My life as a squid.
Two and a half years of making money online with Squidoo. A look back at what I've learned, the money I've made, and where I go from here.
The simple truths about making money online.
And the harsh realities.
Rewind. Let's go back three years ago. Having just lost my job and really hating the whole idea of looking for a new job that I would undoubtedly end up miserable in *again* I was desperate to find someway to escape from the whole damn thing. This is when I first began thinking about making money online. I guess this was about the time I first typed in "making money online" into the search engine. I can remember thinking "Yea right." after being assaulted by the ungodly amount of websites offering a get rich quick scheme.
Thankfully, I wasn't deterred by that initial disappointment and went on to pour everything I had into researching and learning about search engine optimization, advertising, selling, and writing on the net for profit. I still draw on this information and work to build upon it, with every website I make. Though I am by no means at the cutting edge of the information, studies, and general practices people are using right now, I still find some measure of success with everything I do online now.
A few months down the road I found out about Squidoo, and highly skeptical at first, I didn't have much faith in it. Yet, it was remarkably easy to use so eventually I succumbed to laziness and started building my lens's and this is where I started making my first real royalties.
Sadly however, there was no way of it being anywhere close to what I would need to "work at home".
Thankfully, I wasn't deterred by that initial disappointment and went on to pour everything I had into researching and learning about search engine optimization, advertising, selling, and writing on the net for profit. I still draw on this information and work to build upon it, with every website I make. Though I am by no means at the cutting edge of the information, studies, and general practices people are using right now, I still find some measure of success with everything I do online now.
A few months down the road I found out about Squidoo, and highly skeptical at first, I didn't have much faith in it. Yet, it was remarkably easy to use so eventually I succumbed to laziness and started building my lens's and this is where I started making my first real royalties.
Sadly however, there was no way of it being anywhere close to what I would need to "work at home".
Present day.
Where I'm at after two and a half years on Squidoo.
I have a really great hobby.
No, really. I have a lot of fun making web pages on Squidoo. It's addictive to see the money and visitors coming in everyday on your stats page, but there's no way I can quit my day job.
To be fair, I haven't worked on my web pages everyday, or even every month. In fact, I'm coming back now (as time permits) from an 8 month Squidoo hiatus. Here's why. Even though I haven't done anything to my pages in a long time, I'm still averaging about $30 a month from commissions, just from my Amazon links.
Squidoo'ing in my spare time, and often neglected, has earned me about $1000 for roughly 60-70 hours work in making the pages to sell products online. While that's not astounding, it's not bad either, and it could certainly be much more if I pay the proper attention to it.
No, really. I have a lot of fun making web pages on Squidoo. It's addictive to see the money and visitors coming in everyday on your stats page, but there's no way I can quit my day job.
To be fair, I haven't worked on my web pages everyday, or even every month. In fact, I'm coming back now (as time permits) from an 8 month Squidoo hiatus. Here's why. Even though I haven't done anything to my pages in a long time, I'm still averaging about $30 a month from commissions, just from my Amazon links.
Squidoo'ing in my spare time, and often neglected, has earned me about $1000 for roughly 60-70 hours work in making the pages to sell products online. While that's not astounding, it's not bad either, and it could certainly be much more if I pay the proper attention to it.
Goals
Just to give some direction to myself and other people wanting to make money online I want to set up a list of things I'd like to do now to take the next step and move forward with Squidoo and other avenues to make more money.
- Find more profitable programs. The 4-6% commission I currently get is ok but 20-50% would be much better!
- Study more on search engine optimization and what makes people buy.
- Dedicate more time or a specific amount of time each day to creating new web pages.
- Taking time each day to think about how great it really would be to make a living online.
- Earning at least $33 a day in commission.
- Earning at least $66 a day.
- Quitting the 9 to 5 and working solely online.
Selling door to door or computer to computer.
Selling Avon online.
Recently I visited with my mother who had started selling Avon. Naturally, always looking for more opportunities to earn higher commissions I was immediately interested and absolutely sold on the idea when I found out you could open an online store and earn 20% commission on orders of $25 -$144 and more for higher orders.
Being that it's Christmas time I signed up for Avon and built a simple page for gifts under $20. Right off I had problems however as I learned that you can't link to specific items on your Avon store and still get credit (They have to go to your landing page for you to get credit.). So now I have to link just to my Avon landing page and so far I'm not seeing any conversions.
All in all, right now, I don't think Avon is going to work out. There's also a charge for your Avon website of 6 or 7 dollars per campaign, which I believe they have two of those a month. Basically I will probably end up losing money trying out this idea, but as they say nothing ventured nothing gained.
You can check out my work here: 20 gifts under $20
If any of you would please leave feedback on how the shopping experience on this page and the link to my Avon store from it makes you feel. Would you buy?
Being that it's Christmas time I signed up for Avon and built a simple page for gifts under $20. Right off I had problems however as I learned that you can't link to specific items on your Avon store and still get credit (They have to go to your landing page for you to get credit.). So now I have to link just to my Avon landing page and so far I'm not seeing any conversions.
All in all, right now, I don't think Avon is going to work out. There's also a charge for your Avon website of 6 or 7 dollars per campaign, which I believe they have two of those a month. Basically I will probably end up losing money trying out this idea, but as they say nothing ventured nothing gained.
You can check out my work here: 20 gifts under $20
If any of you would please leave feedback on how the shopping experience on this page and the link to my Avon store from it makes you feel. Would you buy?
Squidoo, referral rates, and how to make more money from Squidoo.
Squidoo and Amazon.
Are you maximizing your income on Squidoo? Maybe not. The most popular money making modules on Squidoo are the Amazon.com ones.
How Squidoo makes money from Amazon.
Here's a quick breakdown of Amazon's performance plan referral rate.
Squidoo is at the top of the performance plan selling over 3131 items from Amazon modules a month meaning they get about 8.5% commission on a sale, and you get half of that (4.25%).
Basically what this means is that if you routinely sell more than 7 items a month from Amazon.com modules on Squidoo you are not getting as much money as you could be. You can go to https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/ and sign up to be an affiliate there and choose the performance plan and make 6% commission of your orders provided you sell 7 or more items a month.
The downside to this is that it takes more time to make the product links to put on your webpage, but all in all once you get the hang of it it's not bad at all and will ultimately put more money in your pocket.
How Squidoo makes money from Amazon.
- Squidoo is an affiliate of Amazon.com on the performance plan.
- The performance plan pays Squidoo a referral rate based on the number of items sold through Squidoo Amazon modules.
- When an item is sold through an Amazon module you get half of the referral rate and Squidoo gets the other half.
Here's a quick breakdown of Amazon's performance plan referral rate.
Squidoo is at the top of the performance plan selling over 3131 items from Amazon modules a month meaning they get about 8.5% commission on a sale, and you get half of that (4.25%).
Basically what this means is that if you routinely sell more than 7 items a month from Amazon.com modules on Squidoo you are not getting as much money as you could be. You can go to https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/ and sign up to be an affiliate there and choose the performance plan and make 6% commission of your orders provided you sell 7 or more items a month.
The downside to this is that it takes more time to make the product links to put on your webpage, but all in all once you get the hang of it it's not bad at all and will ultimately put more money in your pocket.
Why Squidoo and I have a love hate relationship.
The good and the bad about Squidoo for making money online.
I've been on Squidoo for over 2 years. It's a great place to make easy websites and get your message out there. The thing is most of us are here to make money either for ourselves or charities. While Squidoo can help you to get started making money it can also hold you back.
Squidoo's good points.
Squidoo's bad points.
Squidoo makes money from all these ads while they drive visitors away from our sites and our products that we make the most money from selling. Also on a personal note I've always hated the spammy feel of contextual ads in writing. I'm really disappointed in Squidoo for including them.
Back to the point, we do get a share of what Squidoo makes from these ads based on our lensrank but all in all I feel that spamming up our pages and driving the traffic away from us that we work so hard get in the first place is not a good thing.
If you're serious about making money online don't let Squidoo slow you down. I encourage everyone to start working on and get familiar with a website of their own. By all means continue to use Squidoo but remember that Squidoo eats half your pie.
Squidoo's good points.
- It's easy to learn.
- Great for beginners.
- Squidoo has a great helpful community.
Squidoo's bad points.
- Google adsense.
- Video and banner ads.
- Contextual ads.
Squidoo makes money from all these ads while they drive visitors away from our sites and our products that we make the most money from selling. Also on a personal note I've always hated the spammy feel of contextual ads in writing. I'm really disappointed in Squidoo for including them.
Back to the point, we do get a share of what Squidoo makes from these ads based on our lensrank but all in all I feel that spamming up our pages and driving the traffic away from us that we work so hard get in the first place is not a good thing.
If you're serious about making money online don't let Squidoo slow you down. I encourage everyone to start working on and get familiar with a website of their own. By all means continue to use Squidoo but remember that Squidoo eats half your pie.
Case Study: Squidoo ads payout vs potential commissions.
I just wanted to go a little more into detail about Squidoo ads and what they could mean to you. In this example I'm using information from my lens on the Flip Mino.
On average a sale from this page generates me between 5 and 7 dollars. This doesn't count any additional items customers may order as they browse Amazon through my link.
Here is the amount of money I've received from Squidoo in their revenue sharing based on lensrank.
11/5/2009 Cash $0.13
10/8/2009 Cash $0.10
8/13/2009 Cash $0.08
6/10/2009 Cash $0.07
4/7/2009 Cash $0.08
3/11/2009 Cash $0.08
2/10/2009 Cash $0.08
12/11/2008 Cash $0.08
11/10/2008 Cash $0.08
10/6/2008 Cash $0.08
9/8/2008 Cash $0.08
8/7/2008 Cash $1.32
Total $2.25
What this basically means is I've been paid $2.25 for the ads Squidoo puts on my page that are taking visitors away from my site. Over a year of ads and only $2.25, obviously I benefit much more from direct sales through my lens. At this rate one sale will make more than I would get in 3 years of ad revenue sharing from Squidoo.
It's important to note that I am not at all mad at Squidoo because of this. I like Squidoo and I will continue to use Squidoo. it's a business and you can't blame them for making money. I'm just saying there are more efficient ways to use your time.
On average a sale from this page generates me between 5 and 7 dollars. This doesn't count any additional items customers may order as they browse Amazon through my link.
Here is the amount of money I've received from Squidoo in their revenue sharing based on lensrank.
11/5/2009 Cash $0.13
10/8/2009 Cash $0.10
8/13/2009 Cash $0.08
6/10/2009 Cash $0.07
4/7/2009 Cash $0.08
3/11/2009 Cash $0.08
2/10/2009 Cash $0.08
12/11/2008 Cash $0.08
11/10/2008 Cash $0.08
10/6/2008 Cash $0.08
9/8/2008 Cash $0.08
8/7/2008 Cash $1.32
Total $2.25
What this basically means is I've been paid $2.25 for the ads Squidoo puts on my page that are taking visitors away from my site. Over a year of ads and only $2.25, obviously I benefit much more from direct sales through my lens. At this rate one sale will make more than I would get in 3 years of ad revenue sharing from Squidoo.
It's important to note that I am not at all mad at Squidoo because of this. I like Squidoo and I will continue to use Squidoo. it's a business and you can't blame them for making money. I'm just saying there are more efficient ways to use your time.
How are you doing with Squidoo?
Are you making the kind of money you want to make on Squidoo?
Fetching blurbs now... please stand byYes. I know Squidoo takes some money from my sales but I am content.
Ramkitten says:
Yes, my monthly income directly from Squidoo is enough to cover a couple of bills (and then some, sometimes), but what's even better is the indirect sales I make thanks to my lenses, which direct traffic to my other sites and online store. My efforts here even contributed to getting me a really great book deal.
Posted November 30, 2009
Christene says:
So far I've earned over $6,000 for me and over $1,000 for charity, so yes I'm happy. :)
Posted November 29, 2009
No, I'm not making enough to be content.
olga-kay says:
Not yet! I'm working on it. :) I see that it has potential so I keep plugging away at it. I just started taking Squidoo seriously a few days ago so I don't expect to have success with it yet.
Posted November 30, 2009
intricate says:
I'll start out here. I'm happy that I'm making some money at Squidoo but I think I'm limiting myself also.
Posted November 29, 2009
Website hosting options.
If you are interested in beginning to get your feet wet working outside of Squidoo I want to recommend hostmonster.com
I've used them for several years and found their customer service, hosting plans, and pricing to be top notch. Right now they're running a special for $5.95 a month and that includes a domain name for your website.
I've used them for several years and found their customer service, hosting plans, and pricing to be top notch. Right now they're running a special for $5.95 a month and that includes a domain name for your website.
Quick tip for performance plan referral fees.
How to make more money from Amazon associates.
I've already spoken a little bit about the performance plan with Amazon associates, what I want to go over now is how to quickly raise your commission rate in the performance plan.
We all know that the more money an item costs the more you get paid in commission, but it's important not to forget the small ticket items. There may be some things you can sell and only get a few cents in commission but because of the price people generally order more.
When you're in a performance plan such as Amazon's these small ticket items are invaluable because the more items you sell the higher your commission for all your products are. When you pair big and small ticket items in your online business plan you can greatly increase the money you bring in every month.
For example you have a page where you sell an item that costs $300 and you generally sell two or three a month, Because you don't have many orders per month you are at the lowest tier of the performance plan and only get 4% commission. So you make $12 per sale.
Now lets take that same website and a new website where you sell items that typically cost $1 to $5 you only make a little bit of change off these commissions but you sell at least 30 a month bringing your referral rate up to 6.5% now those $300 sales give you $19.50 commission.
We all know that the more money an item costs the more you get paid in commission, but it's important not to forget the small ticket items. There may be some things you can sell and only get a few cents in commission but because of the price people generally order more.
When you're in a performance plan such as Amazon's these small ticket items are invaluable because the more items you sell the higher your commission for all your products are. When you pair big and small ticket items in your online business plan you can greatly increase the money you bring in every month.
For example you have a page where you sell an item that costs $300 and you generally sell two or three a month, Because you don't have many orders per month you are at the lowest tier of the performance plan and only get 4% commission. So you make $12 per sale.
Now lets take that same website and a new website where you sell items that typically cost $1 to $5 you only make a little bit of change off these commissions but you sell at least 30 a month bringing your referral rate up to 6.5% now those $300 sales give you $19.50 commission.
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by intricate
intricate
Hello everyone, intricate here. I recently started up with squidoo and i'm hooked! I have a lot of fun making websites on a WIDE variety of topics... more »
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