Last week I confessed of my recent uber lazy marketing phase.

The one that was induced by my uber productive affiliates. (Whom I’m not knocking in any way, shape or form. They are simply the best.)

Well if you recall, I also said that I was getting back in the marketing game by promoting Desperate Buyers Only to segments that my affiliates weren’t penetrating.

Those being, writers (traditional freelance writers), and speakers.

So far I’ve been advertising in a popular freelance writers newsletter with 70K+ subscriber, and a newsletter geared towards speakers with more than 7,000 subscribers. Both publications are online.

Here’s a running tally of the numbers–

AUGUST 3-9
Speakers newsletter: 49 click thru’s / 5 sales
Writers newsletter: 45 click thru’s / 0 sales

AUGUST 10-16
Speakers newsletter: 70 click thru’s / 8 sales
Writers newsletter:  48 click thru’s / 0 sales

I honestly believe my salesletter was a little too hype-filled for the traditional freelance writers tastes. (When I say ‘traditional’ I mean those who do magazine articles, and write predominantly for offline markets.)

The click thru rate was decent enough. And the salesletter has held a steady 3%-9% conversion, depending on the promotion.

But it’s just like choosing a list in the direct marketing world.

You can have an awesome salesletter, and a killer offer. But if you send it all to the wrong list, you’ll flop. The copy and the offer mean nothing.

Anyway, I had a feeling this might happen. So it’s more or less a confirmation of my initial thoughts.

The Take-Away Point For Today… Be a Master Tailor.

If you have an infoproduct that’s geared towards one audience, and you believe that it would fit in with another, make sure you tailor your salesletter and offer accordingly before spending a ton of cash on your advertising.

That might mean toning down your salesletter, or pepping it up. Perhaps you’ll need to change your testimonials to include well-known figureheads within your new targeted segment. It might mean altering the price, or even changing your bonus items.

The key is to know thy audience. And when in Rome, do as the Romans.

Tailor and grow rich,

Alexis Dawes

I love souvlaki!

I love greek salads!

Greek food is so yummy to me. Except for those dolmades. You can have those.

And I’m here in Montreal where I’ve fallen in love with a place called Kojack’s. It’s like the McDonald’s or Subway of greek food.

They give you this big hunk of feta cheese on your large greek salad, and sprinkle it with oregano seasoning. Then there’s the warm pita bread. Mmmmm – Pita.

Oh how I wish there was a Kojack’s back home. It’s like close-to-homemade fast food.

Every time I travel I find stores and restaurants that are unlike anything back home – but would translate well across the borders.

For instance, years and years ago I went to visit a friend in Los Angeles.

There were nail salons on every other block. And they were inexpensive. (Still are.)

I went back home to the East Coast and told my significant other that we should open a chain of nail salons. I knew eventually the LA trend would make its way to our neck of the woods.

He laughed at me, and blew it off.

Sure enough, no more than 2 years later, inexpensive nail salons were making a killing in our hometown.

Shame on me for not pursuing it.

But that brings me to my message for today…

Ideas are transferrable across segments.

If you came to my apartment right now you’d find mens fitness magazines, gardening magazines, hunting magazines, decorating magazines, psychology and science magazines, rap music magazines, and a multitude of other colorful topics.

I read all of them from cover to cover.

It’s a strategy.

Take a winning idea from one segment and use it in another.

Something I read in Men’s Health may give me a brain spark for a completely different project I’m working on.

For example, an article that teaches men how to gain more muscle mass could become the basis for an e-book that teaches skinny women (who don’t want to be skinny) how to get some curves.

The thing is, you must have a solid understanding of at least one segment.

This way when you’re reading material from other niches, you’ll see ways to add to what already exists in your targeted niche.

See ideas in unlikely places and grow rich,

Alexis Dawes

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.