excess voice: nick usborne's blog

Two hundred billion hours spent watching TV.

I just read a great article by Clay Shirky, pointed out to me by Richard Pelletier of LucidContent.com.

The two hundred billion hours? That's how many hours Americans spend watching TV each year.

To bring that down to a number that may be a little easier to comprehend, Americans spend 100 million hours every WEEKEND, just watching the ADS.

But Mr. Shirky's article isn't just about how much we watch TV. It's a lot more interesting than that.

His article talks about watching TV as a kind of giant cognitive storage device. It's where we park our brains for lack of something more interesting to do with them.

Or rather, it is where we parked our brains during the last half of the last century.

Right now, that capacity and time is being transferred to the Web.

How do people find the time to do so much online? They are simply withdrawing time and attention from that giant cognitive parking lot called TV.

Read the article here...

Add blog posts to that creative brief...

This is a first for me. I just received a bunch of briefing materials for some web copy I'm going to write. As well as the information I asked for, including page analytics etc, they also sent me something else...

They sent me links to about a dozen different blog posts that mentioned the product I'll be writing about.

In some ways, this is an obvious thing for a marketing group to do. By following bloggers, you can get a keen insight into how your products or services are being perceived. You can also be alerted to problems early. For me, as a copywriter, it's a good way to get a feel for the language and terms that people actually use. (Not always the same as those used by the company.)

I also like to see what users consider to be the product's main features and drawbacks. (Again, not always the same as the company's perception.)

Links to blog posts should be part of every briefing document sent out to copywriters.

But they are not.

If your income took care of itself, what would you do with your time?

I'm asking this question as the survey item in my Excess Voice newsletter tomorrow. It's a little different from the kind of thing I usually ask, but I think asking a question like this can be a fun exercise for anyone.

Imagine you succeeded in creating a source of income that continued to flow into your account each month, with close to zero work or involvement on your part. What would you do with your time? (No, this is not a prelude to offering a miraculous money-making scheme. It's just a question. : )

Maybe you'd become a sculptor or hat maker, or work to help the poor in Africa, or publish an underground magazine, or kayak the world's rivers...

What would you do?

Aim beyond the income you need to make each month.

I'm a long-time student of entrepreneurship and am constantly fascinated by the difference between people who make good money and those who make absolute mountains of money.

I recently wrote a new article for my asknickusborne.com site, and thought I would share it here.

Why? Because although I wrote it with freelancer writers and copywriters in mind, I think it might apply to any solopreneur or small business person.

Here's what I wrote:

Aim beyond the income you need to make each month.

Freelancers face a number of psychological barriers when it comes to making more money.

One of these barriers is being drawn to earn only the amount of money they need.

Let's imagine a freelance copywriter with a mortgage, bills and other expenses that require him to earn $7,500 gross each month.

Somewhere in his mind he latches on to that figure as the amount of money he needs to earn.

Half way through one month he might be at the $6,000 mark. He's close to his "target". Then he estimates on a new job and prices it at $2,000. And he gives himself a pat on the back, because he has just exceeded his monthly income requirement.

This is freelancing as a replacement for a salary.

Too many freelancers look at their income as being a replacement for the monthly pay check they used to receive. And once they hit that mark each month, they sit back and relax.

In terms of earning a living, that's not the worst approach in the world.

But it's a terrible way to grow a business.

And this is where you have to ask yourself the crucial question:

"Am I trying to replace my salary, or am I trying to build a business?"

If you are trying to build a business, then you need to change your way of thinking.

Let's go back to that $2,000 estimate.  Our imaginary freelancer was pleased to get the money, because it took him over his monthly target.

But could he have done more? Could he have expanded the scope of the project? Could have added some extra value to the job which would have lifted the price to $3,000 or $4,000?  Or, indeed, could he have said no to the project altogether and freed up enough time to take on a different project at twice the fee?

All too often freelancers think in terms of simply meeting their financial obligations each month. And in doing so they leave a great deal of money on the table.

This is one of a number of psychological barriers that prevent freelancers from charging for their true value.

Be mindful of your decisions when you estimate for work.

And always remind yourself to think less like a freelancer and more like a business-builder.

My new newsletter for freelance writers and copywriters.

As readers of my Excess Voice newsletter will find out tomorrow morning, I have just launched a new e-newsletter.

For years now I have been publishing the Excess Voice newsletter for online writers and copywriters. But recently I have found myself writing articles not only about writing for the web, but also about best practices for freelance writers.

Some subscribers to the Excess Voice newsletter are freelancers, but many are not. So...to ensure that everyone gets what they signed up for, I'm now going to confine my Excess Voice articles to the topic of writing for the web, and will share my thoughts and advice for freelancers in my new AskNickUsborne.com newsletter.

Clear as mud? : )

More about the Excess Voice newsletter here...

More about the AskNickUsborne.com newsletter here...

Why prevent me from re-subscribing?

This morning I unsubscribed from an email list and was warned that if I unsubscribed, I wouldn't be able to re-subscribe unless I first contacted their customer support.

When companies do weird things, I always try to figure out why. And most of the time, I find some convoluted logic behind even the most nonsensical policies.

But in this case, I'm stumped.

Where is the benefit to the company? How does it help them to make it hard for me to re-subscribe?

I wrote the first book on writing for the web!

What's more, I wrote it over a hundred years before anyone else even thought about the Web.

Here's the proof, courtesy of Amazon. (Check out the publication date.)

And thanks to Larry Frieders for bringing this to my attention.