As some of you know I’m getting ready to welcome home a new furbaby. A shih tzu… My first dog!

I’ve been all over the Internet looking for information on taking care of little Maximilian.

During my quest I ran across a site called Dog Food Secrets, which sells an ebook explaining the dangers of traditional dog food.

I subscribed to the free course and recently received an e-mail for a free video the author was promoting.

The video is basically a multimedia salesletter.

It goes over some of the bullet points contained in the written salesletter, while the author narrates. (It’s not a word-for-word narration of what you see on the screen.)

I have to admit it’s a very convincing tool for me – a prospective reader.

And it can easily be put together using Camtasia Studio or Flash.

I wouldn’t use a video salesletter as a standalone tool. But used in conjunction with a free course, or as a part of your e-zine, it would be an excellent conversion device.

Create video salesletters and grow rich,

Alexis Dawes

A reader e-mailed me yesterday with this exact question. (I accept questions, by the way. So don’t be shy.)

She’d read Desperate Buyers Only and knew how anti-typical marketing I am. Yet here I am blogging my arse off a whopping 4 days a week.

And even though I wouldn’t call myself a bonafide expert on the topic – (I’ve only been blogging on a consistent basis for the past month and some change) – I would have to say yes… blogging does affect book sales.

It’s NOT oodles and oodles of cash. Maybe 17 new sales for DBO and Get In Google Now in the month of September.

Which really ain’t a bad deal for less than 3 hours of work a week. (Technically I make more blogging than some of my 9-5 worker bee friends.)

I won’t know the true bottom-line affect of this blog until I release a new ebook. Which I’ll be doing very soon.

The new ebook?

Well I think the first one will be all about hot topics and where to find them. It seems that many readers have a difficult time finding good, salable topics.

Anyway I digress… Back in July this blog had 760 total visits. This means the same people might have been visiting over and over again.

As of today, I’ve had 1,759 visits for the month of September. 466 of those were first timers. So I get a lot of repeat visitors, which is awesome. And I’ve had 6,511 page views.

I don’t promote this blog in any blog directories or anything.

I don’t purposely use any targeted phrases in my messages to rank well. (You don’t have to be an optimzing machine all the time!) And still I get a fair share of traffic from Google and Yahoo.

Everytime I post a new message I get anywhere from 4-9 new blog feed subscribers, which I’m able to track through Feedburner.

And even though I do have an option allowing readers to subscribe and receive the blog messages via e-mail – (see the sidebar) – I only have 6 e-mail subscribers.

A lot of Internet marketers say the money is in the list.

Perhaps I’m being a winky head because I have fewer than 10 e-mail subscribers, but isn’t it better to have people willingly visit your site over and over again, than trying to compete with 500 other e-mail newsletters?

I think so. (So thank you my foxy and incredibly smart repeat visitors!)

The bottom line?

I like this blogging thing. I will definitely continue. And I would highly recommend it.

Blog and grow rich,

Alexis Dawes

I like straight forward, shoot-from-the-hip advice. Give it to me organically, without all the additives.

And Paul Graham has answered my prayers in that department.

He has penned what I consider to be a miniature goldmine of tips to help writers craft better prose.

Here are a few of his verbatim suggestions…

* “Develop a nose for bad writing, so you can see and fix it in yours.”
Interesting because I do have a small swipe full of writing that I think is horrible. I scan through it periodically to make sure I’m not treading in the same waters.

* “Expect 80% of the ideas in an essay to happen after you start writing it, and 50% of those you start with to be wrong.”
I agree completely with the 80% part. Some writers just need to sit down and start writing, for the ideas to flow.

But I find the part about 50% being wrong, to be untrue for me.

* “Write for a reader who won’t read the essay as carefully as you do, just as pop songs are designed to sound ok on crappy car radios.”
You’ve heard me say it before – just get your project done, and stop sweating for perfection.

Perfection technically never happens. And you can still get paid with imperfections and all.

I printed out Writing, Briefly and pinned it on my bulletin board. Great stuff.

Become a better writer and grow rich,

Alexis Dawes