AJ is Always Juggling

I have managed to plan ahead and so Valentine’s Day has now been published.

Readers of my work will know that I try to add a slightly different dimension to what you would expect from a lens topic that will undoubtedly be done to death in the next few weeks. So what’s different about this lens? Well, it is the first to feature original photos taken by my eldest daughter. Of course I think they are very good, but early Guestbook feedback seems to back this up!

However, although I seem to find it easy to work in the content to a new lens, I have a confession to make - I really struggle to find imaginitive ways to “monetise” (s not z, I am English!) my lenses. I have set up affiliate accounts but I am being inhibited in the way I use them.

For me it is a very fine balancing act between writing lenses that people will want to read and also trying to earn some extra money on the side (and goodness knows we need it at the moment) without putting people off.

Another New Year’s resolution: carry on with the AJ style of writing but for heaven’s sake start earning some money or you will have to find another way to do it and I do love Squidoo!

Does anyone have any tips?

Pingbacks - they are one of those things I keep meaning to find out more about. But what made me sit up and take notice was FOUR pingback comments on my last post. They come from some blogs or websites to do with elderly people and had picked up on something I had mentioned - the crucial word being “elderly”.

I have no problem with the fact that this person’s post referred to me as “This chap” but the comment s/he made about my post made me think that what s/he was doing was automated as my blog was not at all relevant to things like “elderly aid”.

So the lesson I have learned is to be careful about which posts I allow Pingbacks on and needless to say Pingbacks are being disallowed on both my last post and this one!

Has anyone else had the same problem?

A question Cleanerlife asked me in my last blog post. How can I not believe in Destiny after what happened in 2008?

This time last year, I finally did the Cash Flow forecasting I needed to do. I had deliberately put it off so as not to spoil Christmas and New Year for my husband and brother. Thanks to the housing market crashing around us, our family business was in desperate straights. We knew we were in trouble, it was just a question of how bad it was.

We bought run down properties, renovated them and then sold them on. All the financial projections were carefully done: there was labour costs, insurance, materials, legal and realtor fees. Every nut, bolt and screw was allowed for. What we did not allow for was that while we had two houses on our books they would devalue by at least 20%. When you are working on a 10% profit margin (normal for this type of small business in the UK) you don’t have to be a mathmatical genius to work out there was a problem.

I wont go into the details, save to say that the first three months of 2008 were the worst my husband and I have experienced in 15 years together. We were OK as a couple but I have never had so many conversations at 3 am, when neither of us could sleep for the worry of it all. To raise the capital for the business our home was put up as security. That was bad enough but my elderly parents’ home was used as security as well. In two years, what had been a relatively secure venture had turned into everyone’s worse nightmare.

We said nothing to my parents to start with. We only told them once the first house had been sold and we had paid the bank back some of what we owed, which was sufficient to lift the legal charge on their property. We actually still managed to make a profit on that house but values were still sliding and by the time we sold the second house, we had made an overall loss.

Ah well, at least both mny husband and I had good jobs. Mine was fantastic - it was a one year contract until the end of August 2008 and in March 2008 there was already talk of a permanent position. The pay was brilliant and I was working part time from home. With two children it was ideal.

Then I became very ill in April and had to stop working. It was so bad I thought either I’d had a stroke or I was getting Parkinson’s Disease. I had scans which showed nothing and then I was referred to a neurologist - very scary. But in June I got the diagnosis: Otosclerosis. On the one hand I was relieved that it was nothing too sinister but I felt my whole life grinding to a halt. It would have been easy to descend into depression and looking back I am so surprised I did not.

We were in debt. I could not work. I could not do any of the things I normally did. No tennis, not much gardening, no going out unaccompanied and I even had to stop driving. The only good thing about it was I had a perfectly legitimate reason for not being able to do much housework or shopping!

So what to do? Despite the dizzyness and problems with co-ordination and clumsyness I could still use a computer - oh joy! If that pleasure in life had been denied to me, I really would have been desperate.

I had always wanted to write and I do have a draft novel (note to moi: get working on it some more) so I started researching writing on the net. The rest is Squidoo history and will be the subject of a new lens one of these days.

If I had not got Otosclerosis I may not have found Squidoo.

If I had not found Squidoo I would not have written that first lens.

If I had not written that first lens I would not have got my new job: Imperfectly Natural.

Do I believe in Destiny (or should that be Squidestiny?) You bet!

I finally published the lens about my new job: Imperfectly Natural!

I waited awhile, because I wanted to make sure that everything was going OK, but we also had a load of bugs to squish on the site as it moved from one host to another and was re-designed. However, I think now is the time to broadcast to the world how happy and proud I am to be involved in this site, which, if you have read some of my lenses, you will know has a theme that is dear to my heart.

Not only do I tell you about the website I am editing on the lens, but of course being AJ, I tell the tale associated with getting the job and I think it is pretty amazing. I wont say any more than that or I will spoil the story.

So as one of the most difficult years of my and my Lovely Hubby’s life comes to a close, we are looking forward knowing that things are now improving. We are not out of the woods yet by a long way, but things look far more positive than they did this time last year. As a family I know we are blessed. I have four beautiful children, two loving and supportive parents, a beautiful dog, squirrels living in the apple tree and, as I said on Seth’s Thanksgiving lens, this year my husband has proved that he meant what he said about being with me in sickness and in health.

My Squidoo journey has been amazing and I am working on a lens about that too. Squidoo has brought me so many blessings and the friendship of so many wonderful lensmasters. I dare not name anyone, in case I forget someone. I have enjoyed reading your lenses, your Tweets, your comments in the SquidU forum, your blogs all over the place, your emails and your lovely messages in my Guestbooks. Thank you for your friendship - it means so much to me.

I wish you all love, peace and happiness in 2009.

It’s that time of year when I am more reflective than usual. 2008 has not been a good year for us in some ways, but every cloud has a silver lining and mine was finding Squidoo. Will 2009 be better? What is it about the passing of one year and the dawning of another?

However, my musings were severely jolted when I read the paper yesterday. L/Cpl Ben Whatley had been due home for a belated Christmas with his family on 08 January. He wont be coming home. On Christmas Eve he became the 136th British soldier to die in Afghanistan since 2001. Not for the first time I gave silent thanks that my own son outgrew his ambition to be a Marine and not for the first time my thoughts turned to all those families who spend every day dreading a knock at the door.

I sent up a silent prayer for Ben Whatley’s family and all the other families who have lost loved ones in the current armed conflicts and then turned the page and was struck by the contrast.

The headline was: “Splurge! Human Traffic hits sales”

The article started: “We may be losing our jobs and running out of money, but yesterday all we seemed to want was a brand new Gucci handbag.” In London alone HALF A MILLION shoppers descended into the main London shopping centre - the West End and Selfridges achieved sales of nearly £1m ($2m) in one hour.

So I thought no, there’s no point trying to make sense of the world. We have to take things as they come, but at the same time try to make things happen for ourselves as well. Which is why I am now off to find a host for my webpage. I have owned the domain for five months now and not done anything with it. It could be an interesting few weeks.

Rollercoasters - no way! I discovered I hated them when I went on one at Littlehampton when I was about 10 years old. I never went near them again until I became a Mum and then allowed my son to persuade me onto the runaway train at Disneyworld Florida. Never, ever again!

But isn’t it always the way that just as things start going well in one direction, that they then go wrong in another. I am trying to focus on the positive and I am trying to be proactive to resolve the problems, rather than waiting like a rabbit paralysed in the headlights, but oh boy it is hard. In addition there is so much to do at this time of year that I find it hard to switch off and relax. Too many conflicting things and hard choices have to be made about how your time can be best spent.

So, I am being quite ruthless in the choices I make and I am putting me first a lot of the time or I will be too exhausted by Christmas morning. The first thing I did was reduce the time I make available to critique lenses on the SquidU Forum. I found I was getting totally fed up with the topics that Lensmasters were submitting for critique - maybe it was my negative frame of mind but if I had seen one more blasted Forex Trading lens, I probably would not have given any well thought out and considerate feedback. I would have just typed in large font capitals: “Have you ever heard of the purple cow?” For other Lensmasters I would have liked to have typed in bold and underlined: “Please go away and read the sticky at the top of this thread and while you are at it, go visit Squid Etiquette as well!!!!!!” So for everyone’s sakes, I am not critiquing for the foreseeable future. It does mean that I will also miss out on some absolutely brilliant lenses as well……….so perhaps a little peep every now and then!

The next thing I did was skip a show rehearsal last night and stayed in and started wrapping Christmas presents. I was tired and I knew I would get even more tired if I went and because of my Otosclerosis I really do have to pace myself. Anyway I know nearly all my lines now…….

The new job is going well, and yes, I am trying to do a lens all about it and how far my Squidoo journey has brought me in the last five months. I also have some ideas for other lenses but they will have to wait as I have another project that needs to take priority, thanks to an idea given to me by Ener-G, who I can testify is definitely Psychic! The idea came about as a result of me contributing to Chef Keem’s thread on the SquidU Forum.

It’s that time of year when you think back and start thinking forward. It has been a very tough year in some ways but there is also a lot to be thankful for. My parents and all four of my children will be with us for Christmas Day. My son has a lovely partner, so we will be 9 for Christmas Lunch plus three dogs and Christmas at AJs will be celebrated along the traditional (well what’s traditional for our family anyway) lines which we all enjoy.

Thinking ahead, I hope to work out how to make a bit more than I currently do on Squidoo and will I make it to Giant Squid in March? Another 30 lenses seems a tall order to me, given my current publishing rate, but you never know!

This will be my last post before Christmas, so I wish you all whatever it is you wish for yourselves at Christmas. I have made some lovely friends here on Squidoo and I just love it. So here’s to more Squidooing in 2009!

I published two lenses for Christmas: Christmas at AJs and Twelve ways to have a green and ethical Christmas and I am pleased with how well both have done. OK so no affiliate sales, but one made Lens of the Day and is currently my highest ranking lens at 152 and the other is climbing again, having taken a dip and now on the way back up.

I have just added two new modules to Christmas at AJs, as my 2 youngest children have written about what Christmas means to them and although it would be nice to make some money off the lens, the most important thing to me is that it is part of the legacy I will leave my family. It contains family history and is now recorded for everyone to see, with three generations of my family having contributed.

So, now what to do? I have published 20 lenses and if you include Remembrance Day, Autumn at AJs, Pantomime, five of those lenses are “seasonal” and so will go out of fashion until next year.

Two more lenses are about members of The Royal Family - the one about Prince Charles and his 60th birthday did very well. The one about his mother Queen Elizabeth less so. But of course events could make them both very successful, so in a way they are an investment for the future. They were both made with an eye on future events.

I have a list of topics for more lenses, but to fit in more Lensmaking, now that I am doing some work, I will need to spend less time in the SquidU Forum. This is probably a good thing, because I have found myself getting rather “irked” by the influx of lenses that promote products that I suspect the “promoter” has not even tried and Lensmasters who keep asking for help/advice/critiques, who do not go and visit other lenses. I am probably allowing it to bug me more than it should, so methinks it is time to take a break from giving feedback, critiques etc and just concentrate on doing my own thing for awhile.

I gave up any thoughts of making 50 lenses in time for the December Giant Squid deadline some time ago and wonder if I will manage it by March. I saw a Tweet earlier today that getting to Giant is going to be harder, but I think that is a good thing.

Christmas came early for my lens: Twelve Ways to Have a Green & Ethical Christmas. On 01st December I did what I always do every morning when I wake Sparky up for school. I fired up the PC and logged on, then left it as it takes around five minutes to get going because of the Virus and Spyware protection that runs at start up. Then when I came back upstairs to wake Lizzie, I logged on to my emails. I was puzzled - there was a comment saying “Congrats on Lens of the Day”. I thought it must have taken that person a while to get around to visiting: Auditory Processing Disorder, which was LOTD in September, but it was nice to get the comment. Then I looked at an email from my Squidfriend Debnet, who said something like: “you did it again!”

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat????????

Oh my gosh, Twelve Ways to Have a Green and Ethical Christmas had made LOTD - unbelievable, but there it was in the bottom left hand corner of my Dashboard! Then when the LOTD blog was updated, there was a post from Kimberly, saying she was “Guesting” and choosing some LOTDs.

As a result of the extra traffic the lens is currently Number 1 in “Green” and I feel very honoured.

Last week was also a traffic milestone as visits to my 20 lenses broke the 900 barrier for the first time. My stats are looking good today as well:

Top 2000 = 4
Top 10,000 = 10
Top 20,000 = 2
Top 40,000 = 4

I am finding it a struggle to maintain my lenses though as I have started my new job and I am rehearsing two evenings a week. I am determined NOT to say any more about the job at the moment as I want to tell the story in a lens. It makes a great Squidoo story - well I think it does - so you will have to wait a bit longer.

I have so many ideas for new lenses but no time to do them at the moment - there is no way I will get near 30 lenses by the end of the month, let alone 50 so my application for Giant Squid will have to wait.

This last week has seen some extra support from fellow lensmasters:

Carrie, who featured Squid Etiquette on her Helping Squidoo Lenses blog . There’s also more information on Giving Squids a Helping Hand.

MiMi, who featured Soapnuts on her Squidoo Lens Reviews blog. Find out more on MiMi’s lens.

Katinka, who has “interviewed” me for: her Squidtop blog - you can find about more about the rationale behind the blog on: Thank you lensmaster.

So it has been quite a week on Squidoo!

Time to put Autumn at AJ’s to bed methinks. Today was officially the start of Winter at AJ’s. A visitor has arrived in the garden from Scandinavia, which means the weather is bad up there and it also means Winter has definitely arrived in this part of the UK.

So who is the Visitor? I have added a new module and this will probably be the last big update until next year.

But isn’t is soooo hard when a topical lens is no longer topical and you have to leave it until it becomes topical again? I feel I am waving the lens off on a year’s trip or something!

For the first time in a long time, I have got rather low. My physiotherapy is not making the improvement I had hoped as far as my Otosclerosis is concerned and today I was told I may not make a full recovery. For me a “full recovery” would be to be able to play tennis again, but in the meantime I will settle for just being able to drive.

Following the hospital appointment my LH (Lovely Hubby) took me Christmas shopping and it was good just to wander around for awhile and yes, we managed to get quite a lot of stuff. I tried to shake off my feeling that the glass is actually half empty rather than half full and sort of managed it. No Squidooing today but when I checked my emails, I was really puzzled to get some comments about getting LOTD. I thought it was a Lensmaster who had only just got around to looking at Auditory Processing Disorder, which got LOTD in September. But then I read the message again…..

Oh Wow, oh Wow, oh Wow - there it was in the bottom left hand corner of my Dashboard under Lens of the Day: Twelve Days of a Green and Ethical Christmas.

Speechless - for once!