New Tools For Me - Amplify & More Blogs!

Well I'm back in Australia and I've finished the A-Z Blogging Challenge on two of my other blogs so it's back to trying to get on track with earning money.   How are you all going with your targets for your income?

I have to say that my targets are not co-operating as they should, not because of Squidoo as much as my other online income.   My Google income was really building via my Hubpages, but it has taken something of a nose dive since the Panda Update.

Squidoo is still going well, although I haven't got as far with updating as I probably should have by now I really don't know where this year has got to - we're in May already!   It's time to revise what I need to do and get more organized again as I've been flitting from one thing to another this week and not really making the most of my time.

I did discover a lens by Word Custard called How To Use Amplify - I have ended up joining Amplify and I think it's a great tool to use, because it's so easy.    I'm not sure if I would've found it so easy had it not been for the great step by step instructions in the lens though.   This is great to promote any site you're using and I've been using it on Squidoo, Hubpages, Zazzle and even some blog posts.   Check out the lens first and then join up.

I've also finally looked at Posterous which I joined when Correen (clouda9) first mentioned it in July 2010.   There are so many sites that it really is impossible to keep track of everything :(   I have heard great things about this site, however, across a number of different sites so I decided to start using it - Lou16's Posterous - I'm basically just linking new things to it across all of my different endeavors as a way to build backlinks.   It's not very exciting, but it does provide you an insight into what I'm up to (if you're interested) as I do like to keep this site to Squidoo and not talk (too much) about other places where I am earning money.

If you Zazzle as well as Squidoo you may be interested in another site of mine - I've started up a Zazzle blog which also includes links to some of my Zazzle lenses.   Again this is still new so I'm not sure how it will evolve, but if you'd like to check it out it's Lou165 on Zazzle.

So there you have it, not alot of Squidoo tips today, but I did want to touch base with everyone and let you know what I've been doing

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.