nick usborne's blog

How to compete with algorithmic-based content-creation factories.

It’s nice to think that web content creation starts with a group of writers and editors sitting around a table, brainstorming ideas.

That’s happening less and less.

More often you’ll find content ideas being selected by an algorithm. Spearheaded by Demand Media, this approach involves algorithms determining the supply and demand of topics online and then spitting out headline suggestions...thousands of them every day.

Writers then get $10 - $15 per article written. Because the pay is so poor, even good writers can’t spend enough time to write quality articles, or posts.

The outcome? A flood of low-quality content, with tens of thousands of these short, low-quality pages being published online every day.

- If you are a writer, you’ll have to work extremely hard to make a living writing for this model.

- If you are an online publisher or merchant, you run the risk of severely damaging your brand by becoming associated with low-quality content.

What’s to do?

Differentiate yourself, and your website, by zagging while the algorithms zig.

Focus on quality content. Attract more visitors. Engage more readers. Build your brand. Leverage social media by creating content worth sharing.

It is to help you do this that I created Web Content Café.

In addition to dozens of articles on content best practices, members also get access to a new content idea, published daily.

There are now 76 content ideas in the archive, available to you immediately when you sign up. Then you get a new idea each day, five days a week.

Subscribe for yourself, or have your company or clients subscribe.

And escape the contagion of low-quality, algorithm-generated content, and all the ill-effects that come with it.

More about Web Content Café...

 

New coaching service: 40-minute calls to help you with your website.

The core of my coaching services focuses on helping my clients build a solid and profitable freelance business. For these clients I offer one-month or three-month coaching options.

But recently, more and more people have been asking if they can pay for just a single call about creating and writing their websites.

The website could be for your freelance business, or it could be a money-making website on a topic that interests you.

Either way, if you need help in deciding on how best to structure your site, craft your main messages, write your body text, or promote you site, you can now schedule a single 40-minute call with me.

Do I know what I’m talking about when it comes to creating and writing websites? I think so. As well as helping my individual coaching clients, I have been hired to do exactly this kind of work by companies including Yahoo!, Disney, the J. Paul Getty Trust, John Deere, Novartis and many others.

The price is just $200 for the call, with a couple of follow-up emails included.

If you would like some help with your website, but don’t need a month or three months of coaching, this could be perfect for you.

If you would like to schedule a call, email me at nickusborne@gmail.com, and include the phrase “website coaching” in the subject line.

Deadline extended to save $100 on my program, "Profitable Freelancing".

The original deadline was yesterday. But it has now been extended to Friday, August 6th.

What is Profitable Freelancing?

It’s a self-study program for freelancers – whether you are just starting out or have been freelancing for years.

It’s about making a lot more money, without having to work any harder.

It’s about replacing your freelance job as a piece worker, and instead building a far more profitable freelance BUSINESS.

It’s about finding better clients who value your work, and pay you more.

It’s about developing additional streams of income which will bring in money while you’re off on vacation.

In a sense, it’s “Nick in a box”. What you get with this program is the most valuable tips and strategies I have shared with my one-on-one coaching clients over the last few years.

If you sometimes feel like a hamster in a wheel...running and running, and afraid to stop...this program is for you.

Most freelancers struggle to make a decent income.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

Profitable Freelancing will show you how to earn more, and work less.

Get it now, before the $100 discount offer really does expire...

 

 

The power of saying NO to your customers.

We keep reading about the power of saying yes to our clients. And we keep telling ourselves the customer is always right, even when he or she isn’t.

To provide some relief from this obsession with saying yes, here is an instructive story for you.

Recently a close friend, my son and I went to a small, hole-in-the-wall Vietnamese restaurant in Camden Lock, London.

It had one of those scary menus with numbered dishes, from 1 through 195.

We glanced through all the items, settled on some starters and main dishes and called for the waiter.

My friend was the host, and took on the task of placing our orders.

The conversation went something like this.

“For our starters, we’ll have numbers 17, 23 and 34.”

“No.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Not 17, 23 and 34.”

“You don’t have them?”

“Yes, we have them. But they are not good.”

“Oh. So what is good?”

“12, 14 and 21. You have those. They are good.”

“OK. And what about our main dishes?”

“You tell me spicy or mild, fish, chicken, pork or beef. I tell you what’s good.”

An unusual experience, to be sure. But the outcome was that I enjoyed one of the best meals of my life, from a restaurant that didn’t look like much, and from a waiter who kept saying no.

There is a lesson to be learned here. The customer isn’t always right. We can often help our customers and clients best by saying no from time to time.

When we say no to poor quality, and yes to high quality, the outcome is the same as at that restaurant – a happy customer.

This lesson applies to pretty much every business model. In my case, I see it being relevant to the creation of web content. Every day companies ask writers to deliver fast, inexpensive and low-quality content.

Most of the time those writers say yes.

The smart ones say no, and create a reputation and brand for themselves that rises way above the ordinary.

Saying no can be good.

For a menu of over 70 high quality web content ideas, and dozens of articles on content best practices, check out the Web Content Café...

Ask your boss to pay for a year of Web Content Café Membership.

If you write web content for your employer, or a regular freelance client, ask them to cough up for a year of Web Content Café Membership.

There are now over 70 web content ideas posted in the members-only area. Each of these could inspire one or more new pages for any site you are working on. Plus you get a new content idea every day, five days a week.

How can you pitch this to your boss? Send them this short slideshow on the benefits of adding fresh content to any website on a daily basis.

(And don't forget to mention that an annual membership gives you 12 months of access for the price of 10. Nice saving.)

Learn more about the benefits of Web Content Café Membership...

How to make a lot more money as a freelancer, without working any harder.

If you are a freelancer, and are looking for ways to increase your income, this message is for you...

Earlier this year I launched a program called Breakthrough Freelance Success.

I am now re-launching that program under a new name – Profitable Freelancing.

Why the re-launch?  Two reasons.

1. I didn’t much like the original name of the program and wanted to change it.

2. I wanted to bring the price down, by a lot. So I cut out the group-coaching part of the package and am now selling just the self-study program – at about half the price of the original program + coaching.

Here’s a peek at what it’s all about...

Given the same levels of skills, and the same opportunities, no two freelancers will make the same amount of money.

One of them will make more. Sometimes a lot more.

It doesn’t mean he works harder, or for more hours.

It simply means that he or she is working smarter.

She is choosing more profitable clients, or more profitable projects. She is making better use of her time and billing more hours. She is building on her strengths, month by month. And she is finding new ways to leverage her skills and knowledge to create new sources of income.

If you want to be that kind of freelancer, and make a lot more money without having to work any harder, check out Profitable Freelancing.

- The price earlier this year was $497, for the program + group coaching.

- The new price is $297 for the program alone.

- But if you order before July 29th (this Thursday), you’ll save $100 and pay only $197.

For the information you’ll be getting, and the positive impact it can have on your freelance business, that’s a pretty good price.

Learn more about Profitable Freelancing, and buy here...

Zagging is fun.

You know the old marketing saw – while everyone is zigging, it’s time to zag.

That’s not what I planned with Web Content Café, but it seems to be what’s happening.

Everywhere I look I see people extolling the virtues of article marketing. Nothing wrong with that...unless you cut corners and publish cheap articles in the hope of fooling the search engines.

Even giant sites like Yahoo! and AOL are getting into that game big time. They have authority domains and plan to monetize staggering quantities of backfill content at lower levels on their sites.

Meanwhile, the get-rich-quick crowd are rushing to persuade people to outsource their article-writing to the Philippines, or use article scraping software to create even more content.

That’s what’s zigging right now. And it’s a huge industry. Content mills like DemandMedia.com and AssociatedContent.com are growing like topsy. (AssociatedContent.com is now owned by Yahoo!)

So when I promote the value of quality content, putting readers ahead of the search engines, I suddenly find myself zagging.

I think I like that. And it’s not like I’m zagging as part of a cunning marketing plan. My position on quality content is the real me. It is what I have been saying since I started out on the web back in 1995. It’s what I wrote about in my book, Net Words, in 2001.

It’s fun to take a contrary position when you believe in it.

And when you know you are right. : )

More about Web Content Café...

 

 

Your readers are probably getting bored with a constant, relentless diet of articles.

Sure, articles are fast to write, and easy to optimize. But too much of the same old thing just gets boring.

And why subject your readers to more and more articles? There are a ton of ways to offer your visitors more value.

Here are just a few alternatives to articles:

- Interviews

- Slideshows

- Tutorials

- Infographics

- Reviews

- Scoops

- Q&A

The list goes on and on.

Delivering greater value to your readers, through quality content, is what Web Content Café is all about.

In fact, there are 59 web content ideas already listed in the archive at the Web Content Café site right now. And a new content idea is added every day, five days a week.

Plus there are dozens of free and premium articles on the site too.

Who subscribes to Web Content Café?

- Website managers working to inspire in-house writers, add value to their websites and engage more prospects and customers.

- Freelancers wanting to add value to their relationships with their clients, and build their expertise as web content writers.

- Writers of their own money-making websites, looking for content ideas that will attract more search engines traffic, get more social media exposure, engage more readers, and generate more income.

To get instant access to the all 59 web content ideas already on the site, sign up now...

5 Ways in which low-quality web content can damage your business.

Some marketers find the allure of bulk, low-quality content irresistible.  Each page is cheap, and each has the potential to attract search engine traffic. Publish a hundred, a thousand or a hundred thousand of these pages and you can attract a lot of extra visitors to your site.

But...low-quality content can do more damage than good. Read the slideshow for 5 reasons why...

Learn more about the benefits of Web Content Café membership…

5 Ways to Power Up the Appeal of Your Web Content.

Another short slideshow. This time I am looking at a few ways to get past "yet another short article uploaded", and actually add a little extra appeal to the web content you publish.

Learn more about the benefits of Web Content Café membership…