At the end of August Leigh Anne contacted me about her new book Not Guilty By Reason of Menopause, which is a great fit on my lens Menopause: You Need Some Laughter. A couple of e-mails later and we have put together this brief interview so you can get to know her a little bit more. Enjoy!

What inspired you to write this book that mixes menopause and laughter?

Well, it was one part inspiration, two parts perspiration, as I’m sure I was hot-flashing at the time. I’ve been teaching people to lighten up about all the things that cause them stress in their lives, and menopause, although a perfectly natural phase of women’s lives, does seem to be quite stressful for many of us. So I thought I’d try to help out by adding some humor to the mood swings, memory lapses, and night sweats. You either laugh or you lie face down weeping into the carpet, I always say.

What is your favorite passage in your book?

That’s like asking a mother to choose her favorite child! I enjoy: “You know you’re menopausal when your husband has learned to say ‘I’m sorry’ in eight different languages. Then there’s “You know that a Popsicle can cool you off in more ways than one.”

Who is this book for?

Your mother, your aunt, your best friend, your sister, your favorite teacher — any woman who has reached the point in her life where she scares her children more than they scare her… who knows the calcium content of a pitcher of pina coladas… who could play Thelma AND Louise in the sequel.

Where would you point someone to get out of a bad menopausal mood?

I would point them to their funniest friend and tell them to take her out for lunch or dinner. Nothing picks me up better than snorting through a meal with someone who knows all about me and likes me anyway.

Off the top of your head…share what made you laugh out loud or smile today.

I always laugh at the antics of my wiener dogs, so that’s a given. A friend sent me an email with a list of actual English subtitles used in films made in Hong Kong, which included lines like “I am damn unsatisfied to be killed in this way” and “Take my advice or I’ll spank you without pants.”  I’ve still got the giggles.

You speak, you write, you coach AND you Squidoo…how on earth do you find the time in a day to do it all?

I use smoke and mirrors. Well, not so much smoke as it makes me cough. Lots of mirrors. And duct tape. Not to mention the multiple personalities. Those come in really handy.

Can you give us some ideas on how you market your book? Where can we purchase it?

The book is available at all major online booksellers and in major bookstores. It’s also available from my website, accidentalcomic.com. I market it at women’s health conferences at which I’m often a keynote speaker, at author signing events, and by following middle-aged women into the ladies’ rooms.

How to find Leigh Anne on the Internet:

www.accidentalcomic.com

www.tenspeed.com

www.notguiltybyreasonofmenopause.typepad

www.boomercafe.com

If there is anything I have found through Twitter, it is that there is a LOT of bogus information out there by affiliate marketers who do “tutorials” on building Squidoo Lenses.  Most of it is outdated, so you know whoever wrote it has not even written a lens in a while.  Most are still touting the SEO value of Squidoo tags.  Umm…yeah, we all know the facts about that, right?

These Marketers no doubt think they are really helping, but hey…I don’t tell them what products to push, and they should be telling people what it takes to make a successful lens, right?  Right.  So, let me throw my two cents worth in.

First, you should know that I am one of those people who believe that SEO (as it is currently done) is becoming obsolete.  People want content, they want answers, they want whatever drives them to your lens.  I think most Marketers, expecially those who try to use Squidoo, do it wrong!  That is one reason I build business lenses!  I don’t care what your product is…someone is looking for it.  Knocking yourself out with 10% saturation of a keyword is foolish.  First of all, it makes for an unpleasant read.  Second, if you have the right keywords, you don’t need that much saturation.

With Squidoo, although I create personal lenses on many topics, I am basically selling one thing; me.  I am selling my writing, my knowledge of Squidoo and my continuing knowledge of Squidoo!  I know the Squidoo community, they know me.  I worked hard at acheiving that, so did most other Giant Squids and serious Squidoo-ers.  Marketers who swoop in may get a temporary advantage at the search engines, but are they really doing what Squidoo is optimized to do?  No…they have no concept of the “Tribal” thinking.  They have no idea (some of them) what Seth Godin’s message is.  They are out to make a buck and they are going to “use” whatever means they can to do so.  This is why many of them have to affiliate market for literally hundreds of products!

While I admire their ambition, I find their approach absurd!  I make a living from Squidoo, in my own way.  Because I do know the values (notice I said values, not value) of Squidoo AND the community, and I know I am a semi-talented writer, I created a Lens Building Service that is becoming very valued.  I have also started making money from the sales of the products I advertise on my lenses.  BUT, IMHO, the reason some lenses do so well where others do not is the passion behind them.  Do you LOVE to Squidoo?  I do too!  I think that shines through loud and clear. Because of Squidoo, I also have gained many Freelance jobs, those too, as a result of Squidoo.

Therefore, I am going to scout out the quality lenses that are about how to Squidoo the RIGHT way and put it all together for those “Marketers” who really want to know what Squidoo is about. I know one I will include is “The best Squidoo lens NOT to do!” by Growwear. Fabulous Lens, that! Anyway, if you know any others that you feel would really benefit those who are semi-clueless about Squidoo, please post in comments. I also plan to track down the “Newbie group” by a_willow and add that information. It just really yanks my chain that people who know NOTHING about Squidoo are giving lessons on it! Help me out here, fellow Squids, and let’s show ‘em how it’s done! Thanks!

See ya ’round Squidville!

Squidoo’s Orange Guy has been busy during his Adventures of Squid Contest! Orange Guy joined me in Phoenix, and we spent some time together working on an adventure of a more serious nature.

It was a bittersweet project, and Orange Guy found himself in tears as he witnessed Project Dignity at Arizona State University. Students from ASU and StandUp For Kids sponsored a restaurant style dinner for 70 homeless kids.

In days to come, I will share more information with you about the sponsors, as well as the kid’s response to the event. Orange Guy was deeply touched by what he saw, and has kindly volunteered to assist me with some help for our nation’s street kids. He’s a tender hearted fellow, and I look forward to working with him!

The Squidoo Orange Guy is more than just a pretty face…

StandUp For Kids  sponsored a food drive at Wal-Mart, and Orange Guy was there!

I’m the Director of Community Resource Development for the Phoenix Chapter of StandUp For Kids, so I was thrilled that Orange Guy decided to accompany me to help gather some desperately needed supplies for HOMELESS KIDS in Phoenix.

Rashmi, Medj and several other of our local volunteers set up several food drives in order to collect supplies. They have been busy collecting food and personal care items for kids in Phoenix who live on the streets, in parks and abandoned buildings.

I know, I know… it’s apalling, isn’t it? The words “Homeless” and “Kids” should NEVER be used in conjunction, and those of us who volunteer at the Phoenix Chapter of StandUp For Kids intend to do everything we can to put an end to that situation in our neighborhood.

I’m so proud of Squidoo Orange Guy for taking the time out of his busy schedule to join us in the effort to change the world for homeless kids; one event and one community at a time.

 Bravo, Orange Guy!

Our heartfelt “THANKS” to Wal Mart for allowing us to use their stores to help us in our efforts to love the kids that no one else seems to want.

If you live in Phoenix, and want to do something to help, contact me! I would love to share some information with you about how you can join our team of volunteers.

Email Connie

Together, we can make a difference. All you have to do is care enough to share the gift of yourself.

Sometimes a question from a loyal reader can bring out a lens. I created a lens today about keyword research: how to find that precise topic for your (money making) lens.

[I know, shortest blogpost ever].

Thank you!  My twitter friends, Chef Keem and VBright were having this conversation on twitter about Squidtop — and I thought “I need to do that”!  So after a few bumps in the road, here I am and delighted to be here!

It is Thanksgiving Day here in the USA - it seems appropriate to start this blog with a big note of Thanks -

To Squidoo — Thank you for the opportunity to express myself on line in a format even a little ol’ lady can understand and enjoy!  You make me look like I know more than  I do and that’s a good thing!

To Squidoo friends — Squidoo is such a wonderful community.  I am thankful for each comment, each angel bless, each time one of you has visited, favorited, ranked or commented on one of my lenses!  What a joy!

To sister Nancy, Ohme on Squidoo — I am so thankful you joined Squidoo with me - what fun to enjoy creating in the same format — and oh those exciting telephone calls when angels visit our lenses!

I am genuinely thankful today for Squidoo and you!

In his post about the best squidoo lens directories, thefluffanutta gave a few hints about how lenses get shown in his own squidoo directory.

He had done a post about how to pick the best primary tag a few months ago, but not until I read this latest post did it finally click for me…

For instance: the squidoo directory uses primary tags as the main way to create subdirectories under each squidoo category. Only primary tags that get used three (3) times or more will get their own subcategory. This means primary tags should not be unique to your lens. They should instead be more general. Guess what TheFluffanutta says about primary tags in his post earlier …

6. Pick a Primary Tag which is popular, i.e. people will be likely to be searching for it and other lenses are might also have the same Primary Tag.

7. Group related lenses under the same Primary Tag - this creates strong links between them, and helps them all to rank well for the target key phrase

Those were the last two tips he had on the subject, but they really were the most important ones (though I didn’t realize this earlier).
Why? Because on squidutils the primary tags determine which lenses get shown with their picture in a certain category.

Say you are interested in religion and spirituality. You look up the squidoo directory category religion and spirituality. shocker: you will only see four key words. This means most people don’t use primary tags that get repeated on other lenses. All those Christian lenses? Not using the word ‘Christ’ or ‘Christianity’ or ‘Jesus Christ’ as their primary tag (yes, giving tips to the competition here ).

You can bet I’ve been making sure my primary tags get more generic. I’m going to be checking each and every lens. Of course one way to make sure a tag becomes listed there is simply making sure three lenses share that same tag. So all my lenses about Buddhism will have Buddhism as a primary tag soon. My philosophy of religion lenses will have the same primary tag soon, though I haven’t decide what yet.

I don’t know what you all think about this, but since the squidutils site is one of the best linked sites in the squidoo network, I want my lenses listed in there.

One other thing I spotted when going through the directory: if you don’t know what primary tag to pick, why not just go for a primary tag that’s a copy of the name of the category? For instance ’squidoo tips’ in the directory ’squidoo tips’. Or ‘books’ in ‘books’. That doesn’t quite work for every category, but it will once people start doing that often .

[One other thing: to get into the squidoo directory hosted on squidutils you have to have at least one vote on your lens.]

Please check out my latest lens The Gospel According To Elvis . Lots of wonderful music that was the inspiration for Elvis Presley’s singing career, and the source of joy and hope for millions of fans around the world.

Share it with a friend!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The deadline for the Adventures of Squid Contest is drawing near!
Have you taken the Orange Squid Guy on an adventure at your house?

What’s in it for you?
How about the chance to win the coveted Squidoo Lens of the Day Award?
WOW!

Drop by Adventure Headquarters to get the details, and get in the contest…
before it’s too late!

Having taken a few days off Squidooing to deal with a tremendous volume of business in my eBay store, I was thrilled to discover that I was featured as ‘New Squid On The Block’ at So You Want To Be A Giant Squid. Thank you very much to lensmaster Bonnie or bdkz for her kind write-up about my Squidoo efforts and my eBay store. Please take a moment to visit her blog and see what she has to say not only about me but about other subjects like Giant Squid Guidlines, A Little Help From Your Friends and Voting for the 2008 Giant Squid Awards. Bonnie’s blog is dedicated to mentoring the next generation of Giant Squids on Squidoo.

Thank you, Bonnie!

Lens Status:

Top 100 = 0
Top 101 to 2,000 = 2
Top 2,001 to 10,000 = 10
Total Lenses = 25
WIP Lenses = Too many to mention

My Top 3:

Christmas Blu-ray Movies ~~ Add One To Your Collection Now — A very hot subject now that America is embracing blu-ray technology.
Baby Carrots ~~ When Is A Carrot Not A Carrot — I have been reading more and more about carrots, stay tuned for more!
Christmas Music All Year Long — Have you started listening to Christmas music yet? I wait until December 1st, but many do not and, as my eBay business proves, many are buying new CDs and DVDs for this year’s celebrations!

My eBay Store:

Treasures By Brenda ~~ You Never Know What I Might Have In Store For You!
Business is definitely booming in the run up to the holidays.

I am new to Squidtop and hope to share in future discussions.  I have recently published my newest Christmas lens and hope you might stop by and let me know what you think. You should find it at my Shopping log to your right.  It is called: Christmas Shopping 2008.

If I could help by viewing any of your lenses, feel free to ask. Thanks for your consideration.

Squidkid

Lately I’ve been wondering how to get my lenses to rank higher. Sound familiar? I’ll bet 90% of you are also wondering the same thing! I was focused on this question enough that I took time to go through the entire top 100 list and analyze it. I didn’t look at every lens there (yet) but I recorded the name of the successful lensmaster and the general topic of the lens.

Here’s what I can tell you: There are four political lenses, and no religious lenses (unless you want to count Christmas.) There are twenty-one holiday lenses and that is bound to be a popular topic during the next few months. There are twelve entertainment lenses and none of those are about books. There are nine fashion lenses - two of those are about hair. There are nine lenses about Squidoo and four about animals.

Now that we know the hot topics of the day, we might want to know more about why one lens about animals makes the top 100 list and 99% of the others never will.

This week I made two lenses that may help answer that question. The first one focuses on what works: Website Content Writing Tips for Squidoo, Your Website or Blog. This has three lists: how to choose the right topic, how people read websites, and how to build your credibility, plus a host of other tips and links to more information.

The second lens I made this week is My Least Popular Lenses and Lessons I Learned From Making Them. I got this idea from Spirituality’s blog here at SquidTop. In this list I looked at each lens that’s not getting site visitors, and thought about why. At the bottom of that lens you’ll find a list of conclusions I came to about why these lenses are failing.

While I agree that we should make lenses that reflect our interests, it is also good to make them wisely keeping our readers in mind.

Some people write for the enjoyement of writing, some people write to earn a living.  I do both.  Not only do I create squdoo lenses that are beginning to earn me money, and I immensly enjoy creating, but I am a freelance/content/ghost writer.  Two very different tasks, but both things that I love.

Squidoo is fantastic in that you can write about what you like, and what you know.  It also challenges you to learn more, and create more.  You can put your own personal style into each and every lens.  You can be silly, serious, playful, and artistic; you create, sell, laugh, cry or complain.  Squidoo is the tablet on which you write what you love.  It’s all good at Squidoo, and it is little doubt as to why so many love making lenses.  It is a Squidoo lens that I created that got me the freelancing job I currently have.  It is Squidoo that is allowing me to spread my wings and make lenses for other people, and businesses.

Now, on the flip side of that, is my job.  Not really the flip side because I love writing for my job too, but it is a very different experience.  For those of you who are considering breaking into a writing career, you will have to remember that it is not exactly like creating a Squidoo lens.  My job involves an entirely different set of disciplines than Squidoo.  With Squidoo, I can start a lens, save it, then finish it the next day, week or month.  As a working freelance writer, I am given assignements of between 5,000 and 10,000 words a day, which are broken up into a set number of articles each containing a set number of words.  I may get a 3 part assignment that includes  10 articles of 200 words each about construction, 5 articles of 500 words each on the military and 10 articles of 300 words each about online gaming.  I’m given the task of making each article unique, coming up with titles and working on SEO for each one.

The first assignment I got, I will never forget.  It was on bass fishing boats.  I had to make 10 articles on bass fishing boats.  Now, I’d never even SEEN a bass fishing boat before, so needless to say I had to do some research.  The bad news is, I get paid by the word, so I wasn’t being paid to research.  The good news is, I have gained so much knowledge through these assignments that I am now qualified to write my personal articles and lenses about many more topics!

So, I write between 5,000 and 10,000 words, 5 days a week.  In case you have never done a word count, that is a LOT of words.  It is not always easy, nor fun to write this much about topics (at times) that I know nothing about.  One of the things that gets me through, however, is that I am paid every day.  I don’t have to wait a week to reap my rewards, or two weeks…I am paid each and every day.  I can work my days off.  Of course, that severely limits my Squidoo time.

I also get to create lenses for my job from time to time.  Those lenses I have put under the screen name of squidtwo, so if you happen to see that name around, you’ll know it’s me!  The people at Squidoo and SquidU have, for the most part, been very supportive, and that has helped more than I can say.  My reputation at Squidoo is very important to me.  Not that I am extremely well known, but I am known by most people who frequent the forums.

And that is it in a nutshell.  I am thinking of focusing this blog on writing for fun and profit, but we shall see.  Until next time…See ya ’round Squidville!

I Took The Handmade Pledge! is my latest lens on Squidoo!

I am very excited about this concept, and I think you’ll find it interesting, too. Take a look…

Recently someone left a link on my lens, How to Promote Your Squidoo Lens. The link was to a new blog that claimed to be the best source of information on how to use Squidoo. I had to move the link to a different area of my lens and while doing so I took a look at this new blog.

I was surprised by one of the headlines that claimed that SEO (search engine optimization) is not important for Squidoo lenses. There’s a thought that never crossed my mind. I had to read the short article and then had to wonder who was writing this blog. The “about” section of the blog gives no clue.

I’m not of the same mind as this blogger. I believe that SEO is vital for Squidoo lensmasters, just as it is for any other dedicated content writer and webmaster on the Internet. Whenever I have a lens that does especially well, it is usually because of success in search engine optimization. With very few exceptions those search engines send a lot more traffic my way than any of the links I’ve been leaving around the Internet.

Search engine optimization is easy to learn. It includes the following elements:

1. Choose keywords wisely based on the number of searches for the term balanced by the number of sites that compete for the term. For example, the term “web design” sounds good but since there’s a gazillion other people wanting to rank well for that term, it isn’t really a good term for SEO purposes. Something more specific like “Oregon flash web design” might be easier to compete for.

2. Use your keywords in the title of your web document, in your headers, in your meta description tag, in your alt and title attributes, and in your text - but don’t do it to the point where your writing sounds unnatural or stilted. Your text must still be very useful and interesting to read or you will lose the respect of those whose business you wish to gain.

3. Reduce the clutter in your pages by hiding javascript and CSS (put them in separate files) and by using the most recent version of HTML, XHTML, or PHP, etc.. Of course, with Squidoo, you don’t have to worry about this one!

4. Write the best article you can. Remember, the more you write, the more text Google can index. Be sure your keywords are totally appropriate for the article you’ve written. For more information, see my newest lens, Website Content Writing for Squidoo, Your Website or Blog.

And whatever else you do, think twice before believing everything you read. You’ll find a list of credibility criteria in that new content writing lens I just mentioned. It is worth giving some thought to!

I’ve made a lens about becoming popular on squidoo before.

Today I was so frustrated with my not so popular lenses (as in getting 0 to 5 visitors in the last week) I thought I’d make a lens about them. I’m sure someone else beat me to the punch with that idea, so please share your lens about your least successful lenses here. I will link them on this blog page & lensroll. Us underdogs have to stick together :).

I started with this one: Hidden secrets - spiritual inspiration you weren’t looking for. Notice btw how big that introduction picture is? I think they’ve quietly changed the settings for the maximum size.

Then I made one about my non-spiritual lenses that don’t get popular. In lensrank they cover about the same range, which goes to show btw that it is easier to make lenses become popular if you have a lot of other lenses about the same or similar topics. So here are my My least popular lenses.

[edit]I knew I had picked this idea out of someone elses head. I even had a feeling that someone was Chef Keem… But now I found the lens. It’s devoted to all of our not so well performing lenses, not just his own. AND it donates all proceeds to charity. Wow. It’s called ‘the little lens that could’. [/edit]

Copycats

Inkserotica made her My Worst Ranked-squidoo-lenses Ever on the Ever project, including polls asking for feedback on why her lenses are not doing well.

LindaJM turned her ‘My Least Popular Lenses - and Lessons I’ve Learned From Making Them‘ into a learning experience. Very useful I think: great insight into what works.

Last week, I thought I’d found a solution for adding active AWeber subscription forms on Squidoo lenses. Unfortunately, although the method worked great, Squidoo is killing it.

Both AWeber and Squidoo play a large part in my plans for next year and I hope there will be a way to solve this problem.

Today, I wrote an open letter to Tom Kulzer, CEO and Founder of AWeber, and Seth Godin, Founder of Squidoo, asking them if they can find a way to solve this problem. You can see the lens at:

Can AWeber and Squidoo Work Together?

I invite your feedback and opinions. Please vote in the polls and participate in the duel.

If this is a subject that interests you, please help me spread the word to other AWeber members and Squidoo lensmasters.

Act on your dream!

JD

Busy As A Bee is a good way to describe my last couple of weeks, and I have spent a lot of spare time either creating or updating web pages and lenses, as well as propping them up with different promotions. Poddyland has ended up taking 2nd place, but to me at least the blog here is important, and I like to think that I have a growing audience among both Squidoo Lensmasters and other friends from around the world.

We are coming up to the halfway point between when my girlfriend headed back to her home in England and when I go over for Christmas, which is wonderful! Having spent 9 1/2 weeks together it’s hard having to spend 2 months apart. And so being 4,500 miles apart, the weekends are still somewhat lonely, despite us both having webcams and phone calls being cheap these days, there is no substitute for being together.

The weekend as always went by far too quickly…

Friday as usual I finished work early, and as it was still nice, I headed down to the pool to get a quick workout before the sun went down. Then it was time to grab a bit to eat, and log into NASA TV in preparation for the Shuttle Launch. This is something special for Debbie and I, since we spent several days up at Cape Canaveral last October to watch a launch, and the experience is amazing. Well Friday night the skies were completely clear, and as I live on the 7th floor of a condo building and the balcony faces north, we are lined up for a great view, even though Cape Canaveral is 150 miles away. The internet feed must have been about 30 seconds behind, since the countdown from 10 down to Lift Off had only just begun when we could see the bright red glow of the rockets propelling the craft up into the skies. You could also just about make out the separation too, before it became just a shooting star and disappeared behind a cloud as it headed over the ocean. Then it was time to take a walk, which was really nice on a warm evening, strolling along the fairways of the golf course around which the condos are built. You are away from the lights and trees a bit more, so the stars shine brighter, and it’s very peaceful.

Saturday I had to get up early, and headed off to the Toyota dealership to take my car back in - 3rd Saturday in a row! The previous week they had replaced a part in the rack and pinion on my car, which cost me close to $1,200 (ouch) but led to the car making clonking noises as I trned the wheel. They took hours trying to locate the problem, and now tell me it needs new shock absorbers and engine mountings. Another $1,000, but luckily I shouldn’t have to do this for a few months, however the noises are still there every time I turn a corner, which is not good. While the car was being looked at, I took my daughters out for breakfast, then to the park, where it rained a bit, but they were having fun on the swings in the rain. However taking them back to their Mother I got into trouble for getting their clothes damp, which would cause her extra work getting them ready to go to the theater in the afternoon. Well she still had to get them changed and showered, it wasn’t going to be any extra, but as usual she has to find a reason to find fault, it’s her way… Headed back home, via Wallyworld (Walmart) to do my groceries, filled up the car ($2.13 a gallon which I am very grateful for), then hit the pool, the sauna, the pool again, and another long walk before bed.

Sunday I woke up really tired. Sometimes the sauna will do that to me, I fel sleep coming on Saturday night, but forced myself to watch the end of a football game and got overtired, subsequently I had trouble sleeping. I wish I wouldn’t do that! It’s so much better to just get a good night’s sleep. However, between watching the end of the game and trying to keep up with all my messages at Tagfoot I overdid it, and subsequently regretted it. So Sunday I didn’t do a lot until lunchtime, other than grab a bite for breakfast, washed the car, chatted with Debbie on the webcam for a while, did some promotion of my new lens I’ve Been There and also Debbies lens on Christmas Crackers, and then since the skies were blue and it was a lovely day I headed off to the beach.

The skies were blue, that’s true, but there was a coo breeze, and the temperatures were in the low 60’s. However there were quite a few people down at the beach, ranging from girls in bikinis to people wrapped up in sweaters and hoods. It’s amazing when the weather cools off how some people feel the cold and others don’t. I went from where I usually park, north up to where there is an inlet to the intracoastal waterway, somewhat over a mile, walking along the waters edge all the way, watching a few people playing frisbee, and some surfers trying out on the waves. Walked there and back, which took just over an hour, and then decided to be one of the people who were brave enough to take a dip, you could count them on the fingers of one hand… There were some good waves coming in, the tide was way out, so the water surged in strongly, great for body surfing. A bit of an undertow as well, but not strong enough for dangerous rips. I did some good body surfing (well I think I am good, but since I haven’t seen a video of myself I have no reason to think otherwise, and I have yet to hear cries of Thar She Blows which is a good thing…) Of course it was nice in the water, but the cold wind made it a little chilly getting out… Well back home, a bite to eat, watched one of my favorite shows, The Amazing Race, more attempts to catch up with my email and messages on Tagfoot, and off to bed.

Well that was my seemingly eventful weekend. I hope yours was as good or better.

SQUIDOO STATUS AND LENS UPDATES

In the last week I have been working on a new lens, the concept for came to me suddenly and so far it’s doing pretty well. The lens is I’ve Been There and it’s about some of the places that I have travveled to around the world, through Squidoo lenses. I don’t have my own lenses on everywhere, so I am hunting around to find other good lenses that fit in. Well that’s the first part of the lens, the second part is where you come in…

Other lensmasters are invited to tell the story of some of the places that they have been to, and to then submit up to 5 lenses about those places, either their lenses or from other lensmasters.

For each submission, I am creating a Text Module for the story, and a Featured Lens Module for the lenses. If you want to get fancy, send me the text/html for your module, complete with formatting, pictures, whatever, and I will be happy to add that.

I think it’s a pretty unique lens and I am hoping it takes off well. So far it looks like it might, but it’s early days yet. If you know of a lensmaster who has lenses on travel and places around the world and isn’t on the lens yet, please let them know that this lens exists. I would appreciate it. Plus, if you have some of your lenses listed, the better my lens does, the more exposure your lenses are going to get as well.

My lens status as of today is as below:

LENS STATUS
Top 100: 0
Top 2,000: 4
Top 10,000: 8
Lenses: 70

NEW LENSES
I’ve Been There
The Daily Joke October 2008

MY TOP 5 LENSES
The Daily Joke October 2008
My Pet Peeves
I’ve Been There
The Daily Joke Lensography
Bournemouth

This is partly an ‘I’m sorry I was wrong’ post.

It turns out that google does index and follow links on profile pages - even if there are more than a 100 links on that page. They said so themselves a bit after I blogged to watch out for this issue.

In other words: don’t worry about your profile, even your bottom lenses will be found by google (if you have enough links to your lenses overall). This does not mean that it’s a bad idea to create topical lensographies. It still is. After all: links count for more when they come from pages about the same topic as the lens in question. Here is a rough idea of what a quality link looks like:

A quality link has the following characteristics (or most)

- The page the link is on, has backlinks of its own. Those backlinks ideally come from the website the page is on AND from other websites.
- The page the link is on is not too new (unless it’s a blog with lots of backlinks).
- The website or domain the link is on is not too new (unless it’s a site that is so popular it already has quality backlinks).
- The page the link is on has content related to the topic of the page the link points to.
- The link is on topic with the text around the link.
- The page the link is on is indexed by google. Since you are usually going to find pages you want links on through google, this is not often an issue. However if you are considering buying directory links this really IS an issue: they may not even count… So go and check the google cache. [Google recently took out the advice to submit links to directories. This means at the very least the low quality directories probably don't help your lenses. However, these links are still the easiest links to get. Better something than nothing?]
- Has few other outgoing links. This is common sense really: would you rather be one of a hundred recommendations, or the only one on a page? The latter, obviously.

The reason why making topical lensographies (and you don’t have to call it a lensography) is such a good idea is that it creates a page that is on topic for several of your lenses - which means that the links from that page to those lenses counts for a lot. It is also easier to link build for a summary page. And link building for that one lens, will mean link building for all the lenses it links to.

More on SEO for Squidoo

I spend so much time working on content writing, I get precious little time Squidoo-ing.    I spent today updating my Table of Contents: I also spent quite a bit of time twittering, and promoting some other lenses.  I published my Thomas Kinkade Christmas lens,

I’ve also been visiting other lensmaster’s pages and doing some star polishing.  I tried promoting Crypticfragments zazzle and graphic work.

I’m wore out. 

See you ’round Squidville!

This is a lens to showcase my new eCrater store. Sales will help me pay for my way to work with women’s groups in Africa. I will be adding more items and catagories all the time, so check back often:

Shop with BadMsM on eCrater!

As I have been browsing around Squidoo doing my thing as a Giant Greeter something really interesting has emerged. It really is brilliant! Has me wondering if I missed out on a post somewhere about ‘it’. It’s probably one of the best, possible money-makers.  Lensmasters across Squidoo are using their affiliate link. And you don’t have to worry about picture or art copyright!

IT’S ALLPOSTERS.COM

Wanna join me and start putting pictures + more on your Squidoo lenses too?

Bye Bye Art Print
Kolarsky
Buy at AllPosters.com

I got a great comment on my Gift Knitting for the Holidays lens from enslavedbyfaeries about her daughter getting up at five in the morning to secretly loom knit before school. I laughed, because I can totally relate. Though with me it’s the other way around. I have to stop myself from knitting late into the night, or else I wake up to a project that looks like I tried to knit it after about two glasses of wine. 0_o

Her daughter’s love of loom knitting reminded that I had failed to add this technique to my Gift Knitting lens…so, I did! I found a directory of 41 patterns for the Knifty Knitter (a popular loom) as well as a few photos from flickr and some loom knitting supplies.

Oh, my goodness. I know it has happened to at least one other person on Squidoo. I hope it was not you!

This morning, when I was busily buzzing along on my assorted computer jobs I accidentally published my latest lens, Disney Blu-ray Movies ~~ Magic For You and Your Children which at that point consisted of an introduction and two movies written up and a whole lot of empty modules. Oh no! There was no quick fix available and no time to set the lens right either!

I decided to add a note at the top that informed any possible reader that this lens on Disney blu-ray movies was very much a work in progress and that it had been published early by mistake. (Embarrassing!)

Anyway, I was able to return to the lens and finish it tonight. It wasn’t in my plans this morning to finish a new lens but hey, I am never able to follow a schedule anyway so why should today be any different?

The plus side to the Panic at Squidoo? I have my third blu-ray lens ready early for the holiday shopping season. It joins Top 10 Blu-ray Movies or Discs and Christmas Blu-ray Movies ~~ Add One To Your Collection Now. Both of these lenses have been nicely visited by Google so far and hopefully the Disney children’s blu-ray movies one will meet with equal success.

Oh, and by the way, in case you were wondering…not a single solitary sole stumbled upon my premature lens so the panic was for naught! (Insert Brenda’s smiling face here!)

Brenda

In a previous post on this blog, I wrote about adding subscribe forms on our Squidoo lenses:

Squidoo module request - Sign-up forms for Aweber mailing lists

Last week, Lewis Smile added a comment to the post and told me my dream was answered. Today, I finally found enough time to see what he was talking about.

You can read more on my 21st Century Affiliate Marketing blog about how I followed Lewis’ method to add a live Aweber mailing list subscribe form on one of my Squidoo lenses:: How to add an Aweber subscribe form to your Squidoo lens.

Act on your dream!

JD

I know, how un-original!  But what else do you say to a bunch of strangers on the internet who’s reading your ramblings??  How’s it hanging?? What’s happening?? What colour underwear you wearing??  I doubt that’d go over too well either.  So I’ll just stick to …..Hi…….How ya doing?

So I’m basically still pretty new at a lot of this stuff and I’m just trying to figure out what’s what in the marketing area of it.  A little bit of it kinda confuses me but some have been made clear thanks to the awesome people on Squidoo.  Some that still confuses me tho is the SquiDirectory and Squidoo Directory, is it the same thing or are they different??  And I believe you’re suppose to put a link to them on your lens but where do you find the link to put on?  Is it a specific link or just a general one?  And which one(s) do you put a profile on cause The Isle of Squid I can’t seem to find the place for it or to even see which lens I’ve already submitted to it same goes for Squiddit too. And why are these tedious little things important you ask?? Well cause when I do a job, I like to it right for one thing and secondly, I don’t want to piss anyone off cause some times I’m not the brightest bulb in the pack. So I’ll just keep plugging away and trying to figure it out thanks to people like fefe who has awesome lens like this and triathlontraining for his wonderful lens on Squidoo Tools, Resources and Guides.
As far as making a lens goes, I think I’ve got that one down pretty good, I can even do the html thanks to Randall, N376 basic html and advance
, it’s just deciding what to write about each day. Some times those brain farts interfer a little too much.

Another thing that confuses me is, what do people put on blogs?  How do you start it and how do you end it? I mean, I tend to ramble a little too much and go off on different topics all the time and talk about inconsequential things like “why does my A key keep popping off for no reason at all” (it’s beginning to irritate me at the moment). But when I first heard about blogs I had assumed they were like “online diaries”. A place where women went to ramble about their day, maybe because at the time that’s all I had been hearing about, not sure. Then a few guys were talking about their blogs and I couldn’t figure out why they’d be whining on the internet, aren’t they suppose to be watching porn?? Oh well it’s gonna be one of those sleepless nights for me here in Niagara Falls I think, so I may be back on here later but now I’m going to sign off, and how do people sign off on a blog? Do you say “catch ya later”? Do you say “good night and sweet dreams”? Or do you just end it and say nothing at all?? That would seem kinda rude I think so I’ll end by saying……..thanks for sticking around to read my ramblings, if you wanna ramble back feel free.

Well, maybe not the WORLD, but a part of it anyway…

Help the Alpha Childcare and Community Development Organization (ACCOD) by doing some Holiday shopping on eCrater. The feeds are already posted on the lens for your perusal…COOL!!!

These items are handmade by members of the Alpha Childcare and Community Development Organization (ACCOD) in Jinja, Uganda. Proceeds from this sale directly benefit ACCOD.

This is a copy of a post on my blog about my newly started effots to generate online income: The Bluebird Sings. I’m thinking about making a lens around it (the post, not the blog.) Please feel free to leave me any feedback.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’ve been hanging around squidoo, making lenses and posting in the squidu forums for about six months. Up until now, I’ve just been having fun, and not really that worried about how to track the success of my lenses. But, since I’m now working towards generating part of my an income though my lenses, I’ve been looking into the ways that squidoo has to track them. Here’s what I’ve found:

The Dashboard

....

The dashboard is a great tool for getting a quick idea of how all of your lenses are doing within squidoo. It lists all of them, and gives you information on lens rank, the average viewer rating, how many visits within the past week, how much money the lens has generated since the last payout, and the last time you edited the lens.

If you hover your mouse over a lens title (like I did for the first one in the above screen shot) you’ll see a few more options. The Stats option is the one we’ll look at here.

Stats

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When you click on Stats under a lens name, you get a three page report: Summary, Traffic and Royalties. The Summary gives you some stats like current and highest lensrank ever, number of clickouts over the past 30 days, and how many times the lens has been marked as favorite. You even get a couple of graphs showing visits and lensrank, life to date.

The Traffic page gives you a detailed breakdown of how people are finding your lens (see above picture). You can choose to see stats for differing lengths of time from the current day up to 30 days. At the top of the page there is a pie chart showing the number of direct links (people coming directly to your lens) in proportion to links from various referrers (links that people clicked on to find your lens) and search engine traffic. Next to that is a list of search terms that led people to your lens. Below those two displays is a list of referrers and a clickout list. The list of referrers lets you know what links people are following to find your lens. Got an ad out there? This will help you determine if that ad is working. The clickout list lets you keep track of the most popular links on the lens, including any affiliate links such as Amazon or ebay.

The Royalties page gives you a rundown of all the money that your lens has generated, showing how much was paid to you and how much you chose to donate to charity. (Donating to charity is a big part of the squidoo community experience. there are many charities to choose from and you can set how much, if any, you want to donate on each lens.) You also get a lists of Amazon and ebay orders placed through the squidoo-provided affiliate links.

Not enough info for ya? Try out Squidaholic!

Squidaholic

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I just noticed this little link on one of my lenses the other day. It opened up a whole new world for me. I’m still exploring what all is offered at Squidaholic. It’s a bunch of information including all of the links on the web pointing to your lens, how popular your lens topic is with bloggers, and notices as to whether or not your lens has been listed on popular social sites such as digg or stumbleupon. There are a couple of good Google sections showing how popular your lens topic is over time, and the top ten hottest searches right now.

There’s a debate about Squidaholic, though. It’s public! That’s right, anyone can view the Squidaholic info on any lens. Got an opinion on that? Visit JaguarJulie’s debate on the issue.

Want to make your own lens?

Want to use these tracking services? Click here to make your own lens!

The last day or two I’ve tried to get back into the swing of things following the election and some autumn outdoor time off.  I’ve created a few new lenses and caught up a little on some blogs. I swung by the forum to offer some feedback for some new lensmasters seeking help as well.  While I was there, I ran across a discussion in the “Chatter Box” about Squidoo payments; should they change and so forth.

Although I would love to see the tiers expand a bit as the total number of lenses increases and competition is fierce, I try to focus elsewhere.  I know that for those who make the most money on Squidoo, it’s via affiliate sales not a share of the AdSense payment from Squidoo. The fact that the pages are free to construct makes them fantastic as well. The interaction with more experienced internet marketers and entrepreneurs is also unbelievably valuable. I’d like the monthly payout to continue to grow but it’s still not my focus.

The number of lenses I have in the top two tiers has not grown nearly as much as my total number of lenses in the past two or three months. However, my Amazon sales and affiliate sales have grown. Thus my reason for wanting to focus on the other forms of payment.

Payday is coming soon, I don’t anticipate any significant improvement over last month.  Hope we all get a nice November surprise!

I just tried out the new Amazon search module on my 2009 Spiritual Calendars lens. Obviously the main intent of this lens is to sell calendars. I found calendars on cafepress, amazon and all posters.com. But the pictures in the amazon search modules are so small, I wonder if they will sell at all…

Have any of you had experience selling through the search module?

Generally speaking there are two ways to do squidoo well:

• Finding key words that are popular, but haven’t been covered by other websites and lenses yet
• Making excellent lenses on a subject you are really into - even though there may already be a lot of information out there on the topic

The first is what I’d like the call the low hanging fruits approach. It works by

1. thinking up a theme
2. checking keywords related to that theme in keyword tools
3. checking how those keywords are doing in the search results. Are there many sites out there already talking about this? Using the words you are going to be targeting? If so - forget about it. Go back to step 1
4. If the keyword or key phrase is not actually been targeted by others yet - make a lens. Make a blog or write on an existing blog about your topic. Promote. Etc.
5. Since we are talking low hanging fruit here: you will get results quickly. But it may well be that in a few years serious websites start covering the subject as well.
6. To be ahead of the game start your own self hosted blog on the topic. That way - your competition will need to buy you out…

The going for your passion approach is slightly different.

1. You pick a topic you know a lot about or really love.
2. You start writing about it.
3. Promote it online
4. Get a bit of traffic
5. Find out which keywords and phrases are attracting most traffic
6. Adapt your lens or blog (or both) to target the most popular phrases particularly. Perhaps make a new lens based on that.
7. Continue on - whether you are making money or not. You are in this for the long haul (but may need to get a day job).

It may be clear in advance: I’m generally of the second type - and seriously considering trying to find a day job…

But it has one advantage: since it is my passion to write and read and think about anything to do with religion and spirituality - I may not be making much, but I will be working on the subject for the rest of my life. And that means that even if my visitor numbers drop (they were doing so this summer), I’m not likely to give up and abandon my website. After all - it was my passion first and a way to make money second.

It also means that promoting one page or one blogpost or one lens - helps all of my projects get traffic. I don’t have to promote 100 different lenses on 100 different topics. Instead when I promote one, I’m promoting all. Because they are all interlinked. I have only one newsletter (in English) because my main activities are involved in precisely one subject - with an almost infinite number of niches in there.

In closing: In my niche there are low hanging fruit & I do go for them. But because they are within my niche, they strengthen my online profile. And I don’t have to spread myself too thin.

More on SEO for squidoo

So often, we, as lensmasters, get so caught up in creating and promoting our own works, that we forget about all of the people who visit our lenses, rank them, comment on them, add you to lensrolls.  Let’s face it, there are a LOT of good lensmasters out there!  All with their own talents and gifts, and styles of writing.

With Christmas approaching, I know even some of my Squidoo “Friends” are spamming me!  Yet, they seldom have the time to comment, if they visit my lenses at all!  I know a lot of lensmasters are feeling that way.  Here is some link love to those who so generously visit lenses on a regular basis:

Poddys: Has some fantasic Baby boomer jokes!  If you want or need a laugh, check them out!  Poddys is one of many of us getting discouraged.  Show him some love!

aj2008:  In one of her many lenses of giving thanks to others!  aj is a great supporter of others, and the kindness should be returned.

Mimi: Who cares so very much about the children, and the world, offers suggestions on plastic bags  Which I am also adding to my “thrifty” blog!

Awelldressedbullet: Offers a heartwarming tribute to her dog, and friend.  Awelldressedbullet is also someone who visits other’s lenses frequently, and I always enjoy her comments

Jimmie: is always nearby with a kind word.  She is dedicated to teaching children and has great ideas for lapbooks.

Yvonne (Naturegirl7) has many beautiful lenses on birds, butterflies and all sorts of nature.  I snagged her 7up cake lens though! 

a_willow who is so dedicated to the new squids, had her first Graduating class!  Check it out!

There are others, this is just the first set…show them some love!

I haven’t posted for several weeks because I have been too busy catching up on things since Debbie went back home to England after her 9 1/2 week stay with me, and although I had made several postings in the last month, when I came to clone the format for this post I realized that it’s a month today since my last Daily entry. WOW!

As expected with the closing of October the nights started to get darker ealier here in South Florida, and of course the clocks changed last weekend, so now it’s REALLY dark soon after I get home from work.

The weather has also cooled off somewhat, and we had a few days in the last 2 weeks where the temperature dropped to below 50 degrees overnight, reducing the temptation to take a dip in the pool after work even more. I’m not that fond of taking a dip in the pool at night - well not on my own at least, but if I don’t have the sun shining down on me to counter the cold water, I really have to be in the mood.

However with it being cooler and me living on the 7th floor of a condo block, it’s been possible to turn the air conditioning off and to leave the balcony door open all day and night, which lets a nice cool breeze blow through, so much nicer than having the air artificially cooled. Although you never know what’s going to happen overnight! You might wake up to find the temperature plummeted and you are freezing, then again you might find the breeze has dropped and you wake up in a sweat.

Football season here is winding down, and although my team Notre Dame has done better than last season, last Saturday saw them lose narrowly to Pittsburgh after 4 overtimes. All 3 games they have lost, they should not have done, such a shame. There is always next year though…

Well my earnings with Squidoo are expected to be down for September and even worse for November, but my Adsense revenue shot up to over $80 in October which is a new record. This was partly due to the seasonal traffic on my Halloween Jokes pages, and as a result so far in November my earnings are down. All more incentive to work on completing the revamps to my Christmas Jokes pages to update the format and to include Adsense links.

Thanks very much to AJ2008 for giving sending me some excellent funny dog pictures that I was able to use in my Daily Jokes For October lens, and thanks also to Just Bon for cross linking with my Song Lyric lenses and my Music And The Arts page on The Poddys Directory. As a result I have a great new jokes lens for october, and my Song Lyrics lenses are showing increased traffic.

My lens status as of today is as below:

LENS STATUS
Top 100: 0
Top 2,000: 3
Top 10,000: 8
Lenses: 69

NEW LENSES
The Daily Joke October 2008
New York City Break

MY TOP 5 LENSES
My Pet Peeves
The Daily Joke October 2008
The Daily Joke Lensography
Bournemouth
My Claim To Fame

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love Squidoo.  I believe in the values and concept behind Squidoo, and I enjoy the community at Squidoo.  That being said, it’s time someone came out and said what people have been dancing around for a long time:

The ranking system has had too many glitches and the numbers are moot. There is no way anyone could convince me that the numbers have any validity at all.  With the number of glitches, particularly in the last month, it would be impossible to say that lenses are where they should be in the rankings.

I know Gill has been working tirelessly on the problems, and we all appreciate it.  I know they are trying to ensure that the algorithm ends up being fair to everyone.  That’s all fine and good; however, it’s broke.  When you have glitches over 15 days out of 30, you are not going to get the correct numbers on your lens.

This effects so very many lensmasters.  As for myself, I am trying to build up a reasonable income on Squidoo in it’s own right, but I also make my living creating lenses for my Boss.  It is difficult to convince clients that Squidoo has an honest and accurate system when they can see the numbers yo-yo from top to bottom in any given day.  MY only saving grace is that I have been fortunate enough to have a lens in the top tier for over 3 months.  That would be my Native American Lens.  This looks good to the clients, however, I have not made ONE DIME off of that lens with Squidoo.  Not one penny.

One lens I am doing for a client that seems to be holding it’s own is #1 Ranking on Google.  Nearing the top tier, but not there yet, is my No Doubt Custom Lens Making Lens.  The latter is what is bringing me more clients.

Although I build lenses for clients, my integrity remains in tact.  I will NOT create lenses for crap products.  I am thankful my employers know this and have the same set of standards as I.  The fact still remains, however, that with all of the glitches in the system, it’s difficult to convince customers that Squidoo is a reliable venue.

Maybe it’s time Squidoo hired new people?  I’m sure the work is taxing on the few employees there.  I know everyone at HQ works diligently and I, for one, appreciate that.  However, lensmasters work very hard, and diligently as well, and are losing hope.  The morale is slipping away and it is evident on many posts at SquidU.

Well, enough of my ramblings for now.  Let me know what your ideas are.

See you ’round Squidville!

If you’re looking for support, answers or just a place to swap ideas, come to the Squidoo Chat Room.

Hosted by Captain Squid, this is an ideal location to meet and interact with other Lensmasters. You don’t need any software, and you don’t need to sign up for anything - just enter your Lensmaster name and dive right in!

Squidoo has got to be the best thing that has happened to me in a long, long time.  I love creating lenses, I love the community, I love everything about it!  Were it not for Squidoo, I would not have the job I do.  Creating Squidoo lenses, primarily!  What a dream job!  These are some of the lenses I have done for work, so far:

#1 Ranking on Google

All Great Quotes

Custom Squidoo Lenses

Anxiety Support

SEO Experts

I’ve also been trying to develop my presense on places like Squidom, and Twitter.  My SN on those is vbright, if anyone would like to look me up.  I also added a new business twitter ID, squidoo_lenses.

I’ve been so tired lately.  Not sure why.  Also had an awful cough.  Hope it will all clear up soon, as I am so excited to be working, writing, and growing my social networks!

Congratulations to aj, who landed herself quite a great job in the UK!  Way to go aj!!  I think all of the Giants have been super busy.  With heading into the Christmas season, I better get busy myself!

See you ’round Squidville!

New here, and new to Squidoo too.

Still learning!

I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone here, and on twitter and tagfoot who have supported me in making lenses for the Company I work for.  I have gotten the cold shoulder from a couple of people, but all in all, Squidoo has been supportive.  Thanks so much.  Here is a lens I did for the Company, introducing us.  I’m obsessed with it, so I will no doubt (lol) be updating frequently.

AJ, special thanks to you, who have supported me from the beginning!!!!!

Here is my Lens on No Doubt Marketing:

No Doubt

See you ’round Squidville!

I’m thoroughly addicted to Twitter, it happens to be a whole lot of fun and is also a pretty good way to promote your business if you do it right.  I put together a lens all about it.

Using Twitter to Promote your Handmade Products

Hiring a kid to do things around your yard or in your home?

Just recently we had a couple neighbor kids come over to help out with things that were getting out of hand…piles of wood chopped but not stacked and under cover, disarray under the carport that was driving me crazy each night that I pulled up from work, fallen sticks and leaves from a recent bout of wind, and oh my, the kitchen cabinet full of mismatched plastics that cascaded at my feet each time I was in search of a container for lunches. My brain is always ticking and looking for solutions, so when I had my ‘ah ha’ moment I acted quickly and picked up the phone to call my neighbor to see if a couple of the kids were available to help with my dilemma. Well, I’m all better now, the kids loved the gift of money, my new to-do list is building, and I’ve marked my calendar for the next project day!

Here’s the link to get information about how you can do this too, http://www.squidoo.com/Hire_a_Kid. Make sure to drop a line…stars are good too

(I currently have this lens in Home&Garden, do you think this is a good fit? I’d appreciate your feedback.)

Woot!  I am now building lenses for my bosses clients!  This is just tooooooo great!  Now I can catch up on all of the newest “How To’s” which will make my lenses even better!

I’ve missed Squidoo, and the community!  Many of you became like family!  I’m b a a a aa a a a a a k!

Sorry to those of you I had neglected, but work comes first, doesn’t it?  I hope you will all support me in this and give the lenses a look over and see if there is any way I can improve them!

I’ll be posting links so you can all see them before I transfer them!

Thank you all…for being YOU!

Just when I thought all squidangels who were going to had answered my interview questions - rockycha came along and answered them anyhow :). For which I’m glad. I’m honored that she started out saying:

Hi Katinka! So kind of you to think of me - I’m totally honored! Thanks for this opportunity, I hope I’m not too late in my reply, I’ve been down with a bad cold for days on end, it’s finally beginning to lighten up a bit…

It’s interesting to me that your focus is on sending out thanks to some of the giants - You’ve helped me enormously!!!! I use your CSS Squidoo lens all the time!!! I have it bookmarked Plus I’ve always enjoyed your other lenses - Spiritual Teachers, Love Quotes, etc. You always create such beautiful lenses.

Wow, thanks

Now that we’ve covered the mutual back padding part, let’s move on to the actual interview.

Why are you a squidoo lensmaster?

I began as a lensmaster as a method of getting the word out about chronic fatigue syndrome and my interest in improving my health. Since creating that lens, in October of ‘07, my health has definitely improved about 50%.

What is your favorite lens?

My favorite lens is Letter To My Family and Friends. It’s a statement of my Christian beliefs. When I had done a search for similar letters on the net, I didn’t find very many and I hope that this lens will help other people that want to communicate and share their beliefs with their family and friends.

What lens of yours is most under appreciated?

I spent a great deal of time and research putting Tiki Party Planning Guide together. I wanted to offer a comprehensive party planner for anyone looking to create a wildly successful all-out island bash. It’s gotten some hits, but not near the traffic that I was hoping.

What lens of yours is most popular?

Since its inception, U.B. Funkeys - Creative and Collectible Characters Toys on Your P.C! has pretty much remained at the top of my list. UB Funkeys are little toy guys that also plug into your computer and allow for stand alone or online gameplay. I think this lens’ success was just a matter of being at the right place at the right time. I caught a tv commercial on these little toy guys right when the product was introduced and there weren’t many other websites out there.

What’s one thing you see lensmasters doing that doesn’t work - and why doesn’t it?

There are countless hundreds of new lensmasters seeking after quick affiliate program earnings that have been promoted through various e-books. It’s not working because they’re following the same groove that the other thousands reading that same e-book have long ago exhausted. They’d be much better off learning the basics presented in the e-book, and then developing their own unique ideas.

What’s your most important squidoo promotion method?

I don’t spend as much time promoting my lenses as I should. The most valuable tool that I’ve used is Zimbio.com where in addition to listing my lens in their article category placement, I’ve also written a unique article on their site, with unique content that also directs readers to my lens. This not only provides a weighty backlink to my lens, but frequently the article is well indexed by google in its own right.

[I'm on Zimbio as well. It's easy to use and easy to set up and can provide backlinks to your lenses and blogs real quickly. All you need to do is set up the RSS feeds to them. The only downside is, but it hardly counts as one, that you have to remember to log in every once in a while to make sure all your stuff gets indexed alright.]

Which lensmaster(s) have helped you most?

Fluffanutter and his tools & utilities have been a great help. Flowergardener is always warm and helpful. I was helped greatly by PotPieGirl’s e-book as a newbie. Semperfidelis and Kimberly Dawn Wells have always been marvels of kindness and knowledge too http://www.squidoo.com/squidoo-css is a lens that taught me almost everything I know about html coding!

Introducing Whippettalk - squidangel and the first lensmaster I’ve seen who has a purple star on her profile (though perhaps that’s just a coincidence?).

Why are you a squidoo lensmaster?

Well to be honest, I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into. I had learned about Squidoo through reading some posts at the CafePress Forums. So I checked it out and signed up, not entirely sure what it was about. I created a page about Whippets because it was something I knew a lot about and I wanted to find a way to help market my website and my CafePress Shops. I left it alone for a few months and came back to it. I still didn’t understand the “concept” of Squidoo until I joined the SquidU Forums. I quickly became addicted to Squidoo when I got to know the other lensmasters and the community better.

And when I started getting my commission checks, I was hooked!

What is your favorite lens?

My favorite lens is my first lens, The Secret World of Whippets. It something I am very passionate about and I think unique. I made this lens without much influence by other lenses because I was still not familiar with the whole Squidoo concept so it is very much “original.” I try to model my other lenses after this one. It was my most successful lens until recently.

What lens of yours is most under appreciated?

I think my Secrets and Confessions lens is the most under appreciated lens. It’s not a masterpiece by any means, but I think the messages in that lens are very powerful. You don’t have share anything you don’t want to, but to read what others have shared anonymously can be very emotional and thought provoking. It brings in an RSS feed every Sunday of the PostSecret Project.

What lens of yours is most popular?

Right now my Forever 27 is the most popular lens since it was featured as Lens of the Day on October 1, 2008. It quickly shot into the Top 100 overall for 11 days. When I created this lens, I never would have thought it would receive such an honor let alone become this popular.

What’s one thing you see lensmasters doing that doesn’t work - and why doesn’t it?

Only one thing? LOL Well I guess I would say, just throwing up a lens for the sake of trying to sell stuff to make a commission. You really need to research what it is you are trying to sell. If you add a bunch of modules where you allow the module to pick whatever it is you are trying to
sell, you get a lot of junk and things that may not be applicable to your lens or your subject. Try to narrow your subject or product to one thing.
What?
You can’t narrow it down?
Then make separate lenses. The more specific your lens the better. And just don’t toss a lot of product out there. Write about the item you are selling.
Why do you like this product?
Why do you think I would like it or need it?
Why do I want this instead of another similar product?
You have to make your lens interesting enough for the reader to want to see more and at least click the link to the product you are selling. But at the same time, try not to be so obvious about what you are selling. Selling a product is almost an afterthought, “oh by the way, if you think you want to purchase this product, here’s a convenient link for you.”

What’s your most important squidoo promotion method?

Networking. SquidU is one the first places I like to post about a new lens. And adding my lens to Squidoo friendly sites as outlined in my Do You Twitter, MySpace or Mixx lens.

You have to be careful not to spam places about your lenses and be respectful to those on the receiving end. I don’t shout out to the world about every single lens I make. Remember, when you promote your lens, you are also promoting the community.

Which lensmaster(s) have helped you most?

Wow that’s a tough question. I have learned so much from each and every lens I visit at squidoo. I see what works and what doesn’t. As a newbie, I think the most influential Lensmasters were Adez7, JaguarJulie, rms, Eelkat, bdkz, ChefKeem, Triathlontraining, thefluffanutta, mulberry, Flowergardener, SemperFidelis and Poddys. There are so many others who have been very influential and that I consider to be Squidoo buddies.

If it was not for the Internet and my search to find other WAHM’s, Jacque and I would have never ‘met’! I joined a couple of programs she offers on her website, Hometowne Market, and the rest, so to speak, is history. Now we chat every single day on Yahoo Messenger, connect on the phone occasionally, share co-ownership in two online groups (WAHM 101 and Deal Divas), and we are excited to be building our empire together

Jacque’s wry sense of humor always leaves me smiling. Her strength to carry on as a single mom, college student, working full-time, and building her online presence is a testament to me that mom’s really do rock! And yes I did drag her, kicking and screaming over to Squidoo! Although now, it’s just a dull grrr!, as she’s learning her way around. Enjoy our interview and I’d love it if you stopped by Jacque’s places on the Internet to see for yourself why I’ve aligned myself with this awesome woman!

What would you like people to know about you? I want people to know that everything I do is for my child, even if it means cutting back on some of my responsibilities. I am determined to succeed in school and with my business, but not at the cost of her or my everyday happiness.  I believe in never giving up and always moving forward.  I also believe that life without coffee would not be worth living,  lol! I believe in miracles, fairies, happy endings, healing hugs and puppy kisses.  I am a kid at heart and being stuck in a grown up world does not effect my ability to be silly.

If there was one thing you could change about yourself what would it be and why? Actually, I am going through a self introspection right now and I have decided that I need to learn how to de-stress my life and regain my joy in the everyday.  A friend loaned me a book recently that has changed my outlook on how I see the world.  Keep an eye out for a SquidLit all about it.

Your website promotes and supports WAHM’s, what inspired this design? With the ecomony being as it is these days, everyone is struggling to get by and be able to provide for their families. WAHM’s are just like you and me and the way I see it, it’s us against the “Big Guys”. Why should be help the millionares get richer by paying them for an item that we can get from a fellow WAHM that not only could use the business but actually appreciates it. I am extremely anti-mall this season ~ I’m shopping WAHM.

Why do you Squidoo? Well, there’s this chick I know :::wink::: that seems to think I have some talent at writing. I have always wanted to write, but was always afraid to share my thoughts ~ I have insecurity issues. This friend bullied me into my first lens and now I am hooked!  Even if nobody ever reads them, I find it very therapeutic just to put my thoughts out there.  If someone learns something, gets a laugh or smile out of it or even looks at something from a different perspective ~ that’s just icing on the cake.

Any final thoughts? If there were to be one thing I would like people to bring away from this interview, it would be a stronger belief in themselves ~ that they can accomplish whatever they set out to. Keep your friends and families close to you and there is nothing that can stop you from achieving your dream! Also remember to stop once in a while to enjoy what you have already accomplished.

I’ve changed the theme of this blog, the old one was beautiful, but did not work very well.

You’ve probably noticed that I’ve also replaced my Avatar, not just here, but on every forum/social media site I belong to. If you still see one of my old Avatars around, then it’s some place I don’t visit often, and I’ll change it the next time I log in there.

So here’s the old image of this tree found in the woods behind my house, I’ve been using it, or variations of it as my Avatar for a while now.

With tips I got from GIMP Tutorial Series Guide - Free Coloring Pages and How To Make - Mosaic - Filmstrip Feature and Cutting Image Backgrounds for better eBay Pictures | Gimp I was able to take this version:

Which is the same tree from a different angle, and merged it with a shot of my real face to get this:

My inspiration while doing this was the album cover for Styx’s seventh album, “The Grand Illusion“:

I had it on vinyl!

(so if you think your life is complete confusion

’cause your neighbor’s got it made

just remember that it’s a grand illusion

and deep inside we’re all the same)

In other news, I’ve manged to publish three new Lenses this week. Rock N’ Roll Holidays | Celebrate The Holidays With Rock Music is my first holiday themed Lens. Here I thought I was getting a head start on the coming holidays, but after publishing I found that these two directories were already off to a running start for the Holiday season: Christmas Directory of Lenses and Squidoo Home for The Holidays. I added my Lens to both!

Also, I was amazed that this Lens came out of WIP within an hour of being published! I published it, then went to eat, and when I came back I was suprised to find it out of WIP already. I spent the next three hours working on a problem I found in the way I was