The latest lens for the Squidoo 52 Lens Challenge is a book review on Learn to Do Bavarian Crochet. It is an interesting stitch to crochet and although the history for it is uncertain crocheters don’t mind as you’ll see a number of interesting blankets in a rainbow of colors.
Want to join me in this challenge? Check out the official page for this challenge on Squidoo. Sign up for the newsletter and start receiving the lessons.
If you joined the challenge in January and have a completed lens be sure to add it to the plexo on the 52 Week Challenge lens.
The text module on Squidoo is a fairly simple module to work with. When starting any lens the basic template includes one text module. You’ll need to add a title and subtitle, your article as well as a photo. Use white space in this module making your paragraphs no more than 3 – 5 sentences long.
You can use some html in this text module like order lists or unordered lists, color, text size, and paragraph formatting.Below are a few Squidoo lenses that show you how to add html to your text module.
When using html in your lens do keep in mind that you don’t want to overload your readers with too much ‘bling’. Keep it simple. A little goes a long way.
How do you use the text module?
P.S. Visit Squidoo if you’d like to sign up for Squidoo and start writing your first article. You can also sign up for my 7 day eCourse that will take you from sign up to publishing your first lens.
Each week I like to highlight blog posts that I received some Wisdom from. Please visit the following blogs, comment if you wish, and glean from their knowledge and experience.
Finding Backlinks by Illene from BasicblogTips.com. In this video she shares how you can see who’s linking to your wordpress blog via three methods. [wordpress dashboard, Technorati and google webmaster tools] Be sure to visit her blog for lots of great WordPress tips.
The Ultimate guide to Guest Blogging by Kristi Hines of Kikolani.com. If you’ve ever thought of guest blogging this post covers everything you need to know. Love the title because it truly is the Ultimate guide. She guides you through setting your guest blogging goals, how to find guest blogging opportunities, Preparing your blog pitch, Best times to pitch your guest post ideas, How to submit a great post, how to write a great Bio, tracking your results and how to be a great guest blogger. Wow- that is a lot of great information.
Linked in Groups Tips by Denise Wakeman. She shares tips by Social media Linked in expert Viveka Von Rosen who runs Social Media Biz School
P.S. I met two of the three business women via an online Linkedin group. The other lady, Illene, I found via Audioboo.com.
You know that blissful feeling you get after you find out that the project you were dreading was completed by someone else?
Crissy Herron on Indiebiz chicks has created a wonderful Business,Marketing and Blogging plan for 2012 plus she’s giving away a free preview. She’s planned out your entire year for you. Each month you get 20 blog post ideas, 10 ways to expand your income as well as 3 promotional ideas. Are you glad she’s done all the hard work? I know I am.
Giving your readers access to your rss feed is a smart move for bloggers. It gives them access to all updates to your blog when you make them. Feedburner lets your readers subscribe via email or in a reader like Google Reader. Feedburner is one of the most well known burners and below you’ll find a quick tutorial on how to burn your blogspot or wordpress blog feed. Feedburner gives a number of tutorials on how to add these to your blog.
Find Your Feed
Blogger: Url of your blog ex. momwithahook.blogspot.com
Self hosted WordPress: url of your blog ex. saraduggan.com
WordPress blog: url of your blog
Go to Feedburner.com:
Enter your URL, Click Next.
‘Identify Feed Source’ [atom or rss] then click Next.
Add a title to your feed – your blog title or a name that your readers will instantly identify with. You also have the option of entering a custom feed address as well. Click Next.
Congratulations you now have a RSS feed burned via Feedburner. Now you can dress it up with some bling. Click Next.
Some RSS Bling for your feed. Track clickthroughs, individual views and reach.
There is an option for you to offer your readers rss updates via email. This is good just in case people don’t read through a reader like google.
Feedburner has all the code you need to add to your blogspot blog, wordpress blog or self hosted blog. Just choose the option, grab the code and add it to your site.
Here’s my update on the 52 Squidoo page challenge for this week. I’ve completed 5 lenses for this challenge so far and although last week I did get way behind due to some unforeseen family business I’m still up-to-date.
My latest lens for this challenge is ‘Crocodile Stitch Fashions‘ which is a pattern booklet by Lianka Anzulay. This is a popular stitch in the crochet community right now because it’s unique and lovely.
Another popular stitch is the Bavarian stitch or Catherine’s wheel. When this stitch is worked in a variety of colors it really brings out the ridges and makes for a lovely afghan. Check out Sarah London’s wool eater blanket flickr group for some color inspiring examples.
Do you want to join me in the 52 Squidoo Lens challenge? It’s never too late. Just sign up for my 7-day ecourse that will take you step by step into making your first squidoo lens and then right into the 52 lens challenge.
This is the second part of 12 Reasons Why I Love Solomasterminds. You can find the first part of this series here.
Recap:
The first 6 reasons I love Solomasterminds Forum are email marketing and newsletters, traffic and search engines, networking and social bookmarking, publicity, affiliate marketing and finally time management and automation.
Business Ideas – the forum is a great place to brainstorm business ideas. We get and give honest feedback on ideas we have. If you’re wasting your time, the ladies will let you know. Another cool thing about having women business owners who have been at this a bit longer is they know what the scams are either by personal experience or by word of mouth. They won’t lead you down the wrong path.
Blogging – I love this part of the forum because I can find new blogs to follow. I get a lot of tips about blogging and guest blogging. Many of the ladies have been making money blogging for a number of years so they know what works and what doesn’t. I think I have a special place in heart for this section because it is with the blog internship I did in 2010 that I was introduced to Solomasterminds.
Audio, Podcasting & Radio Shows – Kelly, one of the co-owners of Solomasterminds has a podcast called SoloSmarts where she interviews successful solopreneurs. It was formerly WahmTalkRadio. She’s been at the beginning, made the mistakes, knows what works and what doesn’t so I’m confident in the advice she gives with regards to podcasting. I’m just getting into audio and although this is scary for me I am doing it because I know it adds value to my site and opens up my readership to others.
Offline, Local and Mobile Marketing – One of the co-owners of Solomasterminds is very tech savvy and shares a number of great resources in the solomastermind library. Whether I like or not Mobile websites are now where the market is going and I’m sure glad I have her to chat with how to make my blog more Mobile friendly. If you have an online business why would you need offline marketing? To bring in readers of course. This year I’m moving offline and teaching some crochet classes which hopefully will broaden my readership.
Websites that Sell – this is a really cool section of the forum as it is where I learn how to write sales copy. This is where I learned about the important of a call to action.
Providing Services – This is where I bounce ideas about what I should sell. Market research and whether it’s a good fit for my business.
Under the “Special Resources” section of the forum, there is a topic entitled “Seeking Joint Ventures”. Here you can list your affiliate program, your viral ebook or freebie giveaway so that others who reach a similar market can partner with you.
Then there is the Solo Mastermind Special Offer section. A SMSO is a significant member to member discount
or a unique offer not available elsewhere. SMSO offers include anything from discounts off transcription services, ebook formatting, advertising, copywriting and video marketing, wordpress services, and much, much more! SMSO offers are a great place to find services you need for your business at great rates, as well as a great place to offer your services to other Solo Mastermind members.
If you’ve never heard of Solo Mastermind’s before, or if you have but didn’t realize the advantages being a Solo Mastermind member brings, then why not check it out now.
Solomasterminds Forum is the place I go to find accountability, advice and new business connections. I’ve been on the internet since the late nineties and have tried a number of different things to earn money online. I did ‘junk’ affiliate marketing, direct sales, drop shipping, selling my own handmade products and patterns, surveys, and more recently I’m writing.
If you’ve been in business for yourself for any amount of time, you know how important it is to have a network of other business owners to bounce ideas off, get feedback from, and ask questions.
What is Solomasterminds
Solo Mastermind’s is a support network of female solopreneurs from all over the world. It’s like having multiple career coaches at your fingertips. I never have to worry about feeling out of place because there are all levels of solopreneurs from people starting out just like me to women who have been at this home business adventure for 10 or more years.
Why Do I Love Solomasterminds?
Email Marketing and Newsletters- I’m just getting into email marketing but am loving the feedback I get from the members. I can write an email and have them critique it or proofread it before I send it out. I didn’t have a newsletter before joining Solomasterminds because I thought my blog was enough. Today I have a number of newsletters and find I can connect more with my readers through my weekly or bi-weekly updates.
Traffic and Search Engines – This is an area that I’m constantly learning about. Many of the more successful women in the forum share about how they bring traffic to their websites – most are unpaid which fits my budget perfectly. I’m also learning a lot about search engines and how keywords play an important part in my site being found. I certainly have a lot to learn but am glad I have these gals to bounce my questions off of.
Networking and Social Bookmarking – We have a new thread in our forum called Comment and Buzz Club. It’s a simple way for us to let members know of new blog posts or new product launches that we want to spread the word about. More recently a member shared about a huge giveaway she’s having on her blog so I shared it with my readers plus now I have a new blog to follow.
Publicity – I haven’t really visited this part of the forum as I’m pretty shy about publicity right now. I know eventually I’ll have to tackle this part but for now I’m slowly building my blogs and right now I’m happy with that.
Affiliate Marketing – Recently there was a post from a newer member who needed ways to share her affiliate partners products via her podcast. The other members gave her some excellent tips like “pick one thing you love and promote it”. Affiliate marketing is given a bad name by all the get rich quick gurus out there who push things on you like a bad cars salesman – all you want to do is run. All affiliate marketing is, is recommending services and products you stand behind to your readers. In exchange for doing this the company you partner with gives you a commission – you are a sales person but more importantly a trusted friend giving a referral to a friend.
Time Management & Automation – What better way to learn how to manage your time than to ask ladies who have been in business for more than 10 years? I just shared with a member a 2 hour blogging schedule that I received from Jackie Lee of InternetMarketingforMommies.com because she was looking for a way to rein in her schedule.As for automating your business, who wouldn’t want that? I love autoresponders for ecourses and I also love my hootsuite for scheduling tweets.
This is turning into a long post – this is how much I love Solomasterminds – so I’m going to cut it off now and continue with this tomorrow.
P.S. Forgot to mention that the reason I’m posting about Solomasterminds is because they are giving away some awesome reports, eBooks and other cool resources that will help you hone in on what your home business goals are. Take a Look and while there why not sign up for Kelly’s Free seminar on January 31, 2012 @ 1pm EST where she’ll be talking about breaking through the barriers of success in home business.
Do you have a twitter account yet? No? What are you waiting for.
It is a great way to meet other bloggers. I’ve met quite a few awesome people on twitter. Just since January I’ve met and connected with theWordChef – Tea Sylvestre, SydniCraigHart, Denise Wakeman and RTMixMktg all who also happen to be on Linked in.
What is a #hashtag? A hashtag is a # symbol organically made by users to organize topics on twitter. #wahmtips
How do you use it? Use a # sign in front of the topic you’d like to search or add to. ex. #wahmtips. When you search #wahmtips twitter will generate a feed with posts using this hashtag.
How to save your search. Enter the #hashtag term you want to search. A pop up tag will come up ‘save search’ with a + sign. Click on this tab to save.
When your scheduled twitter time comes around, enter #wahmtips into the search box or bring it up in your saved searches and check out what others are saying about the subject. Be sure to add your own #wahmtips tweet and reply to or retweet the ones others have posted.
It’s Angela’s of Marketers Mojo’s Birthday and she’s celebrating with a really cool BOGO sale. How cool is that? Now would be the perfect time to get her Gimp Graphics Mojo course with tons of videos to guide you through making your own graphics – Plus the Gimp software is free.
One more thing – in this BOGO sale once you buy your first product [$27 or more] you’ll get your second product up to $47 free. Yes you read that right. You can get a higher priced item free – this is her way of thanking you for supporting her and her online business.
Maybe you already own the Gimp Graphics Mojo course, I know I do, that’s okay because she has a number of products that qualify for this sale.
Email List Mojo ($47): The one thing almost all marketers WISH they’d done sooner is start an email list. Get set up and marketing to your list faster with these tutorial videos.
Gimp Graphics Mojo ($27): This course helps DIY business owners and Virtual Assistants create their own graphics.
WP Safety Mojo ($47): Learn how to backup your databases, update your site and install spam plugins.
24 Hour VA Profits ($27): My Virtual Assistant success story, updated to how I parlayed my VA skills into an internet marketing business.
Teleseminar Mojo ($27): Skills and resources to host a teleseminar or a webinar.
Web 2.0 eCovers ($27): Gimp eCover Templates to design ebook, membership cards, reports, CDs and more.
Happy Birthday Angela and Thank You for all you do.
The latest lens for the Squidoo 52 Lens Challenge is a book review on Learn to Do Bavarian Crochet. It is an interesting stitch to crochet and although the history for it is uncertain crocheters don’t mind as you’ll see a number of interesting blankets in a rainbow of colors.
