What is a White Paper and how to Write a white paper?
A white paper is a document created with the aim of solving a problem, comprising the outline of the problem, the solution and the detailed description of the product that solves the problem, the framework of the product and the way the product interacts with users.
The white paper’s content are in no chronological order and usually contains these listed points, not all and not limited to them only:
- Introduction
- Disclaimer
- Table of contents
- Description of the market
- Description of the problem
- Description of the product
- How the product is going to solve the problem?
- How the raised funds are going to be used?
- The team
- The roadmap
How to write a white paper?
A legal notice or a disclaimer should be placed at the very beginning of the white paper as this is an ideal section for it to be placed and it should bear important restrictions, policies or notifications, these could either be a notice exempting citizens of certain countries from the project maybe due to the jurisdictions of their country or informing potential investors that the project is risk-prone and is not guaranteed to yield profits.
A compelling introduction has always been known to keep readers and any skimmer engrossed in whatever they are reading, a compelling introductory paragraph, a compelling introductory chapter or whatever-just keep it compelling. In this case, a good move will be to start the introductory text as a message from the CEO.
A summary of your project would be very much appreciated in this section, maybe outline the problem that your project intends to provide a solution to, an explanatory paragraph of why this problem cannot be overlooked stating its consequences of leaving it unsolved too maybe.
This section should serve as a magnet to the metallic attention of the reader, it should elucidate what the reader stands to gain if they read the document till the end and give them a picture of what they can expect from it, use graphical tools (charts and graphs) to your advantage, this shows how important the compelling power of this section has to be.
Ease of access and navigation is crucial if you want to keep an individual occupied with a 20-page long or more document as this will make it easier for your readers to locate another thing of interest within the paper when they may get bored off reading a section. This need shows why it is so important there should be a very elucidatory and well-structured table of contents.
Every business has its own jargons and parlances and this night seem strange to an investor who doesn’t have the ficklest of ideas about your project, so adding a glossary should be considered.
- Talk about the project
Talking about your project should take a lot of space, explain richly what your project is all about and its constituents. Elaborate with words, narrate a story if you need to get a message across, use analogies to get your readers in the mood, because this section really sparks the interest and turns reeled in readers into potential investors as the in-depth explanation of your project and the position it fits in the current market, how well it’ll fare and how long it’ll stay relevant, all the things that the investors would want to know as they are on the brink of taking a risk and would love to know if the shot in the dark will be worth it. Backed up numbers used in the whitepaper by research, facts or analysis as this is the only way to have readers interested in numbers in this document,
2. State of the project-
The present state which the project is should be elucidated in this section, data accumulated over the course of testing the project by users and maybe also include development tactics and strategy and milestones.
Finances- This section also needs a lot of dedication in terms of time taken to put it together and the amount of space used to elaborate this space as the investors are definitely curious of how their money will be spent in the course of operation of your projects.
3. Plan of the use of funds-
Investors need to have the undiluted knowledge of where exactly their money will be going and how much money it will take to complete certain important tasks in executing the project.
Most importantly, the white paper shouldn’t mention items of expenditure such as “monthly wages”, “industry development”, “miscellaneous” and so forth. Your white paper should just state that all the money collected will be used for development, and nothing else.
4. Roadmap-
Describing the project is integral in the document but is not all. Detailed technical descriptions are all number work and theoretical, but a development roadmap makes the investor create a picture of seeing the project actually flourishing from the ground up, an in-depth working plan for the next 6-12 months should be presented, and include maybe a beta-launch.
If some tasks listed in the roadmap have already been completed, make sure to mark it in the white paper, as it will be considered a major advantage by the investors as it will mean there is visible progress and would instill trust in the mind of the investors.
5. Talk about the team-
The team are a very important part of the project and presenting them as such in the document is very important. Maintaining anonymity has never done any project any good except on very rare occasions.
The technicality is maintained in the description of almost all of the rest of the white paper, but in this section the human psyche is tapped into and a compassionate approach should be adopted whenever you are writing this section, captured memories in the form of photos and also short biographies and trivia of the development team will be an edge to garner the interest of the investors, also explain the importance to the particular project, and why these people will make it work.
6. Style, language and layout-
The language to maintained when preparing a white paper should be formal, almost academic-style of writing. The document should be very expository and also sound very professional. It should have a narrow scope.
Most of the times, authors of white papers talk about potential and forecasted usage of their technology and the talk aimlessly about it instead of being focused on the technical description of the project and whatever else is needed when preparing the white paper, for example, if your intentions were to sell party hats via a particular startup, don’t write about your intentions to introduce customization services in cooperation with another startup by 2040, or about the idea of also stocking top hats and snapbacks “in the near future”. Keep your focus on integrating party hats into the startup at hand, the present one, focus on how your project will be used to update the party hats, how you could get a new string or a fresh paint-job for them.
Moreover, the white paper should not be dogmatic. Avoid using assumptions and guesses.
And also, it is utterly important to check your white paper for the absence of grammatical and spelling errors, and also get your facts straight by fact-checking everything you possibly can. The entire document has to be in a proper and organized format so that it doesn’t look unprofessional.
If there is the need for presenting your white paper in different languages, your bilingualism or multilingualism might have to be set aside and the services of a professional might have to be opted for and considered because, as stated earlier, vocabulary, grammatical and spelling errors should be totally avoided.
WHERE DO YOU PUBLISH A WHITE PAPER?
There have been cases of successful ICO campaigns being posted on various cryptocurrency-related forums, with the white paper as the first message of the thread. These days, most of the projects opt for posting their white paper on their website.
Other options, such as GitHub, forums and so on, are still viable, but you need to make sure that there’s a single central point of access to your white paper. Avoid copying and pasting it on several different platforms, instead, you can simply post a link to it when promoting your project on different forums and websites.
That’s how to write a white paper. If you are looking to create an industry-standard white paper and in need of a white paper writer –
Call or WhatsApp +234 701 754 2853.
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