Sister Caren: Squidoo Failure Story

I didn't think about which topics would actually bring in revenue, nor did I properly monetize them with awesome amazon or ebay deals. Even though I did know about keyword research and marketing from my writing websites, I never felt like doing it. I heard a lot of great advice, and can still remember it to this day, but I was never ambitious enough to actually do it. I always thought "Alright, that's a good tip. Next time I edit my lens I'll do it", but I never edited my lenses (A flaw in my logic, eh?)

B ecause of this, my payouts were small. 1$, 50 cents, 8$, 22$, 5$, 8$, 5$, 2$, 1$, and then after that it pretty much stayed around the $1-2 mark. After all these months had passed, I started calling squidoo payments my shipping money. By that time, I was selling my old books on ecrater and $1-2 a month was enough to pay for one book's shipping.

I n October, 2010, I came back to Squidoo after seeing some decent success on Hubpages. I knew Squidoo would give me more of an opportunity, so I came back with this one thought "I'll succeed this time".

A nd so I wanted to make a new account to celebrate my Squidoo rebirth, my clean slate. Thanks to my little brother, I chose a niche and promptly called this account "SisterCaren".

And so my journey restarts

University

Like many people nowadays, I need money. Currently, I'm going to university which my parents pay for. However, due to a work-related accident over a year ago, money has been tight. On top of that, my older brother wants to go back to school. There's no way my parents can afford both of us at the same time (even though we're attending state schools), so if I can help my parents with costs, or get enough to pay for a semester myself when my brother does come back (Fall 2011), things will be so much better.

My Cat

Around the time of the accident, my cat was also diagnosed with feline Gingivitis and was supposed to get some sort of medical operation. Because of the money constraints, my parents had to prioritize and sadly a cat's medical expenses just do not fare up against a mortgage, utility, and buying diapers/formula/things for their newborn baby. Even though it'll be late, I'd like to earn enough to be able to pay for some treatment or else he'll lose all his teeth very early.

Marriage

Back in January, 2010, I got married! (on my birthday) Currently, my husband and I live with his parents. We're both students so we're focusing on our studies, however it'd be nice to earn money and live independently.

Picking Bad Topics
My first ever lens was about this fake baby doll for a school project. It wasn't sold on amazon, nor ebay, and I don't think it had an affiliate program. It wasn't really known.

Not writing enough text
If you pick a topic that isn't very commercial, you're supposed to write a lot of content, tips, put in helpful links. You know, make a good lens. Nope, that first lens I mentioned? I put in about 2 sentences of intro, about 5 sentences of tips, and...well..that was pretty much it. It wouldn't have been very helpful. Neither visitors nor lensmasters would have thought much of it.

Not thinking outside the box
If I still had that lens now, I could find a way to market it by mentioning alternatives. Just because that specific doll was hard to find, doesn't mean others weren't available. Did I think of that? Nope.

Deleting Lenses
Notice I said "If I still had that lens now". I deleted it a long time ago. Even though now that I'm not as stupid, I probably could find a way to turn it around and at least I would have had an old seasoned URL.

Ignoring Ebay
I ignored ebay modules a lot because I figured, if I wanted someone to buy an item, I'd rather they pay full amazon price (which is already cheaper than retail), and not pay ebay prices (which can often be lower than amazon's,...at least at the beginning of an auction). What I didn't realize is that 1) auctions go up in price so I could still get a decent commission and 2) People who really want an item will get from amazon because bidding can be a hassle, and people who can't afford amazon - and therefore wouldn't buy it no matter how much I advertised - would rather try their hand at ebay. (and back then, ebay had a better affiliate system so it's sad I didn't take advantage of it)

Ignoring Affiliates
Back then, I used to frequent the chat room a lot (still do), and I often got the advice to join an affiliate program like amazon's, linkshare's, cj's, or pepperjam's. I probably didn't even join amazon's program until about 2009, same for linkshare, even though I knew from those helpful chatting lensmasters that a lot of those programs pay better commissions.

Not thinking about my audience
It's really important to think about whether your audience would 1) want to buy the product 2) be able to afford the product and 3) decide if they want information or if they want a catalogue. I used to make these DS games lenses even though I knew personally that a lot of DS owners pirate. In addition, a lot of the games I picked weren't big enough to make the person feel like they had to buy it. I also made a few product-wide sales lenses, but I added all this content (when I eventually got the hint that content is good). The problem is that too much content on what should be a catalogue lens can hurt you because your target audience is trying to browse quickly, not scroll and scroll and scroll. (Having too little text can also be damaging). I kept treating my catalogue lenses like product review/information lenses.

Going CSS Nuts
Having text within a paragraph that has red borders, a dark pink background, and white text is a big eyestrain. Enough said. Think about your css and how it goes with your lens and don't overdo it.

Not socializing
I'm still working on this, but anyway. Part of being a squidoo member is being active within the community. Rating, commenting, talking in the forums are very important. You can often get a lot of critiques (even when you don't ask. Some people give mini-critiques as lens comments). Did I do that? Maybe 3 or 5 times (out of my many 70+ lenses..before my deleting spree I mean), even though I knew I was having trouble and needed more help. Socializing also lets you find out how other lensmasters are doing so you can compare your results. Or else you might end up thinking that getting 5$ a month is "normal" (which it's not. A lot of active lensmasters make way more). Did I really compare? Sure, I knew some people with 3rd party affiliates made more, but I never really asked about their stats, their comments, how much came from squidoo itself, or even which ways were best advertising wise.

Tomorrow? What's that?
Procrastination is bad. Very bad. Don't be like me and say "I'll edit this next week" or "I'll skip this holiday and do some lenses for the next one." Do it today or do it tomorrow, but don't put it off longer than that- that's my new time motto. Unless you're in the hospital or stuck in an internet-less region, there is no excuse not to log in and do at least one squidoo thing. (editing a lens, leaving a comment, fixing up tags, fixing up labels so at least you're more organized for next time...)

More to come...I made a LOT of mistakes.

Part of wanting to actually succeed at squidoo this time around is to get organized.

Step 1: I created a keyword research excel sheet that will take in the numbers I gather and help me determine which ones are worth it to me through a formula based on people's advice.
Step 2: I created a checklist for lensbuilding and promoting based on the advice I've received over the years, as well as new advice.
Step 3: I bought myself a portfolio binder. In this, I've put my squidoo checklist, my niches, goals, and future ideas.
Step 4: I created a google docs sheet keeping track of which lenses I've promoted where. It's on google docs so I can do promoting even when I'm not on my computer.

Before, I was goalless. I wanted money, but I wasn't sure how much I could earn, how much I'd need to earn, how many lenses or what type I'd need to make a decent wage. This time around, I'm setting goals based on advice I've heard.

Goals

~Make a first sale
~Make 70 Lenses
~Make 100 Lenses
~Make 200 Lenses
~Make 300 Lenses
~Make Giant Squid
~Make Giant 100
~Make $100 a month
~Make $200 a month
~Make $300 a month

Time Frames

Timeframes I'd like to reach for certain goals
~70 Lenses by December 31st, 2010
~300 Lenses by Febrary 15th, 2010
~One $700+ month by January 1st, 2012