Blogging & Squidooing

Well it's the last days of April which means that it's the last days of the A-Z Blogging Challenge that I have been undertaking on two of my other blogs - All Eighties, All the Time & Unique and Funky Gifts.   I must say that the challenge has been fun and challenging (as a challenge is supposed to be by definition).   It has taught me something however - I can do it!

I have managed to post a minimum of 12 blog posts per week for a month.   In that month I've spent 2 weeks overseas with restricted access to a very slow internet connection, had to survive 9 days of school holidays and a 5 day long weekend with the whole family at home wanting my time.   If I can do that I know I can at least make 10 blog posts a week, every week :D

Why is blogging so important?   One word - backlinks!

Now there are a couple of different ways to blog and it's easy to get confused by them.   Many people blog for traffic hoping that people will click on adsense or purchase products listed, other people just blog for backlinks.   For Squidoo purposes you don't have to garner 100s of followers and thousands of hits every day because what you're after is backlinks - of course if you can achieve all of these things then that's even better.

A lot of people get discouraged when blogging because they don't get feedback and wonder if it's worth it.   One of my blogs has never received a comment, but it's given me a number of backlinks, while another blog has made sales, I think both of these blogs are successes because I established them for different reasons.

Niche blogs or general blogs is a question that a lot of people have and if you only have time to write one blog and you cover a number of different subjects on Squidoo as well as other sites you may belong to then stick to a general blog.   For each blog post focus on one thing and make sure that you write the post with seo in mind and then add the link to your lens/article/zazzle product etc.   This will ensure that you get a good backlink.

If you're after a blog that sales then you definitely need to go niche as you would with lenses, but to get backlinks for your Squidoo lenses (and whatever else you do online) then general is absolutely fine.

Succeeding With Props

Large companies have long known the importance of 'props' to help their employees meet targets/company expectations and the biggest prop that seems to be used is Motivational Posters.   If you've worked in a bigger company then you're bound to have had posters on the wall encouraging you to reach for your goals.

My first awareness of motivational posters in the workplace came when I worked at what was at that stage a family business.   There were 3 employees at that time (the company did get bigger and the spin off company can be seen nationally) and the first motivational poster appeared complete with it's own catch-phrase.   The poster was one that said TEAM and I'm sure you all know what the acronym for that (and our work's new catch-phrase) is - Together Everyone Achieves More.

Years later and nearly every where I've worked has had some form of motivational poster up to 'encourage' us all to achieve.   Now if big multi-national companies, such as the bank I worked for a few years ago, are using posters to motivate employees then I'm sure they've seen research that backs the theory up.    Why do I mention this - you can use it to achieve success with Squidoo.

Let's face it when you're trying to get an income from home you can easily get side tracked, despondent and very de-motivated.   If you want to succeed then you need to stay on track.   Why not steal ideas from big corporations and apply them to your home.   Pop a motivational poster up near the computer with a power word that works for you whether it's Determination, Believe, Courage - you'll know which one will help you the most.

Now you may not need a motivational poster, it depends on what you're trying to achieve from Squidoo.   Years ago when I was first married I had a little picture of a house (just a generic house that was on a piece of junk mail) that I had cut out and stuck on the fridge.   My dream was to have my own house, I wanted to be reminded of that regularly so I popped it onto the fridge as it was one of the first places I looked when I got up.   When the opportunity came to job share a second job with my hubby (between our different working hours we could manage it, with our other commitments we couldn't have done it as individuals) I took it because I was still thinking of that house.    We saved the deposit by working 7 days and on days when I felt tired I would look at that picture and I knew that it was worth it.   Nine months later we're in our new home and it was worth it.

If your dream is to stay home so that you can be a stay at home parent then pop up a photo of your children. If you want to travel and your Squidoo earnings is needed to pay for airfares - go to the travel agent and get a picture of where you want to visit next and pop it up near the computer.

Incentives or props will help you to do the 'boring bits' of Squidooing so that you can earn money.

The most under-rated 'prop' is definitely a to do list.   On days when I have a to do list I always achieve a lot more than on days when I don't.   Writing down what you want to achieve the night before or first thing in the morning is a great idea (I find it helps me more if I write mine the night before, but whatever works best for you).   Then you need to stick to your list, now this is another place where I will (some days) get sidetracked so in order to stop that from happening write things like visiting a forum you like or checking emails, having a coffee etc on your list as rewards for completing certain items on your list.

What prop will you be using to help you succeed?