It doesn’t happen very often, but every once in a while I get a “don’t put that in” client.

I totally understand that everything I may wish to write is not necessarily something a client will want on the website … but sometimes it gets ridiculous.

Once I had a client who sold western decor for the home. He had a rodeo background, so I put that in his bio.

“Take it out,” he said. It was downhill from there. It seemed like everything I wrote to help set his company apart, he said “take it out.”

And I’ve had a few other clients like that. We do an extensive creative brief in which they tell me all sorts of good things about their amazing businesses and when I write up the pages it’s, “Take that out,” “I don’t want that on the site,” and “Don’t put that in there.”

So annoying.

Sometimes what’s left is so thin, it’s embarrassing for me to say I wrote it. Then they complain that their site doesn’t stand out!

I’ve noticed that usually folks who do this are hyper-sensitive about personal privacy online.

As if anyone really has any privacy on the web.

Telling personal stories is a way for folks to uniquely connect with their customers and stand out from the competition — especially the competition that’s a big corporate company.

I just love the personal story for Saddleback Leather. It begins with this line …

A hot wife, two fabulous kids, 14 Rwandan sons and daughters, a cool dog and a crooked federale sent to kill me kind of makes up the Saddleback story. And here’s how it happened.

When I first read that story it was much shorter, Dave keeps adding to the story as the years progress.

And, even with showing pictures of his wife and kids, he keeps a reasonable amount of privacy as there is no last name or city location on the website.

Easy  Web Tip #269: Sharing vivid details and examples on your website will help you connect with your customers.

P.S. Saddleback Leather has the best, cleverest, and funniest tagline I’ve ever read: They’ll fight over it when you’re dead.