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.

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.

This week, we are in the process of upgrading to a full dedicated server setup as well as consolidating several hosting accounts into one in order to better manage our growth.

While this is quite exciting and a sign that things are going well, I have been told that there may be a few hours of downtime on our sites over the next few days. As such, if you can’t access one of The Captain’s sites take the famous words of Douglas Adams into account – ‘ DONT PANIC ‘ .

In the meantime I’ll get to work on a ‘real’ post for you guys, I’m a bit overdue.

Which means that I’ll still probably be found in the Chat room at the same times (morning and evening) as I have been in the past.

Real life kinda kicked my butt the past few months but I’ve resolved to get geared back up online while learning lots of stuff at my new position in Singapore at the same time.

There will probably be a website coming in the near future that will cover a lot of my crazy Singaporean adventures, I’ll post the address when I have that up and running. In the meantime, a ton has been happening around SquidLand and it’s time to get our butts in gear and start making some bucks! (Singapore, while very cool, is also incredibly expensive )

1. eBay’s reporting is still slow.
2. when eBay (or my generator or whatever) asks for your ‘Campaign ID’ , that is the 10-digit number of the campaign, not the name of the campaign that you gave it.
3. Currently, you HAVE to add some kind of tracking or the RSS feed won’t work. That’s not my doing, that’s straight from eBay.

4. The minimum payout for the eBay program is only $5, which is probably a smart move by eBay since it will probably draw a lot of smaller sellers to them.
5. EPN payouts to paypal do not have any fees associated with them.

I’m still working on some new tricks and such, but let me know how the new feed generator is working for you!

For the month of April, all the links for both Commission Junction and eBay will be live. All the links you have switched over to the new ebay program will earn an extra 5%! At the end of the month, your CJ links all walk the plank.

I’m working on modifying my current Ebay RSS Feed Generator. I will have it fully updated to the new eBay RSS feeds hopefully tonight or tomorrow. Ebay has now included the ability to add SID codes to RSS feeds which is a huge step forward. Due to this development, I’m considering releasing my feed generator as just an easier and faster way to generate eBay Links.

Go apply for the new program at ebaypartnernetwork.com

If I release the feed generator for free would people use it?

-The Captain

I haven’t published that trick anywhere else, so it’s worth checking out. PotPieGirl runs a great marketing and SEO blog and talks a lot about actual implementation of theories you hear so much about.

Thanks for the chance to guest post PotPie Girl! If anyone else would like me to guest post, please feel free to contact me. It was a lot of fun and I’d definitely do guest posting again.

-The Captain

The full interview is about 30 minutes long and can be found here.

This was my first interview about Squidoo and it was a lot of fun. In fact, I’m even contemplating producing a weekly Squidoo Radio Show / Conference call.. what do you guys think of that?

The New Training Center has all the videos and the Free Lens Publishing checklist as always, but I’ve been working on some new goodies that are also included.

Commission Junction Training is Here!

I have Completed my Commission Junction Training Video Series. The 5-part Series walks you from a basic overview of the CJ interface all the way through finding, applying for, and inserting advertisers into your Squidoo Lenses (or anywhere else you want to!) . From there I offer in depth discussion about how to set up your reporting, which is probably one of the most useful and under-utilized aspects in all of CJ.

Power Squidoo Workbooks and Guides�

In Addition, I’ve compiled 3 separate workbooks and guides to help you through building, tracking and marketing your Lenses.

• Pro Lensmaster Workbook -� Walks you step-by-step through the lens research and design process, teaching you how to think about each lens as you attack it. A fantastic practical resource that I use myself.
• Lens Tune-Up Guide – Squidoo Lenses perform best when they are well maintained. This nifty guide will not only walk you through some recommended maintenance items, but will also help you to keep track of what lenses you have performed maintenance on.
• Special Report: Article Marketing on Squidoo – This Special Report was put together with the assistance of Remarkable Communication and is absolutely fantastic. It covers the ins and outs of writing articles aimed at building links and driving traffic onto your lens like an avalanche. A can’t miss read.

Squidoo Power User Super-Tools�

CJ-eBay Affiliate RSS Feed Generator - This tools is huge. I almost kept it to myself instead of including it into the training center. It’s that good. What are the two major beefs against creating your very own RSS feeds of eBay items and using them in your lenses instead of the eBay module?

1. �It’s difficult and time consuming to create the feeds. – Every time I try to use Ebay to create an RSS feed with my affiliate link embedded in the listings, it seems to take FOREVER. I was sick of it.
2. You can’t track individual feeds. - No tool for eBay affiliates allows you to embed specific tracking codes into each feed. So, you don’t know where your sales are coming from if you have multiple feeds across your lenses and other sites as well.

Those Problems are no longer an issue. I’ve developed a new tool that lets you make eBay Affiliate RSS feeds in seconds, not minutes or hours. I was able to retro-fit over 50 of my lenses with these new feeds in a little over an hour! It’s just that fast. In addition, you can add tracking code so you know exactly where your converting traffic is coming from. This is huge for determining which lenses to focus on sending traffic to (especially when you get up near the 300 lens mark and there are only so many hours in the day..)

Along with all this new stuff, I’ve got two packages that combine many or all of these super sweet tools and guides:

Commission Junction Gold Training
Commission Junction Platinum Training

Each week, I’m planning on adding at least one new feature, guide, or tool for all of you to use.� There is going to be a mix between super useful and informative free stuff as well as some products that are so powerful I just can’t give them away.

Of course, I put my full reputation behind the training, education, and tools on the site because I feel that it really is that good. If you don’t like it or find it useful, I’ll even give you a refund in the first 30 days. The only thing I ask is for a little feedback on why you didn’t like the item or couldn’t use it (This way I can learn as well!)

Take a look at the new Training Center and let me know what you think!

What’s ‘Do Follow’?

That means that the URL you leave with your name when you leave a comment will get a little bit of link juice when google comes by and follows that link. Most blogs build on WordPress (like this one) automatically have google stay away from comment links. Being the (mostly) nice pirate that I am, I have decided to lift this restriction.

A few guidlines to consider when commenting:
These have always been in effect, I’m just voicing them.

• I do see the comments before they appear, so if you wouldn’t let someone post that comment on your site, should I? I’m referring to poor grammar and Spammy link-heavy comments, not those that contradict me. In fact, I like posting dissenting opinions, it helps spark good conversation.
• �As long as it’s not ‘porn or pills’ you can link to whatever you want in the ‘URL’ field of the comment. However, I do ask that links in the body of the comment at least be remotely relevant to what we are talking about.
• No Ninja’s allowed.

So do-follow your little hearts out mateys, it’s Monday!

-The Captain