The Nicher

But it could just be a train headed my way.

No, really, it’s all good. The medusa site is nearly finished- just a few more pages to populate, and a bit more content on the main pages.

The other huge project? I decided that I want to be a Giant Squid. No, I’m not smoking any of that wacky stuff (heck, after staring at a computer screen for 14 hours a day, 7 days a week, you don’t need wacky stuff to act like this). A Giant Squid is a lensmaster on Squidoo who has 50 or more quality lenses- meaning you can’t just toss out a paragraph or two and call it a lens.

I’ve just finished my 51st lens, and now need to go back and update several of my older lenses, and totally rehaul 3 or 4. After that, I should qualify.

I don’t know what triggered the sudden desire to become a Giant Squid- I had no interest in it whatsoever until I heard that there was a deadline. Then, boom! I had to be a Giant Squid, and I had to be one now.

So between the medusa site, and building all those lenses (had 19 to start since I foolishly sold several before making this decision), I’ve barely had time for anything but internet work.  So, I built a lens on how to take breaks for internet workaholics. Oh, the irony.

But I’m nearly done. It’s nearly ready. And then? Oh, probably the other big website project I had in mind. And then in November it’s NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month- yes, I’m insane). Plus all of those domains that I have just sitting there gathering dust… And I should probably reaquaint myself with my husband’s face. If there’s time.

Sweet! I just made another $5.31 on my BANS sites. A few days ago I had another commission for just over $1. I’ve now reached payout (payout is $25, and I’ve reached $28.50), which means that I only have $25 left to go until my Build A Niche Store software has paid for itself.Now, I know that this isn’t the kind of money that you can live off of. I bought the software in December 2007, and it’s now April 2008. I sold the BANS software once, which gave me a $44.36 commission (the program is $97), and now the sales through the program is $28.50, leaving $24.14 unpaid for.

I logged in to Commission Junction, as I do every day, to check my stats.  Not surprising.  I have a click through rate of 20% most days, and yet no sales.  But I checked the reports section anyway.  Lo and behold- a pending commission of $3.24!  Woot!

This is my first commission from BANS, and it’s larger than most first commissions (from reports that I’ve heard- I can’t back that up).  Granted, I’ve got a long way to go to reach payout, let alone make back my investment.  But it definitely gives me hope.  I think I have all of 1 paragraph of content on the page that produced the sales.

And then I logged in to Squidoo and saw that I’d earned another $0.83 from an Amazon module.  I’m not retiring yet, but what a great start!

Lo and behold! Mere hours after announcing my affliliate earnings, Squidoo has updated the lens master earnings. I’ve nearly doubled my account balance for a grand total of $10.10 . This may not sound like much to you, but I haven’t updated any of my lenses since January 10th. This month’s earnings are the result of doing virtually no work during the month, whatsoever.

For a while, Squidoo was touted as the best promotional tool in the world.  I think we all know that there is no such thing, but just because something doesn’t live up to the hype doesn’t make it worthless.  In fact, there are a lot of great reasons to build a lens at Squidoo. (Why, yes, that is a referral link.  I do appreciate any join ups.)

1. You actually can make money with Squidoo.

Believe it or not, I didn’t know that when I joined up with Squidoo.  The first lens I built had me so befuddled, I gave up half way through and let it go.  A few months later I decided to give it another shot and, lo and behold, my unfinished lens had earned me money!  I believe it was something like $0.37, but it wasn’t nothing, and it encouraged me to push through and finish not only that lens, but a dozen more.

You can earn money through direct sales (your own product), affiliate sales (someone else’s product- in fact, Squidoo offers sales modules for many different companies that you can use), and clicks on ads.  Squidoo sets up AdSense and other affiliate links on all lenses, and they share 50% of the profits on these with all lens masters.  So even if your lens isn’t successful on its own, you’ll still get a cut.

2. Low payout threshold.

This is related to #1 (above), but you can set your own pay out threshold as low as $1.  I have mine set to $10, but you can set it as high or low as you want to.  You can even have the income donated for you.  Just select one or more of the dozens of charities and causes Squidoo provides and put in the percentage you want donated.  You can mix and match across the board, or on individual lenses.  For example, on lenses that are automatically compiled by Squidoo (rather than hand built by me), I have 50% donated to the Grameen Foundation, and the other 50% sent to my account.

3. Draw traffic to your other sites.

For some reason, Squidoo lenses tend to rank high in search engines.  If you build your lens well enough, a visitor may be interested enough in what you have to say to follow a link to whichever site you wish to promote.  If you have a blog, even better as you can insert a RSS feed directly into your lens.

 4. Raise your Page Rank with links.

As I said, lenses tend to rank well in search engines which gives them a good bit of authority.  Insert one or two well chosen links into a popular lens, and you’ve instantly given yourself more authority on whichever site you chose to promote.

5.  It’s completely free.

While you can pay someone to build a lens for you, or buy one pre-built, building a lens is easy and the options are continually growing.  The only thing that you risk is your time.

6. There’s a referral program.

While Squidoo is totally free, they do offer a referral program.  For every person you refer, you earn $5 after they earn their first $15.  For some lens masters, this will never happen.  For others, it could be in their first week.

Once you’ve finished your first lens, take a look at my post on ranking high on Squidoo.