I’m getting ready to make a bunch of cash.

Seriously! My palm is itching and the whole nine yards.

I was talking to my cousin yesterday. (We’re like sisters, and she helps me with my business, so you’ll see me refer to her at times.) She was telling me about a friend of hers who had just gotten fired from a very lucrative financial services job.

Although I won’t tell exactly what her friend did, I will say that her decisions affect a very critical area of peoples lives. So you can imagine the advice she can provide about – ahem – creatively working around the system.

Anyway, my money making radar is always switched on.

So when my cousin told me how desperate her friend was to find a job – (she went from making over $100K a year to $1,600 a month in NEW YORK CITY – that’s tough!) – I made a proposition.

I would give her friend $200 to allow me to interview her. I specifically told her I needed some insider secrets. No fluff-ology.

With rent and school shopping looming ominously over her head, her friend couldn’t say no.

I got an interview with a no-nonsense expert in a hot, hot field. She made some easy money.

I’ll have the interview transcribed, edited, and I’ll put it on the market. I love stress-free money!

So here’s what I want you to do this weekend…

1) Make a list of all of your immediate friends and family, and write down what they do for a living now and in the past.

2) Go to your parents, sisters, brothers, best friends. Ask them what their immediate friends do for a living now and in the past.

3) If you’re not sure about a particular occupation, Google it and get some background information.

4) Do any of those occupations match the Desperate Buyers Only criteria? You don’t necessarily have to create an infoproduct for people working within that field. You moreso want to cull insider secrets for people maybe buying the product or service.

For example, my dad is a retired cop. So I could write an e-book on 200 ways people leave themselves open to criminal acts, and how to protect yourself.

Or think of those e-books on eBay that offer tips on getting bumped to first class, written by former airline workers.

5) If so, see if you can line up a telephone interview.

6) Record the conversation. Have the audio transcribed into a print product.

The transcription part is important. If the interviewee is still working within the field, they may not want to have an audio product with their voice on it. You don’t want to create a problem.

The neat thing about using this technique is that you can write a really good story in your salesletter based on the persons experience.

You can emphasize that the information comes from a real-deal expert. Genuine expertise is such a hot selling point.

Just remember to double check the validity of the topic according to DBO guidelines. You don’t want to waste time working on a dud of a topic.

Interview friends and family and get rich,

Alexis Dawes

I don’t pull any punches when it comes to writing e-books.

I park my buns where there’s a demand and a few thousand credit card wielding customers.

So when I saw the following call for authors, I thought it might be of use to many of you.

The site is EscapeArtist.com.

It’s geared towards people who want to live in various parts of the world – defined as ‘expat’ or expatriates. (I’m a part-time expat, by the way.)

They have a hungry audience of 375,000 subscribers. And they’re looking for e-book authors who can write on the following topics – (amongst others):

* Relocating to a new nation 
* Opening a business in overseas
* Ways to make money overseas
* Unusual ways to make a living on the internet or by telecommuting
* International Real Estate
* Unusual lifestyles in unusual locations
* Any subject that is unique and internationally applicable

This is a great way to earn some passive income while waiting for your million dollar pay day.

Target world travelers and get rich,

Alexis Dawes

If you’re in the US, and you watch television, you’ve probably seen that Energizer Bunny commercial.

The one where that stuffed rabbit with the drum keeps going on and on because he has an Energizer battery in his hindparts. (I don’t know if that sounds quite right, but I’ll keep going anyway.)

Well last week I gave an Energizer battery like boost to my Desperate Buyers Only ebook.

During the first 3 months of sales, DBO yielded almost $50,000 in sales. And even though all good things must eventually come to an end, I’m not ready to get off the gravy train just yet.

So I decided to ramp up my marketing efforts. My personal marketing efforts.

You see, I’ve had some of the best affiliates around for Desperate Buyers Only. Which is actually rather unusual for me, as I normally prefer to market my own products.

But this time I got well, um lazy. My affiliates were so good, I just kind of sat back on this project.

It’s not necessarily bad. My affiliates have made out like fat cats. And every month on the first I’m still handing out heavy sided checks.

I just don’t feel like I’m being 100% effective if I’m not contributing to the cause. I certainly feel better about giving other people advice when I’ve gotten my hands good and dirty in the process.

Anyway there is a point here!

Like I said, last week I decided that I would start promoting DBO.

I didn’t want to do Adwords because I have affiliates who successfully use it. I really didn’t want to focus on outlets where Internet marketers play. Again, my affiliates have done well targeting this niche.

Instead I focused on segments where my affiliates hadn’t been.

My destination of choice? Writers and speakers.

I only did two ad’s to test the waters. One in a writers newsletter – which will run for 3 weeks. One in a speakers newsletter – which runs for 4 weeks.

Within 4 days, the ad in the speakers newsletter got 49 click thru’s and 5 sales. Awesome! And I still have 3 weeks to go.

In the same timeframe the ad in the writers newsletter got 45 click thru’s and 0 sales. Disappointing saleswise. But I see it as a learning experience. I know what’s not working, and I can change it. Hopefully for the better.

Are you putting all your eggs into one segments basket?

Could you re-energize your sales by selling a dead product to a new niche?

Most of you reading this blog probably could.

Whether it’s changing the focus of your salesletter, or changing the slant of your e-book, you could yield an entirely new set of buyers by re-imagining your buying group.

Focus and then focus again, and continue growing rich,

Alexis Dawes