Day 3 of the protest Occupy Wall Street in Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Two major goals at this time:  Paying off my school loan and building my email list

I’m going public with my major goals here on my website.  They are inter-related, and I’m hoping going public will make them happen faster.  I was inspired today by noharvardloandebt.com.  Joe Mihalic paid off $90,000 worth of school loan debt in 7 months!  That is not him at the right.  That’s a pic of an Occupy Wall Street protester.

My Goal:  Pay off my $58,000 worth of school debt in one year.  Joe’s loan payments originally were more than $1000 a month for 10 to 15 years.  My payments are around $300 a month for 20 years.

Caption:  No, I’m not a Socialist.  And I’m working to pay my $58,000 school loan off in one year.

Related Goal:  To get 1000 new quality subscribers to my ezine LIST in 99 days.  May 7 to August 14.  I have 5 new subscribers as of today.

He did not go out shopping or buy anything for 7 months.  He had a great job, however, with a yearly income near his total debt amount.  I have no such thing.  However, I can increase my earnings with my Amazon.com business.  He sold stuff.  Found roommates for his house.  Tried extra jobs — and started a landscaping business on the side with a friend.

My overhead is already very low.  I hardly  spend money on entertainment.  And I don’t even have a car.  He had two cars and a motorcycle.  But for me it will mean not going out to eat once a month, not buying any goodies for a year.   Read the student’s story — no new shoes, no new anything for 7 months.

I will increase my sales on Amazon.  And I will build my LIST.  I believe that LIST is going to help me in the long run if not the short one.  Building relationships will give me connections and people to work with — perhaps barter with.

I need to learn to use AWeber.  So far I have sent private individual welcome emails to the 5 new subscribers via regular email.  And I have not written an email series yet.   But as I continue to push and get more subscribers — I need to learn to be more proficient at using the tools.  Even 100 subscribers is too many to be sending out private emails!

The school loan?  Go to noharvardloandebt.com.  It’s inspiring to read.  Who needs or wants this debt?  No.  Get it off me!  The first couple of years after he graduated he paid more than $1000 a month on a $101K loan.  When he looked at how much he’d paid off — he still owed $90,000!

I’m in the same boat.  I’m only paying $177 month — because I just recently started paying it back, and tried to get the loans as small as possible.  These are called graduated payments.  If I were to keep this up — by the end of my loan payment period my payments would be over $500 a month.   But to my horror!  Looking at the numbers — when I pay $177 a month, I’m only paying $5 a month on the principle!

People do make money on Amazon FBA, however.  A matter of fact, I can teach people right here how to earn up to $1000 a month selling on Amazon.  You need certain tools, technology and systems in place.  And it is doable.

I belong to a Yahoo FBA Amazon selling forum.   A few people on that forum are netting over $60,000 a year.   Now, I need at least that much in order to pay down my school loan.   I need to be one of those ones earning $5000 a month on Amazon, not just $1000.

So those are my 2 major goals.   In 99 days — 1000 new quality subscribers to my LIST.  And the big GOAL:  Pay off my $58,000 school loan in 12 months by May 21, 2013.  I’ll remember it as from my sister’s birthday to my sister’s birthday — May 15 to May 15.

Follow my blog — and see how I juggle and expand my online Amazon business to do this.

And other goals — To stay strong and healthy, cheerful, kind and have a social life.  To be honest and maintain fair and reputable business relations, which I do (see my rating on http://www.amazon.com/shops/EditWrite ).  Ethics is important online — many do not abide.   So I’m told.

To take care of my teeth too and body.   We gotta be healthy.  Like don’t get root canals, and tons of other things. ….. But that is for another day.  And to hear more about health from me, go to the top of this page and sign in to my double Opt-In box for my Health Ezine.  I’m sending out emails on health, healing with food, healthy recipes, as well as updates on my blog — and Amazon selling.

Here’s a YouTube of the Harvard student’s story about paying off his loan in 7 months.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y6kTsBNH78

Day 7 of the protest Occupy Wall Street in Manhattan's Zuccotti Park. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Nutrition (Photo credit: The Noun Project)

As I build my email list for the health ezine with my goal of 1000 new quality subscribers within 99 days, I’m reminded of the reasons I’m doing this.

Yesterday, I knew it was time to do some book scouting, so I went to my  local GoodWill.  As usual, I found a couple of great books to sell on Amazon in my non-fiction book specialty.

One book Discovering Nutrition is selling on Amazon for nearly $60, and I found it at the GoodWill for $1.99 yesterday afternoon.   I found 3 other items and books for good turn arounds as well, but the Nutrition book was the very best.

That is what good scanning and scouting tools will do.  My ASellerTool (AST) PDA tool holds a database of the entire book category on Amazon, after I download it from my home computer.   Then I use my Android smart phone with a couple of helpful apps.

After I finished looking at books and was waiting for my car pool partner — I decided to look at clothes.  I ran into a shopper from Vermont and Port Aransas, 2 beautiful places in U.S., nez paz?  We both were finding such great clothes at the GoodWill yesterday, Wow!

We clicked, I liked her.  Since I’m looking for 1000 new subscribers to my list, I need to tell near everyone I meet, and also send out email requests for sign ups.  It’s a bigger goal than I realized at first.

I work with Steven Acuff, stevenacuff.com, 40-year health consultant.  He told me and gave me the green light to be a health consultant.  I know enough after working with him for years now.

It turns out the new friend I made at GoodWill had surgery for a kidney stone just 2 months ago.  She feels great and is happy for a successful operation.

This is what the health knowledge I want to share is about.  I honor her and her need for the surgery.  I want to share how this can be avoided in the future, however.

We don’t always put the two together — the importance of diet to our health.  And/or we don’t know where to begin.  It’s confusing and mysterious — why doctors and healers do not share the basics of good nutrition.  Steven believes it’s because there’s no monetary value in doing so.  And I believe too it’s ignorance (ignoring) — doctors and medical professionals are not trained in healing with food and nutrition.

OK.  So what would I have done?  This is how and why Steven Acuff told me I could do health consulting.  He said, you can share what you know about health.  And tell people what you would do if you were in their situation.

What would I have done?  First thing, I would have contacted and asked Steven Acuff.  Because I’m a baby, and a hyper-contriact sometimes.

But I know what to do too.

1)  First get very alkaline.

Pain is a sign of inflammation.  One can’t really have pain without inflammation.  You can’t really have inflammation without being too aciditic.  We get alkaline by doing some of what I’m noting below.

2)  Cut all the bad things out of the diet.  Stop caffeine and sweets and sugar.  No refined flour products, wheat, corn, soy.  Make your own food — prepare simple foods.

3)  Add good things to the diet.  Virgin coconut oil, green drinks (like baby dried barley grass), seaweeds, fresh organic vegetables, beans and brown rice for starters.

4)  Drink plenty of good clean purifed water (not distilled — instead have spring or filtered).

And now, you know the basics and the drill.  Get plenty of rest, light exercise, if you feel good enough.  When we don’t feel good and it becomes excruciating or unbearable it is time to get into high gear and get alkaline, eat pure food.

Remember to add  natural fermented foods to the diet, and prepare them yourself.  Pickles are probably the easiest and best.  Homemade pickles or pressed salads are easy to make.  The fermentation gives us good bacteria that in turn aids digestion and helps us utilize vitamins and minerals in our body.

Good whole food supplements and a quality fish oil also are important in time of crisis to the body.

It’s 6 am in the morning now in my beautiful area of the country, near the Hill Country of Texas — and it’s on to another day of scouting and book listing, and getting those 1000 new subscribers.

I’ll be learning how to maneuver and manage this new email tool that includes that box at the top right of this blog for Sign-Ins.  It’s a little different than just sending out an email to a friend or two.  There will be a learning curve for sure.

In the meantime, if you have not done so, kindly go to that simple little box at the top of this blog — and sign in to my list.  I will be sending out simple emails like the post today, an ezine about health — sometimes I’ll announce a new post to this blog and send you the link.

Coleman's copy Flora of the Pacific Northwest (Photo credit: brewbooks)

How to build a List — a major question, challenge and the work of budding Internet marketers.  Now, in a way I’m not really a new Internet marketer, because I have an online business with Amazon.com.

Now, don’t get me wrong — I’m not an established big time online seller.   I earn about a $1000 a month net.  Why not better?  Because I don’t focus on it solely.  I like to work on my websites, post to my blog, to write and work on copywriting.

But I keep the Amazon business going.   It just happens that I’ve learned to live life simply without a lot of overhead and expenses.  But that student loan does eat at me.  Do you know I owe about $55,000 in student loan — and I didn’t even finish college?  But that’s a story for another day.

To build an online list:  OK I’m going to share my plan.

In a nutshell.

I live way down in the southern part of the United States, close to the Gulf of Mexico.  My family and friends from a non-profit group I belonged to where I worked and received my early editorial training are located in the Northwest United States.  I have not seen these friends — who know span the U.S. and globe — since 1997-1998.  My family since 2009.

This summer I will visit.

Very exciting.

However, building the LIST.

Not sure I can do this.  Because I’m going to beautiful Montana where hot springs, and Teton mountains and parks and a Yellowstone River and great country await me.  Ah, can I tear myself away from enjoying the pleasant weather and company — to focus on building my List?

I will try.

My Plan:   I want to get a 1000 people to my List.  At this time I do not have an Opt-In box.   I do not have an ebook or audio or product I give away to entice readers to sign up to a List.   I have and use 5 or 6 email accounts regularly.  I email a lot of people.  But I do not have a real list that I’ve put together with an autoresponder like AWeber.

One thousand people is the immediate goal.  Yes, I can get the Opt-in set up on this here blog.  I can work on my sitesell / SBI ! website that’s about copywriting and health copywriting — and put an Opt-In up there too.  I can sign up for a friendly compatible forum like Jim Cockrum’s MySilentTeam once again — and post a lot of comments.  I can put a few articles up at ezinearticles.  And these are all things I will do.

But this is the PLAN:   I want to combine some business with my pleasure trip to the Northwest.  I’ve never been one for taking a lot of time off from the job at hand.   I’m going to be gone for more than 10 days.   And yes, my family lives up there.  I will be seeing family and friends.

PLAN:

1)  Find out how many of the towns I’m going to have Small Business Development Centers.

2)  Call them about presenting a lecture or talk.

3) Meanwhile (I’m not leaving for a number of weeks) write an ebook.

And the ebook I want to write is about how to learn to make $1000 a month selling on Amazon.  Yes!!  I know how to do it.  Who would not want to make an extra $1000 a month?   I’ll write the ebook.    Either use Amazon Kindle to sell it, or sell it as a PDF.   I’ll put all kinds of good links that bring people to this site and squeeze pages where I’ll ask for people’s email address.

And I’ll learn how to give a good Talk.  Never done much public speaking before.  And I’ll get my first ebook out there that will show people a good skill.   And I’ll talk about what’s in the book.

And I’ll see about scheduling talks in maybe 4 towns while I’m up in the Northwest to build my list of 1000.  And you can follow me, and see if by summer’s end I have 1000 on my list.

The Food Tent (Photo credit: Jon Person)

Food Not Bombs flyer (Photo credit: Toban Black)

Good health is a grace, and may come more slowly to nonbelievers.

I stand at my computer, because it’s not healthy to sit for long periods of time.   But I forget this at times.

I sleep in occasionally, because restful sleep at night rejuvenates the body.  And sometimes I miss out, and do some catch up.

I take whole food supplements, and give myself good foods like seaweeds, homemade pickles, organic virgin coconut oil and green drink whenever I can, because sometimes I forget, don’t go shopping, or can’t afford all of these.

This is the path of good health.  And sometimes I and the rest of the human race do not enjoy the very best because . . . because of lack of discipline, lack of knowledge and understanding — and sometimes not believing.

What is it about health that we don’t understand sometimes?  If we knew how much better we would feel by doing certain simple practices, I think most of us would do it.  But we must believe it before we put out the great effort and expense.

Maybe some people can’t remember when they last felt really really good.  Or the young, feel good most all the time — so why does it all matter so much.

Many reasons, but ……

But I see people intimately who want to be in the best health, want to feel good — and mentally and verbally they say they understand what health is.  But they don’t follow through.

I know myself.  I’m pretty good.  But I get busy working.  Take the easy way out sometimes.  Grab what’s easy to eat.

Then others ask me, what to do to get over this ailment or problem.  I say, well, cut out the worse things first — the caffeine, the beer, the sugar and refined food.

Then start adding good stuff — what I named above.   Many can’t get past the coffee.  Or the occasional beer.  They want the little sucker that their local bank gives away.  The goody sample at the local grocery store.

These things won’t bring us the health we want.  We all want to feel good, “to get better.”  I’m sure.  But it takes discipline.  And we can’t be nonbelievers here.  We need to try and try to accept that these things really may help and make a difference.  We must take that step.  Because we’ll never know until we try.

Health depends on doing it.  I know.  I’ve seen it in my body.  And I’ve seen it in others. I’m amazed at how these things work.  It’s a combination.  Exercise.  Good water.  Cutting out the bad stuff.  And adding the great foods and supplements to our daily regimen.  I’ve seen incredible turn-arounds to bad situations in just days.  It doesn’t even take a long time.

It takes getting alkaline.  Getting rid of inflammation and things like that.

Health is within reach — but won’t work when one is a nonbeliever first. Gotta believe and give it a try.

Flag of Corpus Christi, Texas (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The economy does affect online marketing and writing.   I read in the news that the United States Post Office was closing 50% of its post offices — or maybe that was only in my state?  Here in San Antonio we’re safe for the time being.  A number have already been closed — especially small ones.  But Corpus Christi is closing a bunch, and the ones who are lucky will transfer and have a job in San Antonio.

Everything is going to online right?  Online banking — receiving money and paying bills.   It’s a good way for the banks to know exactly what’s going on.  Oh, heck, maybe I shouldn’t be talking politics.  Do my favorite and successful online marketers do that?  Not too much.

Honest though, with the way money is losing more and more of its value — I’m thinking bartering is a pretty good idea, even for online marketing.  Say my friend owns a business with a top-notch WordPress expert, and they need a few articles written.  I write the articles, they help me with my WordPress problem.

I heard a new technology is being tried out in Mexico that scans faces and irises of eyes for instant identification.  Some of the new cameras have surprised new owners when suddenly they noted it was hooked up to GPS or satellite too.  Perfect picture of the iris of the eye too — as one focuses in on the perfect digital picture.

Ah, heck, I just want to be a copywriter and write copy writing fascinations.  To follow good health practices, and help my friends be healthy.  Even do a little health consulting myself.  But mostly be a writer.

But when the school loan payment comes knocking, supplements and organic food need to be re-supplied, gas bills, hair cuts, toiletries, and taxes — not much left for travel, recreation, education or the yearly family visit (mine’s now going on 3 years).

Oh, there’s a silver lining to everything! (;  And I have been called a Pollyanna in the past.

That’s where Gary and Merri Scott of GaryAScott website comes in.  He is a really positive guy, an excellent writer. But he has his eyes open too.  He wrote a series over the last couple of weeks called Government Intrusion.  Very much worth the read.  Mosey on over to his site and check it out if you will.

Yeah, I think this bartering idea may work.   Just a few little trades — no money involved.   Donations.  Online services are much too expensive most of the time if you ask my opinion.

The best way to do this now — I believe — is to get ourselves some real good skills.  And I’m not talking about the going-back-to-school kind.  It’s too expensive right now.   Though sometimes it’s a good place to start.  And there are some pretty smart people in those places.  But no, I mean things like putting in the hours and learning to be a really good online writer, for instance.

No matter how bad the economy, I don’t think the Internet is going to go away any time soon.   To know how to write for the Internet — emails, subject lines, bullet points, headlines, squeeze pages (where you capture email addresses), landing pages (fancy name for a long online sales page), and even home pages and content.  And then even to know the best way to fit it all together.  To realize the semi-science of website layout — how the eyes read and scan a page from the left column to the bottom of the page.   The tier structure and keyword and key phrase use.

Oh, yes, there are a number of things to learn.  But it is one of the best online skills to have.  There are plenty of places out there designing websites, doing SEO – but a good writer?  That takes skill.  Online marketing writing — a skill worth the pursuit in this economy, even if only to use for bartering purposes.

UNIVERSAL CITY, CA - NOVEMBER 02: California Republican gubernatorial candidate and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman greets supporters after conceding to governor elect to Jerry Brown during a campaign party on November 2, 2010 in Universal City, California. California Attorney General and Democratic candidate Jerry Brown gained victory over Former eBay CEO and Republican candidate Meg Whitman for the Governor's seat, while U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) declared victory despite opponent Republican senatorial candidate and former head of Hewlett-Packard Carly Fiorina refusing to concede their tight senate race. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

$1000 a month from eBay, Amazon and health writing puts bread on the table and more.    I’m told it’s pretty good.  A lot of people try to make money online and don’t do too much.

The trick for me is — I buy and sell, and you always need a little extra to put down on the inventory that turns around and puts a little cash in the pocket.  So what does a seller do?

[Remember Meg Ryan the former eBay CEO?  She's been a good leader.]

Well one thing is you can check out Kabbage.  They’re a newish company that helps online businesses.  They decide your credibility by looking at how much business you do on eBay and Amazon, and how much activity you have with Twitter and Facebook.  You know, how many Likes, how often you post, how many followers you have.  Yes, really!  Those are the types of things they judge you on.  And believe me when I tell you their interest rate is out the roof.  But it’s OK if just every once in awhile you need a little money to buy that diamond for $3 that you know you can sell to your regular buyer on eBay for $50.

But online success long term — the kind that leads to making a living online — involves more than just selling on eBay and Amazon.  I believe, we need to become an expert — or at least say and share valuable focused information — and get a following.  The idea is the country store where local clientele depend on the store for the things they need.  This is what we want to do online.  Offer a product people want — offer such great service, products, customer service that people want to come back again and again.

We find these people by various methods.  We give a FREEBIE away to start — and ask for an email address.  We talk to people online.

It’s like my boyfriend — he fixes computers.   He likes people.  He wants to do right by them.  And he loves to talk.  He’s fun to listen to.  He keeps people abreast of exactly what is going on — step by step with the computer.  No surprises.  The ups and downs.  “It’s all figured out, working great.”  “Sorry, just ran such and such and the NIC card went out. “  “You just want to go wireless, OK, it’s ready to go then.  You don’t need a NIC card.”  “OMG ran diagnostics — you’re gonna need to call Hewlett Packard customer service, and you may need a new hard drive afterall, sorry.”  “Yes, since I only did diagnostics, I’ll take $50 bucks off the original cost.”  Duh, duh, duh.

So  online is the same thing.  Great customer service, good products, good service.  So why is it so many people do not start good online businesses — or it seems so difficult or so much mystery?

It’s only because it’s different.   You find customers in a different way.  Online advertising works in a different way.  The landscape is not the same as it is for brick and mortar stores.

But heck, the main thing is get the contact information and follow up.  Keep talking, sharing, giving.  But you won’t likely run into this customer at the local library and recognize each other.  So we must be proactive and ask, ask, ask for permission to be in contact and get back to them.

We do this thru Opt-In boxes on our websites.  Thru social networking, sending people back to our main website.  We give away good Freebies.   And we charge for good products and services when the time is right.

We need more than just one main website.  We will need landing pages aka sales pages where we sell a product or service.  And we will need what is called squeeze pages to capture those precious emails.   And after we get the email, after we get permission to email people — we need to keep the relationship alive, healthy and happy.  Keep the communication lines open.  Talk.  Share.  Give the BEST service.  Be Friendly and Nice.  Just do people right!! But online instead of offline.  But capture the emails.  Don’t waste time just blogging and chatting — that’s not a business.  We can talk to people all day long, but we’re entrepreneurs and freelancers when we learn to close the deal.

Make eBay and Amazon, online writing and your website a business — build great relationships.

Image via CrunchBase

Today was the webinar on ebooks.  Bob Bly was the first presenter, interviewed by Fred Gleeck.  It was only about 30 minutes, but very good and very informative.  Well, honestly I was 10 minutes late — so it probably was 40 minutes.

I own Bob Bly’s book The Copywriter’s Handbook.  I sort of prepared for today by perusing this book this last week.  Even drafted and started writing an article about writing headlines for online copywriting from his chapter on headlines.

So, when I arrived to the webinar Bob Bly was covering the basic cost of producing an ebook.  Many of us could do it for aroaund $2000, he says, though he spends a little more.

He and Fred recommend sticking to one niche in ebook writing.  This way list building, a product line, and everything is related.  So pick one topic.  Pick something your knowledgeable about, that you love, and have credibility in.

It’s recommended that focus be put on building a list to email too.  This can be done by publishing an e-newsletter.  Write the email newsletter about the niche.  Of course, if we don’t have our own list yet — we need to work on that.  In the meantime, we can get together with others in our field and joint venture.  The suggestion about how to do this is to give the person with the list an incentive by giving them 50 percent or 70 percent of commissions on whatever we’re selling.

Bob sells his ebooks as PDF files that he sells through his email marketing, and the landing pages/ sales pages linked to.  Other ways, of course, to sell ebooks would be to use Amazon’s Kindle store or Smashwords.

Bob Bly has built his brand of expertise as an entrepreneur, writer and marketer over many years, and has 80+ books written and published to his credit.

Bob gave his secret method of writing books.  This was a lot of fun to get the inside view of a very successful writer and how he goes about writing his books.

And last but not least Fred and Bob suggest that most of us can call ourselves experts in some specialty, some field of expertise.  If we know more than 90 percent about something, more than most people, Bob says, we can call ourselves experts.

Copy of engraving, long out of copyright downloaded from: http://freeread.com.au/ebooks/e00028.html#king2-17 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Beginning April 24, I’m attending an ebook writing and publishing  workshop – webinar that lasts 6 weeks.   Writing is a vocation worth it’s mass in precious gems (that was a play on “worth its weight in gold”).   Selling on Amazon is the primary bread winner in my home.  However, let’s not put all our energies into one outlet.  First and foremost depend on oneself.

So Joshua Tallant will be one of the presenters at the workshop.  He is pro at formatting and putting ebooks together. He recently wrote a book about it.  He tells us we really need to know a little HTML to be handy with ebooks.

My specialty on Amazon is a niche I’ve made in a type of book that is expensive but worth the price.  I know the market and how to sell and what will sell, so I don’t mind spending the extra money.   The only drawback is that oftentimes I don’t have a lot of disposable cash to buy inventory.

I’m building another pretty good niche as well — all together different from the books.  But it’s a secret for the time being.  And I’ve dabbled in other niches — like Texana, memorabilia, old postcards, public domain.  Never really made a real go at these.  Although, people did like the Texana — and paid pretty well for a few “regional – topo” old photos and postcards I sold on eBay.

I packaged up Texana items — say an old book or two, a photo, a postcard and posted to eBay.  I did this for awhile.  I was complemented on the nice store I had.   Once someone bought my Texana package on eBay before I got any pictures up, completed my description and before I even knew what all was going to be in that package.  That’s how fast we can build a reputation in our field I guess.

That brings me back to health and ebooks.   A long-time family friend told me she thought the perfect niche for me was doing ebooks for health professionals.  At the time I said, “You’re right!”  The Internet, online, digital, mobile is so much more than simply ebooks, however.  And at the time I’d written an article about 2 electrophysioligist-cardiologit doctors. It was one of my better articles.  My friend liked it.  But I hadn’t told her yet how much more passion I had for alternative health.

A health copywriter.   Health eBook writer.  Something like that.  It fits.  Ahhhh, methinks at times we are in an identity crisis.  Ah, it’s only because the Internet is all about Niches, dominating in one niche, mastering a niche — like a diamond.  H___, let’s just choose something!  Yes, it would be great if we all knew what we wanted to do for the rest of our life.  But if we don’t, we can start with our best hunch.  Start somewhere. Do something.

Health eBooks.  An ebook webinar starting on April 24.  It’s going to be a good one.   FREE or $97, your choice.   I’ll get the link to this ebook workshop on this blog asap.

Related articles

• Basic Lessons in eBook Writing and Marketing (foodstaycation.com)

Coconut Oil Extractor (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

What Do Homemade Pickles and Coconut Oil Have in Common?  And/or JustBarley, Ume Plum Paste, Kuzu root, Bee Pollen and Brown Rice?

Well, not a whole lot actually.  But they all hold their place in the healing foods categories.

Oh, yes, let me add to that cod liver, krill and/or fish oil.  Organic extra virgin olive oil.

Yes, call me a health nut if you will.  I am – self confessed.

But I‘ve seen first hand the miracles of healing foods.  And I’m not alone.

Years ago, a few years after my first arrival to the Hill Country and to beautiful South Texas, I decided I wanted to make a vocation of interviewing the best local naturopaths and healers in my area.  I’d interview and then write articles about these people for local publications.

Years later now – I re-discovered Mr. Steven Acuff.  And today I’m ghostwriting-editing his and my ebook. It’s his brainchild – his years of experience and application of using healing foods to get people better.  And I’m trying to make it so it makes sense on paper.  So a person can pick up and read the book and understand it.

It may be called “The Fountain of Youth,” maybe something else.  But it is about eating the right foods for health and longevity.  It’s an ebook – so will be relatively short.  But the story is long.  How will we fit it all in a little ebook?  We won’t.  That is why Mr. Acuff is working on a full length print book.  That will go into greater depth and be more comprehensive.

But in the meantime, I’m working on this little book – putting enough in to be well-rounded and complete, yet short enough to be an ebook.  Whew-wee – and it’s not easy.

For instance, the topic of coconut oil mentioned above, entire books have been written on the subject.   And it deserves that much discussion for sure. It’s a wonderful thing coconut oil.

And the homemade pickles.  It took me half a year to get my pickle making down pat to where they turned out good almost every time.  Many a spoiled bowl of pickles came first.

And I love my different daikon, carrot, ginger, cucumber and cabbage pickles.  They are worth all the effort.  They supply my body with that old-time traditional fermentation we once found in homemade sauerkrauts, yoghurts, sourdough and other fermented foods.  Gives us the enzymes for digestion – catalyzes utilization of vitamins and minerals in our body.

Do you know pain is usually too much inflammation?  And inflammation can be subdued by alkalizing the body.  Pain can feel as if we damaged tissue, or broke a bone.  But by paying attention to the body – and giving it what it needs in some of the items mentioned above – the body can alkalize, heal – and pain disappears as if by magic.  You may not believe it unless you try it or see it.  But these are some of the things that will be in that new ebook that Steven Acuff and I are working on. Then all it will take is trying out a few of the suggestions and seeing the difference it can make.

Amazon.com Cover (Photo credit: leah the librarian)

San Antonio, TX – It might have been a lazy Sunday . . . . but instead we woke early to an overcast but perky spring day with household chores waiting.  And even though other parts of the U.S. are facing tornado warnings or just getting out of cold or snowy weather — we’ve had a number of weeks of warm days with blue bonnets and other wild flowers sprinkling the roadsides.  Deep blue backed, orange-rust chested little birds have returned to build or re-build their mud nests after a long drought in Texas, relieved by our fresh rains and drizzles.

This brings me to the subject of giving a fresh spin to business, a spring cleaning attitude of focus on what counts and tossing the rest.

I sell on Amazon, and I regularly clear about a $1000 a month doing so.  Maybe you’d like to do the same and you’d like to know how I do it.

I sold my first book on Amazon in 2002.  A long time ago.   It’s been a steady process of improvement for me.  And today I depend on my Amazon selling to cover a major part of my monthly bills.

How do I do it?  How can YOU do it?  What steps did I take to get here?  These are some of the questions I hope to answer for you.  And I invite you back as we get into this in more detail.

But as for now . . . let me get back to work.  Between my favorite used bookstore, local neighborhood yard sales in a nearby well-to-do area, and estate sales over this long weekend that began on Thursday — I have a lot of inventory to sort through and list on Amazon, and maybe eBay too.  But for starters stop by my Amazon store — just to peruse and see the type of things I sell.  See what I do, think about how you might sell on Amazon too if you like.

Below is a quick list of some of the items I sourced over the last 3 days.  Now, let me say . . . some of these items are For-Sures, regulars, things I know I can sell and sell easily.  A few others, are items that I may be putting myself out on a limb with.  When it comes to yard and estate sales — I try new things sometimes, like the Sir Albert tobacco cans below.  I just have a hunch those will sell on eBay to collectors.  I don’t know that.  But heck, they were only 25 cents each.

Antiques’ Estate Sale   

The Book of Fine Prints by Carl Zigrosser    sometimes I sell drawings and prints I find in very old books — like medical books, or plant books.  People like to frame these and put them on their walls.

Old Glass Paperweights — again for the collector

A sealed in plastic wrap Trivia Game called TIME from 1983  — the fact that it’s somewhat old, but especially sealed, never opened.  This will sell for sure on eBay, maybe Amazon.  I paid $8 for it though.  Another slight gamble.

Yard Sales

A nice clean hardback children’s book, first edition The Prince of Ireland and Three Magic Stallions — quality, but not so old.  There’s a definite market for older children’s books.  Not my particular expertise — but I’m dabbling.  Recently I sold a copy of William Faulkner’s The Wishing Tree, a first edition.  I probably bought it for a couple of dollars.  It sold for $22.50.

Then I did my normal scanning and inputting of ISBN numbers, and/or book titles into my PDA ASellerTool.  This tool works with a monthly subscription I have with AST — $30 a month.  I take the SD card out of the PDA; plug it into my computer, and do an Amazon database download.  I then scan books mostly, also other media and some toys.

A Pattern Language, Oxford publisher, came up as a high-priced seller.  I paid $1.00.

A few children’s toys and puzzles.

And 11 Prince Albert 1.5 oz  tobacco cans.   I don’t smoke.  Dad rolled his own with this brand — so many years ago. Collector’s like beer cans, and signs — and I bet these tobacco cans.

Favorite Used Bookstore

Then I paid about $200 for books at my favorite used bookstore  — these should bring me twice as much on Amazon.  Those books are in my “special area of expertise.”  We all need a niche and specialty area.