Over the past couple of years I’ve been quietly giving away a little 8-page report to my clients. It explains a very simple technique for locating potential e-book topics, but it can be used for a variety of purposes. (Blog posts, freebie reports, chapters in your e-book, etc.)

It’s one of those evergreen techniques that you’ll be able to use damn near forever.

And I’m giving it away as a Halloween treat today.

If you like it, leave me a comment.

Listen Up!

So I was talking about article marketing the other day with Isabella (who frequently comments here). She told me that she noticed a lot of people who were once trying to get all the low ball $2 article writers, were now waking up to the realization that they couldn’t use that tired, re-hashed content everywhere anymore.

People are looking for quality content – and they’re willing to pay for it. But why?

Why the sudden a change from 250 words of fluff, to “can you make this sound really professional?”

Clues From the Larger Article Directories

I recently started hearing some rumbling over at eHow. eHow is an article site that offers an Adsense revenue share arrangement to its contributors. Whenever someone clicks on an Adsense ad in your article, you get a cut.

Anyway, eHow has been taking drastic efforts to clear the site of spammy, poorly written articles. They have a certain guideline that you have to work within, and if you deviate, they’ll delete the article. Yeah… even if said article is making a shit load of money.

When I started seeing eHow getting progressively tougher, a little signal went off in my mind. eHow makes a ton of cash from Adsense clicks.

So if they’re cleaning house it’s because:

1. They want their articles to continue to rank well in Google. Quality content means consistent ranking for a long time.
2. By maintaining quality content they keep people on the site longer, and they keep people coming back. More Adsense clicks.
3. They can outdistance themselves from the other schmuck article directories that aren’t maintaining quality control. They want to be known as a no BS quality article site. Period.

So I wasn’t the least bit surprised to hear that a couple of days ago Chris Knight – owner of EzineArticles.com – announced that they’re cracking the quality whip a lot harder over there.

EzineArticles, like eHow, is Adsense dependent. Though because EzineArticles was a lot more lenient in what they accepted, the site basically degenerated over the years. Articles used to get Google rank in a matter of hours at EzineArticles. That’s not been the case over the past few years.

But they’re waking up now. Perhaps they too are watching eHow’s evolvement, and deciding that they must up the ante significantly if they don’t want their Adsense cash cow to be slowly lured away by the sexy eHow bull.

Now EzineArticles wants submissions to be 400-600 words. They don’t want short and sweet anymore. All of those little 250 word hit-and-run articles that don’t say anything – no more!

I’m personally ECSTATIC to see these changes.

Happy as a lark, you hear me!

It means that you’re going to see a resurgence in the way Google treats sites that are self policing themselves. I already see it with eHow.

It means that you’re going to see the value of your articles going up again.

It means less competition.

It means SEO content writers will have to change to match these higher standards. And if you do write SEO content, now’s the time to make sure you understand all these new rules so you can be prepared to tell your clients.

What you’re about see happen in article marketing is the exact same thing that happened with the dot com crash.

More on this later…

Last night I swear I died.

I was lying in the bed… exhausted, sweating from head to toe, and I kept feeling like I was floating away to my vacation home at 125 Heaven Blvd.

Seems like the seasonal flu is making its rounds early on this side of town. The school nurse called me on Monday to ask about my daughters symptoms. She had been running a fever all weekend, and I kept her home for the past three days. Almost a dozen other kids in her class were also absent. All with flu-like conditions.

In any case, that’s just the side note to tonight’s post. But I had to tell you cause it’s kind of essential to the overall message.

You see, the thing that I found really odd about these past five sick days is that I got a lot more orders than usual.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not totally off-base to get a sudden surge of orders for one book. But a sudden surge for several books all at once is a bit more eyebrow raising – especially because I’ve barely had the energy to raise my head from the freaking pillow. (Meaning I haven’t done a lick of work since last week.)

Why does this happen?

Why do great things happen when you’re not concentrating on making great things happen?

And how can you use this secret to increase your business? (I had to throw that last part in!)

A Watched Pot Never Boils

You’ve heard that phrase before.

According to the folks over at The Free Dictionary it means, “Something you are waiting for will not happen while you are concentrating on it.”

I strongly believe my relationships are ruled by the Watched Pot theory. If I wanted a relationship, I’d never get what I wanted. I’d be as sweet as apple pie, but nothing would ever happen. As soon as I don’t give a shit anymore – BOOM – I’ll meet 5 guys who’ll swear I’m their soul mate and pledge undying love.

If it didn’t happen so often I’d be inclined to think it was a fluke. But it happens with such regularity that it’s really difficult to call it random. Maybe it’s some type of mental pheromone I’m kicking off.

But it’s the same thing with business. Sometimes you have to take your mind away from a project to-

#1… Allow the pot to boil. Testing is a necessary evil when it comes to successfully marketing online. But there comes a time when you have to take your hands off the keyboard.

I think we all know when that time comes. I mean have you ever felt the need to just turn the computer off, but then you just keep working because you’re so PRESSED to make something – anything – happen?

I’m guilty of this one. We often feel like we have to stay busy to make sales happen. But that’s not always the case. It’s often when you throw your hands up in total frustration and turn off the computer that the sales finally come in – not while you’re hitting refresh 100 times. (I know this from experience!)

#2… Gain insights that only time away from the computer can give you. People who tell me that they can’t get e-book ideas are usually the ones who are online 24-7. The Internet is fun. I make a living being online.

But the real world is color, sights, sounds, real people, dog, cows, greenery, cars, trains, buses, restaurants, bums, BMW’s and everything in between. It goes back to the title of this post… not thinking about money is usually the one thing that can help you make more money. Stepping away from the Internet and any projects that seem to be causing you grief can be just what you need to generate those winning ideas.

It doesn’t appear that way when you’re all in the mix. But it is that way.

Don’t Buy It – Just Try It

Not everything requires a $97 fix.

Not everything requires a fix at all.

Sometimes you just need to turn it all off, and let your mind NOT think. If you leave the kitchen, the pot will boil.