Writing for the Web

101 Topic ideas for your money-making website.

Published on June 14, 2012 by Nick Usborne

As some of you already know, in addition to my regular work I make a second, passive income with some hobby sites.

My largest hobby site, CoffeeDetective.com, has made me an average of $45,000 a year over the last 5 years. Not bad for a site I work on in the evening and at weekends.

I have also written a program, based on my own experiences, so that other people can do the same.

I have spoken and corresponded with hundreds of people who have taken the program, and many have told me the part of the process they found the hardest was coming up with a topic idea.

If your sales copy doesn’t flow smoothly, rewrite it. Or fail.

Published on May 31, 2012 by Nick Usborne

A couple of weeks ago a young copywriter sent me a sales page he had written. He wanted to know if I thought it was any good.

I must have been having a very slow day, because I don’t usually have time to answer all the emails I receive, let alone look at attachments.

And I kind of dread reading “newbie copy”, because I know I’ll find lots of things that aren’t working quite right, and also know I won’t have time to write back with a full and comprehensive critique.

Anyway, on this particular day I did read the entire sales page.

Keep readers coming back with streams of related content.

Published on May 24, 2012 by Nick Usborne

In one sense, all the content on a website is related. At least, it should be.

If you sell coffee, all of your content will relate to coffee, in one way or another. If you sell garden furniture, all your content will relate to gardens and furniture.

But that’s not what I want to talk about.

What I’m suggesting is that you create a series of streams of content that are much more closely related.

For example, if you sell or write about coffee makers, you might create a series of content pages which focus on all the different brands and models of single serve coffee makers. That’s a subset of the coffee topic, but gives you enough raw material to create a series of 5 to 10 pages of content.

Published in Web Content, Writing for the Web
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Online writers and copywriters: Social media IS the web.

Published on May 3, 2012 by Nick Usborne

Most online writers and copywriters learned their craft at a time when the web was all about static websites.

To put a date on that, let’s say the period of “come and spend time on my great website” was between 1995 and 2008. More or less.

I’m pretty sure the majority of freelancers learned how to write for the web during this period.

Is this a problem? Could be.

Before then, in the eighties and very early nineties, the Internet was around, but the web wasn’t. In other words, people were connecting through the infrastructure of the Internet, but there were no browsers. No web as we know it.

Published in Copywriting, Freelancing, Social Media, Writing for the Web
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8 Bonuses and $100 off my Copywriting 2.0 program – Deal Expires Today.

Published on April 27, 2012 by Nick Usborne

It has been about four years now since I first wrote the Copywriting 2.0 program. I wrote it based on my work as a web writer and trainer for companies and organizations like Yahoo!, Intuit, The New York Times, The Getty Trust and many others.

So while I wrote the program for online copywriters at any stage of their careers, even beginners, the content of the program is based on my writing and training work for some of the most respected companies in the world.

In other words, this is a professional-grade program. There is nothing thin or skinny about it.

And since we first published the program, we have been updating and adding to it on an ongoing basis, including the addition of embedded videos.

Also, year by year, I have been creating more and more webinars, teleconferences and written materials to support the program.

As a result, when you buy the program now, you not only get the full, updated program, but also receive all of the following 8 bonuses.

Published in Copywriting, Freelancing, Writing for the Web
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4 Ways in which the best e-newsletters are a little like blogs.

Published on April 19, 2012 by Nick Usborne

[Note: I first wrote and published this article about 5 years ago. But it still strikes me as relevant and useful.]

The best e-newsletters share many of the same qualities as a good blog. It may seem strange to be comparing an e-newsletter with a blog.

But when you think about it, it's not so strange at all.

Just think back to the days before blogs existed.

It wasn't so long ago.

Back then, where did you turn to find interesting, engaging, timely, and topical news and information?

The answer for many of us is that we signed up for some great newsletters. We didn't go to Web sites for the latest information and opinions, because in those days most sites tended to be too static.

If we wanted to know what was new, important, and interesting, we turned to newsletters.

Here are four ways that good newsletters share the same qualities as blogs.

Published in Copywriting, Web Content, Writing for the Web
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