nick usborne's blog

Moving over to nickusborne.com

I’m no longer blogging here. All my new posts can be found at nickusborne.com.

 

 

Is it worth creating your own customized url shortener? Mine is write.nu.

To be honest, I have no idea.

But inspired by this post at Mashable, I went ahead and did it.

My my custom short url is write.nu.

It fits the bill, because it is short, it lets people know I’m all about writing, and the .nu domain is the same as the initials of my name...Nick Usborne.

All very cute, but will it make any difference to anything? According to the Mashable post, I should get some branding brownie points by having my own shortening url. We’ll see.

Even if that isn’t the case, the service behind the actual shortening process for my short domain is Bit.ly, so I will at least be reminded to use Bit.ly more often, and benefit from their excellent reporting data.

 

Is Seth Godin guilty of publishing "thin content"? (I bet post-Panda Google thinks he is.)

Seth Godin’s post for today is 79 words long, including the headline.

That’s a pretty short post.

When post-Panda Google finds that post, which they undoubtedly already have, will they consider it to be "thin" and of low value? More to the point, will they then penalize Seth’s entire blog in the search results because of this "thin content"?

This goes to the heart of my biggest problem with the Panda update.

Who gets to determine what quality really means?

As any fan of Seth’s blog will tell you, part of his appeal is that he shares rare nuggets of quality information in just a few words. He doesn’t need to write 500 words to make his point.

But what does the Google algorithm make of his short posts? Can it discern quality within brevity? I bet it can’t.

The idea that brevity should be equated to low value is absurd.

Let’s imagine Seth’s blog does drop in the rankings. So he manages to speak to someone at Google about it, and the Google guy says, "Sorry dude, all I can suggest is that you add more content to your posts."

So Seth then goes back and adds another 500 words to his posts. They would be 500 words of fluff, because he already made his point with 79 words.

Now Google comes back and says, "Ah, 579 words. Now that’s quality!"

But, of course, it’s not. It’s fluff.

There is an underlying hypocrisy here.

Google tells us to write for our readers, not the search engines.

But now, post-Panda, if writing for our readers involves writing short content, we’re screwed. In fact, we are forced to do exactly what Google tells us not to do – which is to write for the search engines by adding 500 words of fluff to our posts or pages.

Am I missing something here? Am I wrong?

If I’m not wrong, then I think Google is making a huge mistake.

 

 

Why now is the time to carve out a profitable new niche as a freelance online copywriter.

On Tuesday April 19th, I’ll be giving a free teleconference call on the opportunities for freelance copywriters who want to work online.

Budgets are shrinking in the world of traditional print and broadcast copywriting. Most of that money is now being spent online – on websites, emails, enewsletters, social media and online advertising.

According to Forrester Research, 60% of companies are increasing their online marketing budgets simply by taking that money out of their offline budgets.

So if you plan on making a living as a freelance copywriter over the years and decades ahead, it makes sense to go where the money is flowing...online.

However, you can’t simply take your offline copywriting skills and then set up shop as an online copywriter.

Copywriting online requires a quite different skill set.

And that’s what Tuesday’s teleconference call is all about.

Here are just some of the questions I’ll be answering.

- In which ways is being an online copywriter different from being an offline copywriter?

- How much are companies now spending on marketing and advertising online?

- What kind of work can freelance online copywriters expect to be given?

- Which are the most profitable types of online copywriting work?

- As a freelance online copywriter, how do you to set about finding clients? What are the best approaches and strategies?

- Do both B2C and B2B companies outsource work to online copywriters?

- What steps should you take to establish yourself as a freelance online copywriter?

If you would like to know the answers to those questions, and more, register for Tuesday’s call. It’s free, but you do need to register.

 

Take the 30-day cure for thin and disappointing content.

For any site that depends of Google for a significant part of its traffic, the days of easy content are over.

Last year’s Mayday update and this year’s Panda update have driven the final nails into the coffin of quick, cheap content.

If you want Google to show your pages on page one of the search results, you need to create content that is truly useful.

In addition, as Google and the other major search engines increasingly factor in social signals as part of their listings algorithms, you need to make your web content shareable.

In other words, if your content isn’t good enough to make people want to share it through social media, you’ll be at a real disadvantage.

So...what is the 30-day cure?

Simply sign up for Web Content Cafe membership, and spend the first 30 days going through our archive of almost 250 content ideas.

Then use those ideas to increase both the volume and quality of the content on your site.

After the first 30 days you can decide whether to continue your monthly membership, or cancel.

Either way, access to those 250 ideas will be well worth your first month’s subscription.

Learn more and sign up for Web Content Cafe membership...

 

Reasons to write a lot more long-tail content...

As you undoubtedly know, the term “long-tail content” describes those pages on your website which are optimized for keywords that don’t get searched for a lot - but for which there is even less competition.

In other words, even though a long-tail content page may not bring in a ton of visitors, it’s relatively easy to get it showing on page one of the Google search results.

The key here is to publish a LOT of pages optimized for long-tail keywords.

Here are some interesting figures from a post I found at the Junta42 blog.

- 18% of search traffic arrives through the fat head

- 11.5% of search traffic arrives through the chunky middle

- 70% of search traffic arrives through the long tail

Put simply, if your website doesn’t have a long tail, you are missing out on that 70%.

On top of that, long tail traffic almost always converts better.

Here are a couple more interesting tidbits from that post:

- The fastest growing type of keyword search is a length of eight words.

- The type of search that converts at the highest rate is the four-word search.

What’s the takeaway here?

The takeaway is that you need to be creating a lot more long-tail content, to maximize that 70%.

And if you’re not sure where you’re going to find enough ideas for all those new pages...

You guessed right...it’s time to sign up as a member at Web Content Cafe.

At Web Content Cafe I publish a new content idea or insight every day, five days a week.

Learn more about Web Content Cafe...

 

The Google double-whammy – and what it means to your web content strategies.

Whammy #1: The recent Farmer update from Google has devastated thousands of sites across the web, particularly those with thin content, scraped content and low-value content.

Whammy #2: At the same time, Google’s growing interest in social signals means that a lot of perfectly good content is falling in the rankings, simply because it isn’t being shared enough through social media.

For over a decade, the practice of delivering quality content has been pretty stable. Thousands of companies have grown and prospered through the application of consistent and reliable content marketing strategies.

But right now, we are in the throes of huge upheaval.

Those old, reliable strategies are no longer working as well.

Today, you not only need to deliver high-value content, but you also need to enrich it by making it shareable through social media.

In other words, content that gets shared the most has a big advantage.

This is why the focus on the daily content ideas I deliver at Web Content Cafe is focussed on these two essential factors:

- Content with high value

- Content that generates strong social signals

If you are not yet a subscriber at Web Content Cafe, today would be a very good time to make the leap.

The world of web content is changing fast, and if you’re not riding this wave of change, you’ll be left behind, treading water, and going nowhere.

Learn more, and sign up for Web Content Cafe membership here...

 

What you have been missing on Web Content Cafe...

Everyone get’s free access to the articles I publish each week at Web Content Cafe.

But unless you are a member, you don’t get to read the daily posts.

Here’s just some of what you have been missing lately:

- 7 different headline approaches for your content pages

- Using Wikipedia to find interesting sub-topics

- A free and feature-filled widget to help you collect feedback from your readers

- Searching different country domains for new topic ideas

And coming up this week:

- An excellent video on how to become a content curator, and use that position to find new content and extend your influence

- An interesting statistic on how expressing your personal or company values helps engage readers and increase sales.

And more...

If you have been reading about Google’s Farmer update, you know how critical it is to generate quality content that is both useful and engaging.

This is the focus of the Web Content Cafe daily posts – to give you the ideas, tools and inspiration you need to come up with quality content for your own website.

Learn more about Web Content Cafe membership...

 

 

Over 200 web content ideas and, finally, an affiliate program.

Two piece of news this week for Web Content Cafe.

First, there are now 202 web content ideas on the site. That would make for a nice, thick book...packed with quality content ideas that attract new search engine traffic, engage readers and lead to increased revenues.

Even if you subscribe for just one month, you’ll get immediate access to all these ideas.

In addition, I have now added an affiliate program.

So if you have friends, colleagues or a larger audience of people who are involved in web content creation, you can make some extra income by referring them to Web Content Cafe.

For each new member you refer, you’ll receive a one-time payment of $8.50.

Refer just two members a month, and you’ll have more than paid for your own membership.

Sign up now and add your affiliate link to your website, e-newsletters and social media pages.

Here is the Web Content Cafe Affiliate sign-up page...

 

 

What? Another program on social media marketing?

There seem to be a zillion self-appointed social media gurus out there, half of whom have written a book, ebook, guide or special report of some kind or another.

I thought about this a lot before making the decision to sit down and write a social media program of my own.

The last thing I wanted to do was invest months of writing time, only to serve up something that might repeat what is already out there.

As I was researching the project, here is what I did find:

- Books, courses and programs on how to use Facebook and/or Twitter and/or YouTube.

- Books, courses and programs on marketing with Facebook and/or Twitter and/or YouTube.

- Business books providing a 30,000 feet view of social media marketing.

- And books packed with case studies of successful social media campaigns.

As I worked my way through what had already been published, I began to create a clearer picture of what I could do with my own program, and how to fill the gaps I found in what has already been published.

Here is what I decided.

1. Write a program on social media specifically for freelancers.

I have been a freelancer myself for over 30 years, and have worked with other freelancers for almost as long. This is the audience I know best, and can help the most.

2. Write a program that isn’t focused just on the tools (individual social media sites), but on the practice of social media marketing itself.

Knowing how to use Facebook, for example, is like knowing how to use a hammer. It’s a tool – albeit an amazing one. But whether you are creating a social media strategy, or building a house, choosing the right tools for the job comes last, not first.

This is why my program first looks at how to apply social media strategies and campaigns to achieve specific marketing needs. Only then do I look at which tools are best for each task.

3. Write a program that teaches freelancers how to use social media to help client companies achieve their most pressing goals.

Good luck to you if you approach a prospective client and say, “Social media is the big thing. I can help your company do social media.”

You would be better off saying, “If you have pressing marketing goals you need to achieve, I can show you how to use social media to help achieve those goals.”

Clients say yes when you give them a solution to their most urgent marketing needs.

This is why a whole section of my program focuses on 8 separate business goals that are well suited to social media solutions.

4. Write a program that clearly describes a number of different ways in which freelancers can generate new streams of income with their social media expertise.

It’s all very well reading a book, course or program that tells you all about social media, but it won’t do you much good if it doesn’t also show you how to apply that expertise in ways that will make you money.

That’s why 4 whole sections in my program cover separate ways in which your media expertise can put money in your pocket.

Summing up.

It took about four months to write the program, working five days a week. But I’m pleased with the result.

This program fills the gaps left by all the other books, courses and programs I have come across.

It gives freelancers the social media skills they need to generate multiple streams of income for themselves and their clients.

The course is called How to Make Money as a Social Media Expert.

You can learn more about it here...