Taking a quick glance at my most recent comments, I see stuff people have written either thanking me for warning them away from some stupid Wal-Mart gift card scam, or bemoaning the fact that they fell for some “Multiple Streams of Income” scam.


That’s why I love the boldness of this new video below called “Scamworld” — a video that’s part of a larger article on The Verge.


The piece shows the depth some scammers will go to in order to steal money from their victims, some gladly taking $1,000 from old ladies’ credit cards who barely know nothing about a computer — but having their sales pitchmen claim that their DVD courses are worth it and will make them all the monies back in no time.


It’s fitting because just today I listened/watched an 80-something minute webinar that was truly horrible, all from a guy who claims he makes $350,000 per month drop-shipping products. Now, he very well may make a certain amount per month — but part of me kept asking: If he really makes this much per month, why does he need to charge $1,997 for a “special course” to teach people how to do it?


But wait! There’s more! Actually, he knocked off a whole $1,000 and charged $997 for the course — one that I did not buy. Most of the 80-something minute webinar was babble about generalities and the same old “I was once such a failure newb who didn’t know what I was doing online” tired script that all these guys use.


I learned more from the $2.99 book titled How I Made Over $42,000 in 1 Month Selling My Kindle eBooks that I read yesterday in one sitting than the crap those guys featured in “Scamworld” pitch.


I’m so glad they’ve made this video, and I pray lots more people get hip to their game:

I have not stepped on a scale in a good minute.

In fact, the last time I did may have been at the doctor’s office, weighing myself in the manner I hate: fully clothed.

“That can’t be true,” I said to the non-humored nurse when it landed on 160-something.

I feel good around 148 pounds or so, and I know I’m not that right now, so I only may step on the scale again soon just to get a starting reference point to plop in an Excel spreadsheet to show myself and you how much weight I’ve lost in a little bit.

No, I’m the type of girl that weighs herself every blue moon, generally in the morning, stomach empty — during that sweet spot time after poop but pre-food.

I like being thinner

I’ve always liked being on the thin side.

It feels like me, to be able to rest an elbow on my pelvic bone like I am doing now as I blog this from my Droid, like my right bone is an arm rest or coffee table.

That’s why when I recently spied a little muffin roll around my waist as I sat down, or inspected my fuller frame in a full-length hotel mirror, I thought, “This is not me.”

God gave me back to myself

I was right, it wasn’t me.

There are certain lines that I don’t need to cross.

Yes, a body blow of life can send us looking for love and comfort in margaritas and mini tacos (I love Chicago food like Su Casa’s!), but the Lord remains, encouraging me to find myself, back in that gym, hitting that steel.

Sweating on the treadmill and elliptical and more importantly, getting back on those weight benches and Nautilus, I found that part of myself once again — the part that Katy Perry sings knowingly about: “This is the part that you can’t take away.”

It goes beyond my muscles…

…of course.

It goes beyond building the muscles that are the fountain of youth to losing weight and looking younger and chasing away the fat and staving off all those calories I gobble down and attempt to expend.

It goes beyond my flesh.

My outer being is indicative of what’s going on inside.

I could give in to one vision, the type of person who estimated whether I could squeeze between two close tables at The Cheesecake Factory.

Or, I could go forward with the succesful, screenwriting, Miami-bound, confident, skinny, giving, strong and compassionate woman that is my future — the woman in the pic at the base of the Trump Tower.

I look forward to meeting her, and celebrating her rebirth in Christ Jesus alone, thru his power resting on me.

Rise and grind, as they say.

Well, I’m rising and grinding.

I am so glad that I love writing as much as I do — because I’ve been doing a lot of it.

First of all, I finally got a new Kindle book that’s about 52 pages published on Amazon.com — and since it’s under a nome de plume I won’t mention it here, but I’ve already gotten a sale!

I was all set to admit that I didn’t have any sales yet, but I checked Kindle Direct Publishing just now and saw that somebody somehow found it and bought it. I haven’t even read it on my own Kindle yet to make sure the format is good, but I pray it is. Woo hoo! That’s 35 cents toward $35 million someday, right?

At first I planned to pay some kid on Fiverr 5 bucks to work their backlinking magic (maybe I’ll still do that at some point) but in the meantime, I submitted the Amazon link of my newest book (an Amazon Associates affiliate link, of course! Might as well get paid and paid again…) to Social Monkee, which is a free social bookmarking site that will let you write a bunch of descriptions and spin them a bunch of ways and submit the URL you tell them to submit to 25 different social media places (or is it accounts?) per day.

They’ve got levels that will do 100 different social bookmarks that are the pro-level of the account that costs money, or you can obtain higher levels if you get a certain amount of referrals, like I’m hoping to get through my link above. But I watched the video on their website before I submitted, and Social Monkee gave me more details about how to submit, so watch the video first to help you. And if you want to write and publish your own Kindle book, watch this video from Amazon to see how easy it is. It is pretty easy…

I’ll let you know how much the Social Monkee backlinks help my book sales — because today I realized that since I’m keeping (trying to at least) some of my books anonymous, I won’t be able to give them the usual links from all my websites. And I don’t think backlinking services like Build My Rank let you add Amazon.com as a site to link to anyway, so this is good in that it’s teaching me other ways to get backlinks — preferable free ones.

My new website…

Not long ago I learned about this absolutely freaking fascinating stroller called Origami.

I left the Amazon page up on my iPad 2, and made a mental note to leave it there till I checked it out.

I’m glad I did, because it’s a pricey baby stroller that’s unlike any we’ve ever seen before. One look at their YouTube video and you’ll know why people are going to get up the funds to buy these things.

So I spent the better part of Saturday setting up that new niche website that doesn’t even have any Google Adsense ads loaded onto it — only Amazon affiliate links — and now I just reminded myself to add some from Canada as well.

Anyway, I gotta give myself some link love there and — oh yes! — I bought the dot com through my BlueHost hosting account, because after DreamHost went down for a full day weeks ago, I told myself I wouldn’t buy any more domains through them.

I already had one website on my BlueHost account, and it’s doing great, bless God! So I Googled around and figured out how to add another website to my BlueHost C-Panel, because they are different than DreamHost, and I wanted to make sure I was doing it right.

And I saw that there was a new free WordPress theme called SmallBiz that I used for that stroller site.

At least, I’m using the free version (they have more options you can unlock for money) — and what I like about the theme is that they make it pretty easy to set up a good billboard type of front page, and other pages that display across the top, and you don’t have to worry about dates showing or trying to update the sites with a bunch of posts, if you don’t want to.

It looks pretty good out the box, plus, I like trying new themes to see how well they perform with SEO.

And the ease of the theme helps me focus on getting backlinks instead of monkeying around with too much web design.

My new money…

I really don't look this mean... just an older cell phone pic

Again, His grace is all over my life, even when I mess up.

And since it’s tax time, I feel that urge to get lots of money flowing in — as long as I know lots of money is on the way, I feel better about finagling and robbing Peter to pay Paul — or better yet, collecting funds from the open heaven I’m standing under.

That’s how I got the nudge to write about Jason Wu’s Target line and other stuff the night before the Super Bowl — and that was a blessing and a boon. Hopefully those Google Affiliate Network sales will close out close to a grand or more soon, and the Amazon Associates sales are zipping along.

The other weird thing about being a writer is making money when tragedy happens.

The first thing I did after reading from some Facebook friend’s status that Whitney Houston had died was to Google her name and make sure it wasn’t a hoax.

My husband turned to CNN.

I began writing.

Of course, you can’t help but feel like a skeevy ambulance chaser when you’re writing about bad circumstances — but then I realized, no, this is my job.

And writing actually does help me process my emotions — and seriously helps people find information as well.

Just like Don Lemon reported about the death and waxed philosophical about loving the cult-classic movie Sparkle, us writers and reporters have our own place in this world and gifts to give.

Some stuff, like today when I wrote about LL Cool J’s prayer and saying no to demons, simply has to get out of me.

It isn’t all about the money — but thank God when it comes.

And the biggest blessing is that someone can be helped and healed, even through tragedies like Whitney’s death, so that it’s not in vain. I know it helped me, smacking me in the face and letting me know that alcohol and prescription drugs are nothing to play around with.

I’ve got too much to live for.

That reminds me of the walk I took with Jesus this morning in the seriously cold — 13-degree or so brilliant sunshine-y — weather and He gave me notes for another “big project” coming up soon. It may be a life-changing kind of project. When and if it’s His will, you’ll learn about that, too.

Writing, writing, writing.

Let me end it here…

P.S. I keep thinking about Roland Martin getting suspended (not fired, right?) from CNN. I really like him as a church-going Christian out there in the world. Yeah, he made a silly tweet, but don’t we all say stuff we regret sometimes? I seriously don’t condone any bashing of any sort — but I pray he’s okay and will rebound even stronger.

I already have one book published on Amazon.com in their Kindle store, and once I get my butt off this website and others this week, I should have my second book published on the Kindle in a few days.


But you won’t find me pumping those books on my sites. These are the ones I prefer to write under pen names, just so I can write more freely, and not worry about anyone who knows me finding the books and trying to put two and two together and running and squealing and pointing fingers.

How to get your book from Microsoft Word document into the Kindle book store on Amazon in 12 hours…

I’m all pumped up because I just watched this new video from Amazon, showing pretty much step by step how you can upload your book’s cover image and Microsoft Word document onto the Kindle Direct Publishing website, and if it’s in English, it will get published in less than 12 hours or so.


That is just amazing to me, because when I published my first Kindle book one year ago, I went through a whole lot more rigmarole than that. I’m so glad it’ll be easier to get my new titles up and running and selling in no time. And hopefully they’ll sell a lot more than my first book, which sold a handful of copies when it was first published, but then I kind of lost steam and didn’t concentrate on getting more reviews and backlinks.


The video doesn’t give you the basics on how to format your Word document, but you can find some of those formatting tips on this page about publishing a Kindle book.


I do remember that you shouldn’t left or right justify the photos you upload into your Word document, but just leave them centered, if you have any.


“Kindle book titles can be up to 200 characters,” she says in the video — but that doesn’t necessarily mean we should make them that long. I might experiment with shorter titles, and definitely make sure your title is something that people may search for on Amazon, like Divorce Recovery, for example, a title I just came up with by searching on Amazon.com and looking past the titles that are obvious searches for an exact book.


It also helps, perhaps, if the books that do appear in those search results aren’t too popular. But don’t let anything stop you. Try and try again to see what hits — because none of know Amazon’s exact ranking methods — we just know that “likes” and reviews (especially probably from verified buyers) and backlinks and sales all help contribute to positive rankings, and therefore, more sales. And the price matters.


But anyway, after I get my book up and running and published on Amazon, I’m going to visit Fiverr.com and invest 5 bucks on a kid I read that will work his magic and get a bunch of backlinks and social media links to the book’s page and see how much that helps my title be found and sell.

Okay, on to the thieves stealing content and publishing it in Amazon Kindle books

Because Amazon can publish content on Kindle in 12 hours or so, they obviously don’t have time to read all those books.


I’d heard about people stealing classic books and publishing them online — and I’ve even heard a lot about the brouhaha over PLR (private label rights) stuff that can be either great or crooked, depending on who you read.


But yesterday was when I learned about a guy who paid money to learn how to make money with Kindle books from some people on the Warrior Forum — and once they sold him a huge zipped file of what turned out to be stolen content and he got caught and brought it up to the parties, they kicked him out.


It’s interesting how they stole from writers who wrote naughty stuff — thinking those people would be too ashamed to come forward and complain and challenge them.

Imagine your name on a Kindle book...

I used Adobe Photoshop to create my Kindle book cover

I see great things...

Impeach Obama bumper sticker

Seriously? I mean really? It’s only January 2012…

Really? Seriously? (Imagine that being said in an Amy Poehler-style voice on that SNL news segment.)

Do people really want President Obama impeached?

The first time I saw an Impeach Obama bumper sticker back on September 7, 2011 — the night before my 13th wedding anniversary — I was taken aback.

Today, when I Googled “Impeach Obama” to see where this grassroots campaign is headed, I saw sites dedicated to the notion, as well as petitions and the latest athlete in the news for refusing to go the White House.

Oy vey. Oy vey.

I won’t even get into that time I saw people with the “Pray for Obama” with Psalm 109:8 bumper sticker that reads, “Let his days be few; and let another take his office and charge” — with an even scarier next verse that should be nowhere near Obama’s name in any prayers.

And then there’s the Atlanta Jewish Times owner and publisher Andrew Adler who just stepped down for getting in trouble over suggesting that our president be killed.

So as I ready myself to watch his address tonight through my purple haze of oral surgery healing, I can’t help but ask…

Is it really that bad? Does the hate need to be that strong?

I guess for some folks it is all horrible, and they lay all the blame and vitriol at the feet of President Obama.

I didn’t like it when haters did it to George “Dubya” — and I don’t like them doing it to #44.

Even some of his famous celebrity supporters who famously campaigned hard for him have turned their minds and backs on the man that people like me in this pivotal, important swing state put in office when we shaded in that oval next to Obama-Biden instead of McCain-Palin.

I tell you what — not many of those Republicans I watched last night through my haze of muscle relaxers could get me to sway my vote towards their perfectly coiffed and polished selves — okay, Gingrich and Ron Paul aren’t gelled to the high heavens, I’ll give them that much.

Which is a lot, in view of those racist newsletters Paul claims he didn’t write, and based on the bloated standing ovation Newt got when CNN’s John King boldly asked him about open marriage claims. (Love the way Nancy Giles ripped into Gingrich in this video…)

And I’ll admit that Romney did make some good points about capitalism, and I’m glad he finally released his tax forms, but like I told a Jewish friend over lunch last week, “I can’t see myself voting for a Mormon.” (I guess Jesus Himself would have to tell me to do so…)

And the beat goes on…

And the yellers will yell…


And the debaters will debate…


We’ve got all the way until November 2012 to watch this political road show unfold, and what a good one it is primed to become.


Look at the comedy of errors freak show that Herman Cain turned out to be.


And we’re just getting started.


So I plan to stay here, behind my Mac — writing my posts and pieces and Kindle Singles.


And if I’m still in this battle ground of a state come election time, I’ll let you know if I darken that same Obama oval I did four years ago…because I’m learning in life that the loudest voices or the lying voices whispered into the ears of folks by manipulators trying to manipulate aren’t always the ones that win the war in the end.

Lauren Scruggs, the model injured by plane propellers

So much so that I started a Prophetic Dream Journal, where I write out some of my dreams and upload sketches of visions — but mostly I scribble them around in my “Seeking Him” study book or in private Word documents when I can.

Model Persecuted

That’s the exact title I saw in my dream last night. I know for sure it was “model” — and I’m pretty sure “persecuted” followed. It was a short two-word title on this website, and since I often ask God to show me titles of what to write, I’m going with that one. He’s often opened doors when I follow his leading.

When I saw the title “Model Persecuted” in my dream and woke up, forcing myself to remember it by repeating it over and over again in my head, I couldn’t help but think of Lauren Scruggs, the pretty model who was injured when she walked into the turning propellers of a plane.

I’ve dreamt of her before I even heard of the event — because the night before her injury occurred, I had a dream about a female Christian leader with the fingers on her left hand cut off. I didn’t even want to write that one down anywhere, because it just seemed so horrible. I don’t like talking about the horrible visions.

When warning dreams become reality…

A book by Lauren Scruggs' parents

Then my friend told me about how she said “Oh no!” when she heard about the incident, and ran and got the book by Lauren’s parents — Jeff and Cheryl Scruggs — called I Do Again: How We Found a Second Chance at Our Marriage–and You Can Too, and their amazing ministry.

Propeller Accident Victim Writing, Seeking Prosthetics: MyFoxDFW.com

They were divorced and then reconciled, and went on to help many couples repair their broken marriages as well.

I don’t know why I saw the words “model persecuted” but I do know that as a result of this circumstance, people are seeing how much the family is giving glory to God through such a bad time.

Her family has been updating progress on a blog on Caring Bridge.

“So grateful that God has given us a second chance, so grateful that Lauren is saved. So grateful that she loves the Lord, that she has a firm foundation in Jesus Christ and from that knows that God is using this for a purpose. And knows that there is going to be a greater purpose than she has been experiencing in the last six weeks,” Jeff Scruggs said.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOUT LAUREN SCRUGGS’ FIRST TIME LEAVING THE HOSPITAL:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Thumbs up

So how much have I been making online and how do I do it?

All by the God of all grace, of course.


I came online in 2005 — and only made a couple of hundred bucks at first. At some point I was up to $12K per year, and by 2009, I was making more than $43K online.


In 2010, I brought home over $50K — and in 2011 I brought home $26,759.63.


Read many more details about all the places that paid me to write here…

What happened to decrease my online writing/blogging income in 2011?

I can point to a few things that affected my writing income in 2011.

Hmmm....

So here’s my plan to make big bucks in 2012 with Kindle books

Ty Cohen

Here’s the 2011 detailed breakdown of my blogging earnings by month…

…and again, if you want more nitty-gritty details, read how I made the monies and find links to the places here…

But we’ll start off with my highest earner, Examiner.com (aka Clarity Digital Group, LLC) — and go in descending order. Let’s pray the income updates you’ll start reading soon show a lot of Kindle book sale earnings! In Jesus’ Name…

1/20/2011 Clarity Digital Group, LLC $1,530.39
2/18/2011 Clarity Digital Group, LLC $1,946.98
3/18/2011 Clarity Digital Group, LLC $1,699.48
4/20/2011 Clarity Digital Group, LLC $743.64
5/20/2011 Clarity Digital Group, LLC $1,094.30
6/20/2011 Clarity Digital Group, LLC $1,803.38
7/20/2011 Clarity Digital Group, LLC $614.64
8/19/2011 Clarity Digital Group, LLC $614.18
9/20/2011 Clarity Digital Group, LLC $1,300.54
10/20/2011 Clarity Digital Group, LLC $425.38
11/18/2011 Clarity Digital Group, LLC $428.87
12/20/2011 Clarity Digital Group, LLC $352.58

MY TOTAL EXAMINER.COM (CLARITY) WRITER’S PAY FOR 2011: $12,554.36

1/25/2011 Google Adsense $526.58
2/25/2011 Google Adsense $452.37
3/25/2011 Google Adsense $364.18
4/27/2011 Google Adsense $522.23
5/3/2011 Google Adsense $0.38
5/25/2011 Google Adsense $571.46
6/24/2011 Google Adsense $571.53
7/26/2011 Google Adsense $199.79
7/26/2011 Google Adsense $546.37
8/24/2011 Google Adsense $246.85
8/24/2011 Google Adsense $481.46
9/26/2011 Google Adsense $272.72
9/26/2011 Google Adsense $496.38
10/26/2011 Google Adsense $387.55
10/26/2011 Google Adsense $429.17
11/25/2011 Google Adsense $257.04
11/25/2011 Google Adsense $285.16
12/23/2011 Google Adsense $159.77 0

MY TOTAL GOOGLE ADSENSE PAY FOR 2011: $6,770.99

1/27/2011 Amazon $1,144.06
2/25/2011 Amazon $705.51
3/28/2011 Amazon $768.81
4/25/2011 Amazon $391.68
5/25/2011 Amazon $157.39
6/27/2011 Amazon $264.50
7/26/2011 Amazon $424.72
8/30/2011 Amazon $258.25
9/27/2011 Amazon $96.71
10/26/2011 Amazon $120.45
11/25/2011 Amazon $179.14
12/28/2011 Amazon $157.94

MY TOTAL AMAZON PAY FOR 2011: $4,669.16

1/12/2011 Yahoo! Contributor Network $128.26
2/8/2011 Yahoo! Contributor Network $124.59
3/9/2011 Yahoo! Contributor Network $121.73
4/13/2011 Yahoo! Contributor Network $72.69
5/11/2011 Yahoo! Contributor Network $75.20
6/8/2011 Yahoo! Contributor Network $87.90
7/12/2011 Yahoo! Contributor Network $82.23
8/11/2011 Yahoo! Contributor Network $53.89
9/13/2011 Yahoo! Contributor Network $49.38
10/12/2011 Yahoo! Contributor Network $48.29
11/8/2011 Yahoo! Contributor Network $42.48
12/14/2011 Yahoo! Contributor Network $42.82

MY TOTAL YAHOO! CONTRIBUTOR WRITING PAY FOR 2011: $929.46

2/2/2011 Kontera $97.43
4/4/2011 Kontera $107.06
6/2/2011 Kontera $223.04
12/5/2011 Kontera $269.85

MY TOTAL KONTERA INCOME REPORT FOR 2011: $697.38

1/20/2011 CJ $69.54
3/18/2011 CJ $54.80
8/19/2011 CJ $53.00
9/20/2011 CJ $82.10
9/20/2011 CJ $64.21
12/20/2011 CJ $85.64

MY TOTAL COMMISSION JUNCTION PAY FOR 2011: $409.29

9/22/2011 IZEA, Inc. $50.00
9/29/2011 IZEA, Inc. $65.00
10/13/2011 IZEA, Inc. $75.00
10/31/2011 IZEA, Inc. $75.00

MY TOTAL IZEA PAY — NOT TO MENTION A FABULOUS VACATION FOR ME AND MY FAMILY! — IN 2011: $265.00

10/31/2011 Legal Zoom $77.55
11/30/2011 Legal Zoom $56.70

MY TOTAL LEGAL ZOOM PAY IN 2011: $134.25

11/15/2011 Infolinks, Inc. $104.42

8/25/2011 eBay Partner Network $25.67
11/23/2011 eBay Partner Network $11.70
3/25/2011 eBay Partner Network $25.22

MY TOTAL eBay PARTNER NETWORK PAY IN 2011: $62.59

1/24/2011 Linkshare $3.81
2/7/2011 Linkshare $39.38
2/28/2011 Linkshare $2.90
10/24/2011 Linkshare $2.10
5/6/2011 Linkshare $1.25
6/6/2011 Linkshare $1.25
6/27/2011 Linkshare $1.45

MY TOTAL LINKSHARE PAY IN 2011: $52.14

5/31/2011 The Company Corporation $40.00

1/1/2011 Text Link Ads, Inc $4.25
2/1/2011 Text Link Ads, Inc $4.25
3/1/2011 Text Link Ads, Inc $4.25
4/1/2011 Text Link Ads, Inc $4.25
5/1/2011 Text Link Ads, Inc $4.25
6/1/2011 Text Link Ads, Inc $7.65
7/1/2011 Text Link Ads, Inc $4.67
8/1/2011 Text Link Ads, Inc $2.97
$36.54

9/8/2011 WSPC Enterprises $33.95