My Squid Life

I recall a couple of years ago when I was spending the majority of my time writing articles for sites like ezinearticles.com, goarticles.com, and so forth, I would try new sites and quickly abandoned them if they included those text link ads on my posted articles. They were everywhere and I hated the way they made my hard work look like a spammy mess. And, I supposed I didn’t like it that others were benefiting so much from my work, and giving me nothing back while potentially stealing MY traffic. My thoughts on that haven’t changed much but I guess conditioning has made me a bit more tolerant.

Squidoo of course implemented the Infolinks text links ads some time back and I left them enabled.  Only because they limited it to 3 on a page and we benefit by revenue sharing. The financial reward for that has been great in my eyes.  It may end up being only a couple of dollars per lens each month, but when you multiply that by the number of lenses you have, it can be significant.

Based on the good results on Squidoo, I finally decided to enable the Kontera text ink ads on my Hubpages as well.  After a couple of missing e-mails, I think I now have this task completed and should start seeing those text link ads there as well. If there are too many to suite my taste, I can reduce them through the page editor.  Gotta love that! Now I just need to see if they bring in anything additional.  I’ll let you know in a few months.

My new Hubs over there are on remote cooking thermometers and pocket recorders. We love a remote cooking thermometer we got back a few years ago. It’s great to be able to leave the grill or the kitchen, mingle with guests or continue watching a movie without worrying that you’re going to turn some meat into a brick. The pocket recorders are something I had when I worked for an employer and needed to keep notes and dictate reports.  I would have loved to have had one as a student. The digital voice recorders are very portable and have great audio quality.

On Squidoo, I went ahead and created a lens about e-book readers. It’s such a “done” topic, one that everyone has discussed, but I could no longer ignore it on that basis.  I put the page together particularly since so many new options are now out there and even more are on the way in the coming months. Luckily, some are pretty affordable. My other new lens is on heavy duty tape dispensers. The ones I’m talking about are the weighted dispensers for your desk.  I’ve grown to just hate those cheap little plastic dispensers you buy at the drug store. They’re always misplaced, broken, and you have to use two hands to use them.  I inherited one of the heavy duty ones recently, and it’s changed all of that.

The first part of my week continued to focus solely on working my way through a list of potential Hub and Lens topics. I had a couple of days that required my attention elsewhere and now I’m wanting two days off for clearing my head and deciding my direction for the next month.  I’m on target thus far this year. I’ve created more hubs in the past 25 days than I did all year last year and kept up my pace with Squidoo.

My new lenses this week include one on Seashell Pictures. I have my own little collection, gathered a lifetime ago, but it still provides so many nice memories. Maybe I’ll get them out and try to create some nice photos myself.  Another lens was on Net10 Phones. I’ve had some success with prepaid cellular which is good, not just because of the extra money, but because I had to work at convincing the two companies I’m affiliated with to let me sell their plans/phones. So, the sales are very sweet. The market is very, very competitive. I acutally wanted to do it because I think prepaid is now a much better option than it used to be.

I also did quick lenses on Kids Clock Radios, Kids Waterproof Watches, and another on internet connected TV .

Now, I’m ready for the two day breather!

I’ve continued my march toward bringing my Hubpages more closely in line with my Squidoo efforts. I think I reported at the end of the year that I’ve had almost no luck making money on Hubpages while my Squidoo “success” has gradually become very encouraging.  In an effort to earn more, I made the important decision to activate Kontera on my hubs. I think it works like Infolinks does on Squidoo. I am also just now applying for becoming an e-Bay affiliate. I like the thought of earning something for driving traffic and not just sales!

I know, I know. It’s amazing I make anything at all based on how little I’ve made use of the tools given to me!

Anyway, I’ve plowed through another 6 or 7 Hubs since my last post and a few Squidoo lenses as well. My focus has been commercial on both sites for now.  My supporting, but much less commercial writing, is elsewhere, pointing back to these pages.  As the weather and my mobility improves, other writing will occur. On Squidoo I created a lens about  portable printers for laptops.  The options are somewhat limited but they get the job done. Some are really much smaller than others, but sometimes the larger ones have better quality output. One thing people often forget to consider is rugged design. If it will be toted around, especially in your car, you need to know it can survive.

Another Lens was about wireless photo frames. It’s amazing how these digital photo frames have evolved. With the wireless connection you can now share photos instantaneously. Grandma doesn’t need to know a thing about electronics, you can send the pictures to her frame, and wham, there they are when she turns it on. Some of these things are really internet players. They display pictures but also give you access to RSS feeds, podcasts, Web TV, internet radio, and the like. Just being a picture viewer is so yesterday. LOL!

The other lens I put together was really a buying guide for finding the best alarm clock.  Many people use their cell phone as an alarm clock these days, but many people have needs that don’t make this desirable. There are alarm clocks that are perfect for those with vision problems or someone with hearing loss or deafness. Others are better for heavy sleepers that can sleep through loud alarms, some can help kids learn to tell time, and still others are perfect for those who are better off with voice control. Anyway, this lens guides you through the options.

I’ve committed myself to being more productive from a writing standpoint this year. So about two weeks into the year, I’m doing well.  I produced 15 new Hubs, a handful of Qondio and Bukisa articles, and I think 5 new Squidoo lenses.  I have a couple of days coming up with outside obligations but plan to come back ready to dive back in.  My mobility is still limited and the weather really stinks so I may as well make use of the time!

I won’t bother listing all of my new creations but probably the most interesting commercial hub that I did was on Internet Radio Players. They give you access to so much more content, and much of that is free.  In addition, you get much better audio than say your typical clock radio. With these players you don’t have to stay tethered to enjoy that eclectic experience.

Meanwhile…on Squidoo I’m still polishing off my list of commercial lenses I dreamed up before the holiday, but couldn’t get to at the time.  MP3 Clock Radios have gained some popularity providing more listening options, and in some cases, a great docking/charging station for your MP3 players. Some even allow you to talk on your iPhone remotely while it’s docked. Remote controls and video players can round out the experience. Pretty nice.  Of course, for those who are on a tighter budget there are still basic clock radio alarm clocks to be had, without all the bells and whistles.

My lesson of the week however, is to start keeping a log of all the new lenses and hubs I create, so that I can go back and do more promotion for them after-the-fact. At this point, I simply don’t remember them over time!!

Well, I struggled trying to decide what I wanted my goals for the year to include.  I didn’t meet my volume goal on Squidoo this year which doesn’t feel good but I met my income goal so it softens the impact of that. I feel like I have a general handle on how I need to proceed, it won’t necessarily be fun. I have to accept that right now volume is my biggest problem. I’m making money on most sites that I work through, but I’ve just not been as prolific as I need to be, plus I fail to do all the cross promotion I need to do.  Maybe what I need in the new year is more time.

So, to be realistic and to keep things simple, I’m only setting some volume goals this year.  I’m going to commit to having a minimum of 150 Hubs by the end of the year, 355 Squidoo lenses, 245 Qondio articles, and 115 Bukisa articles. I’ll be blogging and joining new sites I’m sure, but I will be focusing on what already works so that’s where my goals lie. Actually, I’m not sure Hubpages is really working for me but I think I’ve found a new direction that makes sense. I read a hub today that confirmed some of the things I had been thinking so I’m shifting gears, at least for the time being.

I actually had a good day writing wise.  I wrote two Bukisa articles, one on Qondio, and put together two new Hubs. The hubs were commercial pages, one on Tile Trivets and the other on Outdoor Cat Houses. They are both an extension of some lenses I did.  I’ve also added a couple of Squidoo lenses of course over the weekend. I created one on outdoor cat shelter. It covers affordable housing for feral cats that can prevent frosbite and hypothermia as well as more expensive cedar homes for pets.   You’ll find some great ideas for making your own. Then the final one was another commercial lens, this one on heavy duty electric staplers.

Didn’t want the old year to go out without blogging  just once more on SquidTop.

I tried to get myself back into things. Managed to put together a few quick lenses.  I did one about Wall Key Holders.  I had fabricated my own from some ceramic tile trivets I found on a clearance table a couple of months ago and decided to put together a lens about how easy it is to do. I really need to learn to start documenting stuff like this, I miss a lot of great lens making opportunities.

I also put one together that’s merely meant to be a pleasant page to visit with tons of sunflower pictures and products from people I’ve met on Zazzle. The only photo of my own is in the introduction and it’s not for sale, it’s just a snapshot I took this past summer. The final one was on book lights (I got one in my stocking this Christmas).

But, all of that aside, the reason for my title…I made the comment in my most recent post that I had made no money on Zazzle.  Well, it appears that statement is an untruth. Amazingly enough, through a Christmas miracle or something, I sold some stamps. Wow, just under $3.00.  For some weird reason, things like that, a mere $3.00 is a better victory than earning $60/hour on a regular job. Face it, it’s the battle and the victory, not the money.

Happy New Year everyone.

Well, it’s time for me to look at my 2009 goals and see how I did. Then, think forward to next year.  My year took a dramatic turn mid-year as my mom came up with some health issues that ended up grabbing a great deal of time, and then end of year I decided to have some surgery that completely stopped me in my tracks during this holiday season. Because of these events, I know I’m going to be way off on some of my goals….but here goes…

1. To get 55,000 visits per month to my lenses. I met this one pretty easily. My visits vary alot; 60,000 to 78,000/month appears to be my range in the last several months.

2. Create a Zazzle Gallery.  I met this one as well.  In fact I have two.  This goal was mostly just for fun.  Thus far I’ve only made pennies from it so it’s good I didn’t have lofty goals here.

3.  Get Squidoo revenue (alone) to $600/month. I met this as well, in fact I’m hoping to double that for the December payout despite my inability to really promote anything for the last few months.  I’m still not using my own Amazon affiliate links on my Squidoo lenses. I continue to feel like Squidoo should get their cut. I donate to the Acumen fund and ASPCA but I still take the majority for myself, so I don’t feel that I’m being overly generous by leaving more of my Amazon proceeds with Squidoo.

4. Find a direction for my SquidTop blog.  Uh, yeah, right. I’m still directionless with this…I’m just basically providing a diary of activities and progress.  In otherwords, no, I didn’t meet this goal.

5.  Have 300 completed lenses by end of year.  I also wanted 50 Hubs.  Failed miserably on both of these!  Lol! I think I ended up with 25 hubs and 241 lenses. On the otherhand, I added probably many dozens of other pages of content elsewhere.  Bukisa, Qondio, etc.  My time was limited but I continued the effort to spread myself around a bit more.

Well that’s the end of year update.  I guess, I need to sit down and think up more agressive goals for next year.  I imagine Squidoo will continue to figure very prominently but I’m also very aware of the need to diversify and to provide support for my Squidoo work on other sites.  So next week, I’ll try to have some basic goals to talk about.

I’ve continued to struggle to get on track as far as Squidoo goes in recent weeks.  I haven’t blogged on Squidtop for a while so I’m trying to just post an update before I disappear for several days once again.  I’ve decided to have some elective surgery which although it’s minor, will have me off of my feet for a few weeks. I’ve been dashing around to make sure my mother is taken care of, Christmas shopping is done, and pre-surgical tasks are completed.  Not much time left for Squidoo!

In the past two weeks I’ve created a handful of lenses.  If I remember correctly, I created one on WiFi MP3 Players due to their popularity and another on finding a low light camcorder because it’s a common thing I’m asked about via my website. The third new lens is about camera phone accessories that you can use in order to improve your photos.  As camera phones improve some people are wanting to make the leap toward using them as their only camera.  Their small size and constant presence certainly does make that option tempting.

I’m getting quite a late start, but I focused my writing this week on promoting some products for the Christmas gift buying season. I’m still loving Qondio for all of the Do Follow backlinks but it’s taking about 3 weeks for articles to be reviewed and approved so I’m not doing as much over there right now. I have two articles still in the hopper, one was submitted on October 11th.

I got around to a few new lenses as well.  Two are for Christmas electronics shoppers. The first is for MP3 players for young kids. It covers from babies to tweens. Then with touch screens taking over everything, I did one on touch screen digital cameras. The other two were more focused on extending some of the information I’ve provided on related lenses. These new ones were created in response to questions I frequently receive on those earlier lenses. The first is about prepaid cell phones and plans and the other is regarding text only plans for those who don’t use their cell phone for voice calling.

My beef stroganoff recipe lens really took off in it’s first week.  It’s been in the top tier all week but I doubt that will continue. It had around 300 visits on it’s first or second day, but that’s dropped off to 50-80/day I think. I’ll have to see if I can figure out if someone mentioned it in their blog.

I’m really hoping to get back to some routine hours online. I think having a schedule is critical, but it’s something that hasn’t been possible in the past few months.  Hopefully things are settling down now.

I sat down Sunday and put together a short list of writing topics, for Squidoo and other sites, and am now hacking away at them. On Monday I put together a lens about pressure cookers.  I always considered them a bit scary and old fashioned but I had been given one many, many years ago.  I started using it several years ago for a few specific dishes and I rather liked the results. In the past few years they seem to have caught on with new and improved designs. Recently too I noticed some of the well known chefs like Wolfgang Puck use them. They do save time and cut back on energy usage.  They also have the advantage of leaving more of the nutrients in your food than many traditional cooking methods.

Following this, on Tuesday, I put together a lens on a Beef Stroganoff recipe. Yes, it uses the pressure cooker for preparing the meat.