Looks pretty sweet.

Pirates love Points. Wonder who will be first to level 80…

Either way,  the contest has given me some great new ideas for templates etc for future lensbuilding, as most of the contest lenses from me were built in a single afternoon using a relatively simple template.

Multiply by a few hundred and we’ll be in business .

I was working on one of my most aggressive entrepreneurial projects ever.

It totally crashed and burned over the last few weeks.

Failing is something I do on a regular basis with various things, but I’m not going to lie, this one stung a bit. Besides the lost money (significant) and time (also significant) pulling out of a project like that definitely knocks your confidence and pride back a few notches.

Another unfortunate consequence is that I’ve also been neglecting my Squidoo happenings and adventures, which I can never get the time back for.

I’ll probably keep licking my wounds for the next few days or so and then I’m going to return to the basics that started making me money online in the first place, building some lenses.

Hopefully there are a few of you still around that check in every once in a while that I can share the adventure with .

Failure sucks, but never failing once is way worse.

The only disaster in this situation would be me giving up trying. Which isn’t going to happen.

The most recent burst of craziness appears to be slowing down microscopically, so I anticipate being able to get back into the quest full swing this coming week.

Stay tuned for some juicy tips and updates, they are on the way!!

I’ve also been hanging out in the Chat Room a lot more lately so feel free to stop by there and Say hi to the crew if you are feeling lonely.

This leaves the Captain with one less laptop and one more paperweight than is desired.

Following some computer shopping this weekend, the quest should be back in full force again.

ARRR!

First, there are a few basic things to get out of the way:

Fully transparent – All of the lenses I make are going to be in the squidoo account here. Feel free to look at them, dissect them, use ideas from them, ask questions about them etc.

Fully accountable - As we progress, I’ll post regular income, traffic, and other updates to illustrate how far along we are. I will probably adapt the current ‘Earnings’ tab to reflect this new information since the current graph and info on there is a bit outdated and not applicable to my new focus.

Multiple Revenue sources – I am reserving the right to use other affiliate networks and programs in additions to the ones that Squidoo natively supports. However, any Amazon revenue will go through Squidoo’s modules (i.e. I won’t shortcut Squidoo’s share to get to the goal faster). I will make a point to try to pick affiliate programs that are easy to get into. If you are planning on following along, I would recommend signing up for Commission Junction and Pepperjam for starters. It’s free and both have a huge array of programs to choose from.

How to get the most out of following the Captain on this dangerous, monster-filled journey of the high Squidoo seas :

Subscribe to the RSS Feed - so you don’t miss any posts that can help you.

Ask Questions – If you don’t understand what I’m doing or why it’s working and you don’t say anything, I can’t help you. If you can’t find me in the chat room, just drop me a PM and i’ll get back to you. With any luck there may be any number of people hanging out in there willing to help out.

Participate – As time allows, I’m planning on holding several chat room webinars on different concepts, tricks, methods etc. These will be free, but I reserve the right to limit the number of attendees to keep things from getting out of control (100 people in a chat room makes any kind of discussion tough).

Actually do stuff – By far and away the people I’ve seen that are the most successful at anything in life, online or off, are those that are willing to actually put in some work. Build some lenses, then build some more. It’s the only way to learn what works and what doesn’t. I can help a bit with best practices, but at the end of the day, it’s up to you.

Next: The Quest Begins

As I’m starting a new phase in my pirate life I’ve also decided to begin a new phase in my Squidoo life as well.

Now, in the past I’ve made several thousand dollars a month from Squidoo but with the demise of Ebay and various other affiliate programs that has fallen off somewhat.

However, I don’t believe for an instant that this means that you can’t make money (and have fun!) with Squidoo. So, I’ve decided to rededicate myself with a new Squidoo quest to prove that anyone can make a couple thousand bucks a month from Squidoo in a relatively short time.

We are going to see how long it takes to go from $0 to $2000 a month from Squidoo lenses.

Not using Squidoo to direct traffic to another site you have but instead using Squidoo lenses to make money directly.

It can be done, I’ve done it.

And we are going to do it again.

And I’m going to show you all how so you can do it too.

Been a naughty pirate with my Squidoo Posting the past month but have been busy moving my first mate and myself over to Asia to continue our pirating adventure.

Am Currently exploring Thailand (absolutely Amazing!) but should be back around trolling the waters of Squidoo by next week.

From what I can see it looks like we have a lot to catch up on and chat about.

Keepin it Piratey from Asia,

CS

Some Fun Facts about my time on Squidoo:

I began using Squidoo right around when there was 100,000 lenses.. Now I think there’s close to a million.

I’ve got somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 lenses. While I’ve slown down my output a bit since moving to Singapore (so much to do and so little time!) I’m hoping to maintain my rate of better than a lens a day for the foreseeable future. It’s too profitable and fun not too!

I’ve had multiple lenses earn over $1,000 in a single month.

I’ve had a nice handful of lenses earn over $100 in a single month.

I’ve got hundreds of lenses that have only ever earned pennies. (and that’s okay! Success with no failure is pretty boring..)

I was an original Giant Squid and Giant Squid 100 member.

I started Squidtop – a Blog network for lensmasters that is building up a nice community. I’ve got plans to make this even more awesome in the near future, if you want to help, let me know!

The Isle of Squid lens directory has grown to include thousands of hand reviewed lenses representing some of the best that Squidoo has to offer. This is another project that I’m hoping to expand in coming months and if you want to help, let me know!

I’ve met some amazing people from not only across the US but across the entire world. Some of you folks are truly amazing!

Posted 1,000+ times in Squid U…

and so much more I can’t think of right now…

Here’s to another 2 years and beyond of Making Money and Having Fun!!!

What’s a bankrupt inbox?

Well, since I am now 12 hours off from most of the continental US there is virtually no chance for me to catch up on emails as speedily as I used to. Waking up every morning with over 100 unread messages has gotten just too overwhelming. My current Gmail inbox is sitting at 1722 unread messages.

How am I going to do it?

I’m going to take every message outside of the 100 most recent and just archive them. If i haven’t gotten to them by now, I probably wont.

Next, I’ll go through the 100 remaining emails and either respond, delete, archive, or take some other kind of action. No skipping around.

After that, whenever an email comes in that doesn’t require immediate action, it doesn’t need to hit my inbox. I’ll continue to refine my filters etc.

The most dangerous part of trying to keep growing in ventures online? Getting bogged down and flooded.

Low Signal to Noise means Low ROI…

Anyone have any insight to add or guides they know of about declaring bankruptcy on your inbox?