I help small companies and freelancers grow their business online.

My Newsletter, Books & Programs About Writing For The Web

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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.

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.

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.

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...

Monday Spark: Dogs like treats, and so do we.

Published on May 7, 2012 by Nick Usborne

After lunch each day we give our two dogs a small treat. Just a small dog cookie each.

It’s not much, but it makes their day. They look forward to their cookie at the first sign that lunch time is approaching.

Afterwards, they get into some serious playacting, trying to persuade us that we had, in fact, forgotten to give them their cookie five minutes before. One time in a hundred this actually works. I can only imagine the level of satisfaction this gives them. Two cookies, and fooling the man, both on the same day.

The point is, it doesn’t take much to make their day.

And I think the same is true for us.

A small treat can turn an OK day into a great day. Or a rough day into an OK day.

Published in Coaching, Monday Sparks
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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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Monday Spark: Give yourself a break at the weekends.

Published on April 30, 2012 by Nick Usborne

I should never have written this post.

This weekend I could definitely have used a break. The last two weeks have been incredibly busy, and I was planning on a 100% work-free weekend.

Then on Friday afternoon my laptop finally died. So off I went to the store to buy a new one. As you know, changing computers involves a ton of work, moving files and reinstalling software. (I still have half a dozen or so programs to install.)

So much for my weekend of rest and relaxation.

Published in Coaching, Freelancing, Monday Sparks
1 comment

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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Why do some freelancers say Yes, while most say No?

Published on April 26, 2012 by Nick Usborne

I was talking with a coaching client earlier this week, and we were discussing an opportunity that was there in plain view, right in front of her. In fact, she had identified the opportunity herself.

When I asked her when and how she was going to grab hold of that opportunity, her immediate response was to start talking about why she couldn’t, wouldn’t or didn’t want to.

In other words, she began to talk herself out of taking action.

As her coach I asked her to stop for a moment. I wanted to explore her reaction. Why was she finding reasons not to jump forward and take action?

Published in Coaching, Freelancing
8 comments

Monday Spark: Find the courage to be imperfect.

Published on April 23, 2012 by Nick Usborne

It’s odd that we should even think about having to find the courage to be imperfect. Because, of course, we are always imperfect, however hard we try.

According to Brené Brown, a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work, we strive for perfection because we feel that to be worthy, and to deserve the admiration and love of others, only our perfect selves will suffice.

Again this is clearly wrong. As she says in the video below, we attract the attention and admiration of others not by being perfect, but by being ourselves - authentic, accessible and vulnerable.

Published in Freelancing, Monday Sparks
4 comments