My Squid Life

I’ve not had the most productive week. I did a lot of writing but it wasn’t fruitful. On four separate lenses I put together nearly an entire lens and then chose to delete it.  I’m scattered. Still running in circles trying to make sure things are safe with my mom and then having trouble buckling down to work when I’m not doing that. (If my sister happens to catch this post… THANK YOU for saving me an ulcer by staying with her for a while!)

I started one on simple “no cooking” snacks and then decided I didn’t like it, I did a MonkeyBrain lens but in the process of building it, decided I was more wishy-washy on the topic that I originally thought and didn’t feel like putting it out there. I started another ”thank you” lens for some friends in the form of a group of featured lenses but it seemed too similar to another that I found so I decided to nix it and find a different approach.  Today I put my heart and soul into a more personal lens about caring for aging parents, I told my personal story/experiences but once it was done and even published I decided that my mother wouldn’t appreciate my sharing the story. So, I deleted the contents and will go back and do something less personal on the same basic topic. For now I have a “published” lens with no contents. Basically, I’m driving myself to madness!

My only real lenses in the past 10 days therefore are more niche related stuff. Your Old Digital Camera was a quick one that I built primarily so I could point out some ways of donating equipment to charity and putting it toward a good cause. Self-explanatory is my new 4GB Memory Card lens which much to my amazement made a sale in it’s first couple of days. It’s not getting a bunch of traffic or anything (6 visits from Google in a week) but I guess it’s capturing the right audience…people wanting to know how much a 4GB memory card will hold when considering a purchase. If it works for them I’m happy.  The final one was to help the folks I see in forums asking about how to get a handheld or portable TV now that everything is switching to digital. My How to Get Portable Digital TV lens covers the options which in many cases means using a cell phone, laptop, or other mobile device with a few exceptions.

It’s Friday, and maybe there will be no snow this weekend. I think I need some nature to get me back on track.

Sometimes you just give up. That’s where I’m at. A few years ago, when I set up my first website and blog, I stumbled upon Freewebs. It offered me the ability to easily create my site and blog with absolutely no HTML knowledge which was great.  I learned fairly quickly that it was limiting in a number of ways but hung in there anyway, being a fairly patient person.

I finally realize that their focus is more on kids. From the products they develop for webmasters and bloggers to use to who runs their forums; it’s all about the 15-18 year old crowd. Kids are great and you can even learn from them, but there is simply a different mind set, list of priorities and sense of urgency. Finally, I have accepted that although Freewebs may evolve it won’t be along the lines I need.

So, I’m looking for recommendations…what’s the best free blogging platform? WordPress or someone else? My needs are pretty basic; ease of use, the ability to moderate comments, post Adsense but above all stability and support when needed. I hope to move my website this year as well, but this particular one isn’t worth paying for so I’ll be on the search for that as well.

I hadn’t planned on blogging today but I wanted to send out a thank you. Since my Text Messaging Help lens fell out of the top 100 a few months ago, I haven’t had another top lens.  Until today! My Homemade Vegetable Soup lens finally broke into that coveted spot at #90. It’s only had a few sales but the visits have been generally strong. However, I have no doubt that it’s final step up into the top 100 is due in part to rms featuring it on Cabaret Squidoo earlier in the month.  It gave the lens a bit of a boost in visits and in fact is still providing some traffic to this day.

I don’t know how long it will stay there, but in all honesty just a day or two is still a nice thing. Those little things can give you a psychological boost that’s needed once in a while.

 For all of the foodies, I recommend stopping by Cabaret Squidoo to learn about how to get featured there and for those who simply love good food, the blog will show you the best Squidoo has to offer!

You know you’ve been neglecting your blog at Squidtop when you forget your login, which is exactly what I’ve experienced.  Glad I write those things down; at least I know some of my weaknesses. With the holidays and my mom’s illness I’ve had a hard time keeping on a schedule for the past several weeks. Hopefully, I’m going to start getting back on track after today!

The only siginifcant event in my online efforts in the past week or so is that I finally made the leap and created a HubPage.  (Am I allowed to mention that here on SquidTop?) My first effort is Biscuit Chicken Pot Pie. It was really quick and easy, and after having somewhat mastered the Squidoo workshop I really had no difficulty figuring out how to put my Hub together.  It was exciting to find another online tool to generate income. If you have time to give it a look, I’m very open to feedback!
 
I have noticed that there are a significant number of Squidooers on Hubpages although I haven’t yet had time to explore too much. I don’t know “the norm” yet, but I can say that it appears most hubs are pretty brief.  That’s encouraging to me. Sometimes I avoid writing about many topics because I’m concerned I’ll have to write a novel for it to be considered adequate. 

My 2009 goal on Squidoo continues to be 300 lenses or bust, while I now need to decide about HubPages. Hmmm, perhaps 50 hubs by end of year? I guess to assure that I don’t interfere with some of my personal health and fitness goals, I’ll keep it reasonable. Hope to see more Squids during my Hubpages endeavor.