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adapt the current ‘Earnings’ tab to reflect this new information since the current graph and info on there is a bit outdated and not applicable to my new focus.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.

I think that this month, the light is showing at the end of the tunnel for several of my projects. The income is becoming more consistent and I’m getting better at reproducing results consistently.

I’ve found the lag time with many projects on squidoo before they begin producing significant results can be up to several months. When you set some big goals and small goals, you begin to climb through the Dip (if it’s worth climbing through).

The most important thing is not to give up on something. Finish a project and move to the next. You may quit after you are already through the Dip otherwise.

Quitting after you are already through the tough part is not what you want to do .

Has anyone else been setting some goals with squidoo? Powering through a Dip, real or imagined? Need some help or encouragement?

From great big dreams all the way down to little bitty chores, I’ve got all kinds of Squidoo goals.

Some Lensmasters want to pay for their kids college.

Some Lensmasters want to give a million to charity.

Still other Lensmasters want to promote their business or share their interests or have fun or read something interesting…

A dream becomes a goal with two things : Purpose and Intent. If you can decide what you want to do and why you want to do it, the how gets a lot easier.

Oh yea, and if you write the goal down on a real, live, piece of paper, you have already done more than 99% of people with ‘goals’ ever will.

What are some of your Squidoo Goals?