My Squid Life

I’ve had a few days off recently to be sure I got out and enjoyed some gorgeous autumn weather before it was too late. Perfect hiking weather!

I’ve managed to create a few lenses though.  First I did Homemade Vegetable Soup.  It’s actually a Beef Vegetable Soup. Apologies to the vegetarians out there but this is just a description of how my mother/grandmother used to make soup. Very basic but the addition of an apple adds something.  Interestingly, it’s had a good start during it’s first week with a 103 visits. The good news is that the visits are coming primarily from Google followed by other searches on AOL, Yahoo and MSN.  That’s some pretty quick indexing and reasonable search engine placement for a lens that hasn’t been  (and probably won’t be) promoted to any significant degree.

My second one was Sightseeing Indiana. I just put together a bit of information on some sites that I know about primarily just because I’m local. Perhaps someone just looking for a way to kill some time or who happen to be passing through would also find them interesting.  Hopefully I will be adding to the list over time.  It’s been found by Google searchers several times although it’s only about 3 days old so that’s not too bad.

I published a quick lens then yesterday about the Blackberry Bold 9000. It wasn’t something I had planned; I felt it was just too competitive to bother with doing.  I seldom do standalone lenses about the latest releases or the most popular models but with only some limited time yesterday I decided I had nothing to lose. It is a pretty remarkable phone, the screen is really leagues above most of them.

Well that pretty much sums up my week. For those of you in the U.S….don’t forget to VOTE!

Fresh content is always critical and the need to keep lenses updated is no different than with any webpage. Finding the time of course is another story. As I was perusing the news recently though I came across some nice information for several of my older lenses that will beef them up nicely.

First was news announced from MobileASL that they now have the software to allow US callers to make use of sign language on their cell phones. Now they just have to get manufacturers to incorporate their software.  I updated my Cell Phones for the Hearing Impaired lens to reflect this new development.  I was even able to include a video about the new software.  Although Sweden and Japan offers the ability to do this, data networks in the US couldn’t easily accomodate this until now. Great news for the deaf community here in the US.

Next I saw a press release announcing the Beta phase of Text Guard a new software program that will allow you to block text messages more easily, monitor your kids messaging if desired, and keep a log of messages in case you need to retrieve them later.  The best news is that it offers a free 60 day trial. I included this information in my Stop Unwanted Calls and Messages lens.

I didn’t get much participation on my Comprehensive Sex Education Should Be Taught in Public Schools lens and I assumed it just wasn’t timely enough.  I guess that isn’t the issue. Yesterday there was a front page story on MSN about the lack of evidence supporting abstinence only programs and the prospect of funding for such programs disappearing; particularly if the democrats win the White House.

I’m sure most of you have read about the recent module additions at Squidoo.  I haven’t tried the new text/write modules with larger pictures yet, but I’ll be excited to try it.  Pictures add so much to a lens and those tiny thumbnails do little more than break up text. Up to this point I’ve mainly used the Polaroid module to get my big photos.

This morning I noticed a small change on the dashboard that I hadn’t heard about. Along with the options to label, edit, delete or check your stats on a lens, you can now check your lens health. Tips about your titles, length of your intro module, your tags, and more is all available to help you improve the health of your lens.  Nice addition.  Now I need to set aside some time and go through each of my lenses.

I found several of my lenses had some bad affiliate links in them earlier this week.  I spent yesteday swapping them out. Unfortunately, they don’t alway show that they aren’t working at a glance and I fear they’ve been non-functional for 6 or 8 weeks. Nothing like losing revenue over something that basic!

I’ve created 3 or 4 new lenses this week but I believe my efforts in the coming several days will be directed toward tweaking and updating.  Fresh content, pictures, and checking “health status” and links is on my list to do.

I’ve begun working on a new lens today, but things have been slow.  I’m not sure if it’s just me but everything I do on Squidoo the past few days has been agonizingly delayed. Out of frustration, I stopped my work and simply finished up adding a few photos to my Small Town USA lens.  It’s just a bit of history and a photo gallery of the tiny rural town where I now live.

With fall here I will probably be taking some days off here and there to get out and enjoy my favorite season before winter comes blasting in upon us. The leaves are just starting to change here and there, the humidity is gone, and the temperatures are perfect for me. It’s insane, I become almost euphoric from now until January.

In the meantime of course, there’s still blogging and Squidoo lenses to keep me busy. Happy Autumn to everyone!

Uh oh. I missed my goal of hitting 100 lenses by the end of the month. My EXCUSE is that I had a number of other off line things which interrupted unexpectedly.  None of it was bad, just unexpected. A friend showing up in town, my sister visiting unexpectedly, a last minute decision to go door to door in getting voters registered for the November elections, my 19 year old neice deciding she needed help with some things, etc.

I published two lenses this week.  The first was Parents of Famous People. Although parenting can certainly play a strong role related to some of the great achievements and excruciating mistakes that some famous and “infamous” people experience, I feel we are pretty complex and there are many other factors that determine our success or failure. In some instances, a person faces terrible circumstances and manages to achieve greatness while another seems to have a relatively “normal” childhood and fails miserably. This lens is not a serious look at the issues surrounding parenting! It’s just for the curious.  I would love to add more famous or infamous people and would appreciate any suggestions you have.

My  final lens is about the small town where I live. Although it’s complete as far as content and published, I’m not ready to “promote” it however, as I still have a few pictures I want to add.

My “results” have been mixed this month. I’m still only averaging 2,700 to 3,000 visits per week total and without having average stats available I would guess I only averaged 10 lenses in the top tier.  On the other hand I’ve had more affiliate sales to help offset this.

Here’s hoping the remainder of my week is quiet (predictable) and productive.

My brain is still in slow motion since my cold last week.  Rather than struggling to create new lenses I’ve settled for updating and improving some things.  I found a nice project that supports classroom interactions globally via the use of digital cameras and I added it to my Cameras for Kids lens. It gives people the opportunity to put their old digital cameras to work and teachers a chance to get their classrooms involved. I added a link to GramaBarb’s Recycle Your Digital Camera to a Child lens too.

I thought I had all the questions covered in my All About Cell Phone Batteries lens, but realized I hadn’t covered what to do if you have a battery leak, so I added a blurb about that.  Luckily most Li Ion batteries don’t have this issue but there are still other types of batteries out there.

I kind of like good old fashioned, hold in your hand photo albums. But as I glanced through my Photo Albums lens I realized there were none of the antique looking options on the page. Wow, had to fix that. I found some velvet, pedestal and wood style albums that I thought might add options with a whole different flavor.

My top performing lenses continue to be text messaging topics and I’ve got an entire list of additional how-to topics but rather than just tacking them on to my existing lenses I think I will need to buckle down here at the end of the week and create some independent pages for those.  Now, if I can just get my brain to cooperate.