nick usborne's blog

Review of my book, New Path to Riches, by Roger C. Parker

I sent Roger a review copy of my new book, and he has been kind enough not only to read it cover to cover, but also to post a very generous review on Amazon.

I like the fact that he tells readers this book isn’t about “get rich quick”. And when he says he finished the book with a renewed sense of enthusiasm, that’s the icing on the cake for me.

Why? Because in a world where it seems only the loudest, most hype-ridden promises of instant wealth catch attention, it's good to know that I have managed to generate enthusiasm with the description of a more realistic goal..

The book isn’t about getting rich quick, but can still leave you feeling excited about the prospect of creating a reasonable second income from some money-making websites of your own.

Here is the full text of Roger’s review.

I recommend Nick Usborne's New Path to Riches for many reasons, but--most important--I respect its realism and restraint.
 
For too long, the majority of books about Internet marketing have included the word "millionaire" in their title. Nick's book, however, makes no such claims.
 
Instead, it describes how he created a part-time, "enthusiast" site that earns him $4,000 a month in passive, or residual, income. This is a far more realistic approach that doesn't oversell prospective readers.
 
What I especially like is the fact that he balances the success that he's achieving with his www.coffeedetective.com site, with his admission that online success can never be "guaranteed"--that his success with the coffee site is balanced by other sites that don't produce as much income for him each month.
 
The above level of candor, alone, puts Nick Usborne's New Path to Riches in a class of its own.
 
In the book's 9 chapters, Nick provides an overview of the basics of online marketing--and the revolution that Google has created--with enough details to substantiate his claims. His arguments about the inability of traditional media to properly serve niche markets is especially strong. His example of the "garden bridge" website does the best job of driving home the power of the Internet to allow individuals to profit from under-served niche markets of any I've seen.
 
I left New Path to Riches with a new enthusiasm for rethinking some of my previous "too crazy to try" web marketing ideas and a desire to reposition some of my current websites to do a better job of appealing to fewer visitors.
 
Definitely worth buying if you're considering developing one, or more, niche websites to smooth out your monthly cashflow with minimum risk.

Buy your own copy of New Path to Riches at Amazon.com.

Roger C. Parker is a prolific author himself, and you can learn more about him at his site, Published and Profitable.

Thanks Roger!

An easy, reliable income, that isn't too good to be true.

I am constantly amazed by my hobby website, CoffeeDetective.com.

Each month it brings in an average income of about $4,000.

I spend maybe two hours a week on the site.

That’s certainly the easiest money I make each month.

It is also the most reliable money I earn.

It seems to be immune to economic downturns.

It is passive, so I can take a few weeks off from it, with no ill effects.

It continues to grow, both in the number of its pages and the income it generates.

I don’t have to sell anything, or even create anything to sell.

I don’t have to struggle to market the site. 99% of the traffic comes to me through the major search engines.

Also, it has been a great investment. I haven’t invested much money in it, but I have invested some time. It’s pretty much immune to shenanigans on Wall Street. I’ll never wake up to find that I have just lost 10% of my “investment”. And how much would I have to have invested in Wall Street to generate a passive income of $4,000 a month?

It’s an asset. I could sell it tomorrow and make a nice lump sum. I won’t, but I could.

I can learn from it, and create a second and then a third website that earns the same amount.

As I said, I can’t think of an easier or more secure way to make a significant and reliable source of income.

What’s not to like?

If you would like to do the same, or better, step one is to get a copy of my new book, New Path to Riches.

Not Me Mondays: Marcia Yudkin

The web is awash with marketing gurus, many of who started out in business over the last couple of years. Scary.

Marcia Yudkin has been writing for a living for almost 30 years now. She is the writer and publisher of numerous information products designed to help small business and soloprenuers better market their businesses. She also teaches people, individually and in groups, to become information marketers themselves.

What sets her apart from the crowd?

First of all, everything about her, her business and her materials is totally hype-free. She just presents her work as it is, and lets it stand on its own merit. No hard sales and no wild promises.

Over the years I have purchased a number of her products and have always found the information she shares to be useful, helpful and relevant. I really appreciate the step by step approach she takes, and absolutely appreciate the absence of hype.

In addition to the products she creates, she is also a speaker, seminar leader, consultant and coach.

When you become tired of the hype and hoopla, and want solid advice on how to succeed, visit her site at Yudkin.com.

5 ways to increase your productivity as a writer.

Of everything I have had published, one of the biggest sellers has been a rather short guide, just 45 pages, called Writing Rituals.

Why the popularity? Probably because as writers we all know there are days, if not weeks, when we are not nearly as productive as we would like.

If we are freelance writers or copywriters, those periods of low productivity quickly turn into periods of low income.

In short, if you write for a living, you need to be productive every day.

A lucky few seem to have been born with the ability to be madly productive without any extra effort. But most of us require some help. We use to-do lists, scheduling applications and any other tool we can use to stay organized, on track and focused.

Writing Rituals, while addressing the use of such tools, also applies the power of rituals. Not habit, but rituals.

The guide takes you through a sequence of five rituals which, when applied, will almost certainly help you not only maintain a higher and consistent level of productivity, but will also help you improve the quality of your writing.

As always, the guide is available through the Writing Rituals website, along with a couple of bonuses.

As of this week, you can also buy it, at a lower price, without the bonuses, at Booklocker.com.

"Mothers turn to Web for product, medical advice" - Do you have a website idea for moms?

Interesting news from Reuters this morning:

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Companies trying to market products to mothers need to head onto the Internet with a survey showing the 21st century mother is online daily, using Facebook to connect to friends and Google to diagnose illnesses.

A poll by parenting website BabyCenter.com found 63 percent of online mothers now use social media networks such as Facebook regularly, compared to only 11 percent three years ago.

Also today, The New York Times announced it was laying off another 100 staff.

The writing is on the wall: more and more people, moms included, are turning not to traditional media, but to the web. They want to learn stuff, they want to compare products, they want their questions answered.

And they are no longer turning to mainstream media – they are turning towards each other online.

This is why now is the perfect time to write your own website, tie it in with social media, build an audience and make some money.

That’s what I do with my site CoffeeDetective.com. I provide the information and answers people are looking for, but can’t find in traditional media. (Over the last three months my daily traffic has doubled from 1,000 visitors a day to 2,000. And I’m on track to make an average of $4,000 a month from that one site this year.)

The growth of my own website, and the income it is producing, is riding on the back of the extraordinary shift in how and where people look for the information and answers they need.

If you want to know how to write your own money-making websites – for moms or anyone else – get a copy of my new book, New Path to Riches.

Do I want you to buy my book from Amazon.com or from Booklocker.com? (Surprise ending.)

My new book, New Path to Riches, is available from Amazon.com and from the company that published it, Booklocker.com. As an author, a question I have to address is whether to drive prospective buyers to the former or to the latter.

Interesting question.

Here are some thoughts. These are from the author’s point of view. Buyers have a whole different set of priorities.

In favour of Amazon.com:

If everyone buys from Amazon, then the book rises in the ranking, gets more exposure to a larger audience and my sales can increase. In short, if you can get a little traction on Amazon, both your exposure and your sales go up.

Against Amazon.com:

They discount the price of the book. (Good for you, as a buyer. Not so good for me.) Income from Amazon comes through to me months after the sale. Bad for cashflow. Also, they take a hefty slice of the pie. So I get less money per sale, and have to wait months to get my hands on it.

In favour of Booklocker.com:

I get a bigger slice of the pie, and I’m paid monthly. They also provide an e-book version. Good for some buyers, and good for me too, as my slice of e-book revenues is the biggest of all.

Against Bookocker.com:

I don’t get the kind of exposure that is possible through Amazon.

Based on these factors alone, I win with Amazon only if the book gets some wind behind its sales. Financially, Amazon only works for an author if it generates a lot of extra sales. If the book doesn’t take off and sales are moderate, then I win with sales through Booklocker.com, because I get a bigger slice of the sales and get paid faster.

So which do I choose?

After mulling this over for a while, I came to the obvious conclusion. I don’t choose. I don’t express a preference. I don’t tell people where to buy. I leave it up to the buyer to decide. In short, as an author, it’s not my place to tell people where to buy. If the Web has taught us anything, it is this: the buyer decides.

One more thing.

Putting aside the financial rewards of writing a book, which can be meagre unless things really take off, there are some personal reasons why I favour Booklocker.

I know them. Nice people. It’s a very small company. They do a great job. They are responsive to their authors.

And...Amazon is trying to do them harm. In fact, Amazon is trying to harm every small publishing company that uses any Print On Demand service not owned by them. More specifically, they have threatened to remove the Buy button from any Print On Demand titles on Amazon that are not printed through their own POD service, BookSurge.

That’s not good. I hate it when big companies bully small ones.

Now for the good part. Teeny, tiny Booklocker is suing Amazon. Amazon tried to get the case thrown out, but without success.

That is good. I love it when the little guy stands up to the big bully.

Finally then, never mind that “the buyer decides” stuff, buy New Path to Riches from Booklocker...

Not Me Mondays: Bob Bly.

If you are freelance writer or copywriter and are looking for a role model, I can’t think of a better choice than Bob Bly.

But be warned: if you want to be like Bob, you’re going to have to work very, very hard.

He has been writing for a living since...I don’t even know...but I’m thinking some time soon after the end of the Crimean war.

Over the course of his career he has written copy for over a hundred different companies. When see the full list ion his website, it is quite dizzying.

And he is no slouch in the publicity department either. He has been on TV and radio shows including MoneyTalk 1350, The Advertising Show, Bernard Meltzer, Bill Bresnan, CNBC, Winning in Business, The Small Business Advocate and CBS Hard Copy.

He has also been featured and/or quoted in major media ranging from the LA Times and Nation's Business, to the New York Post and the National Enquirer.

Take note, aspiring freelancers: he works as hard on his marketing as he does on his writing.

Think he’s busy with all that?

In addition to his copywriting work, Bob has also written over 70 books. While most are about writing, copywriting and marketing, one of his titles - and I’m not even sure he would want me to tell you this - is on the subject of hot dogs..

On top of all this, he is a really nice guy. Not at all one of those, “I’m rich and better than you in every way” people.

You can learn more about Bob at Bly.com.

Should your money-making site be a website or a blog?

I’m asked this question at least once a week.

When backed into a corner, I usually recommend that people write a website. The familiar tree structure of a website makes it easy to organize your content, and easy for readers to click down and find what they want.

Also, with a website, you can be away on vacation for a couple of weeks and nobody will know. If you stop blogging or two weeks, people might wonder whether you have given up. Worse, they may go elsewhere for their regular fix of information on your topic.

If you are interested in creating a blog, various blogging platforms, including Typepad and Wordpress, also allow you to create something that is both a blog and a website.

Take a look at a few Wordpress sites and you’ll see both a blog on the front page and navigation tabs at the top which take you to static web pages. In fact, you can use Wordpress to create a website with no blog component at all.

As an example, Rebecca Matter took my course, How to Write Your Own Money-Making Website, and then created her site, WhatToCookWhen.com with Wordpress.

Take a look at it and you’ll see she has a blog on the home page, plus a variety of static pages, accessible through the tabs at the top.

Creating her website this way, she gets the advantages of having both a blog and a website, under the same domain. She can create evergreen content for the static pages, and keep people’s attention with frequent additions to the blog.

I think this combination works well. But having a blog does create ties. You have to commit to being there for your readers on a regular basis.

For that reason alone, I’m still a big fan of creating traditional websites.

NOTES: For help in creating your own money-making website, or blog, learn more about my program, How to Write Your Own Money-Making Websites.

If you are not ready to commit to the full program, start off by reading my book, New Path to Riches.

Read Chapter One of my new book, New Path to Riches.

I have been busy again, and have just published a new book, New Path to Riches.

New Path to Riches is on the same topic as my full course, How to Write Your Own Money-Making Websites.

So why did I write a book, when I already have the course?

The reason for writing the book is simple...

Buying the course and spending the time to write a website is a big commitment.

For each person who has already purchased the course, I think there are probably hundreds of others who are intrigued by the idea of writing a money-making website, but not yet ready to fully commit.

The book is designed to be a stepping stone between feeling intrigued...and making that bigger commitment.

Reading New Path to Riches is just a small step. But it does paint the full picture. It tells the complete story, and shows how various elements in the business world have converged to open the way for people to write quality websites which can make good money.

What are these converging elements?

1. Traditional sources of information are struggling. Newspapers are shutting down. Magazines are closing their doors or getting really skinny. Why? Because advertisers are taking their money online. There is just less information to be found in print these days.

2. Big media and big websites don’t do a very good job at providing information on very narrow topics. Big websites are there for you when you search with the word “coffee”. Websites created by enthusiasts are there for you when you search with the phrase “organic coffee pods”.

3. More and more we are faced not towards big media, but towards each other. We spend less time on big company sites, and more time interacting with each other, via blogs, Facebook, Twitter and so on.

4. We prefer to learn from the “expert next door”. Trust in big media is declining, interest in learning online from other people like ourselves is increasing.

You can probably think of other trends which are also pointing in the same direction.

The point is, there has never been a better time to create your own website on a topic that interests you. There are a mass of tools available to help you build the site, attract visitors and make some money.

Reading New Path to Riches is the first step.

Get it for yourself. Or for your son, your aunt, your neighbour, your mother, a colleague, a friend, or a group online.

You can get the first chapter of New Path to Riches free here...

Not Me Mondays: Michel Fortin

I’m going to give something a try. Each Monday, for a while at least, I’m going to write about a fellow writer, copywriter, coach or marketer. I’ll stick to the people I know and respect.

Why? For a couple of reasons. One, to give back a little. I think I do OK giving back to people who read my writing and purchase my products. But I don’t do so well when it comes to recognizing my own colleagues and peers.

Also, I hope to serve as a filter. If you read me because you trust me...then consider these Monday posts as a thumbs-up for other people you may want to deal with.

There will be no particular rhyme or reason in the order in which I write these posts. So don’t read anything into my choice for this first post in the series, Michel Fortin.

True, he is a fellow Canadian, and he lives only a few hours from my own home, although we have never met face to face.

And, like me, he is a long-time copywriter.

I have a few years on him when it comes to copywriting, and experience as an online copywriter. But he has achieved a lot more than me in the area of delivering products and services to other copywriters and online marketers.

While there are a ton of people who produce a veritable flood of courses and programs, I have picked Michel for one particular reason.

Like me, he believes you can sell hard without resorting to hype, deception and manipulation.

That’s a big issue for me in marketing online, and always has been.

But Michel, and his wife Sylvie, are way ahead when it comes to articulating and sharing that message.

I also respect the fact that when you go to his site, it isn’t all about selling his own products and services. He takes the time both to state his position on various issues, and give away a ton of useful information.

You’ll find Michel at MichelFortin.com