What Do You Do When You Are Crabby?

When I am crabby, I try to find things online to do because I can do them by myself and not push my crabby mood on other people. I like to work on the computer, and writing so I tend to write articles and update lenses when I am in a crabby mood. It doesn't seem to stop my creativity, just changes what I feel like working on.

Today I was feeling kind of crabby, but I actually ended up having a great day. I became a Squid Angel for the first time ever, I was written up on Squidlog today by Mimi, and I was interviewed on the Giant Squid Community Showcase. So even when you are having a bad day, you can have a good day at the same time. That is why it is so important to keep at it, and continue to work toward your goals, even when you are not in the mood.

Have You Got What it Takes?

The next wave of Giants will be announced later this week and that means YOU have plenty of time to make 50 awesome lenses before the next deadline, June 30th 2009.

Why bother making 50 awesome Squidoo lenses? Because of all the great perks you'll receive!

Here's just a few:

1. Access to our (secret) Giant Squids blog, full of first-looks at new features and insider tips.

2. A private email address to reach Megan about Lens of the Day submissions.

3. A Giant Squid shield automatically added to all their lenses.

4. Gold stars on all of their published, featured lenses. Gold stars not only look nifty to your readers, they also give your lenses a littleadded LensRank boost. Learn more about badges and stars here.

5. A shot at making the Giant Squids Top 100 List, a list of the top Giant lenses, sorted by LensRank.

6. A Custom Lens Template Tool for superfast lensmaking.

7. First crack at Squidoo's coolest new tools and features.For example, the Giants got to hear about HeyMonkeyBrain, the new lens layouts, Squidaholic.com and the new dashboard days before the rest of Squidoo. They even helped test some of it.

8. A special Lensmaster dashboard just for Giants.

9. A chance at being featured on the Giant Squid Community Showcase.

Need some help getting there?

Stop by my Giant Squid Mentor lens where you'll find all the help you'll need!

Giant Thoughts

At some point between trying to keep my Giant status, content writing, trying to launch a new business and raising my Grand kids, it hit me; Don't try to do something you can't. It is much like don't try to be someone you're not but I think a lot of us take on things without really having thought them through.

How many lenses have you in WIP? I have about 5, which isn't bad but if I had my way about it there would be about 15 there. Every week I go through and delete WIPs. Why? Because I know that I will never find the time to do them or I get a much "better" idea for a lens.

I was thinking back to when I was trying to become a Giant Squid. That was pretty much priority with me. I worked very hard on the lenses and I put a lot of thought into them. That is probably why I made Giant Squid. Because of my work on Squidoo, I got a job as a content writer. I write between 5,000 and 10,000 words a day/ 5 days a week. (That is a LOT of writing, folks) and it is for the most part about things I don't give a hoot about. But, it's my job and I am glad to have it. It definitely cut into my Squidoo time, however. Then, I got caught up in all of this internet marketing jazz and quite frankly wasted a lot of time and money at it. I then started a couple of websites. To make a short story long--I am lucky if I spend 30 minutes a week working on Squidoo and that is what I loved the most.

So, after a lot of soul searching and retrospect, I have decided I am going to make every effort to go back to what I love; Squidoo. If I make a little extra money at it, fantastic! If I don't, thank God I have a job! What was the final revelation that caused me to decide this? Yesterday I was talking with (read: Bitc*** at) my teenager about something and I said "If you aren't going to do it right, dammit, don't do it at all". Boing!! I should listen to myself on occasion, I make a lot of sense!

So, my fellow Squid Giants, there are no links to follow here, no fantastic products or brilliant lenses that I am going to link to. There is just some advice; Do what you love and don't try to take on more than you can chew. Some people can do more than others and I, for one have a full plate-How about you?

Online Income - Stop Learning, Start Earning!

Make money online NOW! (This is my new mantra.)

It's been a while since I've posted on this fabulous blog. I've been busy squidooing, learning, angeling and most importantly - building a new online venture with my dear friend and fellow Squid Angel Squidster: SquidLog.com - a new online magazine with news, tips, entertainment and resources for Squidoo lensmasters.

(Hang on for a sec - I'll get to the "make money online" thing after the next paragraph!)

Anywayz, I've been posting a lot over there and I've learned a ton about blogging and online marketing. Matter of fact, I've found so many incredible resources on this topic that I thought I'll need several more years to wade through these before I can start making any moolah. Ugh.

And then I stumbled upon these quotes:

“…probably the biggest enemy of achievement of success online…is the notion that you’ve got to learn it all before you begin.”

“The biggest key to succeeding with online marketing is simply being brave enough to get down on the ground and get your face muddy enough times that you’ll eventually stumble into success.”

These pearls of wisdom can be found in a post by Ian Hollander on his blog Karmic Consulting. I wrote a comment on this post here, or if you prefer to ignore my 5-cents-worth you can jump right into this fine article here:

Cash Crash Creation Q & A: Marketing, Meditation and Momentum

Btw, Ian offers a free ebook on article writing and marketing that is packed with his tips on this subject. I downloaded it, and so far Mr. Hollander has been a true gentleman in regard to further marketing mailings (for not-free stuff). Go get it straight from the side bar on his blog.

So, what am I saying here? Well, I say the same as I venture to suspect in my blog comment on SquidLog:

Could it be that my delirious info hunt is nothing but an excuse for not getting ‘down and dirty’ and doing it?

• Research keywords
• Pick the product
• Create the lens, blog, website
• Promote the hell out of it
• Repeat

I have too much fun with lensbuilding, twittering, blogging, reading blogs, etc. - this has got to change! I need to manage my time better and think more about which of these activities contribute to online income in the near future!

I need to start applying what I know already. I've learned enough for now. I can do it!

What do you think about this plan?

(The puppy image is from the gorgeous Creative Commons collection of lensmaster Heather Katsoulis.)

Alternatives to Amazon - Part 2

As mentioned in my previous post, Amazon is far from perfect. I wish Squidoo would find alternative retail partners. There is little competition to Amazon and so Amazon is unlikely to improve anytime soon. Or is there?

One of my pet peeves about Amazon is that it is not global. Amazon will not ship most products outside of its region. Amazon USA ships almost excluisvely to the USA, Amazon UK, ships most to the UK, etc.

But did you know that there are many companies which not only ship products worldwide, they offer FREE WORLDWIDE SHIPPING?

Products such as books, electronics and other gadgets, beauty products can now be bought from reputable websites, such as DealExtreme, Book Depository and Cosmetic Times. These websites are not scammy, spammy, counterfeit websites. They are very highly recognized sites which are are competiting with mega-Giants like Amazon.

I have created a new Squidoo Lens about Websites which offer Cheap Prices AND Free Shipping.

Alternatives to Amazon?

I wish that Squidoo would find alternative retail partners to Amazon. While Amazon is the leading online "Shopping Mall", it is just not good enough. Problem is that there is not yet alot of competition. What are the problems with Amazon? Several:

* Commissions are very low. If someone buys from your Amazon module, you will earn a measly 2.5%. Don't believe it? Try it. Clear your cookies to make sure you do not already have an Amazon cookie in your computer. (click tools>internet options>delete temporary files, history,cookies) Then buy something from one of your Squidoo lenses that has little or no traffic and no risk of selling anything. In a few days you should see your purchase register and the tiny commission that you have earned.

* Amazon is not international. Almost half of the visitors to Squidoo are from outside of the USA. But if someone from Canada, The UK, Germany, France, etc visits your lens and clicks an Amazon module, they will be asked if they prefer to buy from their local Amazon (such as Canadian Amazon, English Amazon, German Amazon, French Amazon etc). If they do, you will earn no commission. If they stay on Amazon.com, they can not buy very much, because Amazon will ship very few products, other than books outside of the USA. So, selling to roughly half of your visitors is impossible.

* The Amazon search modules are extremely difficult to work with. If you choose your own Amazon products to display, you will frequenty find that after a month, the product is out of stock or has been changed and your module is empty. If you let Amazon choose which products to display, substitute products are frequently displayed. For example, put in Ugg Boots and you will get not only Uggs and but also brands such as Bearpaw and Emu boots.

* There is no way to search for discounted items. Wouldn't it be nice to offer your visitors products on sale from Amazon? There are such search functions from the Amazon site, but not on a Squidoo module.

Sure you can have affiliate links to hundreds of other retailers and earn higher commissions, but the beauty of working with Amazon is the department store effect. If a visitor to your lens clicks on your Amazon link and does not buy that product, there is a good chance they will continue shopping and buy something else and you will earn a commission. Most online retailers do not offer the wide spectrum of products that Amazon does.

Unfortunately, without competition, Amazon is unlikely to improve. Hopefully, since Squidoo is such an important partner to Amazon, perhaps the Squidoo Team can work with Amazon to implement some much needed changes or better yet, find alternative retail partners.

The good news is that, you as a shopper do have alternatives to Amazon. In my next post, I will give alternatives to shopping from Amazon.com

Squidoo Trivia

Did you know that the average visitor to Squidoo is likely to be a white, not affluent, childless female?

How do I know that? Quantcast's Squidoo Review has that information and more. Other interesting Squidoo Facts:

* In March 2009, roughly 11 million people will visit Squidoo.
* Squidoo's traffic is growing nicely. Traffic has nearly doubled over the past year!

* 31% of the visits are from regulars (us Squids) and 69% from passers by.

* Nearly half of Squidoo's traffic is coming from outside of the USA.

The last piece of information is possibly the most interesting for me, as many of my lenses are sales lenses and I live outside of the USA. Squidoo's main sales partner is Amazon.com, which is NOT an international sales platform. Most of Amazon.com's sales are stupidly restricted to the USA. When will American retailers realize that the internet is global?

So, if you only have Amazon modules on your lenses, nearly half of the people who will visit your lens can not buy from you! I wonder what Seth Grodin (Squidoo Mastermind, in case you don't know) thinks about that?