry commentary, general advice available everywhere, and anything you had to research, since then the page has no advantage over anybody else's.

How do I judge a subject?

Would somebody search it, do you know something specific about it, and does it connect to work you want. Two out of three is enough.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Sitting down to write with nothing in mind?

We set up the capture habit and mine your sent messages, which usually produces a year of subjects in an afternoon.

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