February 27th, 2009 by lou16
Well things got busy in the real world for a little while and I got sidetracked from this blog. I did however manage to finish all of my St Patrick’s Day lenses (only one day later than planned!).
I’ve been husband-less for a week now (he’s due back in 4 more days) and I had high hopes for getting heaps of writing done – articles (no!), lenses (not as many as planned) and promoting (oops!) My daughter decided to get sick and then I got sick and then I was cranky because our new neighbour’s dogs were barking from 11.30pm until at least 1.45am and they ignored them! The whole next day was a wipe out for me as I couldn’t think straight and I couldn’t go back to bed after droppping my dd at school because I had appointments to keep – aagghhh!
Anyway this week I’ve been busy creating some music lenses. My first one was on Lady GaGa, I’d heard the songs, but hadn’t realized who was singing it until my daughter asked me to find her video on Youtube that’s when I realized that I actually loved all of her songs. The same cannot be said of her fashion sense however!
This lens has actually caused me some excitement as at it’s first lensranking it went straight into Tier 2, the next day with only 10 visits it went higher up, although still in Tier 2. I really thought I would need more traffic to sustain it, but when I looked at my lens I discovered something interesting – more people had clicked on the links than had visited my lens. Obviously this is another part of the elusive equation.
Today Google have sent a some visitors to the site and I have climbed to the top part of Tier 2……maybe, just maybe we can get into Tier 1 by tomorrow (Mar 1st) and stay there all month!
The other two music lenses are back to the 80s for me and I finished them both last night. No promotion yet so they are just faltering about outside of paying tiers, but I’ll soon change that. I know Bruce Springsteen fans will hate me saying this (because it’s not Nebraska or Born to Run or whatever), but I think his best ever album was Born in the U.S.A. I remember when this album came out and I thrashed it on vinyl, I would play it in the dining room (where I was supposed to be studying at the table!) and sing (or attempt to) really loudly along with him.
When I was getting the video links for Bruce’s lens I got Every Rose has it’s Thorn stuck in my head and after finding the video and listening it somehow ended up on another lens! Power Ballads! I actually loved power ballads, I’ve just been told that adding a Youtube playlist to a showcase can be really good so I should do that today.
Although I haven’t made as many lenses as I would’ve liked or even continued with merging some of my lyric lenses together I have done a few things on Squidoo. I have updated so many of my lenses and I’m ashamed to say that I actually found two that said New Table of Contents – What on earth was I thinking!!!
I’ll try not to leave it so long between posts next time (the 2009 resolution is slipping!!) and I hope you’re all hitting your individual targets.
Tags: born in the usa, bruce springsteen, lady gaga, power ballads, squidoo lenses, squidoo lensrank, st patricks day
Posted in 80s music, lady gaga, squidoo, st patricks day | 2 Comments »
February 10th, 2009 by lou16
Well after yesterday’s posting about being google slapped I am completely baffled as to what is going on. It was my understanding that when Google ‘turned’ it took forever to recover, but not for me. Today my mocktails lens is back to it’s number 6 position on google, although traffic is still down. Maybe a few hundred people have decided not to search for mocktails any more, but why my lens would disappear and then reappear within 24 hours is beyond me!!
I am not going to complain though as my ranking is also up slightly on yesterday and it was payday – Yippee!!
January’s pay was awful, but I was happy to see that this one was my highest yet so I’m getting back on track. I am gradually going through all of my lenses to make sure they are optimised for both content and monetization (??) and I am disgusted with some of my earlier lenses so I can see I am going to be very busy.
Does anyone have lyric lenses here and are you worried about the discussions on Squidu at the moment? I have just deleted two of mine and have backed up the info on most of the rest of them while my internal debate continues. I think I will be deleting a further 23 lenses, once I have updated related lenses with the info that is currently on them. 17 are waiting for an email which will make the decision for me…………..I hadn’t realized how many lyric lenses I had! My target for 150 lenses before Mar 31st may have to be revised.
Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »
February 9th, 2009 by lou16
I’ve heard of this mysterious Google Slap and wondered if it was real or merely the stuff of online urban legend. I can confirm to you all that the Google Slap does in fact happen.
How can I be so sure? Well I’ve been Google Slapped! I was not dreaming, it was not a figment of my imagination, stats do not lie……..well unless you believe Benjamin Disraeli (there are three kinds of lies – lies, damn lies and statistics). Alcohol? There was no alcolohol, it was my Mocktails lens that was slapped!
My mocktails lens had been very slowly slipping in rank (still in tier 1 and still with lots of traffic)so I was gently nudging it along and it was re-climbing……………..now I’m suddenly down approx 400 visits – NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
Oh well, that’s my winge for the day………..on with some work. I’ve been too busy with offline things lately so I need to catch up on squidooing and article writing.
Tags: google slap, mocktails, squidoo
Posted in mocktails, squidoo | 4 Comments »
February 5th, 2009 by lou16
With Valentine’s Day approaching I heard of a tragic end to a long love affair last month. Frank and Eileen Kemp died within 48 hours of each other. Eileen was in Bournemouth hospital undergoing surgery when husband Frank was brought in having suffered a heart attack. He unfortunately didn’t make it and friends and family say that when Eileen was told she died of a broken heart. The couple had been together for around 40 years.
You hear about stories like this quite often – a spouse dies and their partner is dead not long after. My husband’s parents both died within a year of each other and although it’s hard on the family when that happens it’s reassuring to know they’re not alone if there is an afterlife……………
Why did Frank & Eileen’s story make the papers? They have two famous sons – Gary and Martin Kemp. Gary & Martin started off as child actors before finding international stardom in the 80s pop group Spandau Ballet.
I had been working on lenses about both of them for some time and they have been languishing in WIP. Hearing of this tragedy (and they are both so close to their parents it would’ve been devastating) spurred me into action and today I finished Martin Kemp’s lens. Now I have to work on Garys!
Spandau Ballet werw huge in the UK and really spearheaded the New Romantic genre of music. I loved them, Martin was….oh just gorgeous with that dimpled chin and cheeky smile. I also fancied the Spandau Ballet drummer – John Keeble (although not when he went through the bleached hair look!). Which just goes to show how varied my tastes can be!
Tags: 80s music, gary kemp, kemp family tragedy, martin kemp, new romantics, spandau ballet
Posted in 80s music, Uncategorized, new romantics, spandau ballet, squidoo | 3 Comments »
February 3rd, 2009 by lou16
Welcome to my first blog on squidtop. I’m looking forward to blogging about squidoo as it has become a bit of an addiction! Anyway if you want to know more about me you can check out my lensography.
I have just been checking out my backlinks thanks to Fluff’s Squidutils and as always I got a few surprizes. Is anyone else ever amazed at some of the sites that link to them? I found a backlink from the Washington Post today. Maybe I’m just too green, but I get very excited when I realize some places on the other side of the world have not only found my content, but have linked to me!
I also write for a couple of other sites, one of them (Helium) has seen some of my articles get linked to the Daily Mail (UK paper that my dad used to read!!) and the NHS. Where have you found your links that have given you a thrill?
Another question…………how many backlinks are you happy to have on your lenses? I still consider myself a newbie at marketing myself on line and I’m happy if my lenses have one!!!
Tags: backlinks, helium, lou16, squidoo
Posted in Uncategorized, squidoo | 1 Comment »