My Squid Life

Having limited online time in the past couple of months, my lens development has been somewhat limited. I noticed just yesterday that I can no longer find Squidom online. I never considered these Squidoo focused directories to be a great marketing tool, but I did routinely submit my lenses because it was simple and quick.  I guess it’s perhaps disappeared for good. Squoogle is another one I’m not having any luck in pulling up.  I know it was undergoing a hiatus, but in the last couple of weeks, the site doesn’t even come up. Perhaps it’s gone for good as well.

Tagfoot in it’s effort to combat spam, is now a paid site for new members. It’s only $10/year but I would imagine it’s growth will slow siginifcantly. So it’s still there, but I’m not sure what it’s future will be either.  For those looking for a site with strong SPAM control, it might be a safe bet.

I only have two new lenses since my last post.  One is to promote my Zazzle designs on note cards and postcards.  I still have some to add but that probably won’t happen until a bit later this week. I hope to create an entirely new second store that doesn’t have a floral focus, but that’s even further in the future yet. The other new lens I’ve created offers a bit of history about the Wabash & Erie Canal which ran through Indiana in the 1800’s.  It also talks about some of the hiking/biking opportunities in the area which parallel the old canal.

The good news from the past several days, is that my lens on The Influence of Advertising received a purple star. Now, to settle in and do some lens updating…

I had set a goal last December to experiment with Zazzle or something similar this year.  Just something to force me to work with something totally new and different. I guess I like being uncomfortable!  Anyway, I’m no artist or photographer but I decided to finally give it a go.

I can’t say that I’ve really figured out all of the tools and things at Zazzle yet after two days of experimentation but I can handle the basics.  I’ve taken about a dozen of my floral shots and produced a few products.  I’ve even managed to showcase some of them on some lenses. The results can be found at the Flower Mousepad, the Flowered Mug, and the Unique Keychain lenses. I have no doubt I will be changing the photos, borders, and so forth but I needed to force myself to get something out there.  It was kind of fun and I would encourage anyone to give it a try, there’s really nothing to loose, except a bit of time.

First things first.  I was awarded my second Purple Star today.  I am even happier with this one than the first I think. I received it for my Caring for Your Parents lens. It’s been frustrating because as far as traffic and lensrank, it’s been one of my poorest performing lenses and yet, it’s one of my favorites as far as my own lenses. High competition, poor SEO, bad keywords, and so forth are the likely culprits.

Despite my announcement a week or so ago that I was jumping back in the saddle and going to start writing more again after a break, I haven’t lived up to my own expectations. It’s odd perhaps, but when I’m failing, I’m motivated to work harder, but when I’m “succeeding”, I sometimes lose the drive.  I think thats odd.  But, it seems to happen to me. I’m really starting to get the “multiple streams of income” coming in now, not huge, but siginificant. Now my brain doesn’t want to buckle down and just write, write, write.

In reality, I think I’m processing what I really want to do, what my game plan should be for the future. Should I focus more development time on my own website, more on Squidoo which has been a tremendous help for me, or start doing more with other, similar sites?  I’ve experienced what happens when a site decides to quit, and you lose all of that work. It’s not that I think that will happen to Squidoo, but it’s becoming a significant income ,and loosing it would be devastating. I could move things if that were to happen, but the reality is the URL would change, and the traffic probably lost. Stick with what’s working or put more effort into other things and spread myself around for security’s sake.  I want to do both, the question is how to do it all and stay sane.

Enough of that. I created a new hubpage on discussing any marital arguments with others, not really my expertise, but just a rant really, wanting people to think about what it is they are really doing sometimes. I also created a lens on a new GPS device with a built-in camera.   It’s not for automobiles, it’s for outdoor use.  For those of  us who hike, or fish, hunt, etc. these are really nice and handy.

I continue to be happy with RedGage. I’m posting really just to update those of you who have concerns. I have seen several postings related to their committment to thwart SPAM.  They are even restrictive about comments for this reason. I had an article featured, which boosted my earnings a bit. I think I’ve made only $5.25  or something so far but it’s not intended to help me earning a living, just to give me more for what I’ve already done and provide some “do follow” backlinks. Luckily, my lenses are welcomed there and in fact, my own content is ALL they want. Certainly makes things easier and less time consuming. I’ve seen a lot of great content there, many artists, writers, and photographers on the site. I hope it stays that way. My only complaint is that the site is rather slow at times.

Ok, after being a little lazy last week, I’m getting back on the writing horse this week. I had been shooting for getting to  50 hubs and 300 lenses this year.  It’s still achievable, but I’m a little behind.

When I started off three years ago on the internet as an affiliate marketer, I had absolutely no preparation for the task. I was following some advice provided by the program I had signed up with, and, unfortunately it wasn’t necessarily good advice. Like many, I had to learn and experience for myself. I got an email from someone who signed up to that program under me, she wanted some help. I responded to that of course, but it also put in my mind, the idea for a hub on the topic. This article on Important Internet Marketing Lessons is purely for beginners, people who haven’t even read up on the topic yet. It’s no cookbook, but it’s three general concepts that weren’t clear to me immediately.

Yesterday, although I had picked up the reigns again, I took the day “off” to travel to the southern part of the state to a park for some exploring. The weather had changed from 90+ degrees and humid, to a very nice 76 degrees and it was a perfect day to put together material for another one of my hiking related lenses. This one is a virtual tour of Spring Mill state park.

I have continued to add my bookmarks to RedGage over the past week. Thus far I have amassed a whopping $.19.  I’ve had “friends” who’ve won bonuses and so forth so I’m not exactly a leading earner right now! Anyway, I’m enjoying it thus far. Much of what I’ve added have been pictures and Qassia articles because uploading my hubpages and even many of my lenses has been thwarted by technical issues.  Luckily however, those seem to have resolved either yesterday or this morning. Now it’s time for me to get down to business there as well.