Awesome! Thank you. Also, I'm in awe of you being so brave to admit your real age in your video. Lol! I consistently shave a decade or more off of mine, and have for a few years now. I've told people who know me that I can be any age I want to be, and I have decided I shall be 34 for the time being. I still feel like a kid, so why not? But, let's just say, while you're older than me, we would have known each other in high school. ;)
Oh, also, I've been making a living online part-time since 2002, and full-time since 2008. I don't even think I could go back to traditional employment now if I wanted to. One does get used to the work-at-home lifestyle. :)
I cant see your picture that well in the thumbnail - but you look like you are 20 in that photo! I see you are an author! How are you doing with that! I published over 59 books in ONE year on Kindle back in 2011. (I have 9 pen names) I made $6000 in ONE month from my children's books in September 2011 - THEN Amazon changed their algorithms and my sales dropped considerably each month, and kept dropping. My children's book pen name is "Xavier Finkley" and at one point I had the #1 and #3 ranked books on Amazon for "Baby-3" - I really thought I was going to make a living selling books, but I was wrong. Now I make about $250 per month from my books - UGH!
Xavier Finkley: https://www.amazon.com/Xavier-Finkley/e/B005Q0NG4Q
Thankfully, I have good genes (my mom didn't age a day from puberty until she hit 60), and my brother has a Ph.D. in anti-aging and longevity research, so I get the benefit of his knowledge, and, occasionally, the opportunity to be a test subject. That picture is a relatively recent one. :)
It's been my ambition to make a living as a novelist since high school (okay, I graduated in '91....there, now you know the horrible truth, haha!). I have so many half-finished novels from over the years, where I just couldn't get into the characters' heads enough to connect with them, and gave up. I finally had a dream in 2015 that inspired me enough to write and finish my first novel, and I've written my second one since then. Both are full-length novels of around 100,000 words each. I am currently working on my third one.
I've been making around $600 a month on Kindle since 2010 with some non-fiction books I wrote under a different name. Those books aren't even that long, maybe 25 pages each, but they sell well, and continue to do so. I also make a full-time living as a freelance writer for business clients.
It's harder to grow a fiction audience, especially when you're new, but having more than one book out helps. If people read one of your books and like it, they are more likely to buy your other books. I've been studying Twitter marketing, Instagram marketing, Facebook marketing, and intra-Amazon marketing to promote those books, and I'm slowly building an audience. It's easy to sell non-fiction, but much harder to sell fiction. I sell a few copies of each book on Amazon and Smashwords each month, but I'm still selling more hard copies as a local author. It will be a while before fiction is a full-time income for me, but I'm getting there.
Sweet! Well I hope one of your books really takes off! Im sure if you keep trying you will get there! I dont have that level of imagination to create advanced plot lines, hence the children's books were best for my plebeian mind! Haha! I would love to know what your bro says about intermittent fasting - it has changed my life! I also am very big into supplements ala Resvertrol, Cumin, CoQ10, etc - as well as juicing fruits and veggies.
He's a fan of calorie restriction, I can tell you that. He's also a fan of the keto diet. His business partner in the biotech company they are building together took it one step further and is a keto-vegan (she has a Ph.D. in the same subject as him). He does one "cheat" day a week, where he can eat anything he wants to, though, or his strict diet would be too cumbersome for him. His business partner never cheats. She has a ton of willpower. I've been vegan since 1993, before anyone else I knew was doing it, so with a couple of Ph.D.'s following me into that lifestyle, I feel like a trendsetter. :)
You have a $390.00 steemit! Wow! If you dont mind me asking - how how you done with Crypto Investing? (No worries if you want to share) Any tips for a newbie>?