Content is King!

The good news here is that, if you are writing for a Scout unit, you're already an expert on the subject! You know your unit and its program. Scouts and parents look to you for answers to their questions and mine your brain for all things Scouting.

Therefore, your first task is to find out what your primary target audience (generally your home unit) wants. Prior to the Troop 53 website, the questions I was asked most often were: "Do you have any extra calendars?" "Do you have any extra permission forms?" and "When is (insert event here)?" A close second was: "Do you have any rosters?" These items were some of the first things published to the troop53.net website after throwing up a basic 5 page "place-holder".

Although they usually don't ask about this, parents and Scouts also enjoy seeing pictures and written accounts of recent events. You can assign your Troop Scribe to take pictures and write a small 1-3 paragraph story about your event. With a little editing on your part it can become part of your website. If you are an active unit, you can have a least one new page each month and keep your site growing.

Your secondary audience is the rest of the world — after all, the first 2 Ws in WWW stand for "World Wide". When I go to another unit's web site I'm generally looking for ideas. New program ideas, administrative ideas, web site ideas, and new or innovative ways of doing traditional things. And I'm not alone; I know from the Google and Yahoo search strings in our web logs that others are also looking for ideas they can implement in their Troops. Kind of like Roundtable, where you can share and compare with other units. I am never disappointed in these web site visits. It seems every Troop out there has something to offer. It may not be earth-shattering, but it makes a difference no matter how large or small. Your unit is no different. There is something you do, or use, or have developed that is unique to your unit and that works well. Share it with the world!

You probably already have most of these documents either on your computer, or in print somewhere. They just have to be translated into a format usable on the web.

Ask questions, listen to input (even, or especially, after your site is up), prioritize subjects and write about them.

See? You already have content! Step one was easy after all!

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