Sales are the Key!

I have a lot of catching up to do!  My family went on vacation at the end of October and it seems I've been trying to catch up with each holiday since.  Well, I only made $2 in November from Sept. and I was really discouraged.  I started to get more involved with church things, play groups with my little boy, working out, holiday stuff, etc. and put Squidoo on the back burner.  Then, I got paid for this month and remembered the sales I had made in Oct.

I realized that you can make money from anything someone buys on Amazon or ebay, as long they started purchasing from a link that you had on your article.  Thus, it is important to have interesting and great products that people want to at least check out because they may not buy that item, but they could buy others that also bring in money for you.

October 2012 royalties (paid out 12/11/2012)

• Total royalty-earning lenses on date: 7 lenses
• Total donated to charity: $0.00

Lens Payments	Paid	Charity AdPool  TLAds  Sales	Total
Halloween Holograms	$3.51	$0.00   $0.52      $0.13     $2.86	$3.51
Spooky Zombie Theme Party Food	$2.32	$0.00   $0.52      $0.13     $1.66	$2.31
How to Save on Major Appliances at Sears	$0.81	$0.00   $0.52      $0.13     $0.15	$0.80
Instant Costumes with Hats and Ski Masks	$0.66	$0.00   $0.52      $0.13     $0.00	$0.65
Horrifying Rats	$0.66	$0.00   $0.52      $0.13     $0.00	$0.65
Scrumptious Italian Chicken Sandwich	$0.66	$0.00   $0.52      $0.13     $0.00	$0.65
Skip-It Toy: Childhood Memories	$0.66	$0.00   $0.52      $0.13     $0.00	$0.65
Subtotal	$9.25	$0.00   $3.64      $0.91     $4.67	$9.22

Reserve Hopper & Other Account Payments	Total
Subtotal	$0.00

Less PayPal Cash Adjustment
Transaction fee	$-0.18 (This has gone up a lot, maybe because of sales?)

Cash total paid via PayPal: $9.06

(9.25-.18 ~ 9.07 still wrong)                                   Total that should have been paid: $9.04

Not quite sure how they are doing their math, I'm guessing there are some additional decimals being evaluated into the equation?

This is why it is important to go through EVERY pay out!  I did not go through last month's and I really should have.  I don't think it is a big deal here, but what if the payment is really off? Anyway, as you can see, sales made up over half of what I made made for October!!!!  This is the most I've made so far since starting with Squidoo! I wanted to get my butt going for December and had all these ideas for Christmas, but lost my gusto and so much came up that I just didn't pull it together.  I am happy to say I made my second charity lens: Carved Christmas Gourds.  I haven't written any other articles, but  I did make some sales this month though!  I am going to push forward for Valentine's and see where it leads me.  It is a good idea to make lenses that are not Valentine's specific, but rather revolve around love or couples, so the lens won't be seasonal.   Here are some other updates and activity from my profile:  Have you checked out Squidoo's Cozy Magazine yet? http://cozy.squidoo.com/   Another purple star!!!!! I have also had some lenses featured on the Celebrate Magazine the last couple months, but haven't been keeping up on them.  If you still need gift ideas, it is the perfect site!

HOPING YOU HAVE A...

See You Later Halloween, Hello Christmas!

Hello All,

My family went on vacation for two weeks and I tried to make sure to keep up with my lenses while we were gone, but it can be tough!  Halloween brought good success, as I made more sales from those articles - not much, but I am still excited about it!  Not sure how long the high ranking will last from those, but it sure would be nice if it could stay that way throughout most of the month.   My Haunted Hayride Madness did really well, although I'm still kind of kicking myself that I waited so long to write it.  Hopefully it will be just as popular next  year.  It was featured with other lenses on the Squiddo front page through Halloween and, as seen, was mentioned on the Happy Halloween Magazine facebook page.  I was kind of sad to see Halloween go, but am getting excited about Christmas!

"Aren't you missing Thanksgiving?" you might ask.  Well, I have four articles I have already written geared towards November that I hope do well this month: How to Save on Major Appliances at Sears has already started getting some good traffic, as Thanksgiving is the next big large appliance sale - I also updated and pinged this article.  Carved Gourds - The Perfect Fall Decoration, which I wrote a while ago, but didn't really pick up and I feel that these creations are so amazing, so I'm hoping people will get to enjoy them this month.  Delightfully Easy Fall Casserole, this is a recipe people can be used for Thanksgiving leftovers and I may need to edit it a bit to get more of an audience for that.  My latest lens that I wrote right before leaving on vacation is A Great Gift for Black Friday, which features Black Friday hats that are just perfect for that day and as gifts for those joining in the shopping fun!  As it is already November, it is too late to write an article if I want to make money on it this month, so I am moving straight on to Christmas, hoping that these three articles do well while crossing my fingers.

Celebrate, the new Squidoo online magazine, is now up and running!  There are tons of gift ideas on there and right now it is geared towards Christmas.  I have already added some lenses to the magazine, which include: Take Along Toys - The Best Gift for Babies, these are very popular toys and a huge life saver for parents and I am really hoping this one will pick up soon, Stuffed Animal Storage Bag, which I need to update and am thinking about changing the title,  Top Toddler Toys for Playrooms, I originally titled this "top ten..." and then realized I was going down the wrong patch with the article, so I had redo the entire lens,  George Foreman Grill, a gift for him, and A Great Gift for Black Friday.  I also would like to add Must Have Helpful Kitchen Gadgets to the magazine, which also needs to be updated.

In more exciting news, I applied for the Giant Squid Club and was accepted!  After being accepted I also received a purple star for my Tricks to Quick Cleaning article!  I AM OFFICIALLY A SUPER SQUID!!!  I am so excited!  Here is to future lenses and helping fellow Squids!!! :)