nick usborne's blog

Some generous reviews of my book, New Path to Riches.

“In this brilliant book, Nick Usborne lays out a proven path to passive income with niche websites.  His chapter on how to make readers like you is solid gold and worth 100 times the cost of the book. You really can do this and Nick’s book is your perfect roadmap.” – Michael Stelzner

"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." - Roger C. Parker

"This little book is just fantastic! It has completely opened my eyes to the huge opportunity that lies in creating income-generating websites about topics I'm already passionate about.

In fact, it has enabled me to pinpoint why one of my websites has always struggled to make money. Using Nick's ideas and strategies from this book, I will soon be reworking my entire strategy and approach with that site.

If this economic downturn has taught us anything it's that depending on just one source of income (your employer) is foolish. In this book, Nick shows you how to develop a passive income stream that will help you diversify how you earn a living, giving you more freedom, choices and peace of mind." - Ed Gandia

"A lot of people talk about making money on the web, but only a relatively small number actually do it, and Nick is one of them. A lot of people publish their writings online, but only a small percentage of them actually make a profit from it, and Nick is one of them. In this book, he reveals a specific and proven model for making money on the web with your writing. It is different than the method I use and teach, and it works. Get the book, read it, learn it, do it." - Bob Bly

More about New Path to Riches...

Billions of questions are asked online every single day.

Here is the opening paragraph of an article in today’s The New York Times.

"Two companies that produce massive quantities of new content every day, Answers.com and Demand Media, are rapidly moving up the list of top U.S. web properties, as measured by comScore. Answers.com has risen from #26 to #13 in just two months, and Demand Media has risen from #24 to #15 in the same time period. Answers.com has nearly 38 million pages of content on the Web so far; Demand Media produces 2000 new pieces of content a day."

Put simply, a billion people worldwide go online in search of answers to their questions every day.

Maybe they want to know where to find a squirrel-proof bird feeder.

Or how to age a pair of new jeans.

Or where to stay on a trip to Paris.

Or how to make low-acid coffee.

Or how to find a spare part for a vintage motorcycle.

The list of questions is endless. Hence the extraordinary growth of Answers.com.

What does this have to do with you and me?

Well, it certainly is of interest to me, because my own website, CoffeeDetective.com, is based on answering questions.

Every page on the site provides answers to question people have about making coffee. Thousands of people type questions into Google and find my site as a result. I also have a dedicated Q&A page to answer specific questions people post to the site.

And you can do the same – becoming a trusted source of answers on a topic that interests you.

Can we compete with sites like Answers.com? Sure we can.

Our sites may never be as big, but we have some advantages.

1. Our sites are focused on one topic only. This means we can present ourselves as authorities in that area. At Answers.com you have no way of knowing whether you can trust the answers to your question.

2. Our sites have character and personality. Answers.com is just a vast silo of questions and answers. There is nobody there, behind the counter. There is no personality to the site. It’s big, but it isn’t personal.

The growth of Answers.com isn’t something for us to worry about. But it is a sign that more and more people are turning to the web for answers to their questions.

And that is great news for those of us who write our own money-making websites.

Our sites are poised to answer people’s questions in a human, personal and authoritative way.

To find out how to tap into this vast and growing appetite to find answers online, get a copy of my book, New Path to Riches.

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.

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...

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...

Hobby electronics? That is one website topic I would never have thought of.

If you asked me to stand up and start describing different topic ideas for money-making websites, I would probably stall at about number twenty.

Give me an internet connection and a few hours, and I could probably come up with a thousand topics.

I’m guessing it is the same for anyone.

When we are put on the spot and asked to think of topics, I think we first think of our own immediate interests and hobbies.

But the beauty of writing your own website is that you can actually cast a very wide net. Most of us have interests that reside on the outer edges of our experience. There is the obvious stuff, and then those topics that maybe we were interested in many years ago, but never pursued.

If I think back one, two or three decades I can remember times when I was passionately interested in stone carving, collecting antique locks, and the conservation of rare breeds of farm animals.

I haven’t spent much time thinking about any of these topics for years, but I bet I could revitalize my interest in any one of them if I started writing about it on a website.

All that said, I don’t think I could ever write a website about hobby electronics.

But that is what Natalie Norman is doing with her website, The Electronics Hobbyist.

A few months ago she took my program, How to Write Your Own Money-Making Websites. Using what she learned she created her own hobby electronics website. And now she is adding to it with more and more pages.

I think it’s a great idea. It’s the unexpected, little known niches that do so well online. She may not be able to attract “anyone and everyone” to her website, but the people who do read her pages will be passionate and deeply engaged by what she says.

Visit her site. She is doing a great job. Terrific idea and excellent execution.

(And she's already on page one of the Google search results for the term "electronics hobbyist".)

How many keywords should you optimize for across your website?

I was asked that question recently by someone who had been told he should optimize his website for no more than 14 keywords in total.

Horrible, terrible advice.

Maybe I might optimize the homepage and second level pages for a total of 14 keywords or phrases. But what about the other pages on your site? What about those hundreds of third and fourth level pages?

Hopefully you do a good job of optimizing your home page and major category pages. But the dozens or hundreds of pages beneath those categories all offer wonderful opportunities to attract new search traffic.

Every page on your site should be optimized, and those third level pages give you the chance cast a wider net by addressing the long tail of minor keywords.

As an example, let’s look at the first five days of this month for my site CoffeeDetective.com.

My top 14 keywords accounted for 25.3% of my traffic.

The rest of my traffic, 74.7%, arrived via all the other keywords for which the major search engines found a relevant page on my site.

Guess how many keywords people used to find my site during those first five days of the month alone.

2,513.

14 keywords won’t cut it. You need a bigger net than that.

Big companies don’t answer your questions very well. Experts next door do.

If you type the word coffee into Google, the first result is usually Starbucks. My own site, CoffeeDetective.com, is listed on page twenty of those results.

This isn’t so surprising. We expect the big guy to be number one when we type in any single-word search that describes a broad topic area. Coffee. Money. Travel. Gardening.

But what happens when you type in a question that is far narrower in its meaning?

Go to Google and type in the phrase, “is coffee fattening?”

In this case, CoffeeDetective.com comes in at number one or two, and Starbucks is nowhere to be found.

Big company websites focus on what they do and what they sell. But they don’t do nearly as well when addressing the specific questions that people actually ask.

Try again with “organic coffee pods”.

Again, CoffeeDetective.com is in the number one spot, and Starbucks is nowhere.

The fact that big companies focus primarily on what they do and what they sell provides individuals who are writing their own websites with a wonderful opportunity.

As experts next door, we don’t try to compete on that primary topic description – like coffee, money, travel or gardening. Instead, we find out what people really want to know. What are the real life questions that people are asking? What information are people actually looking for?

By taking the side of people who are asking specific, narrow questions, people writing their own information websites can beat the big guys in search results.

Don’t compete with them on what they do and what they sell. Compete with them on the narrow sub-topics which address the information searchers are actually looking for.