I've been rather depressed about the prospects of making any amount of money on Squidoo. I work online, and love to write, but I only have so many hours a day I can type or play with websites. I love the people there, have had loads of good help and advice, and positive feedback on my lenses.
I'd still recommend it for people who have hobbies or love to cook or just have interesting things they like to teach or share. I love to write about the things I'm interested in and love to do but . . . the bottom line was . . . I don't have enough free time to keep giving away. I needed a bit of financial feedback. Not even very much. Just a token for starters, to let me know I was on the right track.
I received positive feedback in my comments section, I've been awarded two purple hearts, won a contest and a $25 Amazon gift card, was awarded a Lens of the Day, but I wanted, no, needed to see what I had to contribute had some value. I had no problem adding relevant Amazon ads to my content, but because of where my lens ranked, I never qualified for any percentage of the sales when folks did buy something from my lens. Some of the highest ranking (and therefore, moneymaking) lenses are about . . . making money and succeeding on Squidoo,
I originally joined to share things of interest to me, and things that made me go, "hmm". For the longest time, my highest ranked lens was Spanking Children in Literature. Try as I might, I really couldn't think of a way to make money off it, except the books mentioned in the lens itself, and alternatives to spanking. That's where the money bit comes in, tying in suggestions to buy within your lens. To this day, I think the main reason it was the highest ranking for so long was because people were curious about the title or thought it was about something else. (Spanking among consenting adults is a totally different matter!)
I let myself get side-tracked by different Quests and contests, instead of just writing about the things I wanted. When your (my) best lens is ranked 32,040, it's a downer no matter how many shoulder pats you get. The "competition" is tough, especially when you look at other lenses and think yours are at least as good. Don't get me wrong, some of those Quests and contests entries became my best lenses, but I was spending too much time trying to pimp Amazon products and product feedback with nothing to show for it, it was taking the joy, fun and "sparkle" away. When that happens, it's time to take a step back and cast your line in some other ponds, because when you love to do something, you shouldn't let things get in the way to ruin it.
I'm not done with Squidoo, not at all. In fact, when I visited there in regards to writing this, I was drawn into a writing challenge and feedback, and a Giant Squid had "Liked" three of my lenses. As I said, I love Squidoo and if you like to write or teach how-to's, or have hobbies/crafts/pets/interests you like to take pics of, it's great, the feedback and folks are great.
Just don't have plans on making money from it.
