But grocery shopping. I wouldn’t call it my downfall, but it’s definitely not my strong point.

I use coupons. Sometimes. And I understand how using a coupon works. But the whole “couponing” movement is beyond me.

There are people out there who are getting food for free, or practically free. And I want to be one of those people. I just don’t get it.

I have a Master’s degree for crying out loud. And yet couponing has, to this point, been beyond my grasp.

I shall master it this year. Oh yes, I shall. I am now armed with a book – The Coupon Mom’s Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills in Half – and am at page 59. And I have not had to scratch my head or throw the book across the room in anger even once.

You know, if you head over to You Tube and type in the search word “couponing” you will get 503 results. So there are plenty of people out there that know and understand the couponing secrets that I have decreed must be learned by yours truly.

Between the book, the videos and a ton of websites (including Coupon Mom – the site the book is based upon) there is a wealth of information at my fingertips. Now, if I can just get my brain to process it…

Updates shall be forthcoming (of course).

I was stumbling through life using – gasp – Internet Explorer. I don’t even know which version. It was whatever version popped up on my computer, people. Because I really didn’t care about browsers and such. I just wanted my internet and I wanted it NOW.

But then friends and colleagues raved about this little wunderkind Mozilla Firefox. I made the switch. I even played around a bit and added the color tabs for some fun. (I know, shocking!).

But you know what? I’m back to wanting my internet to magically appear. And NOT have problems. Like crashing every freakin’ day. Or getting the “Not Responding” message multiple times a day.

When you are typing up a blog post and your internet crashes…no fun. When you have just stumbled across some awesome research for your book and you want to bookmark it and your internet crashes…again, no fun.

I’ve had it with Firefox. I can’t recall how many crashes I have had in the past several weeks. And then I keep getting pop-ups asking if I wanted to reinstall the color tabs. No, I don’t want the stinking color tabs anymore. Who cares about cutesy colored tabs when you can’t get your tabs to stay put during an internet session.

Firefox – you suck. I don’t know what browser I will switch too. But I’m making the switch.

Then it dawned on me. I have a blog. Why not use that?

But the blog would need a bit of an overhaul. A little redesign. Because it was still geared towards my ghostwriting and ebook coaching.

So of course I turned to the awesomely talented Kayla Hennegin of bellafaith graphic & web design. Kayla has worked on several sites for me and she’s always pulled through like a champ. In some cases, I had a clear vision of what I wanted. In others, I asked for her help and expertise to bring it into reality. In short, Kayla rocks!

I have been woefully absent when it comes to this blog. I’m not saying I’ll post daily. But I’ll post. More often than I did before. (How’s that for a wishy-washy “promise?”)

More on what I’ve been up to in a follow-up post. I just wanted to give props to Miss Kayla and celebrate the redesign of the blog! WooHoo!!

Brandi is a tough-talking real estate agent who won’t take no for an answer. Her confidence spills over into all parts of her life, so when she meets Vivi, she’s got a new project and is determined to whip Vivi into shape.

Michelle is Vivi’s long-time friend and feels threatened by Brandi. She thought Vivi was fine as she was…why have her change now?

And then there is the always sexy Barb. She gets what she wants. Period. And being the hottest babe among her “friends” works in her favor. She’s not liking Vivi’s transformation one bit.

Woof! is in the works and more information can be found at Woof! – The Book.

But it’s been more difficult transitioning from non-fiction writing to fiction writing than I anticipated. Sure, I’ve got plenty of crazy fiction ideas rattling around in the noggin. But the constraints of non-fiction writing have these invisible shackles on me. It’s been tough shaking them off and really writing freely…as fiction really NEEDS to be written.

My solution? Read plenty of fiction. Immerse myself in it. And it’s helped. I’ve read murder mysteries, chick lit, literary fiction, you name it. And I’ll keep on reading it as I keep on working on my writing.

My current project is Woof! And it’s involved a fair amount of research. And I’m not a huge fan of research. But in the end, it will help the book…because if I don’t know what the hell I’m writing about, then the whole book will ring false. And we can’t have that, now can we??

Another fun thing I want to share is a new book – 199 Internet-Based Businesses You Can Start with Less Than $1000 – and yours truly is featured in it. Well, my ebook coaching & ghostwriting biz is featured. You can check it out on pages 182-183. The book is great for anyone looking into home business…plenty of informational nuggets in there and case studies.

So, the winners have been sent emails…if you see your name below but haven’t seen an email from me, then it means the spam monster got a hold of it. So please send me an email with your mailing address and I will get the book out to you in the coming week (words at tinamcallister dot com).

Drum roll, por favor….

- Rich: Beyond Booked Solid

- Alan: Power of Full Engagement

- Michaela: Credit Road Map for the Self Employed

- Sherry: Credit Road Map for the Self Employed

- Mary Jo: How to Start a Home-Based Writing Business

- Carrie: The Art of Abundance

- Brian: Desert Storm Diaries

The details: All you have to do is leave a comment. Short and sweet will do the trick. Even typing something like “Pick me!” will do. I’m easy. (Make sure you use a proper email address so I can contact you if picked). And you can leave your comments until December 22, 11:59PM EST. And yes, you can leave more than one comment if you have more than one email address. (Translation: you can leave one comment per email address).

Winners of said books will be picked by a number randomizer online. They will then be contacted to provide a mailing address. And the book(s) will be mailed via media mail. Please no overseas mailing addresses.

The books:

- The Credit Road Map For the Self Employed (this one I edited and I can’t say enough about the author, Patrick Ritchie, and how he’s able to take a pretty dry subject and make it interesting! And in his second book he gears the information to independent contractors and small biz owners. There’s a wealth of knowledge here and I’ve got two books to give to two lucky peeps).

- Beyond Booked Solid (this is the follow-up to Michael Port’s awesome Booked Solid book. Especially helpful to service providers!)

- The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal

- Desert Storm Diaries (my buddy Carlin Comm wrote this…a diary of his involvement in Desert Storm. Really neat stuff!)

- The Art of Abundance (a hardcover book full of phrases and quotations to keep you on that positive path. Just a good little book to look at now and again).

- How to Start a Home-Based Writing Business (sort-of self explanatory, huh?)

Whatcha waiting for? Go ahead and leave a comment! You’ve got ’til the end of the day on the 22nd!

Well, here’s your chance!

As part of the Business and Learning Grand Re-Opening Extravaganza tomorrow, Thursday October 15th, I am presenting a webinar on the ins and outs of ebooks and how you can help them to market your biz and build your bank account.

I was honored to be asked to be a Team Leader on the site and would love for you to join me and the other Team Leaders tomorrow as we each present some really cool information to business owners and entrepreneurs such as yourself.

You can check out the full line up of webinars here and also sign up. It’s FREE and there will be giveaways such as coaching and memberships. So don’t  miss out! Hope to see you there!!

PS got an ebook question for me? Post it here in the comments or shoot me an email at words at tinamcallister dot com and I’ll make sure to address it during the webinar!

It’s easy. It’s a complete no-brainer. You upload some photos. Insert some text. Pick the music. And let Animoto put it all together. Piece o’ cake!

But what if you’re just not sure what to say? Or what tact to take with your video?

How do you find the inspiration?

My advice: check out the music. Go to the Animoto music choices and listen. You only get about 30 seconds of music to hear each selection. But it’s enough to hear the emotions behind it.

Is it jumpy and fast? Is it slow and sad? Music evokes emotions in most of us (well, those of us normal humans, anyway) and the music can completely change the tone of a piece.

I am going to post two short videos. Same pictures. Same text. Two very different pieces of music.

(I was actually going to pick a classical piece to REALLY show a difference and then I stumbled across this piece called Funkasaurus…which I had to pick in tribute to the munchkin who loves dinosaurs).

Did you notice the differences? (Hopefully you did!)

Anyway, the point is that music can really inspire you to feel different things. So BEFORE you write the text for your promo video and BEFORE you decide on the pictures that will be floating around, listen to a bunch of music clips and see what hits you. You may go in a completely different direction than what you originally planned. You may decide to make multiple videos to promote your ebook – a different “feel” and a slightly different message to different target markets.

Let the music guide you and see what you come up with!

You can register for an Animoto account for FREE. Yes, free. (We love free around here).

Here’s the lowdown on Animoto and the free account:

PROS: uh, did I mention it is FREE? It’s simple to use…takes only minutes of your time. Exports to YouTube.. You can share the video via email or use the code to embed it in your site. They have music and pictures available.

CONS: you will soon find out that 30 seconds is really, really short. And that it truly limits what you can pack into a single video. Also, while the music is nifty, there is little to choose from. So far, I’ve been able to find what I want/need…but I could see where I might want more selection. Big con – the pictures are less than desirable (to me, anyway) and slim pickin’s. The amount of text you can type is also quite limited. Kind of annoying for a wordy writer like me.

Seriously, though. I would give Animoto the big thumbs up for promoting an ebook, an e-report or your biz in any way. All you have to do is upload pictures, add some text, pick out some music and voila! Animoto does it all pretty much for you. And it ends up looking like a polished piece o’ work.

Here is one I made as a promo for the 28 Ebook Writing Tips For Parents (an e-report I recently released). I am embedding it using YouTube:

And here’s one I made in all of 6 minutes…using one of my own pictures, and then some royalty free pics over at stock.xchng. And this one is using the embed code from Animoto (so you can see the difference):

There are options for those of you who want to make longer videos. One is the all access pass for $30. This still brands the videos with the Animoto image, apparently. I’m going to try this out before moving onto the next option…which is the commercial use version. The plumped up biz account at Animoto will set you back $99 for 3 months, or $249 a year (thank goodness for business write-offs) but it appears there are a lot more goodies for you to work with when you go this route. As I continue to use Animoto and make various videos, I will be sure to give you feedback.