Hey folks! Hope all is going swimmingly well in your online empire.

I had a really great summer. Though I didn’t do much traveling, my daughter went to my cousins house for almost the entire summer, which provided some serious “me” time.

In 8 years, I’d never had a break like that before. I was initially baffled by all the free time I had! The first week I woke up with butterflies in my stomach every morning. I was actually nervous not having my kid around.

I hardly remember what my life was like before child rearing as a single parent. But I quickly grew to appreciate the no cooking and no grocery shopping perks. Plus I got to see so much of the city at night! Woo-hoo!

Eventually I did some work. Created a bunch of new infoproducts, yada, yada, yada.

By August I grew achy from my newfound freedom and was glad to see mini-me come back home. What will I do when Miss Independent ships off to college in 10 years? Uuuugh… I don’t even wanna think about it.

Anyway, I had a few really good infoproduct launches over the summer. I had a couple nice ones in the spring also. And there were two cursory duds thrown into the mix. You can’t win ‘em all, ya know.

Business overall has been sweet though. I’ve been doing this desperate e-book stuff for several years now and I have to admit that I’m still amazed at how it supports my little family.

Case in point…

I have 8 “actively producing cash” websites in the online atmosphere right now.

I’m talking about sites that generate anywhere from $500-$8K a month. (The highest producer is an Internet marketing product that I’ve written under a pen name.)

In the past year I’ve quietly sold off another 4 “actively producing cash” websites. As you may recall (or not) I used to sell turnkey websites, and even wrote a pretty comprehensive e-book about it around 9 years ago. (Don’t even ask me where that thing is.)

I may not be the bestest blogger out there – (Ha, ha!). But I do know how to generate consistent income by writing something once and selling the shit out of it. That’s why you don’t hear much complaining from Alexis Dawes.

Hard work really does pay off.

And that brings me to the purpose of this post… My hard work could be your part-time income.

Desperate Buyers Only has been on the market since 2006.

I have done virtually NO promotion for it over the past 14 months. And yet it sells, and sells, and sells. Lemme show my sales figures for the past year:

August 2010 – $2,425

July 2010 – $2,910

June 2010 – $3,033

May 2010 – $3,031

April 2010 – $2,162

March 2010 – $1,964

February 2010 – $3,830

January 2010 – $3,322

December 2009 – $3,460

November 2009 – $3,977

October 2009 – $3,783

September 2009 – $3,201

TOTAL: $37,098 over the previous 12 months

The money I’ve made from this ONE e-book is a full-time income for A LOT of people out there.

And that’s from a year of no promotion from me. If I’d be a little kinder in the marketing department, I have no doubt that I’d be doing $5K a month in sales from it.

But then again, that’s the beauty of knowing how to write and sell e-books.

When I get bored with one project, I can move on to something else and still make money. Heck, there’s no use in being in business for yourself if you can’t enjoy everything that you do.

If you’re an entrepreneur who feels unhappily forced to do anything that doesn’t please you, then you might as well go get a 9 to 5. That’s my philosophy.

In any case, I’m bored with DBO. Yes, it’s successful. But it kinda just lingers in my portfolio. And I don’t want it to linger because it really is a great concept, and it’s evergreen. As long as people have problems, they’re going to be desperate to solve those problems.

I want to hand DBO off to someone who’s excited about it. Someone who believes in the DBO premise and wants to blog about these concepts. Someone who can nurture it and just really keep it going. I’d LOVE to see someone else make a mint from this project like I have.

Would YOU like to be the new owner of Desperate Buyers Only?

Would YOU like to have super affiliates like Brian Clark from Copyblogger and Yaro Starak from Entrepreneurs Journey on your team?

Would YOU like to have an “actively producing cash” website that has proven sales copy, and actual longevity in the market?

If so, drop me an e-mail – travelwithme AT gmail DOT com.

I’m planning on starting an auction on Flippa later this afternoon, but I’d really, really love to see it go to a reader who can appreciate it.

Are you that person?

“When are you going to update your blog? Where are you Waldo?”

I’m here. I’m here! And jeez, it’s been a long time.

In the past year since we last spoke, I…

* Came out with the 2009 edition of Desperate Buyers Only. It’s got all new content, including an actual copy of a desperate product.

* Added another 4 e-books to my desperate e-book repertoire.

* Have written hundreds of web content articles. Hundreds! Most of them ghostwritten. Many of them centered around (get this) health and medical topics. I like writing health content. It almost made me want to become a doctor. Ha – NOT! It’s a noble occupation and all, but I’m not the college type.

In other words, I’m still making money with my words.

And in that time I’ve learned that any competent writer can thrive — even during a recession.

Not just survive. I said thrive. Live a comfy, cozy, ‘fly-to-the-French-Rivera-for-the-weekend’ type of thriving.

When I step away from this blog for an extended period of time, sometimes I am sitting on my duff, drinking wine and people watching at the French bistro downstairs. Sometimes I’m frolicking at the beach or doing the Disney World thing.

But most of the time I’m tinkering with success strategies. You know I have a hard time saying “Do this,” to my readers if I haven’t personally done it. It’s just not my style. So I’m constantly testing new money making ideas.

And the most important lesson I learned within the past few months is that, there is NO SUBSTITUTE for being able to research and write content fast.

If you can write fast, and you can write fairly well, you don’t have to be broke. Period!

At the absolute lowest end of the totem pole you can get $15 an article gigs like the positions at Demand Studios.

If you can write fast and follow their style guidelines, you can write seven articles a day and clear an easy $105 every single day. Right now, today they’ve got 50,210 articles waiting to be written. On every topic you can imagine, nonetheless. You make a guaranteed $100 a day and still have time to write your own e-books.

(If you don’t currently write for Demand Studios, and you’re interested, wait. I’m writing a report that’ll show you how to get hired, and earn $100-$150 a day. You get paid twice a week at DS, so if you’re currently caught in the recession shuffle, this is an easy-peasy way to keep your head comfortably above water.)

And if you think you’re too special for Demand Studios (we all are from time to time), you can get $25+ an article gigs from private clients who are literally waiting for good web content writers to show up. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to compete with the low ball writers who charge $1 per hundred words, unless you want to.

If you can write fast, you can create your own authority sites, and benefit from Adsense revenue and affiliate sales. Ten articles a day on a topic you absolutely love isn’t a stretch IF you can write fast.

There’s NO REASON to be a starving writer nowadays.

Not even during a recession. And I simply don’t subscribe to that notion that you’ve gotta pay some bullshit dues or have an English degree or chase some magazine editor to make money as a writer.

You don’t. Really.

If you have inside knowledge into the way things work, you just show up in the right places and do your part. Unfortunately (or fortunately) most people don’t have inside knowledge. And if they do have it, they don’t use it.

For example, if you have a copy of The Good and Fast Content Creation formula (which I currently include with Desperate Buyers Only), and you’re not using it, you’re missing out on an opportunity to possibly double your income.

Last month I cranked out close to 200 articles at 350-500 words a piece. A good bulk of the medical articles ranged from $35-$50 a pop. And by golly, I follow my own Good and Fast Content Creation Formula advice!

I’ve got my desperate e-books bringing in passive income. I’ve got web content clients that I write for. And if my entire online empire should collapse, I’ve got Demand Studios giving me $15 for an article that takes 20-30 minutes to write.

I’m not bored because I can write about whatever I want to write about at any given time, and it’s going to make me some money. And if I don’t feel like writing anything, I can live off my e-book income. This is a sweet time to have good writing skills!

Over the next few weeks I’ll be revealing some great stuff I’ve picked up over the past year. But in the mean time, heed my word. You will make a lot more money if you just get faster.

Stay tuned!

An author of desperate ebooks must always be prepared to channel their inner Sherlock Holmes.

Your eyes must be open – with glasses on. You must have the skills to interview complete strangers without the slightest hint of nosiness. You have to be able to put random clues together in order to see the big, achy picture.

The ability to pluck a desperate topic from a normal conversation can be compared to vacation time for some people in the work world. If you don’t use it, you lose it.

So come on and flex with me. Today’s post gives you some (more) mental exercises for finding desperate topics.

1) Your friends and family.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again… friends and family make some of the best kindling wood for ebooks. Examine my own six degrees of separation.

My mom’s in sales. My dad is in the restaurant business. My step-dad is a retired cop. My step-mom is a former runway model. My step-mom’s father owns a landscape company.

I’m familiar with the occupations of nearly every mom (and some dad’s) of the kids in my daughter’s class. They include several UN workers, a translator, an artist, an attorney, a stay-at-home dad/IT professional, etc.

Traveling around the world I’ve met a stay-at-home mom who’s a stock picking genius… a video producer… a musician selling his own CDs… a chef… a professional photographer… a former horse trainer… a children’s clothing shop owner… and the list goes on.

Do you think out of that rather limited list that you could find a desperate topic somewhere?

Of course you could!

And my secret to success really isn’t a secret at all.

I like people. All kinds of people. And I like listening to people tell me their stories.

Not only do you find desperate topics that way, you also get to learn about their friends and family. And the cycle starts all over again.

2) Associations.

Whenever I have an interest, I join an association.

I love to travel. So I’ve joined two associations specifically for professionals in the travel industry.

My goal is to know what woes the workers of the travel industry. And the easiest way to get the inside scoop (without being in the travel industry) is to participate in their trade groups.

I read their newsletters. I buy their research reports. I lurk on their message boards. (Message boards that are reserved for paying members only.)

It can be a costly venture. Some associations cost hundreds of dollars to join.

But the intimate knowledge you’ll walk away with can easily be worth tens of thousands of dollars.

3) Blog comments.

Besides leaving my own words of wisdom, I’m a big fan of reading through blog comments for desperate topics.

Sometimes people ask questions. Sometimes they mention their unfulfilled requests or nagging problems. At times they even out right say what they want.

Of course not every blog comment is worth its weight gold. You still have to do your research to make sure it matches the desperate topics criteria. But they’re certainly a good starting point.

Your Assignment for the Week–

Using one of the above mentioned resources, find just one desperate topic that has been measured against the DBO criteria.

Put it in your idea folder.

When you’re finished working on existing projects, pull out that idea and get busy on it.