How-to guides

What a how-to guide is

A how-to guide is an article that shows a reader how to complete one task from start to finish, in the order the steps really happen, with the mistakes named before the reader makes them. It is written from how your own people do the job, not from a general idea of how it is done. The reader should be able to finish the task with the guide open on a phone.

It is not an explainer, which tells someone what a thing is and why it matters without asking them to do anything; that is a separate service, explainers. It is also not a tutorial in the strict sense, though the two overlap: a tutorial assumes the reader has never done anything like this and checks every step before moving on. A how-to guide assumes a competent adult with the right tools.

Who this is for

A business whose customers try to do part of the job themselves before calling. Trades, software, equipment suppliers, financial and legal services, anyone whose buyers type "how do I" before they type a company name. The guide earns trust by being honest about which parts are easy, and it earns the inquiry by being honest about which parts are not.

It is also for a business that wants to be linked to. A guide that genuinely works gets cited by forums, associations and other writers for years, in a way a sales page never does.

It is not for a business worried that a guide will give the work away. In my experience the reader who follows a good guide to the end and succeeds tells people who wrote it, and the reader who gets to step four and stops calls the author. If the task is dangerous or regulated, the guide says so and stops at the line, and the right piece may be an explainer instead. And if what you need is instructions for your own product, that is a user guide, written to a different standard.

What goes in it

The outcome, stated first. What the reader will have at the end, how long it takes, and what it costs in materials or tools, in CAD, with the date. If it needs a permit in British Columbia, that is in the first paragraph, not the last.

What you need before starting. Tools, materials, access, information. A reader who discovers at step six that they needed a part from a supplier does not finish and does not come back.

The steps. Numbered, one action each, in the order your own crew does them, which is often not the order a manual gives. Each step says what "done" looks like. Where a step is the one people get wrong, the guide says what goes wrong and how to tell.

When to stop and call. The honest point at which a competent person should hand over to a professional, and what to have ready when they do. This paragraph is the one that produces inquiries.

Images, specified. The guide lists which steps need a photo or diagram and what each must show. Photographs are yours to take or to have taken; I write the alt text and the captions.

What you get

One guide of 1,200 to 2,500 words, in a shared document you own, with a numbered step list, a materials list, a shot list for images with alt text written, and the headline, title tag and meta description in a box at the top. Two rounds of revisions are included, because the second round is usually the one where your most experienced person reads it and changes step three, and that is the round that makes it right.

You also get a printable version, laid out as a single page where the task allows, because readers take guides into garages and basements.

A worked example

An illustration, not a client. A wood-stove retailer in the Interior sells and installs stoves and gets a run of calls every October from people who want to clean their own chimney and are not sure whether they can. The owner would rather they did it properly than not at all, and would rather they bought the brush from him.

The guide is "How to sweep a wood-stove chimney from inside the house," about 1,800 words. It opens with what the reader will have at the end and the two situations in which they should not attempt it: a chimney that has not been inspected in more than two years, and any sign of a creosote glaze. It lists the brush size by flue diameter, the drop cloth, the shop vacuum with a fine filter. Nine steps follow, with a photograph specified for four of them, and the step everyone gets wrong, sealing the stove door before starting, is called out in bold. It ends with what an inspection costs from the retailer, in CAD, and a line to the booking page. The brush listing is linked at the step where it is needed.

How it runs

1. A half-hour call. Which task, who tries it, and what goes wrong when they do. No charge.
2. A fixed price in writing. Length, number of images to specify, and two revision rounds, agreed before anything starts.
3. The walkthrough. A recorded call, or a site visit if you are within a short drive, in which your most experienced person does the task or talks me through it step by step.
4. The draft. Ten working days after the walkthrough, with the shot list.
5. The expert read. The person who does this job reads it and marks every step they would do differently. I revise.
6. Handover. Final guide, printable version, alt text and metadata, ready to publish.

What it costs

How-to guides are quoted as a fixed price after the half-hour call. The price depends on the length of the task, whether a site visit is needed, and how many images have to be specified and captioned. A set of related guides, for example six seasonal maintenance tasks for the same equipment, is quoted as a set because the walkthroughs can be done in one day. All prices are in CAD and agreed in writing first; the pricing page explains how fixed pricing works here.

What happens next

A guide that works is worth reusing. Most people have it turned into a video script so the same steps exist on camera, and cut into short clips for social. The guide also becomes the anchor for a series of shorter blog posts answering the questions that come up at each step. When the task changes, because a product or a rule changed, blog updating keeps it true.