Squid-Goals for the New Year

I hope you had a wonderful holiday season both personally and on Squidoo!  It's always good to see those holiday sales.  And yes, it's always sad to see them dwindle away.

Don't worry.  Instead, get started updating lenses for the new year.  People will be making resolutions: Do you have lenses to inspire them?  Weight loss and fitness are two very hot topics right now, but I saw Valentine's Day candy in Walmart yesterday.  Yes, there's another holiday coming up soon.  Are your lenses ready?  Look ahead to spring with its warmer weather and busy gardening season.  And then there's Easter, which is late this year so April should be a great month for sales.

There's no rest for the weary lensmaster!  Have you set your goals for the upcoming year?  We'll be talking about goals on RocketSquids in the upcoming week.  If  you're new to Squidoo and have fewer than 25 lenses, why not join us?  Our goal is to teach and inspire you. I'd love to see you there!

Whatever your goals and plans for the upcoming year, here's to a happy and prosperous 2014!

February Greetings & Goal Review Time

Happy February everyone! 

I hope Punxsutawney Phil's forecast holds true for all of us and we have a nice, early Spring.  It's a beautiful day here today, nice and sunny with temps that aren't bad for February.  I don't mind winter when it looks this nice!

I just reviewed the list of goals that I wrote at the end of December.  Some are going well, but I'm behind on others and need to make some adjustments this month as well as do some catching up.  How about you?  Have you reviewed your goals for the month and year?  It's a good time to measure progress and re-focus if necessary.  I'd love to hear how others are doing.

If you have lenses that need some love, feel free to post them on my Facebook page. There's a thread started for helping WIP lenses get out of the basement so add yours anytime then visit someone else's to pay the love forward this month.

Time to update Spring lenses, too, and Squidoo has a pretty green theme for Gift Guide lenses categorized for St. Patrick's Day and Easter.

So, what's new with you this fine February?  Care to share?

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Wow! It's Wednesday!

Just realized that it's Wednesday, halfway through the week already.  Wow, time flies when I'm having fun!

It's also the 16th of January, already halfway through the first month of the new year.  I started the year feeling very "up" and ambitious, ready to set goals and meet them head-on.  So, I just pulled up the notepad file I made titled "goal notes" to see how I'm doing.  (To be honest, I was a little bit afraid to look.)

Not bad, really.  A few extra-strong points and one or two weak ones, but overall not looking bad for 50 percent of the way through the month and 4 percent through the year.  I see how I need to adjust my focus and I'll be working on that.  Definitely see that if I'm going to finish them, I need to spend more time dispersing those lenses that have fallen so low in lensrank.  (Yep, one of those weak points.)

It really does pay to assess goals periodically.  Have you looked at yours lately?  How are you doing?

New Year's Resolution: Re-Balance the Scale

It's really hard to believe that Christmas is just a few days away. It's been a nice holiday sales season and I'm not looking forward to watching the volume of Squidoo visits and sales start dropping like Santa's tired elves on December 26th.

I do have a couple of lenses that I'm counting on for after-Christmas shoppers, though, then there's the New Year's resolutions crowd and I'm hoping to profit from that as well. Valentine's Day will be next. After that, Easter will be here before we know it, then summer, then we'll start preparing for Christmas all over again. Say it with me: Time flies when you're having fun!

This year has been different for our family. We spent the first few months building a new house and the next several months getting it furnished and settling in. With all that we've had going on for the last year and a half, my concentration has been on family. And you know what? It's been nice! But now it's time to get back to business.

For me, it's time to re-balance the priority scale. Family will always be first, but I'm looking forward to having some time freed up again to dedicate to the online things that I love. Over the next several days I'll be reassessing, setting goals, and making lists and plans for 2013. It's been a very, very good year, but it's time to move on. I can hardly wait!

How about you? Have you made any New Year's resolutions? Feel free to share your thoughts and goals.

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What Are Your Squidoo Goals for February?

Can you believe the first month of the year is gone already?  Around here we've been having spring-like weather so it seems that we should have turned the calendar to April rather than February!  Be that as it may, now is the time to firm up some February goals.

Traffic to my lenses has picked up recently, partly due to Valentine's Day shoppers.  It's time to make some quick updates to my Valentine's lenses to take advantage of the buyers who may visit during the coming week to 10 days or so.

Additionally, it's time to look ahead to the next few buying occasions and do some lensmaking and updating with those in mind.  St. Patrick's Day, Easter, and Mother's Day are the next few special occasions on the calendar and one of my goals this month will be to see what I have to do to freshen lenses up for those holidays. 

Of course I always advice people to review their profiles, bio, and featured lenses at the beginning of the month.  I recently updated my bio and I'll be changing featured lenses soon since interest in Valentine's Day topics will drop off.  I'm thinking Spring!

How about you.  Any Squidoo goals for February that you'd like to share?

Image by YesterdayCafe on Zazzle

Looking Ahead: Goal-Setting for the New Year

Oh, my, another year has come and (almost) gone.  It's time to evaluate the goals you set this time last year and try again to come up with a new set of goals for 2012.

Actually, there's more to it than that.  While goal setting is important, reviewing progress and adjusting plans at various points throughout the year is even more important.

To be honest, I'm not very good at long-term goal setting.  "Life" changes things sometimes in the blink of an eye (I know that all too well), so I don't like to set myself up for failure right from the start.  Obviously I, too, need to not only set yearly goals and make plans, I need to concentrate on short-term goals and set aside time to adjust as necessary on a regular basis.

There are many goal-setting tools available and I'm sure I have at least two or three "how to set goals" e-books on my hard drive that I've purchased or downloaded for free with the greatest of intentions.  But I'll admit that I am easily overwhelmed when it comes to tackling the job of reading the books and putting plans behind the goals and action behind the plans.  So, this year what I intend to do (good intentions as usual, but I think this will work for me) is to simply write monthly goals in the front of a stenographer's notebook (the size suits me), record plans for the month, and then write a daily to-do list each night or early morning.  I've been doing the daily lists for the past few weeks and that method is working well for me.

Have you started planning and setting goals for 2012?  How do you do it?  I'd love if you'd share your methods and favorite resources here.  Perhaps the way you plan will ring true with someone who reads your comment, someone like me who struggles in this area.  So please, leave a comment below.  Your suggestions could really help someone have a truly productive new year!

Discouraged With Your Progress on Squidoo?

If you get discouraged with your progress on Squidoo (we all do sometimes, don't we?) read this advice which I offered to a new lensmaster today on the SquidU forum.  (It did me good to read it after I wrote it.  I hope it helps you, too.)

Set daily goals as well as long-term goals. Write down what you will do each day and when you finish one thing, draw a line through it. Seeing a list with completed tasks each evening is very encouraging.

Devote a portion of your day to Squidoo education, some to promotion and social networking, and some to updating old or making new lenses.

Pace yourself and focus, focus, focus and I think you'll find yourself feeling encouraged more than discouraged with your progress on Squidoo.

Merry Christmas 2010

It's late in the day, Christmas day 2010.  I hope you had a wonderful holiday with family and friends.  As for me, I'm just happy to be around again this year to celebrate the coming of our Lord.  Life is fragile and I cherish every day.

I talked a little about goals in a previous post and that subject has continued in the front of my mind.  I'm developing a plan to help mentor new lensmasters in the coming year and I'll talk more about that here in a few days.  If you're new on Squidoo or know someone who is, someone who might appreciate a little extra help getting started, be sure and check back soon to see how you or they can get involved.  Better yet, subscribe to our updates using one of the links to the right.

In the meantime, have another slice of pumpkin pie then snuggle in front of the fireplace with your sweetie and enjoy one more holiday movie.  Make the moment last a little bit longer before getting back to business.

I hope Santa brought you everything you asked for!  See you soon back on Squidoo.

Two Thousand Squidoo Goals for 2011

Someone earned $2000 this payout on Squidoo.  Now, that's a noteworthy accomplishment.  In her topic of the day on the SquidU forum, Kimberly asked how earning $2000 a month would change your life, and she asked what you're going to do to make it happen.  That got me to thinking about goals for 2011.

I've already decided that I need to do more to give back to the Squidoo community.  There's a rule of life, called the law of reciprocity, that the more you (unselfishly) give, the more you get in return.  In terms of income, it's tempting for me to make lots of lenses to promote affiliate products, but there's really very little sharing in that.  Logically, it seems that the more I use my own affiliate links, the more money I should make.  And it's true that I've made a lot more this year than last with personal affiliate earnings.  But I have to wonder what I'm missing as I more frequently bypass the modules that are designed for sharing revenue with Squidoo.

I've always told new lensmasters that Squidoo provides their fabulous platform to us for free and that it's my opinion that we should honor that by donating a portion of our lenses' earnings to charity, through Squidoo.  I also believe that we should use at least an occasional revenue sharing module on each lens even when we use our own associate links (Amazon being the prime example).    I was really happy when the right-margin module option was added to our lenses; that's such a quick and easy way to spotlight an Amazon item or two (or three) and, frankly, it's an easy way to honor the revenue sharing relationship.  While I'm doing all these things, though, I still feel that there's something I'm missing.

Could I give more?  Could you?  We each have to answer that question for ourselves, but I know I'm going to be thinking hard about it that law of reciprocity and acting accordingly.  Whether I'll get to the $2000 mark or not, time will tell.  But I know I'm going to feel better about myself for trying.

How about you?  Any thoughts about your 2011 goals that you'd like to share?

P.S.  The law of reciprocity applies to more than money.  Giving of your time and talents pays off in great rewards, too.  Just something else to think about.

September Squidoo Goals

Have you set monthly Squidoo goals yet for September?   If you're not in the habit of setting goals each month, September is the perfect time to start.  With school back in session and the holiday season approaching ever so quickly, motivation for making more lenses and increasing opportunities for income is at its peak.

If you need even more motivation, check out Kimberly's Morning Coffee post for today.  Add your September Squidoo goals to the forum and, at the end of the month if you're able to show that you met them, you could win a prize. 

Make your goals specific and measurable.  Posting them publicly will add the element of accountability that many of us need to help us work a little harder to accomplish what we might otherwise give up on when we hit the inevitable rough spot.

To demonstrate that I practice what I preach, here are my September Squidoo goals:

1. Three new lenses this month, which will make 200 total! Still need to decide on something significant for #200.
2. Update all of my seasonal lenses, which is much easier said than done. I will ashamedly admit that some are horribly out of date.
3. Approach a new charity I learned about this week to let them know about Squidoo and, if they're interested (and of course they will be) do what I can to help them get started.

So, who's next?  Don't forget to post your goals on the SquidU forum, then feel free to share them here as well. 

Now let's get busy!

Focus and Promote: My 2010 Goals for Squidoo

It seems everyone is writing about goals, which seems to be a less dangerous subject than resolutions, so I figured I'd throw in my52cents' worth.

I'm really looking forward to the potential that lies within Squidoo in the coming year. I'm determined to put quality over quantity when it comes to lensmaking, focusing on profit, a necessity for me this year more than ever. I have a little sign on my computer that says "Focus and Promote," something I got from Paul Duxbury. When I narrow down my goals to something simple, that phrase, which also summarizes my two weak points, is the result.

In 2010, I plan to focus my lenses in profitable subject areas. That means that I will likely divest myself of some of my older lenses, mostly those in which I've lost interest. It'll be tough getting rid of my little offspring, but I believe the time has come to find them new homes with lensmasters who can nurture them better than I. If you're interested, watch for lenses for sale in the coming weeks and months.

In 2010, I must learn to promote. Of course I know the basics, but I must draw up a plan and discipline myself to stick with it. As well as some of my lenses produced during the Christmas sales season with virtually no promotion on my part, it pains me to think of the sales I missed because I hadn't spent time promoting them in the preceding months. There's no reason I can't have a Christmas month (or close to it) every month, and that is the goal. Blog posts, articles, and forum participation must become priorities this year if I'm serious about improving my bottom line.

In all of the focusing and promoting, a huge and very important part will be contributing to the Squidoo community. I hope you will stick with me here on the blog and that I'll be able to provide you with information and tips that will help you reach your 2010 goals as well.

Happy New Year to all, and to all a focused and profitable year with Squidoo and all the possibilities that spring from it!