Hi Holly, how are you doing? Pretty well. The year starts just fine for me... without Squidoo-ing. Phew! What a relief! Now I have all my time available for my own sites.
Not really as since the beginning of the year I have worked on a friend's sites along with working on mine. At noon today, I put the finishing touches to the friend's e-store and thought that it was a relief as, if you work for clients, you know that some have a thing in never giving you accurate information, nor pictures when they want THEIR own pictures to be included in the site, never provide all the product descriptions - especially when these products are products you've never heard of before...
In addition my friends doesn't understand anything on the Internet, still she wants an e-store and a website that she advertises on local newspapers :/ Cherry on the pie is that I just asked for her host login address and password so that I could add the redirect for the former boutique to the new one, she gave me the store link - which I already had otherwise I couldn't work on it.
Not to mention the demand for me to be logged into Skype all day long so that she can get one-on-one coaching and consultance for free. Needless to say that my Skype is closed.
After months of hard work, I'll get the payout she promised (peanuts) and then will forget about her sites. This will let me focus on my own websites that I try to update as much as I can and the new project I'm about to start.
While traffic isn't recovering as much and quickly as I expected, I'm working on increasing it by posting more often than before. To say the truth someone contacted me and asked if there was a Google update in the end of last week. It looks like indeed there was an update since traffic reverted to what it was in the end of last November or beginning of December, I don't remember the exact last update date.
Now the funny part of my online adventure is that Squidoo has come with a new project and asked us, Giants, to be part of it. I didn't reply nor did I apply for any of the new kinds of clubs they're expecting us to join, I'm not a leader, I don't want to work on a specific topic, I don't want headlines, I don't want to work for free, I don't want to work on a platform any more, I don't want to be part of their new project, period.
Given the bad traffic numbers these days - my whole account doesn't get more than 2,300 visits overall, I'm not ready giving up my time and my sites earnings to help Squidoo launch new clubs that aren't going to last for more than one season like all their other clubs, groups or whatever.
I even set a limit to my devotion: if by the end of June I see a traffic recovery on Squidoo - and when I say traffic I mean: NO HOLIDAY TRAFFIC INCREASE - I'll build my 5 expected lenses for the year in order to keep my Giant status. I'll even might be building a few additional Halloween and Christmas lenses.
But if by this date there's no change in traffic, I'll have to make a decision on keeping my Giant status and build 5 useless lenses or resign my status and not waste an additional minute on a site that doesn't care about their members and the hard work they put into making it the site it was once.
Now a few words about something from HQ that I don't understand.
We've been provided some suggestions on how to promote Squidoo. Here are some of them:
"... promotion through blog posts ..."
OK. And what if you lock my lenses for bad backlinks ? I mean, i wouldn't dare spamming Google's blog with a link from a lens of mine, moreover it wouldn't be related. So on what kind of blog can I promote my lenses? None as I could see from all the lensmasters complaining for having their lenses locked because of "bad backlinks".
"... invite friends and family ..."
Why on Earth would I invite friends and family who first don't understand English and who next aren't probably interested in what I do on Squidoo - let alone Squidoo itself. What's the point inviting friends and relatives? Their traffic is more or less as useless as internal traffic. Why would I - and who am I for this - prevent a huge traffic driver from getting their fair and deserved share of the payout?
"... trophies ..."
I'd like HQ to remove some of my trophies - if not all as I'm not interested in trophies at all - as most don't fit with my account any more: I don't have 150 nor 200 lenses any more, I'm not an angel any more, and so on ... I'd rather like money over trophies if I may say so. Trophies don't feed my family. Nor do monsters and points.
"... magazines ..."
I once had my lenses in magazines. I remember, it was during one of the major holidays. I was surprised to see that four lenses didn't get any kind of traffic although they were extremely popular during the holiday and reached 15,000 unique visitors/week in that time. So I checked them and noticed that all 4 were in... magazines. I promptly removed them from there and one week later, their traffic fully recovered. What's the point having lenses featured in places that will keep them off from public views?
"... contribute a niche ..."
Why would I devote my time for free to Squidoo when I can get paid else where for the same amount of time?
I won't be talking about the cherry on the pie right now... but this one brings back the favorite-cheating game. Ah well; better keep off logging into Squidoo these days and not reading HQ's emails. I'll keep them for later... when I'll have enough distance with the site for not ending up angry.
As for my online pen name, I finally am happy not having the same on Web 2.0 platforms and my sites. They let me do my own things and I won't be penalized by their bad reputation.
One last little thing. I deleted all my online business related lenses now so I'll probably upload them here so as to provide some help to those who need so and at the same time, provide these lenses a new place to begin a new life.
Cheers :)
Posted by Squidoo lensmaster Prosperity66
Working for me, working for someone else
Not really as since the beginning of the year I have worked on a friend's sites along with working on mine. At noon today, I put the finishing touches to the friend's e-store and thought that it was a relief as, if you work for clients, you know that some have a thing in never giving you accurate information, nor pictures when they want THEIR own pictures to be included in the site, never provide all the product descriptions - especially when these products are products you've never heard of before...
In addition my friends doesn't understand anything on the Internet, still she wants an e-store and a website that she advertises on local newspapers :/ Cherry on the pie is that I just asked for her host login address and password so that I could add the redirect for the former boutique to the new one, she gave me the store link - which I already had otherwise I couldn't work on it.
Not to mention the demand for me to be logged into Skype all day long so that she can get one-on-one coaching and consultance for free. Needless to say that my Skype is closed.
After months of hard work, I'll get the payout she promised (peanuts) and then will forget about her sites. This will let me focus on my own websites that I try to update as much as I can and the new project I'm about to start.
About traffic recovery
While traffic isn't recovering as much and quickly as I expected, I'm working on increasing it by posting more often than before. To say the truth someone contacted me and asked if there was a Google update in the end of last week. It looks like indeed there was an update since traffic reverted to what it was in the end of last November or beginning of December, I don't remember the exact last update date.
Now the funny part of my online adventure is that Squidoo has come with a new project and asked us, Giants, to be part of it. I didn't reply nor did I apply for any of the new kinds of clubs they're expecting us to join, I'm not a leader, I don't want to work on a specific topic, I don't want headlines, I don't want to work for free, I don't want to work on a platform any more, I don't want to be part of their new project, period.
Given the bad traffic numbers these days - my whole account doesn't get more than 2,300 visits overall, I'm not ready giving up my time and my sites earnings to help Squidoo launch new clubs that aren't going to last for more than one season like all their other clubs, groups or whatever.
I even set a limit to my devotion: if by the end of June I see a traffic recovery on Squidoo - and when I say traffic I mean: NO HOLIDAY TRAFFIC INCREASE - I'll build my 5 expected lenses for the year in order to keep my Giant status. I'll even might be building a few additional Halloween and Christmas lenses.
But if by this date there's no change in traffic, I'll have to make a decision on keeping my Giant status and build 5 useless lenses or resign my status and not waste an additional minute on a site that doesn't care about their members and the hard work they put into making it the site it was once.
About Squidoo's new experiments that come and go - especially go...
Now a few words about something from HQ that I don't understand.
We've been provided some suggestions on how to promote Squidoo. Here are some of them:
"... promotion through blog posts ..."
OK. And what if you lock my lenses for bad backlinks ? I mean, i wouldn't dare spamming Google's blog with a link from a lens of mine, moreover it wouldn't be related. So on what kind of blog can I promote my lenses? None as I could see from all the lensmasters complaining for having their lenses locked because of "bad backlinks".
"... invite friends and family ..."
Why on Earth would I invite friends and family who first don't understand English and who next aren't probably interested in what I do on Squidoo - let alone Squidoo itself. What's the point inviting friends and relatives? Their traffic is more or less as useless as internal traffic. Why would I - and who am I for this - prevent a huge traffic driver from getting their fair and deserved share of the payout?
"... trophies ..."
I'd like HQ to remove some of my trophies - if not all as I'm not interested in trophies at all - as most don't fit with my account any more: I don't have 150 nor 200 lenses any more, I'm not an angel any more, and so on ... I'd rather like money over trophies if I may say so. Trophies don't feed my family. Nor do monsters and points.
"... magazines ..."
I once had my lenses in magazines. I remember, it was during one of the major holidays. I was surprised to see that four lenses didn't get any kind of traffic although they were extremely popular during the holiday and reached 15,000 unique visitors/week in that time. So I checked them and noticed that all 4 were in... magazines. I promptly removed them from there and one week later, their traffic fully recovered. What's the point having lenses featured in places that will keep them off from public views?
"... contribute a niche ..."
Why would I devote my time for free to Squidoo when I can get paid else where for the same amount of time?
I won't be talking about the cherry on the pie right now... but this one brings back the favorite-cheating game. Ah well; better keep off logging into Squidoo these days and not reading HQ's emails. I'll keep them for later... when I'll have enough distance with the site for not ending up angry.
As for my online pen name, I finally am happy not having the same on Web 2.0 platforms and my sites. They let me do my own things and I won't be penalized by their bad reputation.
One last little thing. I deleted all my online business related lenses now so I'll probably upload them here so as to provide some help to those who need so and at the same time, provide these lenses a new place to begin a new life.
Cheers :)
Posted by Squidoo lensmaster Prosperity66
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