writing Archives - Page 6 of 9 - Courses and Tools for Freelancers

14 Ways to Make Money as an Online Writer or Copywriter [SLIDESHOW]

The great thing about writing for the web is the incredible variety it offers.

Back when I was writing direct mail, that’s all I did all day, every day, for about 15 years. And the other copywriters I knew did the same. We were one-trick ponies. Very good at what we did, but more than a little limited in our scope.

That’s probably why I finally burned out and jumped over to writing for the web full time in 1998.

Here I am, 14 years later, and a million miles away for any sense of burnout.

Why did I burn out after 15 years writing direct mail, but not after 14 years writing for the web? Because of the incredible variety.

Read the full post…

Copywriters: Prime your readers with a few carefully chosen words, before you start selling.

by Nick Usborne

Let me introduce you to the Florida Effect.

Conducting a study with students at New York University, psychologist John Bargh told the student the first part of the test would take place in one office, and then the students would be asked to walk down a corridor to another office for the second part.

Half of the group was asked to arrange brief sentences including at least one of the words: Florida, forgetful, bald, gray, or wrinkle. The other half were presented with a completely random list of words.

He didn’t include the words old or age in that first list. He simply used words associated with being old.

Read the full post…

Are you engaging your readers with questions?

by Nick Usborne

Let’s begin with a well-worn analogy.

Trying to engage your readers online is like going on a first date. If you talk about nothing but yourself, there will be no second date. If you want a second date, you should stop talking about yourself and ask your companion some questions.

We have all read this advice 100 times. We all know it’s good advice.

The thing is, it doesn’t seem to make a lick of difference.

The vast majority of posts, articles, Facebook updates, tweets and Google+ posts are the equivalent of the person who never stops talking about himself.

Look at me! Listen to me! Look at what I found! Listen to my 5 killer ways to achieve something amazing!

Read the full post…

101 Topic ideas for your money-making website.

by Nick Usborne

As some of you already know, in addition to my regular work I make a second, passive income with some hobby sites.

My largest hobby site, CoffeeDetective.com, has made me over $250,000 in passive income over the last 7 years. Not bad for a site I work on in the evening and at weekends.

I have also written a program, based on my own experiences, so that other people can do the same.

I have spoken and corresponded with hundreds of people who have taken the program, and many have told me the part of the process they found the hardest was coming up with a topic idea.

Read the full post…

Keep readers coming back with streams of related content.

by Nick Usborne

In one sense, all the content on a website is related. At least, it should be.

If you sell coffee, all of your content will relate to coffee, in one way or another. If you sell garden furniture, all your content will relate to gardens and furniture.

But that’s not what I want to talk about.

What I’m suggesting is that you create a series of streams of content that are much more closely related.

For example, if you sell or write about coffee makers, you might create a series of content pages which focus on all the different brands and models of single serve coffee makers. That’s a subset of the coffee topic, but gives you enough raw material to create a series of 5 to 10 pages of content.

Read the full post…