excess voice: nick usborne's blog

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.

I love it when companies online do the work for me.

Until recently I stored and had my digital photos printed through FuturePhoto.com, a service of FutureShop.com.

A few months ago they sent me an email saying they were going to close down the service. No more photo storage and printing.

With most companies, this would have been step one in a painful process of transferring my photos elsewhere.

But the folks at FuturePhoto did things a little differently.

They did a deal with Kodak.ca. A free transfer of my photos.

That sounded like a good thing, not leaving me in the lurch. But I would still have to do the transfer.

Not so. They then told me they would do the transfer automatically. All I had to do was say Yes.

Plus Kodak would give me 100 4x6 prints free.

Nice incentive.

So I clicked the Yes button and anticipated spending a little time on setting up my new account at Kodak.ca.

Didn't have to.

I just clicked one button and was then told my photos were being transferred, my account had the same login and password as my old one at FuturePhoto and that I should remember to claim my 100 free prints.

Do I feel good about the experience? Sure I do.

So how come most websites make me work so hard to get what I want?

Nick Usborne's Million Dollar Secrets to Online Copywriting

I can now tell you about the online copywriting course I have written. Finally, it is ready to ship.

It has been seven years since I wrote my book, Net Words. And in hindsight, writing the book was a lot easier.

This course takes a "how to" approach. So rather than just tell you how I think a web page should be written, I actually go through each web page step by step and write it.  I go through that exercise for a number of different types of web page, and for emails and e-newsletters too.

Interestingly, while I was ready to write my book back in 2001, I haven't been ready to write a complete course until more recently. How come? Because to take a "how to" approach, I needed more test data under my belt.

Writing a book about how I think things SHOULD be done online is one thing. Writing  a "how to" course depends a lot more on knowing what is actually proven to work, based on valid data.

Unlike most online copywriting courses, this one isn't all about writing single-page sales letters. Instead, I focus on the kinds of sites you and I work on every day...10-page sites, 100-page sites, 1,000-page sites and so on. 

In other words, I address the full complexity of writing for the web...writing single pages, page sequences, link text, keywords, a variety of different kinds of email, e-newsletters and more.

The course comprises my complete body of knowledge on the subject of writing for the web. This is the whole ball of wax, presented in a sequence that makes sense from beginning to end.

Should you get a copy?

If you want to know everything I know about writing for the web, I think this course will serve you well.

I have written it in a way that will work for anyone who writes for the web, whether you are a freelancer, entrepreneur, webmaster or part of an in-house online writing team.

My intention was to write the first "professional grade" course for online writers and copywriters.

I think, and hope, I have achieved exactly that.

The course is being published and marketed by American Writers and Artists Inc and is available through the link below. You might find the title a little exotic, but between the covers it's all me.

Find out more about "Nick Usborne's Million Dollar Secrets to Online Copywriting" here...

Some thoughts about enjoying your work as a freelance writer.

Working as a coach to help freelancers develop and grow their businesses raises a wonderful variety of concerns and interests.

Recently, I had to give some thought to the issue of enjoying one's work as a freelancer.

Here's what I concluded:

There are different ways to look at this. There is the "realistic view". This is where a copywriter might say to me, "Sure, I try to stick to work I'll enjoy. But hey, there are bills to be paid, so sometimes I take what's on offer, even if I'm not going to enjoy it much."

I can relate to that view. But the flip side of it is that every aspect of your business improves when you enjoy your work. You will work faster. Your writing will be better. Your expertise will grow faster. Clients will love to work with you, because it will always be a positive experience for them. Word will spread. Etc.

So while bills do need to be paid, I am also very strict in my own business. Here's what I say to myself, "If I save 16 hours not working on this project I won't enjoy, surely I can use that time to find a different project, for a better fee, that I will enjoy."

This approach helps keep me focused and on track.

That said, I know I am very susceptible to being "pulled down" by work I don't enjoy. Project like that really depress me. For copywriters who are not impacted that way, it may not be such an important issue.

Goal Setting Rituals – a new guide for freelance writers and copywriters.

I have been busy. A couple of months back I published Writing Rituals, a guide to help writers and copywriters increase their productivity. And now I have just completed a second guide, Goal Setting Rituals.

The goal setting guide is also written for writers and copywriters, but with particular focus on freelancers.

As a freelancer one either has clear goals, or one simply drifts around hoping some work will come our way. I have noticed this in my coaching work a great deal. The freelancers with clear goals are moving forward with purpose. Those without, float around and just hope they pick up enough work to pay the bills.

More on Goal Setting Rituals here...

When words are deliberately misleading.

I was listening to the radio yesterday and learned something interesting.

Up here in Canada some products carry a label that says, "Product of Canada".

It's nice to know when something is made or produced in Canada, particularly if you are buying fruit or vegetables. I buy Canadian produce because I like the idea of supporting local growers, and I don't like the idea of buying "fresh" fruit that has been flown half way around the world to get here.

So imagine my surprise when I discovered that "Product of Canada" doesn't mean what I thought it meant.

Here's what it actually means:

At least 50% of the PACKAGING for this product was made in Canada.

Now, I know that government at every level has a habit of playing with words and their meaning. But this little gem has to take the prize for misleading people.

50% of the PACKAGING?

Maybe I could try something like:

Nick Usborne – born and bred in the USA!

(Actually, 50% of my clothes were made in the US. Which probably means they came from China.)

The pleasure of unsubscribing.

Over the years I have subscribed to dozens of different e-newsletters. I suppose I am a little impulsive. I find a writer or marketer I think might be interesting, and sign up on the spot.

The problem is, most of them then take my subscribing as a sign that they are free to deluge me with increasingly breathless demands that I not only read what they say, but also click on all their links and buy something.

At this point I sigh and mark them as Junk. I don't mark them as Spam. That wouldn't be fair. I did subscribe after all. But I don't want them filling my inbox.

A few times a week I'll take a peek in my Junk folder and maybe read one or two emails.

I thought I had things made with the Junk folder option. I figured I could still view these emails if and when I wanted, but wouldn't be distracted by their appearance throughout the day.

But I was denying myself a huge pleasure.

Today I opened my Junk folder and unsubscribed from a dozen or more lists.

What a glorious, liberating experience that was. It felt great and I highly recommend it.

Now I won't even be tempted to waste time looking through Junk.

Do you segment your email subscriber lists?

Segmenting your list means you can customize your messages in many ways.

How about those subscribers who always click on the links, but never buy anything? Write them a specific sequence of emails to tip them over into purchasing. Maybe send them a survey and learn a little more about them.

How about the group who clicked on and purchased Product A last year? Maybe they would be a perfect match for Product E which you are about to launch.

List segmentation gives the opportunity to speak with different groups of subscribers with carefully customized messages. It not only makes every email directly relevant to each reader, but also results in much higher conversion rates.

If your email delivery service doesn't enable you to drill down and segment in this way...you might want to consider upgrading to a new service.