I help small companies and freelancers grow their business online.

My Newsletter, Books & Programs About Writing For The Web

  • Get this 35-page Web-Writing Guide FREE when you sign up for Nick Usborne’s Excess Voice Newsletter.

    Get your copy of Writing For The Web #1 -- Plus, in each issue of my weekly newsletter, you’ll receive my latest post and news of my products and services. Sign up NOW and I'll send you the link where you can download this 35-page guide. (You'll be free to unsubscribe at any time.)

  • Affirmations for Freelancers - and anyone else who works alone.

    positive affirmations for freelancers

    39 Affirmations to help build your confidence, dissolve self-doubt, and grow your business.

    As freelancers we spend much of our time alone. This means we are alone with our thoughts – for better or for worse. The trouble is, we often get overwhelmed by negative thoughts and feelings. We don’t feel good enough, or ready enough, or valuable enough. My book, Affirmations for Freelancers, helps you change that balance, and tip your life towards confidence, optimism and positivity.

    Learn more about Affirmations for Freelancers...

  • Popcorn Content – The craft of writing short-form content for social media.

    popcorn content how to write social media content

    Now available both as a Kindle Single AND a PDF Download.

    Writing for social media is a whole new craft. Social media streams move quickly, so you have to hook your readers fast. But you also need to listen attentively…all of the time. And you have to engage with people. This, my latest book, teaches you how to write this critically important type of content. Popcorn Content is available as a Kindle Single or as a regular PDF Download.

    Learn more about Popcorn Content...

  • How to Write Your Own Money-Making Websites.

    write money making websites

    If you have a hobby or interest, and would like to write a website about it, now you can do just that -- and make a healthy second income at the same time.

    This is the complete "how-to" package.

    You get complete instructions, including lists of the tools and services you might want to use to make sure your website attracts plenty of visitors and generates a healthy income.

    Learn How to Write Your Own Money-Making Websites...

  • Copywriting 2.0 - Your Complete Guide to Writing Web Copy that Converts.

    online copywriting course This course is about 300 pages in length - plus videos and a Workbook - and is designed to teach you the best practices in every major aspect of writing for the web.

    After taking the course you'll have the expertise required to write any kind of web page – whether it be a homepage, sales page, landing page, information page, subscription page, catalog page...and so on.

    Learn more about Copywriting 2.0...

  • New e-Book - 101 Web Content Ideas, Tips and Resources

    This 152-page downloadable book is focused on writing quality web content.These ideas, tips and resources will help inspire you to create a wider variety of quality pages...all them designed to rank well with the search engines, delight your readers, and get shared enthusiastically through social media.

    In the post-Panda world of web content, new rules apply. And this book will give you a head start on learning those new rules.

    101 Web Content Ideas, Tips and Resources

  • Writing Kick-Ass Website Sales Copy


    		 This is a 45-page downloadable guide and is focused just on writing web pages that are intended to sell.

    In other words, if you want to focus on sales pages and landing pages, this guide will take you through every step in the process.

    Writing a sales page online is not the same as writing a print ad or a sales letter. Some of the skills are similar, while others are very different.

    Writing Kick-Ass Sales Copy...

Do you have an internal linking strategy for your website?

Published on May 16, 2013 by

internal linkingIf you write web sites, for clients or for yourself, you probably know about the importance of linking.

Attracting inbound links from other websites is a great way to attract new visitors, and also sends a strong message to Google that your content is of high quality. (If your content was of low quality, other people wouldn’t bother linking to it.)

However, paying attention to links is not just about maximizing the number of quality inbound links from other sites. You should also pay attention to internal linking, within your own website.

Why does internal linking matter? A couple of big reasons.

- It helps your readers find related content on your website. Instead of having to search through your navigation system to find other pages they might be interested in, they can find the links right there within the body of the page, or listed at the end.

- These links also help Google make sense of your website. They let Google know which pages are related, and also the relative importance of pages on your website. Lots of inbound links pointing to a particular page suggest it’s an important page.

Continue reading...

How to build a brand through subtraction.

Published on May 9, 2013 by

michelangelo's DavidAs a small company or a freelancer it can be tough to build a brand from the ground up.

Yes, you can create a logo and a tagline within just a few days. But a brand is a lot more than simply a cool logo and a snappy tagline.

And, no, you can’t build a brand within just a few days, a few weeks or a few months even.

Your brand will grow and develop through a combination of your own efforts, and the ways in which your customers see and respond to you. You brand is as much a function of customer reaction as it is a creation of your own making.

For example, if you sell a great product, but your customer service is horrible, that horrible customer service will become part of your brand.

You take the first step in creating your brand through design and writing. After that, once it’s out there in the wild, your brand will evolve. It will get some support from some customers, and take some hits from others. Your job is to both develop your brand, and to protect it.

Continue reading...

Monday Spark: It’s good to feel self-doubt.

Published on May 6, 2013 by

freelancer feeling self-doubtMany freelancers struggle to grow their business because they doubt themselves and their abilities. They feel they aren’t good enough in some way.

I have come across this numerous times when talking with or working with freelancers. Some are just starting out, while others have been freelancing for some time. But they all doubt themselves and feel they are not yet ready to get started, or not ready to approach larger clients, or not ready to charge more for their services.

If that sounds a little like you, I have some good news. (Or bad news, depending on your perspective.)

If you struggle with insecurity, you’re not alone.

Accomplished people in all walks of life feel self-doubt.

Continue reading...

An easy way to improve every page of copy your write.

Published on May 2, 2013 by

easy copywriting secretWouldn’t it be nice if there was just one easy way to improve every single page of copy you wrote, regardless of the product or service you were trying to sell?

It turns out there is.

It works for homepages and sales pages. It also works for emails and newsletters. Product pages. Shopping carts. White Papers. Radio. TV. Direct mail. Whatever.

It works whether you are selling weight-loss products or industrial fasteners. It works whether you are selling vacations or dental services.

Best of all, it’s incredibly easy to include this “secret” in everything you write.

I’m not saying this little trick is all you need to know about copywriting. Nor am I saying its use will cure bad copy.

But it will help.

Here it is...

Continue reading...

Monday Spark: When procrastination is a good thing.

Published on April 29, 2013 by

when procrastination is goodProcrastination is a bad thing, right?

Well, it certainly can be. It can be a real productivity killer.

You have a deadline, it’s getting closer and closer, and you still haven’t closed your Twitter page and got started.

Some people argue they work best under pressure, so procrastination is a positive thing. I’m not sure about that. Sounds like a clever, or not so clever, rationalization to me.

All that said, I know there have been times when I have been procrastinating for what turned out to be a pretty good reason.

For example, in one instance I was due to send a prospective client a proposal for a substantial writing project. We had agreed on the scope of the engagement and I had told him I was going to submit the proposal by a particular day and time.

Continue reading...

Mental toughness for freelancers.

Published on April 25, 2013 by

mental toughness for freelancersAbout fifteen years ago, when my youngest son was still playing baseball, we were gathered around before a game, listening to the coach’s pre-game pep talk.

The opposing team came from a low-income part of the city. Our team’s coach warned our players not to be fooled by the fact that the other guys didn’t have nice uniforms or fancy equipment. If I remember correctly, he told our team, “If they beat you, it will be because they have greater mental toughness.”

I don’t even remember who won that game. And I think it was a generalization to suggest that all kids from low-income families necessarily have more mental toughness than kids from middle-class families.

But his point was a good one, and I tucked it away in the library of my mind. Because mental toughness matters.

In fact, I think mental toughness is a freelancer’s best friend.

Continue reading...

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