In the Internet marketing niche, there are A LOT of information products based on interviews.

Authors frequently seek out talented business owners, interview them, and have the interviews transcribed into e-book format.

It’s an awesome concept, that works with practically any niche.

But I also have a problem with this strategy. Is it me, or do some of the questions that people ask during these interviews really, kinda suck?

Boring questions create boring answers. Boring questions plus boring answers equal boring e-books. Not good.

In this business you don’t want to be a dandelion. You want to be the blue rose.

So get ready to be “Sawatskied.”

John Sawatsky is the guru-du-jour for ESPN’s editorial employees.

Every single one of them must attend his three-day seminar where they learn his seven infamous interview rules. (Which – by the way – bash the styles of interview moguls Larry King and Mike Wallace.)

During an NPR interview Sawatsky says that today’s interview styles are no better than those from 30 years ago. He claims they’re worse in some ways.

So what does Sawatsky suggest? Well among others…

• Avoid making statements during interviews.
• Avoid yes/no questions.
• Utilize open-ended, neutral question beginning with “What.”

Grab some more Sawatsky-based tips by reading the following articles:

• The Question Man
• The Art of the Interview, ESPN-Style
• Tool of the Trade: The Question
  

Ask better questions and get rich,

Alexis Dawes

Halle Berry is considered to be one of the most beautiful women in the world.

And yet, for some crazy reason she has a trail of really bad relationships.

In an early relationship, a boyfriend hit her so hard that it permanently damaged the hearing in her right ear. She suffered another turmultuous relationship with baseball player David Justice. When she was married to musician Eric Benet, he cheated on her – profusely.

How is that a stunning woman can have such a streak of harmful relationships?

Because when it’s all said and done… when the honeymoon is over and reality sets in… outside beauty really doesn’t matter.

And the same holds true for selling information online.

I have a client who has this awesome looking web site and super cool e-book cover. (Even made me a little jealous!) His salesletter copy was magnifique.

And yet his refund rate for the first month of sales was freakin’ 42%!

I get pissy if I get a refund a month. (And yes… I do get more than one a month.) But I can’t imagine 42% of my buyers requesting a refund. Nope. Can’t even fathom the thought.

His merchant account provider had sent a letter in regards to the excessive refunds. And that’s when he came to me.

Here’s what I told him…

“Stop sucking in your belly, take the toupee off, and let’s see the real you.”

In other words, hot, super-hot web sites are nice to look at. And super-hot copy is even nicer.

But if the outer (salesletter) isn’t congruent with the inner (ebook), refunds will amass in huge quantities.

I suggested–

1) That the salesletter should give prospects the good and the bad. I used to sell a 6-page e-report for $24.95. I was always paranoid that people would balk at paying almost $25 for such a small amount of information. In actuality they didn’t balk. That’s because in the salesletter I mentioned that the report was only 6-pages. No surprises. They knew what they were getting.

2) That the salesletter stop trying to be all things to all people. When I write a salesletter, I either specifically mention who should be buying the information, or what they’re NOT going to find. You cannot please every potential buyer. Just go for the people who you can definitely please the most. They will love you.

3) That he mellow down the design of the salesletter page. It was beautiful. But perhaps a little flashy. That look was turning away people who really wanted his information, and attracting chronic refunders. The visual appeal has to match the readers style, as much as the words on the page.

So the moral of this blog is, beauty is nice. But only if you’re beautiful to the right people.

Be sexy for your circle and grow rich,

Alexis Dawes

This weekend I took Mini-Me to see Stomp. What an awesome production. She loved it!

There was one performer in particular who nearly brought me to tears. (I’m such a wuss… blame it on motherhood, and watching Beaches one too many times.)

When she did her routine, she did it with an amazing degree of passion. She was flinging her braids around, and biting her lip, and banging on that trash can with such a fury. Whew! I mean I REALLY felt her love for what she was doing.

Her performance made me want to be an even better writer. To put as much va-va-va-voom into my work as she did in that trash can banging performance. What a nice extra for my $55 ticket.

Anyway, that has nothing to do with today’s blog topic.

Just a motivational commercial to say stop being mediocre, and start doing amazing things that make people remember you.

Today’s blog is really about Writely.

Writely is a FREE word processing app that resides online. It’s awesome for a couple of reasons…

• Upload/download/save your documents in popular file formats like Word, RTF, PDF, and more.
• Data backup every 10 seconds. (No more lost material when your computer decides to have a Mariah Carey-like nervous breakdown.)
• Invite others to collaborate on the document with you – in real-time – if you want. No more e-mailing back and forth. And you can revert back to an original copy of the document, if you don’t like the changes.
• Publish your document as a web page, to Blogger, etc.
• Save as many files as you want.

Writely is a Google tool, and they’ve got the infamous ‘beta’ marking on the site.

I’m loving it because I travel a lot, and it’s an easy way to keep track of my 500 documents, without having to worry about that USB memory thingy. (Where is that thing, now that I’m thinking about it!)

I can even type on my Palm Pilot, without having to synchronize my files.

I’m not crazy about it because you gotta be online to use it. And as a traveler, that can sometimes be an issue.

Definiteley a great tool to have though. At the very least, an easy way to back up your important works.

Alexis Dawes