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!!!

I haven’t forgotten about all of my Roving Band out there and have some great tips I’ve been cooking up for you all. However, it looks like a regular source of power might not be back for another few days yet so everyone hang on and the Captain will be back soon with a vengeance to make some more money and do some awesome Piratey things!

First,  a shameless plug. I Answered a question over on the Giant Squid mentor Blog by a fantastic new lensmaster (JigsawForte) on how to expand a niche of lenses to reach a wider audience. If you are a webcomic fan, make sure and check out Jigsaw’s webcomic (It’s the Deadliest one around) at Last Resort.

SquidUber has a cool post on how someone contacted him through one of his lenses to write a paid review! Pretty Cool!

The Squidoo – Ebay Lensbuilding Challenge is in Full Swing! I’ve got 9 lenses done so far with one to go. Much Squid fame and glory awaits the winner, so if you haven’t started yet get to it! There’s still plenty of time to get your lenses done (You’ve got all the rest of this week plus the weekend!).

If you have a squidoo blog, let me know so I can swing by and check it out! I love seeing new lensmasters blogs. If not, why not head over to Squidtop and set up a squidoo blog? The community over there is growing quite nicely and it’s a blast to drop in on other Lensmasters to see what they are doing.

If you would like to get Captain Squid Updates for free in your inbox or RSS reader, snag my RSS feed.

I was discussing different challenges from Squidoo with a few people in the Chat Room today. Between all the people talking there were hundreds and hundreds of lenses that we had all built. Some of the things we were talking about:

• a giant stream of traffic is a great measure of success (obviously) but it doesn’t necessarily make you a ton of money. Some lenses get a lot of lookers and no buyers. While this is a problem I would like to have with more lenses, it’s still annoying when you are getting several hundred (or thousand) hits a week with no money ringing up on your Dashboard or in your CJ or Amazon accounts.
• A lot of lenses are not focused or optimized enough for your target audience. For example, a lens on ringtones is competing with an insane amount of sites, many of which are run by people full time trying to climb in the rankings.
• On the other side, if a lens is too focused your potential pool of visitors may be too small to really earn you any money or fame. I think I’ve made this mistake in the past.
• Getting ego-centric about your lens can hurt it. ‘My lens is the best resource out there, why don’t people just find me?’. Getting the word out about your lens can be tough (In fact, it’s probably the hardest part) but if you don’t tell people about it, how can you get all that fame and recognition you deserve?
• Content is in the eye of the beholder. A lot of times you can create a lot of value by combining information from a lot of sources. However, you still need that twist to get people to visit your lens..

What does this all mean? Squidoo is not a magic bullet. I want to emphasize that. There are a lot of people that say you can’t make money with Squidoo. I think that those are the same people that said you can’t make money with eBay… At the same time, building a portfolio of lenses that rakes in the cash does take time, trial and error, and creativity (like most things in life).

To take a page out of Seth’s Book The Dip, I think there are a lot of ‘mini-dips’ in Squidoo. Making that first sale, making your first $10, $100, $1,000 in a month. At each of these levels, more and more people quit because what they are trying isn’t working so they figure nothing can work. And you know what? Time and time I see the lensmasters that power through those dips make more and more money. By pushing the boundaries of what is possible, you can teach yourself a lot about business, life, and getting ahead.

My current Dip? Squidoo doesn’t currently have a way that makes it exactly easy to manage 270 lenses in one place. Does that mean I’m going to stop building lenses until HQ can build one? umm…no.

What’s your current Dip with Squidoo? What ‘Dips’ have you had in the past?

I am a registered Giant Squid at Squidoo. I’ve built my Squidoo mastery into over a $500 a month side business in less than 90 days. Want to know how I did it so hard and so fast? Stay Tuned to the Captain Squid…..

What is this site for?

Every Day I will publish a FREE Squidoo Tip of the Day. These are the methods I used to create my own budding Squid Empire of the High Seas. There is no trickery, spam, or illicit tactics involved in what I teach. These tips are easy to understand, easy to implement, and will help you to either begin or increase your squidoo earnings starting right now!

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That’s all for now…… but there’s plenty more to come!