Damn… I blinked, and video took over the Internet!

There’s YouTube, Google Video, OurMedia, and a growing number of video aggregators.

Most of these sites are geared towards funny/amusing/cool/stupid stuff. But there are some ways you can profit from the revolution.

1) First find out what people want. ViewDo has a Request a ViewDo forum where you’ll find topics that people want to see on video. The Guitar Tapping thread currently has 600+ views. Ideas for any guitar players???

There’s also VideoJug.com for judging idea popularity.

We’re soon going to be adding a shih tzu to our little family. So I recently found PetVideo.com.

They will tell you how many times a specific video has been viewed. This is also an easy way to see what people want.

Be sure to read the comments for each video. Very valuable feedback when creating your own.

2) Make the video. Bill Myers’ site offers great tips for inexpensively creating videos.

3) Sell the video. Promote it on your web site or on eBay as a DVD, or stream directly from the Internet.

You might also want to try LearnOutLoud.com.

You upload your video here… they sell it… and you earn a 60% commission on each sale.

I get the lazy bug from time-to-time, so I like it when someone else does the work for me, and just sends me a check!

Dust off your video camera and grow rich,

Alexis Dawes

Like some of you reading this blog, I use a pen name for other projects. Actually, I use more than one pen name.

I have them for a couple of reasons.

1) Since I’ve shared my success stories in Desperate Buyers Only, I find that people want to see each and every site that I run.

That ain’t gonna happen!

Those sites I gave up in DBO were sacrificial lambs. I knew there would be some copycats, and I was prepared for that.

But a girl has to keep some secrets.

2) In addition to selling to online entrepreneurs, I also write for corporate markets.

The information I sell to my corporate readers has a completely different tone, and it’s more expensive. By more expensive I mean $1,000 and up. (Interested in learning how? Maybe I’ll do a 2-day workshop for a handful of my readers. E-mail me if you’re interested.)

But the really interesting this is…

Entrepreneurs and corporate heads read the exact same information. Change the words in one product, and double, triple or quadruple your profits.

Let’s take the whole ‘niche marketing’ thing as an example. You know, when you market to a small, ultra targeted segment of a group.

In the Internet marketing world, niche marketing is old news. I mean it’s really past the tipping point right now.

But in corporate America, it’s at the beginning stages of being really hot news.

The Long Tail by Chris Anderson has made it so.

In a nutshell, The Long Tail theory states that smaller, less popular niches combined overpower one large, popular niche.

So if you want maximum traffic from search engines, go for lots of keywords that bring in trickles of traffic, than one keyword that brings in a lot of traffic.

Anyway, isn’t that what Internet marketing e-book writers have been preaching for the past few years? (Myself included.)

Yeah. Over and over again.

But since Chris Anderson gave it a cool Web 2.0 sounding moniker, it’s the-next-big-thing to corporate heads.

Now, I’m definitely not knocking The Long Tail. It’s a great read.

But I think it’s stuff that many of us smaller economic drivers already knew.

And it’s a book that could have been written by an Internet marketer who had the foresight to see that corporate America needed this stuff too.

Change the wording… give your ideas an interesting conceptual name… cut down on the hype… get a few brand name examples… and voila… new book for a new audience based on tried, tested and true concepts.

It’s not rocket science, but it does require the keen ability to switch between a small business and big business brain. (I’m a Gemini, so there are already two of me to begin with!)

Realize that the grass is green on BOTH sides of the fence and grow rich,

Alexis Dawes

I needed these past 3 months like fish need water.

Like Romeo needed Juliet, or like chocolate chip cookies need milk.

Seriously.

I didn’t realize it, but I was tettering on the edge of a mental burnout.

I came to this conclusion when I started my vacation, and my brain immediately shut off. Click… done.

During this time I had absolutely no desire to work. And even though I had a pile of ’stuff,’ my brain just wouldn’t allow me to work on any of it.

I couldn’t write. I didn’t want to read anything remotely related to work. And I actually felt guilty for feeling this way.

I’ve never had this happen before. Normally I’m raring to get back to work DURING my vacations. Not this time though.

All I can say is thank goodness for a profitable summer that permitted me to sit on my arse – (mainly healing from my dislocated kneecap) – and not have to think about anything. My brain feels like it took an enema. (Not to be gross, but you understand the metaphor.)

I’m so refreshed now. Still on vacation. But I’m working at an optimum level. I feel inspired. I guess that’s why I’ve been blogging like I’ve never blogged before.

How I Turned Mental Burnout Into a Mental Breakthrough

When possums are in danger of becoming some animals lunch, they will fall onto their backs, get stiff, and play dead. Predatory animals want to kill their prey. So when they see the dead possum, they move on.

Mental burnout is like your brain playing possum.

They’re often a signal that something in your writers life isn’t working. So your brain shuts off, and plays dead.

It’s up to you to distance yourself from the ‘danger,’ so your brain will wake up again.

Here are some things that I did to re-energize–

* Browsed around the biggest library in town. I had no real mission, except I forced myself to choose those books that I’d like to read for pleasure. So I read a bunch of crafting books. And I freakin’ loved it. I’m so into the DIY movement now. And I saw so many holes that were ripe for a sharp e-book writer like me.

* Stopped buying books to grow my business, and instead watched television. Normally I think television is a collosal waste of time. But during my mental burnout I realized that you can learn A LOT about human psychology by watching talk shows like Oprah and Dr. Phil. I culled many e-book ideas (based on my Desperate Buyers Only formula) by listening to people bare their souls.

* Got mentally engrossed in new hobbies. I learned to sew and do hand embroidery. The change in focus – even for a short period of time – helped me clear my mind of previous issues. Things that I thought were so important really weren’t. This gave me an entirely new perspective about the way I run my business.

Surpringly just as easily as I slipped into brain lockdown, I slipped right out.

One morning I woke up, looked at my idea books, and got back to work.

The sewing machine is now collecting dust. The television basically stays off. They’ve served my purpose so I can continue serving mine.

And in the end, that’s all that matters.

Chill out and grow rich,

Alexis Dawes