Delving Into Squidoo

Well, after having heard about Squidoo for a long time (well, read about it, actually), I’ve decided to give it an honest go. I love to write, and I think I can capitalize on my love of making lists and writing how-to articles. If nothing else, it should be fun, and I’ll be able to flex my literary muscles a bit.

Here’s the story: I’m a college student. Normally, that equates to “broke”, but I work full-time on top of going to classes every night, so money hasn’t been a problem. However, I’m going to be attending a four-year school this coming fall, and I won’t be able to work full-time any longer. I’ve done the math: without some major loans and two jobs, I’m simply not going to be able to afford school.

In doing research on ways to earn money using the computer, I came across Squidoo. It seemed simple: write some articles on whatever topic pleases you, then get the word out about said articles so that people will come to your pages and buy products you advertise that relate to your article topics. People seem to be able to make quite a bit of money on this. I don’t expect that I’ll ever be one of the few who can rake in $500 a day… but if I’m persistent in writing these articles (three or four a week until school starts), I can probably pull down a good $50 to $100 a month, if I’m lucky. And the nice thing is that I wouldn’t have to keep redoing it: once I’m done with an article, it’s out there, and the longer it’s out there, the more earning potential it gains. I have the skills to make websites or MySpace profiles for people, but that’s work that I won’t have time to do.

So my hope is that this Squidoo project will bring in a little extra spending money… even if it’s only a few bucks a week. Anything is better than nothing, right? And as I said earlier, it’ll give me a chance to enjoy writing what I want to write, before I have to switch my focus back to writing boring essays for class.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

Second Lens Complete

My second lens was originally going to be a list of romantic ideas with which to surprise your sweetheart on Valentine’s Day, but I needed a break from the holiday writing… so instead I wrote this:

» The 10 Worst Things About “Twilight”

It was a lot of fun to write. I harbor a lot of contempt for the talentless Stephenie Meyer and for her gaggle of thousands of mindless fans who worship this piece of absolute drivel. It was pleasing to be able to get my thoughts on this book out there in a more public arena. What’d be even nicer is if a few of said mindless fans read this and actually rethought their absurd position on whether Meyer is “one of the greatest authors of our time”.

Created First Lens

I have officially created my first lens:

» Top 10 New Year’s Resolutions

Pretty self-explanatory from reading the title. I listed off the ten resolutions that I’ve seen made most often among my family and friends, and I explained why they’re good resolutions for anyone to have; finally, I included links to sites that would help them hit the ground running with their chosen resolution (along with some Amazon widgets to products that I honestly do believe would be beneficial). The whole lens took me 6+ hours to complete, but it was worth it! I think it’s pretty nice-looking, and I have enough confidence in my writing skills to say that it’s easy to read and easier to follow.

I finished it yesterday just in time for today (New Year’s Eve). The minute I was certain I was 100% complete, I submitted it to the SquidU forums for critiques. Only two people looked at it, but they both told me that they thought it was very well done, especially for a first lens. This morning, I started getting links out to places like LensRoll and Squidom. And, of course, I started this blog to get even more linkbacks to my lenses.

Unfortunately, Squidoo hasn’t looked at the lens yet, so it’s not officially ranked or public. This worries me, as today is New Year’s Eve, and after tomorrow, this lens will very quickly become obsolete for nearly an entire year.

Oh, well. At least I can comfort myself with the thought that all I have to do next year is change the “2009″s to “2010″s and republish the thing, and it’ll be ready to go for next year’s New Year. And at least I have one lens out there. Only a couple hundred more to go before I can feel okay “hanging up my Squidoo hat” and sitting back to allow Squidoo to do its magic on my wallet (hopefully)!