Are you a Stay at Home Mom (or Dad) Interested in Earning a Monthly Income?
Ranked #5 in How-To, #44 overall
I am doing it and you can, too!
What is Squidoo? Squidoo was founded by Seth Godin, well-known author and marketing guru. It is a free Internet platform that allows people {called lensmasters} to write about topics they enjoy and make money in the process. If that is not enough, it is fun, too! But, be careful, creating pages {called lenses} can also be very addicting. So, don't say I didn't warn you. :) Oh, and there is one more thing. Squidoo and it's lensmasters also contribute thousands of dollars annually to various charities. Isn't that great?
Is Squidoo a fly by night, get rich quick scheme? Absolutely not! It does not promise you millions, but if you work hard, you can make extra money for yourself and for your family. All while writing about things you love and staying home with your kids.
So, if you are a stay at home mom or dad or someone just looking to supplement their income, then you have come to the right place.
I will use this lens to talk more about myself and how I got here, provide my actual earnings figures {not just some hype} and direct you to some other great lenses that can help you get started.
Squidoo Overview
Earnings ~ How-To ~ Resources ~ Affiliate Marketing ~ Lensmaking Tips
- September Earnings Recap
- Lens Milestone
- My Squidoo Story
- My Squidoo Earnings
- More Ways to Earn Money on Squidoo
- My Best Lensmaking Tip
- The Recipe for Making Money
- My Squidoo Lenses
- Hot off the Press!
- FREE (yes, free!) Squidoo Logos and Avatars for Lensmasters
- Free Photos for Your Lenses
- Promote Your Lenses
- Online Diversification
- Hubpages
- More Top Earning Lensmasters
- Join the SquidU Forums
September Earnings Recap
My September earnings were about the same as last months. I made a grand total of $4 more this month. :) So, again, not bad for a summer month.Apparently, there was a bug in calculating the earnings for the InfoLinks . I had all of the InfoLinks turned off for the majority of the month. So, it is possible I was slightly overpaid. I will find out next month since Kimberly said this information will be displayed in the blue box.
Total number of Lenses at the end of July: 97
August earnings from the Squidoo Payout and 3rd Party Affiliate Sales made on my lenses
$789.61
Year-to-date Squidoo related earnings
$7,960.93
Total Squidoo Related Earnings to Date
$17,689.25
Lens Milestone
I am pleased to announce that on May 16th this lens reached a Lensrank of #1 Overall on Squidoo.
I would like to take this moment to thank all of you who have visited this lens, rated it, signed the guestbook, blogged about it, emailed it to friends and added it to favorites. This achievement never would have been possible had it not been for the wonderful support from all of you and from the Squidoo community.
Thank you. :)
My Squidoo Story
How it all began and where I am at now.
My name is Janet and I am 38 years old. I have a wonderful husband and three beautiful children, Jaclyn (11), Alysa (8) and Kyle (4).
I worked for 10 years in the accounting field until I had my first child in 1997. I had planned to go back to work after my daughter was born, but when the time actually came to go back, I just couldn't. I knew in my heart that I wanted to be home to raise her and I was very fortunate that my husband was able to support our household on his income. We weren't sure at first how we would be able to do it, but sometimes things just work out.
I love being a stay at home mom and would not trade it for anything. However, during the 11 years I have been home, I have tried many different ways to earn money. Nothing seemed to work. It is not that we neccessarily needed the income, but after having worked for so long, it just didn't feel right not contributing to the household expenses. Plus, as I am certain everyone here would agree, it is always nice to have some extra spending money.
In 2005, my husband and I started an image hosting site. While running that site, I posted on many webmaster forums and that is where I first heard of Squidoo.
I created my account on Squidoo in January 2007. I initially set up lenses here to promote my image hosting site. I then started playing around making some more lenses on topics that interested me and as soon as I started seeing the money coming in, I was hooked! It was at that point that I realized the potential there was here and it encouraged me to work harder and make more lenses.
However, I must be completely honest. In the beginning I was not making a fortune (see my earnings figures below), but I stuck with it and through trial and error discovered what worked and what didn't work.
In the beginning, I was earning just enough money to buy things for the kids or cover some other small expenses, but now I can actually pay for some of the larger household bills. It feels great that I am able to do that. My three year goal is to make $2,000+ a month.
It varies from lensmaster to lensmaster, but *on average* it can take you up to 6 months of creating lenses to see a significant income. So, be patient! Remember: Every lens you build will become a source of future income for you. Plus, while you are waiting for the bigger paychecks, you can have fun creating lenses and interacting with a wonderful community of friendly people.
I love Squidoo and am grateful for the opportunities it has provided to me. Not only is it a wonderful way to earn money, the community here is top notch. I have met so many wonderful lensmasters from all walks of life!
I am sharing this information with everyone because I know first hand how frustrating it can be trying to find that perfect work at home job. Now, that I have found it, I want to share it with you!
Stay at Home Mom (and Dad) Poll
My Squidoo Earnings
*includes actual screen print from Paypal*
I had my payout amount set at $10 and as you can see I received my first Squidoo payment of $13.34 in May; four months after starting on Squidoo. The big jump in earnings between June and July was really a turning point for me. The moment when I realized the potential of Squidoo as I mentioned above.
You will also notice that I had been making lenses on Squidoo since January 2007 and by June 2007 (6 months later), was only making $40/month (not including the additional earnings that I will discuss below). However, had I given up, I would have missed out on such a wonderful opportunity.
That is why I strongly urge all new lensmasters to be patient and to give their lenses a minimum of 6 months to begin working for them. It definitely can happen quicker, but that is just a general guideline.
May 2009 will be the last month I will be updating the screenprints below. However, I will still be posting my earnings recap and total Squidoo earnings on a monthly basis.
There are two ways in which to earn money on Squidoo.
From the Squidoo FAQ:
Squidoo makes money 2 ways: ads, and affiliate revenue. This means Google ads or other ads we contract to run, and affiliate income from Amazon, eBay, CafePress and more.
Ad revenue (Google and other ads). This money goes into a pool, so as to avoide clickfraud. Half of the pool distributes out to lensmasters, on a PayRank scale that is based on each lens's average LensRank and traffic, and the number and quality of lenses in the lensmaster's account.
Affiliate revenue (ie, referral income--like Amazon and eBay and CafePress). This is directly attributable to the lens that generated the revenue, and is not pooled with the whole co-op. The lensmaster gets a straight 50%.
More Ways to Earn Money on Squidoo
3rd party affiliate links
You can also register with affiliate sites and import product links directly to your Squidoo lenses.
I use Shareasale & Commission Junction in addition to the Squidoo money making modules {eBay, Amazon & Cafepress}. It is a nice way to earn even more money from your Squidoo lenses.
2009 Earnings
In 2009, I added a eBay affiliate links of my own into some of my lenses. Basically one text link in the Introduction Module. As of May 31st, these links have earned me $411 from eBay. This is in addition to the earnings figures I have posted below. However, I still use the Squidoo eBay modules the majority of the time and will continue to do so.
Update: Per the new eBay Partner Network Policy Updates effective July 20th, we are no longer allowed to add our own eBay affiliate links on our lenses. Read more.
My total year-to-date Squidoo earnings (this includes the sales from eBay mentioned above) comes to $5,103.
Work from Home Attire for Mom
Forget Rise & Shine Nightshirt Lazy One Apparel Moose
Amazon Price: $19.95 (as of 11/15/2009)
This nightshirt from Lazy One says it all! Perfect for the Work from Home mom that can set her own hours and is able to go to work in her pajamas.
My Best Lensmaking Tip
*Branch out from your main topic/niche*
I would like to give you one piece of advice before you get started.
Create yours lenses around a niche. What that means is take a topic you are interested in {it is very important to write about topics you enjoy and/or have knowledge about} and expand it over several additional lenses {5, 10, 20, or however many it takes} with each lens specifically covering one aspect of that particular topic.
For instance, if you are interested in Scrapbooking, first create your main Scrapbook lens. On this lens, explain how you became interested in the hobby, why you like it, etc. Then, create separate lenses for various aspects of scrapbooking. Examples of some lenses you could create:
You get the idea. This way you will receive cross-traffic between your lenses and you also become an expert on your topic. Furthermore, when you narrow each lens down to a very specific niche {for instance, a lens on why the Sixxix Die cut Machine is a must have scrap tool} as opposed to having a lens covering a much broader topic {Scrapbooking}, you will see better results.
This process can be done for each niche you decide to write about. I have been creating lenses in this fashion from day one and I find that it really helps with earnings and traffic.
This doesn't mean that you can't or shouldn't create any lenses outside of your niches. I do it all the time. When I have to urge to write about something, I just go for it! And, you should, too!
The Recipe for Making Money
"What's cool is the recipe for earning: lots of lenses + niche topics + personal recommendations and opinions."
Megan Casey
Squidoo Editor in Chief
read full article
My Squidoo Lenses
My two main niches are Kids Birthday Parties and Novelty Gifts.Below you will find a the link to my main lensmaster page {Lensography} to see what I have been up to!
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Who in the World is Janet21?
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We'll, I have heard that creating a lensography is the hip thing to do on Squidoo these days and that everyone is doing it. I know, I know, you shouldn't do something just because 'everyone else is doing it', (my mom ta...
Hot off the Press!
My latest Squidoo lenses
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Hello Kitty Goth Punk Lolita
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Hello Kitty has turned a bit dark. She has transformed from the lovable pink kitty into something evil. She now adorns skulls, crossbones, blood, cross necklaces and Lolita corsets. Her face depicts an angry scowl. She ocassionally will be caught str...
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Tinkerbell Goth Punk
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Tinkerbell has always had the most rebellious nature out of all of the female Disney characters. So, her new look is of no surprise to anyone. With her "I am no Princess!" attitude, she definitely fits her goth/punk image quite well. I am uncertain h...
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Hannah Montana Scrapbook Page Ideas
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Does your daughter love Hannah Montana? Did they recently attend a Hannah Montana concert or have a Hannah Montana theme birthday party? If so, a Hananh Montana scrapbook layout and/or album may be just want you are looking for! This page will featu...
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Novelty Rainbow Tie Dye Gifts
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Rainbow Tie Dye: Funky ~ Bright ~ Colorful ~ Pyschodelic ~ Retro ~ Groovy ~ Spiral ~ Sunburst ~ Hippie ~ Peace. If you love the look of Tie-Dye, you will love this page. It features a large selection of tie-dyed gifts including: bedding, car access...
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Mascot Costumes for Children's Theme Parties
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Mascot Costumes would make a wonderful addition to your child's birthday party celebration. Can you imagine the look on their face when their favorite character shows up at their party? These mascot costumes look so much like the real characters tha...
Recommended Lenses to Get you Squidoo'ing Like a Pro!
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The Text/Write Module for Anything!
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I love the Write module. It's really one of my very favorites... you can do anything with it. It is one of the easiest ways to make your lens stand out. It is the primary carrier of your best content, originally written information or stories, and it...
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Do Squidoo: A much requested guide to creating a successful Squidoo lens
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Are you seeking information on how to use Squidoo effectively? Excellent, because this lens is made just for you! Find the answers to: - How do I do ...? - Why won't ... work? - How can I ...? - Why do you ...? - Where is the ...? Finally d...
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I'm a Lensmaster! What now?
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This lens deals with the ins and outs and tricks and tips that will help you make your next (or first) Squidoo Lens. Other information you should read (if you haven't already)... All About Squidoo: What others have had to say about Squidoo, and it...
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How to Make Your First (or Second) Squidoo Lens
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Step-by-step, here's how to get started, answers to clear up some confusion, and all the basics to help you be a GREAT lensmaster right off the bat! There are FAQs, instructions, tips and techniques, common mistakes, some strategies and some technic...
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Basic HTML for Squidoo
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Before you start reading all this, you may want to open Advanced HTML in a new tab, because you'll be wanting to check it out as soon as you've finished this! You can use basic HTML in a few of the lens modules. Mostly used to create hyperlinks (the...
FREE (yes, free!) Squidoo Logos and Avatars for Lensmasters
Quality Designs by Janusz
More Helpful Lenses!
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Pimp My Lens: Great Lensmastering Tips & Tricks Headquarters
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PIMP MY LENS: Great Lensmastering Tips & Tricks! The home for lenses & Info & tips on how to maintain or improve any lens on Squidoo! Why have an average lens when you can have a "Splendiferous" Lens? Content, Layout, Design, Resources and more. Grea...
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Add Borders to Your Lens Photos on Squidoo
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Would you like to jazz up the photos on your lenses? You can use borders on your images to give them much more impact and to help them "pop." You just need to use a little bit of simple HTML magic. I have included easy instructions for a variety of...
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Advanced HTML for Squidoo
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The techniques shown here aren't much more advanced then what's in the Basic HTML tutorial. The code being used isn't any more special. But the results and presentation can appear to be more sophisticated. Hence it being the Advanced HTML tutorial. F...
Free Photos for Your Lenses
with the AllPosters affiliate program
I began using the AllPosters affiliate program last year. This is a great way to get quality images for your lenses and earn money at the same time. You simply have to register with their affiliate program and then search through their large collection of posters to find the perfect images to add to your lenses. As a bonus, if a visitor makes a purchase, you will receive a commission. AllPosters pays a high 20% commission on any sales generated. I have made a few sales already. The AllPosters affiliate program helps to make your lenses look pretty while earning you some cash along the way. Give it a try!
Webmasters Make $$$
*The poster directly below is an example of how you can add photos to your lenses with AllPosters*
Setting Up Your Home Office
Fetching new data from eBay now... please stand by
Recommended Work From Home Resources
How Much Money Are You Looking to Earn?
I realize that everyone wants to earn as much money as they can, however, which of the amounts listed below best describes your current work at home goals?
Work from Home Attire for Dad
Promote Your Lenses
There are literally hundreds of ways you can promote your Squidoo lenses! Here I will cover a few basic things you can do to help get the ball rolling.
*Many of my lenses start receiving traffic from these sites before any search engine traffic is received. This is because a lot of times the link to my lens on these sites ranks on the first or second page of Google! I would strongly recommend taking the time to submit all new lenses.
Those are the basics. Next, I will cover a few more advanced ways to promote your lenses.
Online Diversification
Don't pull all of your eggs in one basket.
It is very important to diversify your online earnings, so that all of your earnings eggs are not in one basket. You just never know what is going to happen. I started doing that about a year ago and now I am glad that I did. A year ago Squidoo accounted for 100% of my online earnings. When I look at my online earnings for June, I noticed that Squidoo accounted for about 20% of my total online income.Some lensmasters start on Squidoo having other websites or blogs and Squidoo becomes an additional source of income or a means to drive traffic to their other sites. While other lensmasters like myself start on Squidoo and it is their first and only source of online income. If you fall into the second group (or even the first group), I would suggest that once you get the foundation set here (which could take a year or so), you should start looking into additional sources of income such as setting up a blog or website and/or writing on other article sites such as Hubpages, Gather, Helium, etc. I would suggest not spreading yourself out too thin, though, by trying too many things at once. Take things slow when building up your online portfolio to see what works for you and what doesn't.
Squidoo is a wonderful platform and as I have said before I will be an active lensmaster as long as they will have me. However, it is very easy to become too comfortable here and the thought of branching out to the unknown becomes a scary prospect. Trust me, I know. But, it can be done.
Hubpages
I decided to try Hubpages since I felt its platform was the most similar to Squidoo. I registered and then it took me about a year to actually get started. I currently have 31 Hubs and I find that the earnings potential over there is very good. Also, Google loves my Hubs, so the traffic is great.The one thing I notice is that in SquidU, many lensmasters say Squidoo is the best, Hubpages stinks. And, in the Hubpages forums, the hubbers say that Hubpages is the best and Squidoo stinks. I believe the basis for those statements goes back to the comfort level I spoke about above. I know that because that is how I felt when I first started creating Hubs. I was like, what is this? It is so different than Squidoo. I don't like it. However, once you get into it, you may find that you like it. My thoughts are why not do both? If you do decide to take a walk over to the other side, you may notice a few familiar faces. ;)
You can view my Hubpages Experience Hub to find out more.
I was recently interviewed for the Payout Chronicles feature on Hubpages. You can read the complete interview here.
Blogging and Social Networking How-To Books
Lens Promotion & Traffic Tips
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Traffic From Image Searches
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Google Images | Traffic and hits to your lens or web-page. Yahoo, MSN, and Google image searches are the best kept secret among experienced webmasters and SEO consultants for acquiring readers to internet locations around the web. Read on to find out...
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GreekGeek's Squidoo Tips: How to Get Your Lens Found
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So, you want to learn how to build successful Squidoo lenses (or any sort of webpage), attract web traffic, and get your Squidoo lens found by Google! This three-part tutorial covers: Learn the Secrets of My Squidoo Success! Part I: Ten Steps to Buil...
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Submit URL: Squidoo Lens Promotion
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On this page, you'll find some links to places you can submit your Squidoo lenses to so that you can get more web traffic to your lens. Google is usually the main source of traffic to my lenses, but to rank well in Google takes other websites linkin...
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Lens Promotion and Traffic Generating Strategies
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One of the most often asked questions in the Squidu Forums is, "How do I get traffic to my lens?" The most obvious way to generate traffic to your lens is to make sure that it is search engine friendly. But that is a topic that deserves it...
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Squidoo Traffic Tricks: (how to get more visitors and a better search engine ranking for your Squidoo lens)
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Do you have some lenses that don't get as many visitors as they deserve? Would you like to learn how to get more people reading your lenses? Wanna know how to make people come back to your lenses again and again? Would you like to rank higher in G...
More Top Earning Lensmasters
There are many other lensmasters that have also achieved great success on Squidoo!
One of these lensmasters has been gracious enough to share her earnings figures with me and I am including this information below. If you would like to be featured in this section, please contact me for details.
Christene has been a lensmaster since February 2007. She has had 4 LOTD's, is a Giant Squid, Squid Angel and most recently a Giant Squid Greeter. Her earnings to date, including the Squidoo Payout and 3rd Party Affiliate sales, have reached $5,435.17!
Join the SquidU Forums
Joining the SquidU forums {otherwise known as the Lensmasters Lounge} is my second biggest tip for new Squidoo lensmasters.
Here is why!
Click here to join the discussions!
Ready to Get Started?
Click here
to make a lens!
Fun Work from Home Merchandise!
Working at Home is Working Women's Dark T-Shirt
"Yes I am actually working when I am at home"
Price: 27.99
No Business like Home Business Jr. Ringer T-Shirt
Price: 19.99
A Few More Helpful Lenses!
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Squidoo Lensranking - How Important It Is And How To Make It Better
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I believe that the lensranking and the LensRank system (algorithm) are very important to all of us - the Squidoo lensmasters - and to the Squidoo Headquarters (HQ) too... For two main reasons - first, the LensRank can make us happy when our lenses a...
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Common Newbie Squidoo Mistakes
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Making a Squidoo lens is easy. Making a good Squidoo lens, well, that's another story. A lot of Squidoo newbies ask veterans to critique their lenses, and most of these lenses are not nearly as good as they could be. (There are exceptions!) Hopefull...
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SquidU's Lensmaster Lounge: Help for New Squids
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Newbies! Need help with Squidoo? Choose "SquidU" from "Squidlinks" up top to visit Squidoo's members discussion forum, aka The Lensmaster Lounge. SquidU contains many kinds of resources to help you learn Squidoo. The Lensmast...
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How to add large photos and audio to your lens
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I've been creating Squidoo lens for the past month. It is frustrating to upload an image and find that it is restricted to a small thumbnail size. I tried contacting Squidoo help but they are too busy to respond. I don't blame them with all the lens...
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50 Awesome Squidoo How-To Lenses From A-Z
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Here's a handy little directory of the best Squidoo How-To Lenses from A-Z. Find out how to: Build a lens, improve your lens, add photos, use HTML, Twitter, Squidcast, sell a lens, make a lensograpy, make a profile, find out what it takes to be a Gi...
Questions? Comments?
Post them here!
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Reply
- RollingLuggage RollingLuggage Nov 9, 2009 @ 4:42 pm
- Wonderful lens & Great information
- Reply
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Reply
- triathlontraining triathlontraining Nov 2, 2009 @ 3:22 pm
- Great info Janet! I hope you stay with us. :)
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Reply
- Aladdins-Cave Aladdins-Cave Oct 31, 2009 @ 12:56 am
- OMG Janet,
No wonder you have a TOP Lens. Very well done.
I have to change a few things now on my BOOK lens.
Thank you very much.
TOP STARS from me.
And if you read this, please comment on my BOOK lens. Thanks
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