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...

The geeks have done their part for social media. Now it’s time for the writers.

Published on October 4, 2012 by

social media writing toolboxWhat do I mean by this?

Let me explain with a story from 1998.That was the year I began to work full-time as an online writer and copywriter.

By that time hundreds of thousands of companies had already launched websites. Generally, they looked reasonably good and worked reasonably well. But the writing was not so good. What many of them did was simply cut and paste text from their old print materials.

They didn’t understand that writing for the web was different. And that was the message I shared with my audience and my clients.

The developers and designers had done their part. But to make websites achieve their potential, these companies needed good writers who understood the medium.

Continue reading...

Monday Spark: Have some distraction-free time each day.

Published on October 1, 2012 by

distracting road works noiseYou’re in a room with a fan blowing. It isn't too noisy. Certainly not noisy enough to prevent you from working.

Or maybe there is some work been done in the street, and you hear the background noise of vehicles, generators and power tools from time to time.

But then, at some point, you turn off the fan, or the street noise stops.

What a difference. It’s only when the noise stops that you realize how it has been filling your head and distracting you. Turn off that background noise, and you feel relief.

The same kind of things happens when you spend your day with a background of constant emails and social media. It’s just a different kind of noise.

Continue reading...

When to use your copywriting skills, and when not to.

Published on September 27, 2012 by

copywriter as magicianI receive a lot of email from all kinds of people, including freelance copywriters.

Some are saying hi, some are asking questions, and some want me to do something.

I have no problem receiving the emails. I like to keep in touch with other writers. But I do have a tip for anyone writing to me by email.

When you send me an email, don’t “copywrite” at me.

In other words, don’t use your copywriting skills to try to persuade me to read something or do something.

Strange as it might seem, I can recognize when I’m being “copywritten” at from 50 paces. And I can hit that delete button in about 50 microseconds.

Why is it wrong to use your copywriting skills when writing to an individual by email? Because the context is wrong.

Continue reading...

Monday Sparks: Play is a good thing.

Published on September 24, 2012 by

improv-play-for-freelancersIf you watch the video below you’ll hear Charlie Todd say, right near the end, “Play is a good thing.”

I couldn’t agree more.

And the harder you work, the more you need to play a little. Or a lot.

The more stressed you feel, the more you need to play.

The longer you have been sitting on your butt in front of your monitor, the more important it becomes to go out and play.

Sometimes play comes to you. This is certainly true when you have very young children in the house.

But at other times in your life, you have to remind yourself to play a little. It’s a perfectly natural and healthy thing to do.

Play can be something ordinary and routine, like playing catch with the kids in the back yard.

But, as you will see from the Improv Everywhere video below, play can be a little more than that. It can be both fun and generous.

Continue reading...

Web writers: For every great performance, you need to rehearse.

Published on September 20, 2012 by

web writing practiceWhen you watch a live performance of your favorite play in a theater, you are looking at a performance that has been preceded by weeks or months of rehearsals.

And those rehearsals take place without costumes, without scenery and without the pressure of an audience watching.

The rehearsals allow the actors to get things right, outside of the public eye. There are fewer constraints. There are no downsides to making mistakes, missing lines, and so on. No pressure.

OK. Now let’s consider how we go about writing interior pages on websites.

As an example, let’s assume we are working on the rewrite of an insurance company website. The company offers home insurance, auto insurance, commercial insurance and farm insurance. Each of these areas has an interior page of its own.

Continue reading...

Monday Spark: You’ll feel a lot better without your head in the sand.

Published on September 17, 2012 by

head in the sand

This week’s Spark begins with a negative feeling, and then turns it into a something a lot more positive.

The negative feeling goes something like this…

There is an issue you need to address, but you don’t want to face it. You keep putting it off. You stick your head in the sand and hope the problem goes away, although you know it won’t.

A few years ago I had some back-taxes to take care of. But I didn’t take care of it immediately. I didn’t want to. All I had to do was sit down with my accountant and get things in motion. But I kept putting that meeting off.

A coaching client of mine knew she needed to sit down with her business partners and talk to them about some changes she wanted to make. But she was scared the meeting might become confrontational, so she didn’t ask for the meeting.

Continue reading...

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