Vintage Fisher Price Little People Are Collectible

I've made a new Squidoo webpage about those little toy people that come with Fisher Price toys. You remember them, the little dog, man and woman, a cowboy or fireman made of wood that could be stuffed into a car or school bus. Just about everyone had a bunch of these old toys and now they're being termed "vintage" and there are people collecting them.

Most of my nephews and nieces had a collection of these Little People, usually found (with your feet) when you walked across the living room, or hidden under the couch. Now Fisher Price is making these same little people figures although now they are much more detailed and have movable arms. They go with all the latest Fisher Price sets like the Little People Petting Zoo or the Fairy Treehouse or the Animal Sounds Farm set.

All these Fisher Price Little People playsets are thoroughly modern and need batteries for various lights and sounds they make. Back when these toys were first introduced, they were fairly simple and the figures themselves were made of wood. The newer models are all plastic, but very cute and very popular with the kids.

The webpage is called Little People Figures From Fisher Price and shows some of the older and newer Fisher Price figures. Worth a look if you love old toys or a collector of vintage toys.

Pretty Little Liars About To Come To Small Screen

My latest webpage at Squidoo is all about the book series Pretty Little Liars which ABC will begin airing as a new television series in June 2010. The series is based on the bestselling books by author Sara Shepard.

The story is about four young girls who each have their own secrets that they would like to keep hidden, but someone has been texting and leaving cryptic messages to each of them signed "A", threatening to expose all their sordid indiscretions. The girls think that this mysterious person my be a friend of their's who disappeared a few years back following a slumber party. The books themselves are described as very addictive and the 8th book of the series will be published this June.

As far as the television series, the cast is made up of Lucy Hale (Privilege, The Bionic Woman), Troian Bellisario (Intersect), Ashley Benson (Eastwick, Day of Our Lives), and newcomer Shay Mitchell.

Valentines Day ~ How Are Your Sales?

With Valentines Day approaching so quickly, looking at my dashboard shows a visible lack of webpages with a heart theme. I have been building pages more with an eye for later in the year and haven't bothered trying to put anything together for the upcoming holiday, but it is not too late to do so. Valentines Day is one of those holidays I always allow to sneak up on me and once again this year is no exception. There will be little if any sales for this guy as far as Cupid is concerned. I feel sort of like the Ebenezer Scrooge of Valentines Day sometimes. Perhaps I will be visited by the three ghosts of Valentines Day past, present and future and will get off my butt and get some webpages produced in time for the holiday - "I haven't missed it!" I'll exclaim.

What I should be doing is putting some preliminary ideas together and getting some pages completed. They don't have to be gems, just solid ideas that generate traffic and sales. The whole point of making webpages is that you BUILD your traffic over time. You won't be successful by trying to strike fast and get a "big score" with internet marketing, unless you pay for traffic and even then I for one avoid that type of marketing. Maybe down the line I can contemplate all the factors involved, but I have too much on my plate as it is.

What I'm doing is thinking Valentines Day 2011, 2012, 2013, etc - I'm in this for the long haul.

Build something, anything, that is visably pleasing and content-rich, and re-write it again and again until it is exactly what your visitors are looking for. Do this again and again with different topics and success will find you as will the people on the Internet. You can write garbage on your initial draft - as long as you see that what you've written is inadequate and you FIX it. Writing something you can improve on is 100 times better than just thinking about writing something.

Sorry about getting preachy, but I have been getting excited about the prospects available with Squidoo and other venues and I am starting to see some success - no I'm not about to quit my job or anything like that, but I can picture that opportunity a little clearer. You should be thinking along those lines too - not telling your boss to get stuffed and walking out (but that can be a fun dream too) - but try to visualize working for yourself at home or with your own company. Each day you work on it a little more and eventually you are there.

Now if I can just get started on those Valentines pages and stop blogging! I'll tell you what - I will create and publish a Valentine's-themed webpage and list it here tomorrow. A self-imposed deadline with you as a witness. But what to make the webpage about? Valentines cards? Chocolate being the way to one's heart? Maybe something about Cupid and his role in Valentines Day (I think that one's been done). Also, there's Groundhogs Day coming up on the 2nd of February - maybe something about Punxsutawney Phil. Hmmm... Groundhog Day the movie had Bill Murray and he was in Scrooged. That brings me back to the ghosts of Valentines Day. Maybe I'll try to put together something about Ebenezer Scrooge on Valentines Day. I'll be back tomorrow with more info.

Is It Adsense Or Is It Me? Okay, It's Me

I was just looking at his website and contemplating some changes that I plan to make and Adsense caught my eye. Usually I avoid mentioning it, but it definitely has taken on a squid theme. I yap about Squidoo and what I'm doing over there and various lenses and webpages I've been working on and use the sq--d word a fair bit and the ads started pitching "plush squids" and other marine topics. Methinks I need to do a few dozen posts about various topics and not mention THAT word quite as much. Perhaps I should try posting more about How To Make Money On The Internet or discussing buying a house with "no money down" just to get things back on an even keel. Oops, there's another nautical term.

CSS and HTML on Squidoo

An interesting question was raised over at the Squidoo forum about what the lensmasters think about using CSS and HTML on our Squidoo webpages. As expected, most who commented said that basically "less is more" although most did admit to using some tags and attributes when making and updating their various pages.

For myself, that's pretty much how I view it: some markup can be very helpful for the entire esthetic. Like most people I don't enjoy going to a webpage and either being clobbered by a lot of flash and sound or landing in a weird timewarped page that feels like it hasn't been updated since prior to 1995. There's a lot of both examples all over the Internet. Personally, I do have some webpages that I can no longer access because of long lost passwords and no way of contacting the hosting company. I cringe when I see that they STILL come up when I decide to take a peek.

As far as actually using CSS and HTML on Squidoo, it of course can be done and I've used the style attribute and several HTML tags, but I think I'm a bit of a minimalist when it comes to that part of webpage creation. Back in the old days like most newbies to making pages and websites I was a little drunk with the ability to move things around and liked to experiment with layouts and crunching words and images together until I thought they looked just right. There was little or no thought on my part that all those scrolling, flashing, popping words and images were actually gaudy or distracting. But that's one of the stages that most people go through when they start making pages. An apprenticeship of sorts.

Now, I shudder at my feeble attempts at that time to seem clever by trying to do tricks with code. But 5-10 years from now I'll probably look back at what I am doing now and shudder some more. Just as long as my visitors don't shudder and flee as soon as they land on my pages. Now if only my content didn't make them flee, I'd be laughing.

Nodnik Bobbleheads: Funko's Latest Line Of Collectibles

My latest webpage on Squidoo is all about Nodniks. What's a "Nodnik" you say? Well, it's a bobblehead. Lots of people collect various bobbleheads (some are unbelievable collectors) and also give them away as gifts. One in particular is the Dwight Shrute bobblehead (Rain Wilson's character from The Office) which is a best seller all by itself.

I looked at the Nodkin line that's produced by Funko and they're actually kinda cool. Mostly they have a bunch of superheroes - Spiderman, Ironman, and some others like Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble. All good. They have pretty much the same dimensions as the picture, although they can come in two forms, the "buff", superhero body-type and one that's a little rounder in the mid-section.

One thing I liked about these bobbleheads is that you have the option of purchasing blank forms and customize them as you like. I've included some pictures of what some folks have done with their painting skills. Take a look at the page at Nodnik Bobbleheads are cool and collectible! and let me know what you think. I like the page and I will be adding to it as I go because according to Funko, they'll be adding even more designs in the near future.

Oddly, No Goggle Traffic... But Yahoo Loves Me

As always, I am pouring over my traffic stats for each of my various webpages at Squidoo, looking for what's working and what isn't. My lenses each get their share of traffic, some just the occasional visitor and others seem to get tons of people shuffling through my portals of information. One is my page about the legendary Paul Bunyan. It isn't what I would call a smashing success as far as traffic goes and I thought I would review the traffic stats for the page. Google is completely absent in the numbers for directing people to the page. None, nada, ziltch as far as traffic. But Yahoo loves the page. 78 percent of all traffic to the lens is from Yahoo. Why doth thou hate Paul Bunyan, oh mighty Google?

Sure I have other pages that Google loves and others that Yahoo seems to be smitten with, but I haven't seen a page so disliked by Google. I decided to see what Squidoholic has to say about the page - no backlinks etc., and Squidutils says it is an okay lens, but needs more traffic and the tags need a bit of work, which I'll take care of now. The primary focus of the lens is actually about the various Paul Bunyan statues around the United States with pictures of people sitting in Paul's hand, etc. Perhaps the page needs to be expanded with more about the tall tales of Paul Bunyan. It needs to get a brush-up to make it more Google-friendly.

Updating The Story Of Benedict Arnold

One of my pages at Squidoo tells the story of Benedict Arnold, who betrayed the supporters of the American Revolution by planning to give the key military fortress of West Point to the British, but the plan was of course thwarted when Arnold's counterpoint, Major Andre, was caught with documents incriminating Arnold in the plot. You can take a look at the page at:

Traitor: The Case of Benedict Arnold

The reason why I decided to make a webpage about Benedict Arnold is that besides the historically interesting plot, and major betrayal of what has come to be seen as one of the most important events (the Revolutionary War), I found out that I have a distant connection with the man himself. One of my relatives married Arnold's direct great-granddaughter in the late 1880s so besides already having a love of history in general, I found this story interesting from a personal perspective.

The lens is about Arnold's life from birth to his death in London, England years after the war and I am now starting on a major re-write to attempt to make the webpage that much better. The page is starting to draw a certain number of visitors from several sources and with my perfectionism, I want to ensure that people find what they are looking for. Also, the page is registering nicely in the Squidoo LensRanks which is an added benefit, but as always, its the sales that grab my interest.

I'm Deleting Squidoo Lenses...

No, I'm not quitting Squidoo. I've been doing some much needed housework on my dashboard by deleting about 20-30 WIP (work-in-progress) pages that have been sitting at the bottom of my dashboard for way too long.

Most are Christmas themed lenses that I started based around a good topic but that drifted to the bottom of my list of things to do. They were started in the summer of 2009, but for one reason or another, just didn't see the light of day. They were in no shape to be published and some were little more than a title and some initial prep work, so I don't feel too bad about deleting them. Perhaps other lensmasters will use the URLs and create some great webpages.

The way I see it is that there are a million topics that can be made into first-rate Squidoo pages and as I am creating new lenses almost daily, neglecting those that I have lost enthusiasm for should be deleted if I don't plan on taking immediate action and get them into fighting shape. There is the option of trying to sell the lenses based on what the URL is, but with so little work done on them, I figured I would just get them off my dashboard. Of course I kept a list of what the URLs were in case I decide to follow up on them in the future, but I have my hands full with the new webpages I've been generating.

Also, I've deleted some of my underperforming webpages that have generated no visits or sales. Not that many, but just the ones that I thought were a little shoddy and covering minor topics that in the long run wouldn't likely generate much traffic even if I re-worked them. Most were some of my oldest Squidoo webpages that I published in the initial rush of becoming a Squidoo lensmaster and with a more experienced lensmaster's eye, wouldn't be created today.

And with that all said, I am working on several new webpages for Squidoo on topics I enjoy and look forward to sending out into the Squidiverse. I am a squid who is little leaner and more focussed. And looking forward to the coming year and expecting even better results.

Encyclopedia Brown ~ The Boy Detective Puts In An Appearance

My latest webpage over at Squidoo is all about one of my favorite book series that I first read a hundred years ago - at least it feels like one hundred years. Encyclopedia Brown, Donald J. Sobol's youthful detective has been solving cases with the help of Sally Kimball since the first edition of the series was published in 1963. Take a look at my Encyclopedia Brown webpage and let me know what you think.

There are now 25 books that make up the Encyclopedia Brown Mysteries, as Sobol just wrote a new one called Encyclopedia Brown, Super Sleuth in August 2009. Each of the books is listed on the page, with a link to Amazon.com so fans can pick up a copy of any of the books they've missed. Each book contains 10 short cases that Encyclopedia and Sally solve with clues sprinkled through the story. If young readers cannot figure out who-dun-it, at the back of the book the reader will find Encyclopedia's solution to the case.

Surprisingly, the characters in the Encyclopedia Brown series haven't found their way onto the big screen. Just about everything is there - a very smart kid who solves mysteries with the help of his friends, a bully (Bugs Meany) who is Encyclopedia's nemesis and always trying to set him up but always gets thwarted in his plans, interesting and funny writing and intelligent stories.

I've read that there have been numerous attempts by hollywood bigwigs to develop a movie project, but it appears the 85-year-old author, Sobol may be the fly in the ointment. Sobol sold the movie rights to the series way back in 1979 for only $25,000 and must be regretting that decision today, given the insatiable appetite movie-goers have for best-selling books turned into movies - think Harry Potter.

There was an Encyclopedia Brown television series that lasted about 10 episodes on HBO back in the mid-1980s, but Sobol apparently sued them, so Hollywood is probably a little bit skittish about greenlighting an Encyclopedia Brown movie. In my opinion, a big Hollywood-style flick would probably generate even more interest in all the older books of the series as youngsters discover these timeless mysteries.

My Latest Squidoo Creation: The Lovely Kristen Bell

I've been putting together new Squidoo pages and thought I would mention the one I just completed and published called Kristen Bell. It is about the beautiful actress who is currently promoting her latest movie, When In Rome, as well as information about her previous films and television series (Veronica Mars and others) that she appeared in. Let me know what you think.

Looking For Rocket Dogs Shoes? Try This Site

I've just put together a new Squidoo lens called Rocket Dog Shoes that basically is a website highlighting various styles and types of women's shoes and boots. I don't know if this is a good "keyword" site and I'm unsure if it will generate a bunch of sales or not, but I just like the sound of it - "Rocket Dog Shoes."

There are quite a number of different womens boot styles out there and many on Squidoo and elsewhere so I thought I would try to see how they would perform. The shoes themselves seem cute and perhaps desirable to those in a "I want to shop NOW" mood, so we'll see how it goes. Check out the page on the link above and let me know what you think.

Large Spike In Traffic On Squidoo Lens! How I Did It

I have many webpages at Squidoo and I am always trying to draw more traffic to each of my lenses. Obviously a higher number of visitors usually equals more sales especially if you draw people in a buying mood. Unfortunately, the spike in traffic one of my pages experienced was for a lens about a celebrity and those who stopped by my Squidoo page were more interested in the content than the various items for sale sprinkled throughout the page.

The webpage is for a relative newcomer, and the information available on the Internet is sparce, so it was fairly easy to get a nice PageRank on Google for this person. I was adding more detailed information on a regular basis and the serps like seeing that. I decided I would try for a page one ranking because after reviewing what others had, I thought it would be somewhat easy to get a really good spot ~ I've been at number one for several days for this celeb and there's been some interest because of their good press. Suddenly everyone wanted to know more about the person.

I had the good fortune to have updated my page with the most comprehensive bio information and visitors flocked to the page - 20 times what it had experienced in the past. The page had been getting one or two visitors a day for a while, then I built it up to 20-30 a day, then I pushed hard with the content and got the results - almost 500 visits a day - much better than I had expected. New content is still being added and although the amount of traffic is dropping, it remains much higher than it had been. Now if I can get the traffic to convert into sales...

This is one problem I've seen with the Squidoo lenses that primarily are concerned with celebrities and famous sports figures. They can generate a fair bit of traffic, but the people visiting are looking for information about the celebs, and not really in a buying mood. Some do purchase movies and books from this type of webpage, but most seem to wander off either through Google Adsense links or links to other lenses. This does help incidentally, because the revenue generated goes to all lenses that attain a decent LensRank, and the increase in visitors helps increase your LensRank so you get a larger share of the resulting pool of money from Squidoo. But... I want more sales. I'm not upset that the increase in traffic hasn't resulted in a corresponding increase in sales.

There is some good that came out of this though. I know that I can get top PageRank at Google with some work. That is of course where the money is and I think I can slice off a share for myself. This has been a positive learning experience, and one I plan on repeating. Again and again.

Squidoo's Newest Theme: Valentine's Day

In keeping with the spirit with an upcoming Valentine's Day, Squidoo has a new theme that you can use for your lenses that are based around the holiday. It's a nice looking banner across the top of the webpage and helps contribute to the feel you want for those webpages that have a Valentine's Day theme. And no, that's not my mug in the example. My face isn't very "valentine-friendly" I'm afraid.

The theme can be used with most Squidoo lenses, except those that are already themed, like SquidWho, Monkey Brains, SquidLit, etc. To change to this particular theme, you have to go to the edit screen of your lens. On the right hand side at the top under Workshop Tools, it says "Themes" with a choice of several different themes you can use along with a link that will pop up a preview of what each theme looks like. At the bottom of the list it says Valentine's. If you choose to use the Valentine's theme, click the little circle on the left of the word Valentine's.

Directly underneath, there's a check box that allows you to "Make It Global" ~ leave this blank! Only check it if you want ALL your webpages at Squidoo to have the same festive theme.

After you have made your choice of an appropriate theme, click apply. When you next hit "Publish", and "View Lens", you will have a heart-themed webpage.

New Record High Earnings At Squidoo!

I just posted that payday at Squidoo was coming and when I checked, I found that yes indeed, today was Payday. And what a payday! I just found out that I received a record high for money on Squidoo. This of course is for the month of November as Squidoo pays 2 months behind, so December earnings will be paid around February 12th. If you go to the Squidoo forum you will find many similar stories of people at Squidoo shocked at what they received this month. I'm still grinning and going over my numbers.

The funny thing is that back in November I was just getting back into the swing of things at Squidoo after having taken several months off from the site. With the work I put into my various webpages in December and this month, I'm pretty sure that I will see similar amounts in my next few payouts from Squidoo. I'm not expecting to make enough to retire on, but if this continues, I think that I will be spending a great deal more time on my online marketing efforts.

How much did I make exactly? Well, that's between me and the taxman, but I can show how much can be earned at Squidoo.

There are a number of ways to make money at Squidoo as I've mentioned in the past. First, there is lensrank. All the webpages at Squidoo are ranked from number one to the very bottom ranking page. There are 3 tiers that receive payment. The <1st tier is those that rank from number one to number 2,000. These are the creme de la creme at Squidoo and getting a page ranked in this tier is difficult to do and even harder to maintain. Those that can maintain a monthly rank of 1-2,000 for the month get a much higher payout.

The 2nd tier are those that rank from 2,001-about 8,500, which is also difficult to maintain. The last tier covers those webpages that rank from 8,501-about 85,000 I believe.

Each tier receives a descending amount of money from a pool created by ads like adsense that appear on the lenses, based on their rank.

Finally, there is a major way to make even more money at Squidoo. By putting moneymaking modules on your webpage (for example, eBay, Amazon or CafePress) and when visitors to your page click to go to Amazon and buy a book or buy something at an eBay auction, you get a cut of that.

As a side note: this is where you can really make a respectable amount of money. More traffic to your site = more traffic to these other websites = more and more money being sent to your account. The amount you can earn from using these moneymaking mods is basically unlimited, while trying to play the LensRank game is limited. You can only have a certain number of lenses in the top tiers and you are battling other lensmasters (many are extremely productive and talented).

If you want to earn money at Squidoo, look to making money from sales, and don't worry too much about your actually LensRank. Money received from LensRank should really be considered as a bonus, while you concentrate on making money elsewhere.

Have You Seen This Twitter Button? It Allows Visitors To Tweet Your Lenses

This is kinda cool. This button can be put on your lenses, blog posts, and just about anywhere else and it allows visitors to whatever you've created use Twitter to "tweet" it to their followers. It is simple Java code that you can input and a visitor who likes what you've written can alert others to take a look. It could help draw traffic - you know, with the social networking the kids are doing lol.

The button is available through Tweetmeme and the steps to implementing it are pretty straight forward. I've been putting it on some of my own webpages and it works fairly well I would say.

Basically what happens is that when a visitor clicks it, a new browser window opens up with their Twitter account in it and they can send it to their followers, drawing them to your work and the process repeats itself hopefully generating traffic from people who may not have found you otherwise. It's just another cool way to draw traffic to Squidoo.

You can send your own tweets to your own followers when you publish and update a lens at Squidoo, and you should continue to do so, but this opens up a different avenue for traffic to flow to your webpages. What do you think?

Payday At Squidoo Just Around The Corner

How do I know that Squidoo is just about to send notification of payday? The amount in the "Pending" column of my dashboard just dropped, so that means Squidoo is preparing November's payout. All sales made on your various lenses at Squidoo over the month of November will be included with whatever ranking bonuses each webpage earned and that amount will be sent to you (as long as it all adds up to at least $10.00).

Maybe tomorrow, or the next day when you log into Squidoo and go to your dashboard you will notice the infamous Big Blue Box saying "It's Payday!" and how much will be sent via PayPal. Any sales that were made during the run-up to Christmas will still be sitting at the bottom of your pending columnand will be paid out next month. As always, Squidoo pays two months behind - this payout is for activity and rankings for November, and the activity and rankings for December will be paid this time next month. If what you have at the bottom of your pending column is a big fat $0.00 right now (hopefully not the case), the February payout will be just for December page rankings.

So if you are not satisfied with what you will be earning at Squidoo for December 2009, NOW is the time to begin working to improve your results for December 2010.  I know it does seem very far off, but Christmas can be an extremely lucrative time to have webpages up - just ask flowski, whose excellent lenses were at the top of the Squidoo rankings this year (see my post What Are The Top 10 Squidoo Christmas 2009 Lenses?) and he mentioned in the Squidu discussion forum that his top page had passed it's one millionth visitor! Can you imagine what his pending total must be for Christmas?

Christmas 2010 does seem a long way off, but you need to do two things now:

• build Christmas webpages, and
• get them ranked in Google and elsewhere

Don't try to slap together two or three lenses in November hoping to generate a ton of sales. Do the work now. That's what I've been doing. I have been putting together several different webpages that will A) rank well at Squidoo over the oncoming Christmas holiday season, and B) will generate even more sales at that time. I did okay sales-wise this past Christmas, but I think I can do so much better and so can you, with a little bit of preparation.

In the meantime, I'm looking forward to seeing how much money I made at Squidoo for November. I have a general idea of course, but it's getting the actual notice I like.

How Do I Get My Squidoo Lenses To Earn More Money?

Ah yes, the perennial question for those trying to earn a buck over at Squidoo is: What can I do to make more money at Squidoo?

My reply? I dunno. Or at least, I'm not going to tell you everything I plan to do to get money from my Squidoo webpages, but I will tell you what my goals are as far as gaining a greater share of the wealth and what I'm planning to do to reach those goals.

This is something of a game ~ how can I get more visitors; how can I get more sales. As I've said before, there are two basic ways to earn money at Squidoo:

• Getting more lenses ranked, and ranked higher
• Getting more sales

Basically, I want all my lenses to earn their keep. I've put a lot of work into many different lenses and they haven't generate the return I expected, so I guess it is time to re-assess. I think my goals are on the modest side, and I don't think that publishing the perfect lens will suddenly set me on the road to riches. What each of my webpages need to do is provide some sort of a return. In addition to the fun factor.

Currently, I have 45-50 webpages at Squidoo with a high enough rank to earn something each month ~ the problem is, of course, that unless they are in the higher tiers they just do not generate to spend time worrying about their rank. I am appreciative of anything Squidoo sends my way based on rankings alone (thanks Seth and co!), but what we all should be concentrating on is the sales part of the equation. As far as ranking goes, that should be considered as a bonus for doing good work.

How Do I Increase My Earnings From Squidoo Rankings?

Not that I plan on turning a blind eye to the rankings. One goal I have set for myself is to increase the number of lenses I have in at least the 3rd tier to (drumroll...) 200 lenses. That means, adjusting, rewriting, reviewing, adding and subtracting content, doing more from a marketing angle ~ basically make my webpages the best possible, by attracting more visitors, favorable ratings, and (the make money online grail) more links to my lenses. I'll have to start flexing my marketing muscles and get the word out about Squidoo being a great place to do business (yes it is!), and that my lenses are where people will want to visit to find the information they are searching for.

Yes, that is a lot of work, but I do believe that it can be done. My monthly goal from just the rankings is to earn $50 each and every month which if I have 200 webpages in at least the 3rd tier would be around $20. I do have several in the 2nd tier and I have some that are flirting with the top tier, so one of my resolutions for 2010 is to get some more lenses back into the top tier. Hard to do, and very hard to maintain. Earning $50 a month will be nice, but it will not get me to where I want to be with Squidoo. That's where the second part of the plan kicks in.

How Do I Increase Sales At Squidoo?

As far as sales go, more is my goal. Pretty basic huh? One thing I want to state is that although increasing the volume of sales is one of my stated goals, there is no way I will allow my work to become too spammy. Some may say that they are already kinda spammy after looking at my webpages, but on a personal level I definitely try to shy away from stuff about selling a "system" or "buy my ebook" and all that. I have zero interest in writing about those things that do not spark my interest and hopefully, the interest of my visitors.

What I plan on doing is to increase the number of lenses I have with products and content that people are looking for to purchase and read about. I don't think that having a webpage primarily geared towards sales is neccessarily a bad thing ~ more sales are what is needed at this time to get the economy purring along again, and I'm going to do what I can to keep the gears rolling.

There is an infinite number of topics, niches, and ideas, that I think lend themselves to excellent lenses at Squidoo and I am in the middle of a building boom as far as new pages go. I've had what I believe are several ideas for hot lenses and these ideas just keep popping up.

Checking on Squidoo shows they are not covered by others and if an idea seems to be taken, I usually drop it or it morphs into something else. Basically what I want to do is publish content that visitors will find highly interesting and that gets searched out and lends itself to sales of related products.

What Are Your Goals For The Coming Year?

At the start of 2010 I find myself renewed, reinvigorated and eager to get a fresh start. Maybe that's just due to calendar turning, but for some unknown reason, my motivation to do better at Squidoo (and elsewhere with my online marketing efforts) is increasing by leaps and bounds.

I've had some success at Squidoo and I'm looking forward to doing even better personally and seeing what new efforts other lensmasters bring to the table in this coming year. I hope you catch this same enthusiasm and lets compare notes as we head towards a brighter future.

Video: How To Start At Squidoo Step-By-Step

How To Setup Squidoo from Jeff Smithson on Vimeo.

I was reviewing some "How To Squidoo" and beginner guides to Squidoo and found this video that I thought I would share. The video provides a step by step guide showing each procedure someone new to the Squidoo website would take when first starting out with their first lens.

If you haven't begun Squidooing yet, you can JOIN SQUIDOO quite easily and of course at no charge. Take a look at the video and if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

The clip is actually quite long, and the lensmaster is using the old school way of moving modules about 15 minutes into it. Since this was made, the fine folks at Squidoo have made a better (and quicker) workshop that allows easier movement of modules. Still a good guide for someone new to Squidoo.

A New Look For Squidoo Land Is Coming Shortly...

As it is now 2010, I think a new look is needed for Squidoo Land. Hopefully I will be able to unveil a more modern look for this blog and if you have any suggestions, I'm all ears.

I've been doing my blog for about a year and a half (since August 2008) and I am looking forward to the coming year. There is so much to do and now is the time to get a start on it. I'm excited about Squidoo and all the online marketing and general fun I have with this website and I hope others enjoy it too. Every time I get comments (positive or otherwise) I'm tickled pink that some folks have taken the time from their busy day to stop by and say hello.

So bear with me if the next time you come to this blog and it looks completely different, as I'm always trying to improve the look and content of the blog. The best of luck to everyone for the coming year!

New Giant Squids Are Waiting For The Word

The latest round of Giant Squid applications have been submitted and now there are many folks waiting patiently to find out if they've made the grade.

I always enjoy looking at all the lenses that applicants have created as they try to earn the coveted Giant Squid title, and if you want to see what webpages they've created, there is of course the lengthy thread called December 2009 Potential Giants & 100 Clubbers Show Off Your New Lenses where the Giants-to-be submit lenses for others to take a look at.

Also, those lensmasters who are already Giants are trying to join the even more select group of Giants With 100 Lenses. You of course need 100 great lenses, not just a bunch of webpages on Squidoo that totals 100 in number. I am currently a Giant Squid myself, having earned that title a year ago, but I haven't tried to snag the 100 title. I think that will be my next big task at Squidoo. I do have the numbers, as I currently have 153 published lenses, but they need to be buffed up so that they meet the rigorous level of excellence that is expected. My Squidoo pages languished for several months while I concentrated on other things in my life, but I've been back working on improving my work, fixing broken links and re-writing dated content, plus adding some new lenses.

I'm looking forward to reading who has made the cut and been given the status of Giant. That should be in about a week or so.

November Squidoo Payout Coming!

The big, blue box is coming. Payday at Squidoo is just about a week or so away and like everyone, I am looking forward to seeing what I've generated. This payday will be for November 2009 as Squidoo is always a couple of months behind, so you will have to wait until February to find out what you made over Christmas.

What can you expect? Well, as always, Squidoo pay by how well your various lenses ranked over the course of the month, so hopefully you had some in the top tier. If your webpage was ranked under 2,000 for entire month of November, then your lens would be in the top tier. It is all based on how long it spent in the top tier on average. For example, let's say your webpage is ranked 2,001+ all month, but for the last week of November it rises to 1,750 or so in the ranks. Don't get your hopes up that you will get paid the top payout. It all depends on your overall monthly ranking. You will likely receive a Tier 2 payout because it averaged a Tier 2 ranking for the month which is still respectable.

Here's what last month's payout (for October) were:

Tier #1 $13.20 (up $0.17 from the previous month)
Tier #2 $2.13 (up $0.01 from the previous month)
Tier #3 $0.10 (same as the previous month)

So, if the webpage mentioned above ended up being ranked as a Tier 2 lens after all, you would receive $2.13. We didn't receive notification of our October payout until mid-December, so it will be a while before we get the word that November's payout is here.