Sometimes it takes me a good two hours to get to sleep.

My brain is often on worker bee mode when I go to bed, and it has a tendency to formulate ideas when I’m trying to get my gratuitous 5 hours of shut eye.

Oh my gosh, it used to drive me insane!

I would wake up and look at the notebook on the side of my bed. There would be 5-10 different business ideas, book ideas, marketing ideas.

After getting all excited about one these new ideas, I’d immediately get sidetracked from a project I was working on.

Next thing you know, it has taken me 5 months to complete a project that should’ve been done in 30 days. It’s a gift and a curse.

And if you too are an idea person, you’ll completely identify with what I’ve just said.

Today I still have the same creative overdrive when it comes to generating ideas. But I’ve learned to handle the influx a little differently. I’ve discovered how to use my talent for good, while staying on track.

The One Thing You MUST Do To Keep Idea Overload From Slowing You Down

Okay I have some good news, and some bad news.

The bad news is that you’ve got to develop some internal discipline for what I’m about to tell you to work.

People are always looking for some ‘magic’ pill to solve all their worries. Wave a wand, and your troubles are gone. In reality, you have to develop some sort of boundries within your own mind to stay on track. That’s first and foremost.

Next, I want you to go to your local grocery store, dollar store, discount store, or whatever, and pick up a 70-page notebook.

Now whenever you get an idea, I want you to stop and write it down in your notebook.

It doesn’t have to be in any particular order. I often just give a page a title, and then write down the idea.

For example, I have a Infoproduct Ideas page, and a Blog Topics page, etc.

I also create mindmaps to further flesh out an idea.

When I’m finished writing the idea down, I close the notebook, and go back to whatever I was doing.

I only read through the notebook for a few reasons:

1. I’m mentally blocked and need some inspiration.
2. I’m finishing up a project, and seeking some new ideas for the next one.
3. I’m looking for ideas for my consulting clients.

The awesome thing about keeping these notebooks is that over the course of a year or two, you will have compiled hundreds or even thousands of ideas.

I just found a notebook that I did back in 2004, and it was a goldmine of ideas. I was amazed at all the stuff I can still put into play today. Much of what you’ll read in this blog comes the brain sparks culled from that forgotten manuscript.

Write it down… forget about it… then come back, and grow rich,

Alexis Dawes

P.S. – I’ve actually developed an entire no-nonsense system to help me stay on track. This is just one of my tactics.

Keep reading this blog to learn how I’ve used this system to maintain a “consistent” 6-figure infopublishing business.

I’m getting ready to make a bunch of cash.

Seriously! My palm is itching and the whole nine yards.

I was talking to my cousin yesterday. (We’re like sisters, and she helps me with my business, so you’ll see me refer to her at times.) She was telling me about a friend of hers who had just gotten fired from a very lucrative financial services job.

Although I won’t tell exactly what her friend did, I will say that her decisions affect a very critical area of peoples lives. So you can imagine the advice she can provide about – ahem – creatively working around the system.

Anyway, my money making radar is always switched on.

So when my cousin told me how desperate her friend was to find a job – (she went from making over $100K a year to $1,600 a month in NEW YORK CITY – that’s tough!) – I made a proposition.

I would give her friend $200 to allow me to interview her. I specifically told her I needed some insider secrets. No fluff-ology.

With rent and school shopping looming ominously over her head, her friend couldn’t say no.

I got an interview with a no-nonsense expert in a hot, hot field. She made some easy money.

I’ll have the interview transcribed, edited, and I’ll put it on the market. I love stress-free money!

So here’s what I want you to do this weekend…

1) Make a list of all of your immediate friends and family, and write down what they do for a living now and in the past.

2) Go to your parents, sisters, brothers, best friends. Ask them what their immediate friends do for a living now and in the past.

3) If you’re not sure about a particular occupation, Google it and get some background information.

4) Do any of those occupations match the Desperate Buyers Only criteria? You don’t necessarily have to create an infoproduct for people working within that field. You moreso want to cull insider secrets for people maybe buying the product or service.

For example, my dad is a retired cop. So I could write an e-book on 200 ways people leave themselves open to criminal acts, and how to protect yourself.

Or think of those e-books on eBay that offer tips on getting bumped to first class, written by former airline workers.

5) If so, see if you can line up a telephone interview.

6) Record the conversation. Have the audio transcribed into a print product.

The transcription part is important. If the interviewee is still working within the field, they may not want to have an audio product with their voice on it. You don’t want to create a problem.

The neat thing about using this technique is that you can write a really good story in your salesletter based on the persons experience.

You can emphasize that the information comes from a real-deal expert. Genuine expertise is such a hot selling point.

Just remember to double check the validity of the topic according to DBO guidelines. You don’t want to waste time working on a dud of a topic.

Interview friends and family and get rich,

Alexis Dawes

I don’t pull any punches when it comes to writing e-books.

I park my buns where there’s a demand and a few thousand credit card wielding customers.

So when I saw the following call for authors, I thought it might be of use to many of you.

The site is EscapeArtist.com.

It’s geared towards people who want to live in various parts of the world – defined as ‘expat’ or expatriates. (I’m a part-time expat, by the way.)

They have a hungry audience of 375,000 subscribers. And they’re looking for e-book authors who can write on the following topics – (amongst others):

* Relocating to a new nation 
* Opening a business in overseas
* Ways to make money overseas
* Unusual ways to make a living on the internet or by telecommuting
* International Real Estate
* Unusual lifestyles in unusual locations
* Any subject that is unique and internationally applicable

This is a great way to earn some passive income while waiting for your million dollar pay day.

Target world travelers and get rich,

Alexis Dawes