Are you a Stay at Home Mom (or Dad) Interested in Earning a Monthly Income?

Total number of Lenses in October: 143

November earnings from the Squidoo Payout and 3rd Party Affiliate Sales made on my lenses:
$2,086.96

October earnings from the Squidoo Payout and 3rd Party Affiliate Sales made on my lenses:
$1,992.48

2011 Year-to-date Squidoo earnings:
$21,853.90

Total Squidoo Earnings to Date:
$55,503.71

Added July 2010: I have affiliate links on my lenses from The Party Works, Zazzle and Makes Parties. These merchants are not members of Commission Junction or Share A Sale. I have separate affiliate accounts with them and I only include affiliate sales made from CJ and SAS in the figures above.

These affiliate programs do not indicate the page where the sale initiated. Since I use links for these programs on Hubpages and on my blogs as well as on my lenses, I cannot determine which sales came from Squidoo.

Affiliate earnings from these websites has picked up this last month or so, therefore, I figured I would mention it here. Earnings made from these sites are additional earnings not reflected in the total Squidoo earnings figures above.

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 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!

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%.

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.

Earnings Note: As of May 31st, 2009, I will no longer be updating the earnings schedules below. However, my monthly earnings recap plus my combined Squidoo earnings to date will still be posted and updated on a monthly basis.

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.

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:

different types of layouts

recommended scrapbooking supplies (personal product recommendations are great!)

recommended scrapbooking websites

how to take photos for scrapbooking

a gallery of some of your favorite layouts

how to create Holiday layouts {create a separate lens for each Holiday}

the best places to shop for low cost scrapbook supplies

digital scrapbooking tips

create an entire lens around your favorite scrapbook tool

and so on!

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!

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*

Buy at AllPosters.com

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.

Cross Promotion: If you have lenses on similar topics, be sure to link them together via text links or the featured lens module.

Lensroll.com. Lensroll.com is Digg for your lenses. Lenses that are submitted can be dugg by other lensmasters and you can also leave comments.

Submit your lenses to Directories:
Squidig
Isle of Squid.
Squidoo KIngdom
Squid Directory

Flickr is another great traffic source. Here is what I do. I upload photos of my kids birthday parties and other photos related to my lenses to Flickr. I then include a link to my lenses in the photo descriptions. See here. Many people visit my lenses via these links. Give it a try!

Social Bookmarking. Create incoming links through Web 2.0 sites. Find out how!

Set up a blog. After procastinating for over a year I finally set up my own blog in March 2008. I now have three niche blogs. The traffic and earnings are increasing, so I am glad I took the leap.

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.

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.

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 $21,163.90 (earnings figure does not include charitable contributions)

Joining the SquidU forums {otherwise known as the Lensmasters Lounge} is my second biggest tip for new Squidoo lensmasters.
Here is why!

you can introduce yourself to the Squidoo Community

have your lenses critiqued by experienced lensmasters

ask questions...get answers!

be kept up-to-date with the latest happenings behind the scenes at Squidoo HQ

interact with Squidoo's big cheeses (even Seth pops in every once in awhile!)

learn some very valuable tricks of the trade that can help you make your lenses even better

share lenses you like with other lensmasters

find new groups to submit your lenses to

chit-chat about just about anything!

make friends...have fun!

Click here to join the discussions!