Cathy is one of my new found friends here in cold Montreal.

She’s a wine connaisseur and everytime I visit, she picks out a bottle from her cellar to share with me.

She knows all about the glasses you have to use – and why – she knows regions, and grapes, and all kinds of associated wine-y stuff.

Needless to say, since we’ve become friends I’ve upped my wine knowledge considerably. Which is great because in the past I’ve always been stumped about the type of wine to order with dinner.

In fact, today I went to the bookstore and got a basic wine guide so I could further educate myself.

To be honest with you… I never imagined actually sitting down and learning about wines. But Cathy’s sommelier-like interest sparked my curiousity.

And that brings me to the main point for today’s post.

As 2007 rapidly approaches many of you will be making your New Year’s resolutions.

Maybe you want to lose weight, or drink more water, or stop cussing, or make more money.

Just keep in mind that it’s your wits – your writing – your ability to create salable material that keeps money in your pocket.

And most writers who live this life – and live it well – will confess to being prolific in many different subjects. Or at least semi-prolific. Kind of like a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none in the knowledge department.

I mean honestly if I read about the Internet and marketing all day and night I’d be both bored shitless, and an incredibly dull writer.

(So for those of you who say you’ve read every marketing ebook out there, and you’re not getting any closer to reaching your goals, now you have an idea why.)

Expanding your mind horizonally is an important act to fulfill in this game.

Your creative brain needs to absorb ideas outside of the marketing realm to really create a synthesis that excites you and your readers.

With that said, my New Years resolution for 2007 is this… to read about and/or experience 2 totally new topics every month.

Not necessarily to become an encyclopedic expert on every thing. Just to gain insight into other aspects of life that I may have never noticed.

In 2006 I did this on a smaller scale by teaching myself how to sew and do hand embroidery.

As a result, I’ve found many flaws within existing sewing manuals that I might be able to write about in my own ebook. Just the way things are explained can be horribly confusing for a novice seamstress. 

The concept of expanding your horizons is such a simple idea.

You might be tempted to dismiss it with a cursory “Yeah right, as if I don’t have enough on my plate already…”

But consider this… the curse isn’t knowing too much. It comes from knowing too little. The more you know, the more you can build upon.

Be a sponge in 2007 and grow rich,

Alexis Dawes

My, my, my… where has the time gone?

It’s been a couple of weeks since I last blogged here.

I took an impromptu holiday break to do my shopping, holiday entertaining, family stuff, you know the drill. And - (gasp) – I sewed gifts for a few of my local friends, which they loved.

We had a ‘green’ Christmas here in Montreal.

Yeah… the one year I decide to buy some super foxy snow boots and build my igloo in a cold climate, and global warming gives me a nice warm puddle to play in.

In other fronts, December has been an AWESOME month saleswise. I feel like the universe gave me an end of the year bonus.

It’s a combination of:

• Buyers who are giving themselves a Christmas gift (which I can understand because I gifted myself a ton of books this year!).
• Buyers with leftover Christmas money.
• Buyers who are looking to start the new year moving in a better direction. The New Years Resolutioner’s.
• The assistance of a few affiliates who keep on promoting to their list over and over again. I’m so impressed with this strategy, even though I absolutely suck at it.

I didn’t personally change any of my sales strategies during this month. There was no ‘Christmas Blowout’ or anything on my sites.

But I will keep the idea of a Christmas promotion on my To Do list for 2007.

Retailers aren’t the only one’s who can use December to go in the black.

Examine your customers buying frenzies and grow rich,

Alexis Dawes

P.S.- Don’t worry… I’m returning with my Walking The Talk series next week.

In the meantime, have you seen my latest title The Book is in the Buzz? I call it the cure for the “I-don’t-know-what-to-write-about” blues.

(The Walking The Talk series was created to show an ebook launch from idea to salesletter to marketing. Here’s Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.)

In my last post I did a few searches to gather up content ideas for my upcoming ebook No More Smelly House.

As you may recall, I decided to place my initial focus on the types of things landlords/property managers were doing to solve the problem.

My theory being that landlords have specific tricks-of-the-trade the average person doesn’t know about.

So while I conducted this search, I came across a Q&A column written by disaster cleanup expert. These folks are experts in cleaning up after all sorts of messes like fires, floods, mold, deaths, etc.

This gave me yet another avenue of exploration.

The after smells of fires, floods, and untimely deaths are pretty darn severe. You can’t just go in with some bleach and a bottle Febreeze.

I figured if I could find out the secrets of a disaster cleanup expert and couple that with some tactics culled from my property management search, No More Smelly House would be a pretty valid piece of information. It would contain powerful ideas not easily found online.

My initial course of action is to see what I can gather for free.

So here’s my search report…

#1 – Search phrase used: get rid of smell after a fire

Search engine: Google

I chose this one because it’s part of a disaster cleanup specialists job.

On the first page of results I came across a link from Stanford University.

It was for a question on a forum. A person was asking how to get rid of smoke smells from a historical textile.

Unfortunately, there was no reply.

But the forum itself was devoted to textile conservation. Yet another group of people who had an interest in getting rid of smells. I would have never thought of this one on my own.

The forum had a search feature. I tried “odor” and “smell,” but there wasn’t anything terribly interesting.

I’ll keep the phrase “textile conservation” in my files though.

On the third page of results I found an IVillage forum.

One of the last posts in the thread came from a real estate salesperson who recommended an ozone machine, and raised a couple of other good points.

Also on the third page of results I found another potential search phrase, “smoke damage restoration.”

#2 – Search phrase used: biohazard cleanup

Search engine: Google

This search gave me mostly links to biohazard cleanup companies. Not a good search phrase.

#3 – Search phrase used: biohazard cleanup information

Seach engine: Google

On the second page of results I found an eBay link for a crime/trauma scene cleanup manual. The manual costs $149. But it might be good for further researching the topic.

On the third page of results there was a link for the Association of Specialists in Cleaning & Restoration.

I like association web sites because the information you find is usually very concentrated and on point.

Depending on your topic, you may even consider joining an appropriate association. I think of it as market research, and part of the cost of giving your readers great information.

This particular site contains PDF links to articles in their trade magazine. But at first glance, I didn’t see anything that really matched my needs.

They did however have a Technical Library Search containing their magazine archives spanning back 25 years.

I entered the term “odor” and found some fantastic specialized information.

You have to be a member to access the entire article. But you can buy copies of the magazine.

And even though I can’t check right now, I can always call the association to see if I can buy photocopies of the articles.

This is definitely a site I’ll be returning to.

On the sixth page I found a link for Cleaning & Maintenance Management Online.

This is a publication for cleaning professionals, and they did have a search feature.

I did my usual “odor” search, and came across another set of great ideas.

#4 – Search phrase used: biohazard odor control

Surprisingly I didn’t really find anything good until page seven of results where I saw a link for Cleaning Products from A to Z.

I was scanning through the product descriptions, when I came across Blue Heaven. The description stated it was a “malodor counteractant.”

That sounded like a technical trade term.

So I quickly opened another window, and did a search for…

# 5 – Search phrase I used: malodor counteractant

Search engine: Google

This search gave me a lot of targeted janitorial supplies.

It was a great phrase for giving me industrial cleaning supplies.

Perhaps I’ll offer a section in No More Smelly House that gives a review of these products.

Okay I’ll end here because as you can see, this search can go in lots of different directions beyond my original biohazard cleanup search.

The main point is that you have to keep your eyes open and be aware of new/unique phrases and sites that you run across.

AND… you have to go beyond the first 2-3 pages of search results.

It’s really not that hard, but it does require a keen eye.

And just look at how much detailed information I’ve collected by NOT using the typical search phrases.

Now you really begin to see how you can take something free and turn it into fee-based infoproduct.

Alexis Dawes

P.S.- Comments, questions and the such are always welcome.