Approaching a New Project with Flair

While some people have a flair for the dramatic, I confess that I have a dramatic love of flair. In fact, over the last few months, I have used the Pieces of Flair Facebook Application so much that I have earned over 1000 flair credits and accumulated over 500 pieces of flair. This is a lot- but I didn't stop there! Just a few days ago, I had a brilliant idea to blog about my love affair with flair, and that is exactly what I've started doing! Do you want to see my flair? Do you want to get a daily dose of laughter as I unveil the flair that has so captured my attention? Be sure to sign up for the RSS Feed of my newest blog, MyFlairboard.

"An artist's flair is sometimes worth a scientist's brains."
-Anton Chekhov

Fresh Inspiration

I joked around in my post yesterday about grad school eating my life this past semester, but right now that doesn't feel like much of an exaggeration. The last few months have been incredibly challenging. I have had to take in and organize massive amounts of information in a fully comprehensible manner. I was offered many opportunities to prove my mastery of different new skills and knowledge sets. These opportunities were often stretched me further than I sometimes thought I could be stretched, but I did it and I am incredibly proud of what I have accomplished in the last few months. However, I spent so much time reacting to different challenges that I did not take much time to work on my own personal projects like writing and designing and creating. This off-balance lifestyle left me feeling quite drained by the end of finals week, or as I affectionately termed it "hell week".

It's been about a week now since my last final. I've caught up on my sleep again and I have spent countless hours watching television and coming down from my cognitive adrenaline rush. The last day or so, I've been in the zone. I've written, I've created, I've played, I've cooked, and done so many other things that before felt like it took just too much energy away from studying.

This next semester, I hope, will be different. I have a plan in place to support this vision of a different semester. If all goes well, perhaps I won't have to wait another four or five months before I get a chance to breath like this again. But I suppose only time will tell.

Grad School Ate My Life

Okay, so this past semester, I've done essentially no work on any of my online endeavors. I haven't written any articles, published any lenses or even updated this blog. Of course, school has been more than worth it, but I've missed being on here! Thankfully, though, it's Christmas break and I'm back at it. Today I updated several of my Squidoo lenses and even created a new one on Study Tips to Avoid Cramming at Finals Time. If you couldn't guess, I was inspired by my own academic career.

In other news, I also created a Twitter account. Click here to follow me as I continue on my journey through grad school.

Of course I can't make any promises, but I definitely hope to keep writing next semester, now that I know how to better prepare myself for classes and such. But I guess we'll just have to see how things go. If nothing else, you can follow my twitter and find out why I am or am not creating!

Slowed Progress, but I'm Still Writing

So, it's the night before I make the big move to grad school, and even in the midst of the craziness of packing up my life to move eight hours away, I still managed to do a major update to one of my favorite Squidoo lenses, I Want to be an Occupational Therapist!. I impressed myself by also including some CSS tricks I picked up along the way, so from a design stand point, I'm very proud. The content, of course, was also updated. It now features some news about some recent legislation which will directly impact the affordability of schooling to become an OT. I also included a new section which offers some great tips and tricks for getting through those tough pre-requisite courses. Each of the suggestions were prompted by my own experiences this past year, so I am hoping it will serve as an excellent and relevant resource for future OT's. I also rearranged the current content in an attempt to make the page a little more user-friendly and entertaining while maintaining the informative functionality. Hope you enjoy it!

Shifting Gears

So, I knew when I received the good news about my acceptance into grad school that things would change in my life. I knew that some projects that I have been trying to juggle would fall by the wayside, but I didn't quite expect things to change so quickly. I haven't even moved yet and it's still about two months before my classes even begin, but I've already become incredibly lazy with keeping up my blog. But oddly enough, I've continued to work on several different Squidoo lenses. So, let me take a moment to plug some of the ones I have recently published or updated:

Guide to Controlling Your Privacy on Facebook: A really simple, laid out explanation of all of the options in your privacy panel on your facebook account- you know, the one that probably gives you nightmares! :)

Parenting in Face/Space: If you are the parent of an internet-savvy kid or teen, this is a guide you don't want to miss out on! Over the last decade or so, there has been lots of bad press given to sites like MySpace and Facebook because of privacy concerns, especially to young teenagers. This guide will help you teach your kid to be internet savvy without becoming bait for some pervert or painting a huge target on his or her back.

Child Life Specialists: This is a career field most people do not know about, which is unfortunate because it is a highly rewarding field. Although, I should include a warning that it is NOT for everyone.

White Elephants: This is a really fun lens all about White Elephants- the myths, legends, and, of course, the classic holiday party game! You might want to bookmark this one so that when the time comes, you'll have some great White Elephant gift ideas!

These lenses are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what all I've been up to lately, but hopefully it will satisfy you for now. Hopefully, I will be blogging again soon to let you know more about the amazing tools I have stumbled onto lately!

Lessons Learned as a Freelance Writer

So, I started this journey of online writing last November. Over the last seven months or so, it has been a crazy journey and I've loved (mostly) every minute of it. I knew that this had permanently impacted me when I began introducing myself as a freelance writer. I guess it only took a matter of time since I have been working on this for hours at a time almost every day for months now. So, what have I learned along my journey?

• I've learned that writing for the web is an art form unto itself. It requires not only a good, solid background in basic grammar and sentence structure, but a combination of creative originality, a personable but knowledgeable tone, and the drive to constantly hone your writing skills for searchability.


• If no one reads it, you didn't write it. Okay, that's not exactly true, but in this field, it's not far from it!


• Networking is not about promoting yourself only. Networking is about creating connections with people who are interested in similar things and fostering an atmosphere of selective reciprocity. (If they aren't genuinely interested or impressed, I'd rather not have someone Digg my work out of guilt- it's better to know that your work earned their worth).


• Sometimes, you need to just pull yourself away from the computer and walk away. Real life doesn't stop just because you're living it virtually, so don't forget to stop and smell the proverbial flowers every now and again.


• Over time, the voice in your head that gives you direction as a writer gets louder. If your writing is sketchy in the beginning, just push through- it will get easier the more you do it.


• There will always be pricks in any forum who think that the internet is a place to openly complain, argue, or be just plain rude. These people will search you out, but you do not need to make yourself a target if you do not want to become a victim of their thoughtless attacks.


• I know it has been said so often that it is probably borderline cliche, but writing what you know about really is the key. The second often missed part to that statement is that writers must always be learning so they can formulate opinions, swirl ideas around in their heads, and finally paint a word picture for all their readers.


• There is no exact formula for success. Work hard at what you do and just wait to see how far you go.


• You write at your best when your goal is not money, but just the love of writing. That paycheck might be nice, but if it's your goal, you will not be motivated enough to write quality content.


• As the writer, you have the power to influence your readers. You can frame the topic in your own custom opinion and keystrokes on a keyboard can be much mightier than any sword or physical weapon.


• All writers love to be recognized. It's true! Just stop by a blog or Squidoo lens or article on AC and leave a compliment. More than likely, you will make his/her day!


• Finding a publishing method that works for you is key. I began at AC and, while they remain my favorite in theory, I am much more active at Squidoo. This is because Squidoo works like I work- in pieces and fragments. I can begin a piece today and finish it months or even years from now. I can also update as new developments occur and offer interactive features that encourage the reader to return later.


• Publishing on several different websites helps you hone your skill and increase your loyal readership.


• There is no end to your work. Ever. You could choose one single topic and find ways to write about it every day for the rest of your life. So if you are experiencing writers block, it's more a problem of indecisiveness than creative ability.


• Your voice and your opinion is unique and you are the only one who can express it like you do. Learn to develop your own unique voice and your readers will soon seek your opinion on lots of different things. They will look to you as an expert not because of a piece of paper you were handed on a stage while wearing a funny little hat, but because of the authority your voice has earned.


• If you create it, it is like a child and you will always take personally the criticisms it receives, even if you know it's true.


• Writing is a process and not a destination. No one can wake up one day and declare that they are a writer- they must first write. The title is earned over time as proof of your work accumulates in your portfolio.


• Writing is not a part-time job or even a profession really. Instead, it's a way of life that requires your mind to constantly be churning and evaluating everything around you. It requires you to explore the places in your soul you might not have ordinarily ventured in order to connect to your readers at a visceral level.


• You will never work so hard for so little pay and recognition and still be so happy about it.

I guess this list pretty much sums up a lot of my trial and error experiences. What about you? Do you have something to add? Why not write an article or blog entry of your own and link it below or just drop me a line in the comments section about what you've learned. This way we can all learn from each other's mistakes without having to make them all ourselves!

New Promotion Tools

So, a while back I posted about Squidoo Lens Promotion Techniques. Since then, I have come across a host of great tools I never knew existed, so I thought I would do a follow-up post and hopefully you'll find a couple of cool new tricks you didn't know about as well. Before we dive in, though, I want to first suggest that if you have not yet taken the time to read the first post, you might want to do that now.

• Google Blog Search: Sure you've probably listed your blogs with this search engine, but did you ever think of also listing web pages? Any web page that you intend to update on occasion, such as a Squidoo lens, can also be the perfect addition to their search engine! Individual articles can also be registered and will be pinged any time a new comment is added.


• 01dir.com: If you have an excessive amount of links you want to organize, why not create your own directory? This can offer a source of linkbacks and you can even offer the service to other people who are trying to promote similar links. They'll be more than appreciative!


• spynbuy
  This is a social network designed for people looking to sell stuff. Their specialty? Video marketing! But they offer several other options as well. The site is still very new and has about a billion and a half things on the to-do list, but getting in now and networking a little while the ground floor is still being laid will give you the opportunity to watch this young site flourish. But you should be aware that because it's so young, it's not very easy to navigate. If you are a novice, it might not be the best tool for you unless you are extremely patient.


• Squoogle:
  This is one of my newest absolute favorites! Why? It's a Link Directory for specific freelance sites including Associated Content, Gather, Squidoo, HubPages and LaunchTags. Why is this so incredible? Well, in case you haven't noticed, the growing area of people driven media sites full of single articles or one page sites is becoming more and more profitable. At the same time, we're the red-headed step children of the online writing realm. We aren't exactly blogging, even though we often ping our work and use traditional blog tools. But we also aren't "professional" in the sense that the vast majority of people contributing to these sites do not have the background education and the experience necessary to regard these sites as professional sites. Yet, here we are, somewhere in the middle. This directory, though, gives these lonely sites a bond. It also encourages interaction between these social networks, which is great for back links and building credibility in the eyes of the illustrious Google's search engine!


• SquidUtils:
  If you are on Squidoo and haven't found this site, you will want to bookmark it immediately! It is a great supplementary resource to the new and improved Squidoo Dashboard. (If you haven't visited your lenses in about a week or two, go check them out right now because the new Dashboard will blow you away!)


• Lensroll.com:
  This is a social bookmarking site exclusively for Lensmasters . I hope to post a more in depth review at some point in the future on how to use this site effectively to promote your lenses and even boost your lensrank without using the you-vote-for-me-and-I'll-vote-for-you approach, which does not do much to improve your ratings in the long run.


• OnlyWire and SocialMarker:
  I lump these in together because they are pretty much offering the same service: an all-in-one social bookmarking tool to help you add a link to a ton of bookmarking sites at once. It takes a lot of online legwork out of the promotion process and makes adding a link to several bookmarking sites much easier! Out of the two, Social Marker seems to have more sites available, but Only Wire takes less time. I suggest checking them both out and deciding for yourself which you like. But remember to add more links than just the ones you are promoting- you don't want to be viewed as a spammer by some of these sites!

This is it for now. Take some time this week to muddle through these sites and find the ones that will be helpful to you and bookmark them. As time goes on and I have more experience with each of these tools, I may on occasion dedicate entire posts to tricks and cool stuff I have learned about them since writing this post. Until then, however, if you have any questions about these sites I haven't covered, drop me a line and let me know what's on your mind. If I don't know, I will do my best to point you to someone who will know. Thanks again for reading and I hope all of you will benefit greatly from these outstanding resources!

Zazzle Memorial Day Sale

In honor of those serving in the military and the celebratory spirit of freedom, Zazzle is currently hosting a Memorial Day Sale that you do not want to miss, especially if you have been eying several different products. Through the end of today only, you can get 15% off on orders of $65 or more. That means you will save almost $10 automatically for $65 orders, and as you buy more, your savings increase! So, how do you get this sale price? Only by using the special promo code: MEMORIALSALE

Also in the spirit of paying homage to those who fight for our freedom, here is a design I created in honor of those who have served America with their lives on the line. I call it "Navy Pride". It's also available as a keychain, mousepad, or even postage stamps. What better postage to use to send a postcard or letter to your loved one in service? And you can use the magnet to hang up the latest letter you received from the front lines. A beautiful design in honor of the bravery of men and women who have risked and continue to risk their lives in service daily to protect the freedoms we enjoy.

Navy Pride Magnet by cherangelry

Get this custom magnet at Zazzle

(I should also mention that while this sale is a Memorial Day Sale, the sale is not limited to items related to the holiday, so feel free to shop around and find a cart load of items that seem to have been designed just for you!)

A Diplomatic Response

In response to the letter I wrote to my Congressman John Linder, I received this blanket email. For those of you who may not be aware, it is very common for political leaders to have the staff draft up some formal response to be given on common topics. While this does not offer much hope, if any, to the community of writers and artists for the legislation NOT passing, it might at least offer some insight into the minds of the congressmen leaning towards passing the bill. Without any further introduction, here is the email:

Thank you for contacting me regarding the protection of so-called "Orphan Works." I appreciate hearing from you.

On April 24, 2008, Representative Howard Berman (D-CA) introduced H.R. 5889, the "Orphan Works Act of 2008." This bill would limit the remedies available for copyright infringement if the infringing party can prove that an unsuccessful, but reasonably diligent search to locate the copyright owner was conducted and the infringing party provided attribution to the owner, if known. The infringing party must also file a Notice of Use with the Register of Copyrights before the orphaned work may be used. H.R. 5889 would provide reasonable compensation to the copyright owner for infringement unless the infringement was for non-commercial purposes by a primarily charitable, religious, scholarly, or educational purpose, and the infringement ceases upon notification. Currently, an amended version of this bill is pending before the House Committee on the Judiciary, where it awaits further consideration.

As you may know, Orphan Works are copyrighted works whose owners may be impossible to identify and locate. In recent years, concerns have been raised that the uncertainty surrounding ownership of such works might needlessly discourage subsequent creators and users from incorporating the works in a new creative effort or making them available to the public.

In response to these concerns, the U.S. Copyright Office conducted and published a study regarding Orphan Works in 2006. The Copyright Office has recommended a solution that will allow an individual the use of a work if that individual has conducted an unsuccessful but reasonably diligent, good faith search for the copyright owner. Should the copyright owner later resurface, they would be entitled to "reasonable compensation," which would be defined as the amount a reasonable, willing buyer and seller would have agreed to at the time the use was commenced. The Copyright Office also suggests that a "safe harbor" provision be included in any Orphan Works legislation. A safe harbor provision would protect the non-commercial use of an Orphan Work by a museum or university, for example, that used such work for a cultural or educational purpose, provided that the infringing entity ceased using the work upon the resurfacing of the copyright holder.

Intellectual property rights reform is both important and necessary. As a general rule, I support Title 17 copyright protections for artists and their original works, but I also believe it is important to strike a balance between that posture and the preservation of fair use rights and practices. As such, I am inclined to support H.R. 5889 or the recommendations by the Copyright Office, as long as they do not take away from artists what is rightfully theirs or limit innovation.

Again, thank you for contacting me. If I can be of further assistance in the future, please do not hesitate to call on me.

Sincerely,

John Linder
Member of Congress

Personally, I think there must be a better way of achieving a "balance between [copywrite protection] and the preservation of fair use rights and practices" than this approach. In my research, I have found that there is quite a bit of support not only on Capital Hill, but even from some elite artists groups. This might be because if you are making a significant amount of money from your work, this legislation might go farther toward securing your rights, but if you are like me and cannot afford to register everything you create, what happens then? And what about the impact on research for students? Has anyone considered this? This may change entirely the ability of the school administrators to punish and/or bring any charges against plagiarizers because of "fair use" laws. I admit that I am not the most well-versed in this type of legislation, so I could be extrapolating on points that might or might not really be issues in the long run, but I remain a concerned citizen on these points. I guess only time will tell exactly how this bill will affect writers, artists, and other creators in the US and all over the globe.

New Legislation Threatens Copywrite Laws

Today I was checking out the forum on Zazzle when I came across a very disturbing post explaining about a new bill set to hit Congress any minute now that could jeopardize the protection of inferred copy write laws that are currently in place. Essentially, this set of legislation will strongly encourage the legal theft of content not registered properly. So, what are the particulars?

"Orphan" Works
Any work that cannot be connected to a creator after a "reasonable search" will be deemed an "orphan" work and be eligible for public use under fair use laws. This is especially significant for people like me who create images that are often more difficult to trace back to an original creator. Also, if the interested party does not search the correct registry, but has proof that they conducted a "reasonable search", what is to stop them from using my images? Do you see the problem here?

Privatized Registeries
Instead of a single registry run by the US government, the new system will require artists, writers, and other creators, to register with privatized registries. This means that a private company will be able to set the price for registering. You can bet that because of this set up, some are ready and waiting to pounce and make LOADS of money on this. The people who lose? Once again, the ones who cannot afford to lose.

What does this mean for the average artist, writer, creator, etc?

• significantly higher costs to protect your content
  
• incentive for other people to not find who created your work so they can make money on it
  
• if someone finds an "orphan work" you created and you later claim it, even if you have proof of creation, if they register it, it is theirs to use and profit from
  
• this effects more than just the copy write laws in the US, but affects artists and creators all over the globe- if an American finds an orphaned work someone in Italy created, what's to stop them from registering it and profiting?
  

Personally, I have not been able to find any good thing about this law except the disgusting amount of money all the big whigs are posed to make from it. So, what can you do to stop this thing?

1. Do your own research. Understand exactly what is going on with this thing before you decide to jump on board. (This is always a good precaution in dealing with legal advocacy.)
   
2. Contact your congressman and/or representative. Let them know your concerns as a voting citizen and ask them to support you and others like you in preventing this bill from passing.
   
3. Sign petitions like this one.
   
4. Let all of your friends and family know about what's going on. You can do this with an email, joining the facebook petition group and inviting all your friends to join, starting discussions on any web forum you frequent often, etc. The point is, the word needs to get out SOON! With the presidential elections coming up, this bill is probably going to be fast-tracked through before most Congressmen really take notice of what it's really saying. This dangerous bill NEEDS our opposition now!
   

For more information about this, check out the following links:
Orphaned Works- No Myth
ASMP Orphan Works Legislation
How to Lose All the Rights to Every Piece of Art You Ever Created
Orphan Works Act of 2008 Squidoo lens

Life-Changing News: I'm Going to be a Pirate!

So, this week, in the middle of wrapping up final exams and projects for the semester, I received some HUGE news! Those of you who have been reading for a while know that I received my bachelors degree in psychology last May and have since been working on getting the prerequisite classes for a masters program in Occupational Therapy. Well, I finally received word this week that I have been accepted into the program at East Carolina University! Go Pirates!!!

This means that this summer I will be spending every waking moment working to finish up some last classes and preparing to make the big move. I am hoping to maintain this blog as I take on this new journey, and include updates on my various online endeavors as well, so don't start crying, it's good news for all of us!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In other news, I have found several resources in my web travels this past week or two that I am excited to share with you. It includes a bit of everything for just about everyone, so be sure to check them all out and let me know what you think.

• OnlyWire: a Social Bookmarking tool that allows you to save your bookmarks to over 20 of the hottest bookmarking sites on the web by filling out only one form
  
  As you can imagine, this would be an incredible tool for promoting specific websites and driving traffic your way. It cuts down on a lot of mind-numbing tedious work to give you the best results for as little effort as necessary. There are still several big sites (like Digg) that are not yet supported by OnlyWire. Continue to promote to these separately in order to get optimum results. See this article for more info.
  
  
• Lapbooking: a tool often utilized for homeschooling, but useful for anyone wanting to organize a bunch of information on a specific topic in a visually appealing manner
  
  Essentially, a lapbook is a folder full of "mini-books" on sub-topics of the overall theme. This can be really handy in pulling together all the things that a homeschooled child has learned on a given topic, but it can easily be utilized for other purposes as well. Personally, I think it would be a great way to improve memory in older adults because it offers a creative way for them to integrate new information. It also offers a unique incentive to learn new things, which offers neural stimulation to the brain in a way that many adults do not ordinarily receive. This is a great way to challenge an aging brain to continue growing and forming new connections, which will go a far way towards maintaining a young and sharp mind.
  
  
• Go Ask Grandpa: a really cute and simple Q&A website
  
  This site is written by a grandfatherly physicist who is very wise with lots of academic knowledge and hard-earned experience. He encourages anyone and everyone to submit questions to him on anything really. Out of his bustle of children and grandchildren, he has several experts in many different fields at his service to call upon as references in answering your questions. If Google doesn't give you what you want and you have a couple of days to find the answer, why not give Grandpa a try? You might find that his years of knowledge and experience answer your question better than you thought!
  

That's all for now, but stay tuned. Spring is thick in the air and opportunities abound. As I find exciting new resources and have developments in my various projects, I will be sure to pass them along to you.

An Ironic Award and the Hidden Lesson it Poses

If you have been to my gallery lately, you probably know that I have done a huge overhaul on the look and feel of the storefront. I changed the banner at the top to a more generic look and edited the text and background color to match. I also spent several hours yesterday just trying to organize my products into product lines by image. (For example all of my products featuring the image "Winged Texture" now has it's own little place in my store instead of trying to categorize them by type of image like I had tried to do before.) In the midst of all that work I also managed to publish a ton of new products- so many that I currently have 322 products, with about 100 more "in progress". With all of the change, I decided to do something I have never done before- publish a product with an image that was NOT a fractal art piece. It was very simple, just a plain brown background with some brightly colored polka dots. I didn't expect it to get any extraordinary attention, but it fits my personal style, so I thought, why not publish it and see what happens. Well, guess what?! This piece I had almost no faith in has won me my first award on Zazzle- "Today's Best, May 4th". How crazy is that?! Ha! (Here's a link if you want to check it out.)

I guess the lesson here is that you never really know what people will think until you take a chance. Just because you didn't spend 5 years creating it does not mean that it is a bad design or that it is in any way inferior to your other pieces. I'm hoping to take a few more chances in the future and see how they pay off. This result encouraged me to publish my first t-shirt. You can see it here.

I hope that each of you reading this blog will allow my experience to encourage you to challenge your approach not only to your creative pursuits, but life in general. As creatures of comfort, we often paint ourselves into a corner just by always doing what we've always done and thereby always getting what we have always gotten. But I don't think we were designed to act this way. I think our hesitancy towards change is a direct result of doubting our instincts. My instinct told me that the design, though simple, was a good one. I took a chance and it paid off. The creative spirit and gut instinct often knows better than the rational logic, but too often as people we think so much about something that we miss out on great opportunities. I don't expect that this award will change your life forever, but I do hope that the story it represents will provoke you to live your life with a little more courage to do what you know is right, taking a chance on your instincts every now and again. You might not always be right, but living your life choosing to take opportunities as they arise instead of watching them pass you by will give you a renewed sense of adventure and curiosity about life that we often lose with age.

New Functionality of Zazzle

While I was busy studying, writing, and doing other nonsensical things to wrap up the end of another semester of college, the developers at Zazzle were busy releasing some new upgrades they have been working so diligently on. So, I want to walk you through some of the differences and discuss some of the cool new functionality that it brings to the user interface.

In the Zazzle Blog posting about the updates, these were the features that were advertised:

• Larger Product Views
  
• Smaller Right Hand Navigation
  
• Management Tools in MyZazzle
  
• Private Galleries
  

These changes took place earlier this week, but since I've been busy tying up loose ends with my classes, I just had time to check these features out and form an opinion. Overall, I'm very impressed. I even made my gallery "private" for about an hour while I worked on improving the appearance. (Click here to see my progress!)

Another function not noted in the blog is the Products tab of the myZazzle dashboard is much easier to maneuver. If you're like me, you often have a lot of products In Progress. Now, this is by default what you see when you click on the Products tab! This may not seem like a big deal, but when you have pages full of products and you can take one click out of the process, you'll quickly understand how big of an impact this small change makes in the long run!

If you checked out my new gallery look, you'll note that I now have my tools on the left hand side of the page as well. This small change drastically alters the user interface. Most users are used to seeing the navigational tools on this side anyways, so it might make navigation easier for users who are not as web-savvy. My point is that with all the features and new functionality of this update, it is easier than ever to personalize your gallery and optimize your storefront to increase profitability.

However, while this update did take a big step in the right direction, Zazzle still has several updates that I would consider to be essential steps in stream-lining the process of product publication, gallery management, and promotional tools. As these updates happen, I'll be sure to let you know.

Squidoo Lens Promotion Tactics

Thank you all for being patient. I know you have probably been on the corner of your seat, checking every other hour on the hour to see if I had posted again yet. ;)

Just like I promised before my life got absurdly crazy with finals, today's topic will cover promotion tactics of your Squidoo lens. First we will review the promotional tips suggested by Squidoo, and then we will discuss some other more unique methods.

Squidoo-Suggested Techniques
On the right hand column of your Squidoo Dashboard is a module entitled "6 Steps To More Traffic!" Here is a list of what it suggests:

1. Make a lens worth talking about.
   
2. Send it to 5 friends.
   
3. Add it to del.icio.us.
   
4. Blog it, or ask someone else to.
   
5. Favorite it on StumbleUpon.
   
6. Play with your tags.
   
7. Make something worth talking about. (It's worth saying twice).
   

This list provides the basic framework of things you should be doing on a regular basis to promote your content. If you have worked hard to make a lens worth sharing, all of these steps will be much easier!


My Best Promotion Techniques
I am going to list off for you here some general guidelines that I have used that have yielded some fairly good results. Some of these I have seen hinted at on other sites, but many I learned the hard way- by experience. That being said, I admit that I have not had the time to follow all of my own advice here, but I have seen extensive results when I have followed these guidelines. So why I'm giving these away for free? I don't know, I guess I'm just hoping that when you make the big bucks and can afford to live the good life off of your Squidoo lenses that you will remember this little blogster and the tips she gave and send me a check to help me cover tuition! But seriously, these are all tips I wish someone would have told me when I first started at Squdidoo, so I hope they help you achieve the highest lensrank your lens deserves!

1. Be the first one to bookmark it on social bookmarking sites- it makes it easier for others to do the same after you because they don't have to fill out the initial description forms.
   
2. Utilize the Social in Social Bookmarking: Instead of just opening an account on one of these sites only to bookmark your lenses, websites, and other web projects, be sure to set aside a little time on the socializing part of social bookmarking. Check out someone's profile and leave a note commenting on one of their links. This will be especially appreciated if it's a link to their lens, website, or web project! I should warn you, though, that this tactic can be overused and abused in a way that will render it essentially ineffective. Do this only occasionally- no more than two or three comments a day, and make sure that they are genuine in nature (i.e. don't just copy and paste the same short, vague message over and over). In time, you'll have more connections on these sites that will be watching what you Digg or Stumble or whatever. Use this appropriately and you might be able to finally gain yourself some momentum in the social bookmarking sphere.
   
3. Add lots of tags. This will allow your lens to be more easily found not only in Squidoo's search engine, but also by Google, Yahoo, etc. giving you better traffic results for your hard work.
   
4. Harness the power of groups. Signing your lens up for a group is like signing it up to get traffic. You are almost always guaranteed to get at least the groupmaster to your lens and they will usually leave a nice comment and a rating. Note: Ratings can greatly affect your lensrank!
   
5. Make your own group. I tried this about a month ago. I created a group called Pen Pals for writers who use Squidoo to promote their writing. For the longest time, I was the only member, then one lensmaster added a lens, then another. It's still a small group, but it's growing consistently and, as groupmaster, every single member recognizes my pen name and has a higher probability of visiting my sites. I also have the ability to "promote" each of their lenses and drop them a line of congratulations. This will create a goodwill attitude between me and the members I choose to promote, leading to more traffic, more ratings, more comments, etc., all of which increase lensrank!
   
6. Squidcast when you create the lens. If you already have fans, they will get the message that you have established a new lens and they might want to check it out. Introduce them to it and give them the chance to say hello properly with a visit and possibly a rating and comment.
   
7. Squidcast again whenever you update or change things around on your lens, or just to send out a special message about your topic. For example, the people subscribed to my Doris Day Lens received a reminder via squidcast on April 3rd about Doris' 84th birthday. This random piece of information may encourage people to re-visit your lens and pay tribute to your topic of interest.
   
8. Interact in the Squidoo community. Visit lenses, comment, become a fan, etc. As you send traffic to other lensmasters, they will return the favor and your lensrank will climb. Bonus: each time you comment, it adds a "linkback" to your profile which lists all of the lenses you have created. Everyone who visits that site often will see your comment and have a way to navigate to your lenses.
   
9. Interact in other online communities. When I joined Zazzle and set up my gallery, I included a link to my "online portfolio" (which is essentially my Squidoo lensography combined with a list of links to my Associated Content Articles). Every time I leave a comment or become a fan of another product designer at Zazzle, they have a link to my gallery, which encourages them to check me out at Squidoo. Incorporating your different spheres of online identity like this will make you a more "real" web presence and afford you more consistent traffic from people who like your voice or your unique view on the world and decide to keep up with you in several spheres. They will be able to see your view on various topics, and learn with you as you grow and develop as a lensmaster, writer, designer, artist, etc.
   
10. Publish more lenses. A little while back, things got kinda crazy for me and I was not actively maintaining current lenses or creating new ones. Updating my old ones boosted my lensrank a little, but publishing new ones boosted it significantly. So if you want to maintain a fairly high lensrank, publish quality lenses, deserving of repeat traffic, often. Several of my lesser ranked lenses had fallen into the 100,000 lensrank area. Publishing actively again increased all of my lenses rank so that my lowest one was less than 50,000! I would say that is a HUGE improvement, wouldn't you?!
    

If you want more tips, here's a shameless plug for my article on Effective Ways to Promote Your Squidoo Lens.

Apology: Small Break

I know that in my last post I promised I would write soon about promotional techniques for increasing traffic to your Squidoo lenses. Unfortunately, I've been very distracted this week. It's getting very close to the end of the semester for me, which means finals time is just around the corner and it's crunch time. I have so many projects, papers, and tests I'm working on right now that it's ridiculous. So, unfortunately, I will not be able to post again for a little while. But do not think I have forgotten about you or my promise to give you some great Squidoo promotion tips. I will do everything I can to make the next post worth your wait. So be patient, subscribe to the RSS feed and you'll be notified when things normalize out for me again and I can post as usual.

In the meantime, here is a link to a very appropriate article I wrote a little while back that might be helpful for others going through finals right now also: How to Conquer Test Stress. It's based mostly on personal experience and some random tidbits I learned along the way.

Creating a Successful Squidoo Lens

Okay, so I hope you enjoyed our discussion yesterday about Squidoo and have had time to check it out if you aren't already a lensmaster. Being a lensmaster can be rewarding on so many levels. I have found it to be a way to share my knowledge on a particular subject without having to update a blog several times a week or limit myself to only textual content. I'm able to use many tools including YouTube Videos, Flickr pictures, interactive guestbooks, and many other features to help my topic grow into a life of it's own. So, what are some essential ingredients, then, for creating a successful Squidoo lens? Well, in my experience, the key is the right modules, the right content, and the right layout.

Modules
The key here is to remember that you are creating this lens for a reader. While this may seem like a no-brainer, many lensmasters appear to forget this simple point. It can be difficult to write enough on a lens to make it seem "full" enough and many lensmasters make the mistake of adding multi-media "fill-in-the-blank" modules that unfortunately distract from the actual point of the lens. In order to avoid making this mistake, learn to think like your potential readership. If you saw the title of your lens and were intrigued enough to click on it, what would you expect to find? If it's a lens on gardening, it's unlikely that you will find many relevant YouTube vids on how to grow a potato, although I could be wrong! If you find a video that really backs up what your content is about, feature it proudly! Be sure to include, however, a type of "introduction" for why you chose to place the video or videos there and a brief explanation of how the module will add to the topic at hand. When possible, hand-pick your videos, pictures, products, etc. and provide a brief note about them. This extra measure might take some more time upfront, but it will keep your content very relevant, which is the most necessary ingredient for keeping your reader's attention.

Hint: There are lots of modules under the "Search A-Z" tab of the Add Modules page that you probably do not even know about! Some of them are next to useless, but some others can be very helpful! As always, choose wisely.

Content
Quality and personality is key here. If you have a lot of textbook answers, your average reader will probably get bored really fast. Use your introduction area to cover not only what your lens is about, but also lay out your plan to cover the topic. This gives the reader an immediate understanding of how you have designed the lens and how to navigate around it. This can be helpful even if you also offer a Table of Contents because it allows you to describe the message of entire sections of modules as a whole and prepare your reader to navigate within your page.

As far as text content goes, simple grammar mistakes and mis-spellings are simply not acceptable. By creating your Squidoo lens, you are asserting yourself as an expert on the topic, and faltering in the way you communicate what you know will often cast a shadow on your reputation and lose you readers, which will negatively affect your lensrank and ultimately your earning potential. If you have trouble editing your own work, find someone who enjoys it and ask them to proofread your content before you update. It shouldn't be that difficult since it doesn't have to be a piece of literary genius.

I should also mention here that the most successful lenses I have contain lots of relevant textual content. When creating a lens I want to succeed, I usually begin with a minimum of 5 Text/Write modules. Often, I end up adding more than 10, but 5 gives me a good start.

Layout
Squidoo makes creating a layout easy, in some cases almost too easy. With a couple clicks of the mouse and a few simple questions, Squidoo will spit out a layout based on why you are creating the lens. The possible trap in relying on Squidoo's layout wizard is that you do not actively participate in the process. I strongly suggest choosing the option "I want to do my own thing" when creating a lens. This will generate a lens with only the Introduction module on it. While it may look very bare at first, it is a clean slate. You can now think about the content you want to offer your readers, the modules that would be appropriate, and, most importantly, what the best order of these modules would be to take your readers from A to Z of whatever topic you choose.

In general, I suggest that the first module you add be a Table of Contents. If you want your lens to be successful, it will probably have to be somewhat long and detailed with lots of modules. As I suggested above, you will need at least 5 text/write modules, and finally, you will need a guestbook. The guestbook allows people visiting your lens to leave you a message, comment on your content, offer additional resources on your topic, etc. I consider it an absolute must-have module because it offers your readers a chance to respond to what they read. Also notice that I said "finally, you will need a guestbook". This is because the guestbook should go at the absolute bottom of your lens. No matter how many modules you have, any higher than the bottom is simply awkward. It almost intrudes on your content and you can be sure that any modules posted below your guestbook will be ignored more than if they were positioned above the guestbook.


I know this has been a rather long post, but I hope you have found it packed with useful information that will help you become a successful lensmaster. In my next post, I hope to address the topic of promoting your Squidoo lenses, so be sure to check that out. Until then, happy Squidooing!

Let's Talk Squidoo

So I know for the last week or two of blogs, I have been focusing on fractal art and all the tools available to help you get started capturing beautiful images, but I realized yesterday that while this is definitely a deserving topic to cover, I feel as though I have been neglecting discussion on some of my other projects. So, today and maybe for a few more days, I will be talking about Squidoo. If you are disappointed I won't be talking about fractals today, here is one more amazing resource I found just for you. Check it out and leave me a message with any questions if you want to discuss it further.

Alright, now before I can really get into discussing Squidoo, I need to explain what it is- Squidoo is basically a place where you can go and make one page websites on any topic you wish. The single-paged site is referred to as a "lens" because a good one will focus the reader's attention and enlighten them about the subject. Often the lenses are used just to inform, sometimes it's more of an extensive joke, or sometimes they are used to "pre-sell" a certain good or service. The person who creates the lens, called the "lensmaster" can make royalties off of the lens through Google AdSense and a host of other Affiliate Marketing techniques. Squidoo is unique in the sense that it also partners with some of the biggest, well-known charities to allow lensmasters the right to donate a portion or the entirety of their earnings to a charity of their choice. This is relatively unheard of in the affiliate marketing realm! The heart of Squidoo, however, is the community among the lensmasters. Almost every single lensmaster I have encountered has been genuinely interested in seeing everyone succeed and do well in this crazy adventure of creating and promoting lenses.

Still not convinced? Well, here is an article I wrote recently detailing 10 Reasons to Become a Lensmaster. It gives a better insight into what it means to be a lensmaster.

That's all I have time to cover today. In the next post I will get more into the tips and tricks I have learned from being a lensmaster.

Apophysis, Scripting, and Resources

Okay, so I blogged briefly yesterday about the new Fractal Art Freeware Program I had discovered thanks to a reference from a good friend. I also mentioned that it was an "advanced" program. Well, that is definitely no understatement! After taking some time since then to investigate, play with the controls, dabble in scripting and trying to render a decent fractal, I quickly realized that this program is only good for those who are patient! Luckily, I am, so I will continue plugging away at it and see if over time it gets easier, but I figured it was only a fair to offer a warning with my recommendation. If you are not patient, don't even look into downloading because it will drive you to the brink of insanity. But if you are, take a deep breath and dive deep. Work hard and see where you go. While it does take a lot of patience, I stand by my earlier claim that it is still the best fractal art program I have ever seen in the free price range!

If you are serious about diving in and getting the most out of this program, you will need to learn to script. I'm not going to act like I am an expert, but there are some pretty fantastic resources available on the web. Most of them are linked to the Apophysis online wiki, but the most comprehensive one on scripting can be found here. Be sure to grab a caffeinated beverage or something else to keep you awake though- it's not exactly an exciting read, but you will learn. Personally, I choose to bookmark it and come back to read a little bit at a time. I'm hoping this will help me to not be too overwhelmed.

Diving Deeper into Eternity

In case you didn't know and were wondering, the math behind fractal art is related to how the 3D geometrical shape corresponds to infinity. No, I do not understand fully the math that is really involved, but I have found a more advanced tool for creating fractal art. It's called Apophysis. It's comes with some great pre-sets but also allows you to create your own fractal designs instead of simply filtering and editing the ones already available. And even if you're too scared to build your own fractal from scratch, you can actually manipulate the pre-sets in 3D! That means way more possibilities than anything I have seen so far offered for free! I've only just begun playing with it and the online tutorials and wiki manual are slightly overwhelming at first, but I know that in order to continue growing as a fractal artist, I must conquer my fear (mainly of math) and step out. Like I always say, you never know till you give it your all! If you fail, well, then, at least you know your limits and you can brush yourself off with pride, knowing you did your best!

Crazy Zazzle Productivity, Fostering Creativity... and Facebook

So, this last day or so, I have been extremely productive on Zazzle. I now have over 100 products- crazy! I've found that I produce the most when I focus on "chunks" of the process. By that I mean that I take a little while to work on capturing some great images that would look good on several different products and saving them at a high resolution, typically 1400x1400. Then I might spend some time uploading images, five at a time onto the site. With such high resolutions, this can take a little while, but I usually do it while I'm watching tv or blogging. Once they are updated, I start creating. I do not finish the products then, however- I simply choose an item, slap an image on it, adjust as needed and save to post for sale later. Finally, I go back and do the tedious work of posting for sale. This process may or may not work for others, but I find that it helps me be much more productive than doing the entire process all at once.

I also managed to publish another lens on Facebook. It's about Fostering Creativity. It's got lots of great quotes and information I gathered up a couple of years ago for a Child Development course I took during my undergraduate work.

I also began really working on a lens I've been planning for a while now. It deals with privacy on Facebook and includes a tutorial to the privacy options for users as well as tips for parents. It's slow going only because it's not the most exciting subject, but it is one I feel needs to be addressed. I will let you know more when it's live, which may be a while, but it's something to look forward to!

A Word About Fractal Art for the Beginner: A Personal Observation

While it may look like it took a painstakingly long time to create fractal art, it didn't. This art medium is perfect for the not so perfectly creative with an eye for beauty. In many ways, its a lot like photography- you don't exactly create as much as capture the beauty that is already there. As I have stated before, I'm using a free program called Tierazon. It's taken me a little while to get used to it. Some of my first images I made silly mistakes like not saving them at a high enough resolution to use on anything more than a postage stamp, but there's an online tutorial that walked me through most of the controls and after that it just takes some time and experience to get the hang of it.

While it is a fairly easy artistic niche to enter, I do believe that fractal art should come with a warning attached. It is addictive! When you stare at a computer screen constantly zooming in, re-sizing, filtering, and capturing images over and over again, the concept seeps into your daily life functioning. For example, the other day, I was walking up a set of marble stairs. The marble had a very tiny design on it and in my mind I wished I could "zoom in" to see it more clearly, slightly change the colors, and save. I know that sounds silly, but it happens a lot. I saw a tree the other day and it reminded me of one of the fractals I had been working on. I wondered if I got close enough if I could see the fractal repeat itself. In many ways though, this is a big blessing- it allows me to appreciate the beauty in nature more and because the math behind fractal art is natural math, you see it everywhere!

Personally, I think that every artist could hone their "eye" for art by utilizing fractals. I've been amazed at how it has impacted my life in such a short amount of time!

New Lens Showcasing R.W. Designs on Zazzle

I began working on a new Squidoo lens yesterday. Now that I have created over 75 products on Zazzle (wow!), I'm hoping to use the lens to showcase my designs. I'm also including several cool modules to feature other Zazzle artists like this talented 10-year-old Canadian girl I found. She may be young, but she has a big talent for art and design! I would imagine that she inherited it from her mom and
dad (yep, also Zazzler's!)

I also plan on updating regularly with tricks and tools as I learn the ropes. I'm not sure how popular it will be, but I'll never know if I don't try!

Beginning T-Shirt Design

::Sigh:: Fractal art has become in many ways a very quick and easy hobby for me, but fractals do not exactly look great on t-shirts and other apparel, so I've begun trying to get my feet wet with t-shirt design. I do not believe I have the patience to be a great digital artist, so instead, I have tried to create simple but fun designs that catch people's attention. I've decided that funny is usually best. However, that can be difficult when I'm trying to create. Inspiration often comes when it's least expected, though, so I wait. I did have some ideas that I want to run by some people before I post them for sale.

Sorry this is such a short post. I'm exhausted and my bed beacons me even as I type. Good night all and I will blog again soon.

Squidoo Update

Today I noticed that during the last week or so of diving head-first into fractal art, my poor Squidoo lenses have suffered greatly. So, I took a little extra time to update some of my favorites that I believe have the most potential. I took the opportunity to tighten up the formatting and add a little more content to each of them. I deleted some of the modules that appeared to be excessive, such as Flickr modules that were not showing appropriate pictures.Here's a brief overview of my progress:

I Want to be an Occupational Therapist!: improved intro. module and guestbook

Write Out of the Box: improved intro. module and improved appearance

The Works and Life of Cherangelry: added a new blog entry

Big Bang Theory, CBS Sit-Com: updated with fresh information about the latest episode (It's a really fun show- you should check it out if you haven't already fallen in love with it!)

The rest of my lenses I might work on later, but I am finding that the ones I am most passionate about are the ones I update most often. I'm considering dropping some of the ones I have built in order to focus on building lenses that are more geared towards what I know about, what I enjoy talking about. I guess we'll just see what happens.

P.S. Associated Content updated their servers today and I am up to 5806 pageviews! Yay! I love AC Update Day!

Discussion of Fractals

I realized earlier today that even though I have often mentioned fractal art, I haven't actually talked much about what a fractal is and how fractal art is created. So, that's what I want to talk about in this post so that you'll know exactly what I'm talking about when I use these terms.

The Fractal Geometry of Nature by Mandelbrot defines a fractal as:

"a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be subdivided into parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole"

The best way to really understand what fractals are, however, is to learn how to recognize a fractal. Wikipedia offers help in the form of the following list of common fractal features:

* It has a fine structure at arbitrarily small scales.
* It is too irregular to be easily described in traditional Euclidean geometric language.
* It is self-similar (at least approximately or stochastically).
* It has a Hausdorff dimension which is greater than its topological dimension (although this requirement is not met by space-filling curves such as the Hilbert curve).
* It has a simple and recursive definition.

As for how fractal art is created, well, that is a discussion so entirely complex that I cannot begin to explain- mostly because I'm not so sure myself. All I can do is point you towards a resource that will help you understand it better. Here is an introduction to fractals that goes more into detail on this topic.

Did you know?
Fractal comes from the Latin word fractus, meaning "broken" or "fractured".

Corrugator Supercilius, Pendulums, Dark Matter and General Academia

Sadly enough, my day really did incorporate all of the items mentioned in the title. And no, I'm not a genius, I'm a student taking way too many science classes. I had a test in Anatomy (Corrugator Supercilius is the muscle above your eye that allows you to make frown lines). Then I had a Physics Lab involving Simple Harmonic Motion of Pendulums, followed by a short lunch break and a two hour Physics class, where we went so far off topic we began discussing Dark Matter. (We were supposed to be learning about thermogenesis!)

At the end of the day, I was pretty exhausted. Needless to say, I did not work much on any of my projects. I did, however, manage to create a couple more products based off of some fractals I had already uploaded and make some minor adjustments to a Squidoo lens or two. Doing this helped relax me a little after my long day. Oh, and I also watched the finale show to "Here Comes the Newlyweds" online. It's a great show! If you haven't seen it, check it out for free here. Be sure to grab a box of tissues before you watch the last episode- it's an unexpected tear-jerker!

Lazy Day

Today was a good day. I had the house to myself almost all day. I finished off my taxes, wrote a paper for class, and studied for a test tomorrow. In between all of this, I managed to play with fractals a little more. I've found some cool tricks and I'm realizing that it's as much an adventure as it is an art form. I love the thrill of picking beauty out of what often appears to be a tragic mess at the start. It's addicting really.

Oh, I almost forgot- BDKZ also sent me the link to her Squidoo lens on How to Create a Beautiful Squidoo Lens for Your Zazzle Gallery. Once I have had time to create some more products and really organize my online "storefront", I will be creating a lens specifically for my Zazzle products. She's been very helpful in offering tips and advice as I figure out the whole Zazzle thing, and you can tell by her store that she knows what she's talking about.

I guess that's really all for now. I'm kinda exhausted since I've been up and going strong all day long, so I'm going to sign off for now and go hit the hay.

Zazzle Experiment: Day Two

Since it's Saturday, I took out quite a bit of time to learn about fractal art and digital design. I made some much better attempts at creating better quality images that someone might actually want to buy. Not that my first attempt was the worst ever, but I fully admit that it was a very sloppy first attempt.

I found another great freeware program to help me create images. It's called Tierazon. I confess that I don't quite understand how it does what it does, but it's very user friendly and you can get some pretty fantastic results from just playing around and goofing off. Below is an example of one of the products I made today. It's a poster.



Pretty cool, huh?! It just goes to prove that you need no great experience with art to create beautiful images with this FREE program.

Also, I have added a cool little widget to the bottom of this page which will automatically rotate all of the products I have for sale at my Zazzle store. This way my blog won't become a sales catalog for my store and I can talk about the other stuff I'm getting into as my interests and focus change course and diversify.

Zazzle Experiment

Since my first post yesterday, I have dipped my toe in a whole new pool of internet creation- digital art. I've created an account on Zazzle.com. Zazzle is a print-on-demand store where anyone can design their own product lines and open a merchant store. As each product is ordered, Zazzle deals with the customer relations and you make commissions on each sale. In addition, you can open an associate account and earn commissions for every sale made through your ad placement. Most people are calling it the next CafePress.

Here is my sloppy first attempt at design- it's an abstract postage stamp! Random? Yes, but that's how I roll.


I still have a lot to learn about digital art, but I created this image using a FREE software called Artweaver. In the little bit of time I've had to play around with it, I cannot believe that this is being offered for free! It's incredible and does a lot of the same stuff that most people pay hundreds of dollars for! I definitely recommend it if you want to get into digital art but don't have the money to buy Corel, Adobe Photoshop, or some other high priced software. If for some reason Artweaver isn't exactly what you're looking for, here's the site with a bunch of other great FREE software downloads that might suit you better.

The Awkward First Post

I began this blog as a way for my family, friends and fans to keep up with me and all of my ongoing projects. Here are some links to some of my ongoing projects and interests.

Associated Content

AC boasts of being the "The People's Media Company". They pay regular people to write quality content articles on a wide variety of subjects. The result? A media source completely reliant on the power of the people! Now that is an amazing concept! You can find my articles on Associated Content here.

Squidoo

I have also been playing around on Squidoo lately. If you have never heard of it, it's basically a place where you can create one page websites, called "lenses". If you're interested,check out the FAQ page.

Personally, I use Squidoo for a number of reasons- to promote my AC articles, to create lenses about stuff I care about, or just have fun. I've found that it's very addicting!

Here is a lens where I have aggregated all of my lenses and articles by topic. I can almost guarantee you will find something you like. If not, leave me a suggestion in the guestbook at the bottom of the page and I'll see what I can do.