The Poddyland News

Well imagine my surprise today to get an email telling me that my lens My Claim To Fame had received a Purple Star on Squidoo.

This is one of my oldest lenses, and one of the earlier lenses I believe where other lensmasters were asked to help contribute to it.   I have always been very proud of this lens, and now, with it’s new award, maybe it’s time to look at revamping it and enhancing the layout, as well as it’s marketability.

If you would like to have your name on the Wall Of Fame, use the link on the lens to send me your details.   Once added, you can also add the coveted (but not as much as a Purple Star of course) Wall Of Fame badge to your profile – or anywhere else that you would like.

To whoever nominated this lens for an award, I am very grateful, and thank you very much.

I came across some great ideas for business cards and postcards to help promote your small business or projects, and thought these were too good to not pass on.

MOO Business Cards, MiniCards, Postcards. Create unique cards using your own photos or designs to help your business stand out!

See what you think. Hope this helps.
Tony

Wow!  I just spotted that my fan club on Squidoo is now 501.

It’s amazing that so many people have added themselves and decided to become fans.

Makes me feel good

I am hoping things continue to go well as I strive to reach the Giant Squid 100 Club.

It seems so long ago now (although it was only 10 days) that I found out that my Bournemouth lens had earned the coveted Purple Star award on Squidoo.

I was so excited, since this award is not given out lightly, and although my lens had already won the Lens Of The Day award last year, this just gave me renewed confidence in my ability to create quality lenses.

I was all set to publish a new blog  post about this, when I got busy with other tasks for a few days, and then my laptop decided to crash on me.   The Hard Drive got horribly corrupted, and having realised that it wasn’t going to be possible to get the system restored, I decided to buy a new 500gb Hard Drive to replace the 120gb one that came with the laptop.  The existing drive was already 90% full, despite my offloading my Music and Movies, so getting a larger drive was the best solution.  Since it only cost $90, it was well worth it.

The problem is that any system restore like this takes time, and in my case 4 days!  It’s nt just restoring Windows, it’s downloading and installing all the programs, remembering your logins and settings etc.  Lots to do.

I was very fortunate in that I took a backup 4 days before, and since I keep 7 days of mail on the server, I only lost updates to a couple of documents, and any emails that I had sent out in the last few days, but nothing else.   PHEW!  I am so relieved to have the system back…

And now it’s time to play catch up, and work on creating another lens that might get an award…

This is an idea from Lake Eerie Artists who suggested that there should be an opportunity to promote your lens(es) that flopped and failed to generate traffic.   You can read her post on Promote A Flop Day here.

I think this is a wonderful idea, giving a lonely lens with precious little traffic a new chance to flourish.

So please friends, add a comment to this post with details of your Lonely Lens and why you think it should be given a better chance to grow.  I hope this helps to generate extra traffic.

As well as promoting your own lens, please can you help your fellow lensmasters by taking a look at their lonely lenses too.   I am not advocating that you give them all FIVE STARS or anything – just do what you would when you visit any other lens.  This is purely to help give some extra exposure to great little lenses that need a boost.

Thanks everyone for participating.  You can help also by promoting this post, so that more people get to know about it, and if you came across this post first, don;’t forget to visit Promote A Flop Day and to do the same there.

May we see lots of lonely lenses start to bloom as a result.

It’s been almost a month since I last posted to The Poddyland News, and although in theory since I lost my job four weeks ago today you would think that I have had plenty of time to post left right and centre, I have actually been incredibly busy this past month.

My first priority was to get my medical affairs put in order, since I only had two weeks before my insurance ran out, and there was no way that I could justify paying COBRA (the insurance payments to stay on the same plan after you lose your job), as this would cost close to $400 a month.  Since I moved to Florida three years ago I hadn’t registered with any medical services, and so first I went and got my vision tested.

I know that my eyesight has been getting worse in the last five years, but I have kept putting off getting my eyes checked year after year.  Now with no insurance on the horizon it was time to get this checked.   Well fortunately the specialist said that my eyes are very good, but I do need glasses for reading.   I don’t think they look bad, considering I have never looked good in any headgear, whether it’s glasses or a hat.  Personally I think I look a bit like Dr. Gil Grissom from CSI, although the picture here doesn’t look so much like that to my – hard to take a side view myself.  One good thing is that the exam tested for things like diabetes, and I seem to be ok there.  Phew!  Although the vision test was included with my insurance, only part of the cost of the frames was covered, so there I am out of work and already just over $100 out of pocket.

Next it was time to visit the Doctor to get a checkup.  The last I had was a good five years previous, and although I don’t feel ill, once you get to 50 you never know what might be lurking.  I guess because he knew I wouldn’t be going back too much if I could help it, the doctor just did the essentials.  I got a set of X-Rays, my ears and chest checked, but he didn’t comment on my hernia, which was repaired 10 years ago and has been bulging lately.  Guess I can’t afford to get this looked at anyhow unless it gets serious.  Having lost some weight in the last two years this has been a lot better than it was, so I am not too concerned right now.

And then we come to the dentist.  The checkup included 14 x-rays, and although I was sure I would need 2 or 3 fillings, the dentist didn’t see I needed any.  I did however need a crown fitted on one tooth, broken when I bit down on a Tootsie Roll that I stole from my daughter’s Halloween candy bag two years ago.  Alas crime doesn’t pay in my case!   Well of course the insurance only covers 50% of a crown, and there is a $50 deductible, so there I am $550 more out of pocket.  I then had a cleaning, where they found several pockets of decay and recommended a treatment for this.  Csan I just say that it was a bit like being pressurized into buying double glazing, and I ended up opting for the anti-biotic injections that they recommended, which of course are not covered – another $160 out of pocket.  They give me a leaflet to read, which I take home, and when I go to read it find is in Spanish – hmmm!  So I look the product up online and find lots of reports of dentists recommending this treatment just to get extra money.  Oh great – taken for a ride again.  I figure it’s not worth trying to argue about it, so I just put it down to experience.  At least the temporary crown fits really well, I have the finshed item fitted next week.

It took several weeks to get my glasses, and of course being out of work I haven’t had to use them much, however it’s been wonderful being able to see the occasional hair to pluck out of my ears (just the occasional one I can feel and it annoys me that I have to try and pluck it blind), and I can now see to cut my toe nails too   Woo-hoo…

I attended a two day class last week on updating your resume and marketing yourself.  Although I didn’t think that this would be much use to me, since I already have a resume and know where to look for jobs, there was a lot of advice which has prompted me to work on updating my resume.  I am not sure how much benefit this will be, but if an opening comes down to the quality and look of a resume, it pays to have mine looking as good as it can.

I have a possible contract opening in Miami, but have been waiting, and waiting, and having not seen Debbie since the beginning of the year, we want to try and get together for Easter, when she has two weeks off work during the school holidays.  We already waiting until the prices for flights started to increase, and so at the weekend I decided that I would go to England for Easter, since the flights from here to there are hundreds of dollars cheaper than the other way around.  It seems crazy really, since you are taking the same flights.  I managed to get good connections, flying out of Fort Lauderdale which is my closest airport instead of Miami, and the flights were only $500, almost the cheapest I have paid in the last three years to travel to London.  With money being tight I could not afford to miss this opportunity.

Should a job open up in the next few weeks, with luck they will allow me to work from home part of the time, in which case I can do some work from England.  The most important thing is for Debbie and I to be together.  If I have to work some of the time, at least we will both be in the same place and not 4,500 miles apart.

HAVE YOU SEEN OUR NEW BLOG

If you haven’t had time to see our new blog yet, I invite you to drop in to see us at Off The Record.  Be sure to leave us a comment to let us know you were there.  You can also subscribe to our feed or to get emails when we post new entries.  Just click on the Subscribe button.

My SQUIDOO LENSES

Being off work I have been able to spend a bit more time working on my lenses, and subsequently the rankings have increased somewhat.   I still lack many in the Top Tier, and I still lack affiliate sales, but things are looking up.

My lens status as of today is as below:

LENS STATUS

Top 100: 0
Top 2,000: 3
Top 10,000: 14
Lenses: 75

NEW LENSES

Tropical Zazzle

MY TOP 5 LENSES

1. My Pet Peeves
2. Religious Jokes
3. Bournemouth
4. Zecharia Sitchin
5. Baby Boomer Jokes

LENSES IN NEED OF LOVE – I AM LONELY – PLEASE VISIT ME

• Song Lyrics Baggy Trousers by Madness
• Song Lyrics – Up The Junction by Squeeze
• Song Lyrics – Eton Rifles by The Jam

I was all set to write my next post on The Poddyland News Wednesday morning when I got called into the boss’s office, and here I am unemployed again.

The company had been trying to cut costs, since sales have slowed down, and the biggest customer, Walmart, had been squeezing profit margins.

So here I am, one of 60 people who lost their jobs in Boca Raton on Wednesday, not a lot of hope to get another one in the field I have worked in for the last 20 years, since nobody is hiring.  In fact it doesn’t look like there is a single job advertised for what I do in the swole state of Florida.

Well I wrote a post about this on my blog and hope that you will pay a visit if you haven’t already to read more.

I think my only hope for now lies in trying to boost my earnings online, so any visits to my blog, shares, Thumbs Up, Diggs etc would be much appreciated.  Hopefully if I can get some increased traffic and exposure to more visitors, I might get some more Adsense Clicks or Affiliate Sales, and that could help to bring in some more revenue in the coming months.

I know that most of you reading this post are my friends on here, although I hope that word about Squidtop manages to spread to a wider audience.  I truly appreciate all the help you have given and can give.   People from Squidoo have proven to be very generous with advice and help, and I feel like we have some groups of people who are becoming really good friends.

I spent almost 2 hours on the phone with a lensmaster in California on Friday for example, who gave me lots of ideas about ways to potentially earn some good money, and having chatted with people on the forums over the last year, you already feel that you are like old friends, even before you chat on the phone or meet.

Well wish me luck in my endeavours.  I will be working on my lenses, but firstly I have to get my paperwork in order, tax return done while I have the time, medical work done while I still have insurance, and a couple of new internet projects off the ground.

I was wondering about our blogs at Squidtop lately.  Just how many people actually visit and look at our postings?  Is it just the small group of us that have blogs, or do other people actually visit at all?

There are often very few comments on not only my postings, but others here too, and they are usually by the same people – US!

I wondered what you do to promote your Squidtop blog, and does it seem to do any good?

South Florida has cooled off again this week, and the temperatures for the last 3 nights were down in the low 30’s, which is decidedly cool for here.   It’s funny to see people in thick winter coats, but I have to admit that although I have a good tolerance for cold, and I can stand being outside when it’s cold as long as the sun is shining and it’s not windy, once the sun goes in and that icy wind gets up, it starts to cut right through me.

This week has seen me making a few tweaks to our Off The Record blog, mostly tidying up the code on the Wordpress Theme.  Debbie also put out a wonderfully funny post about the shopping trip she took last weekend with her daughter.  If you haven’t seen it yet, you could be missing out on a good laugh.

I also worked on another site that I have been desperate to get off the ground this past week, The Laughline.  This is the place where I will be copying all the jokes and funny pictures from my original web site The Poddys Directory, plus I will be using it as the archive repository for all my postings from my Yahoo Group.  So if you get a chance and are in the mood for something funny, please drop by The Laughline.

Well the deadline has now passed for Debbie to get her visa approved, so there is not enough time now before Valentines Day to get her passport sent off the the US Embassy in London and returned before she was due to fly, even if she heard today.  So, our hopes of spending half term together for Valentines Day and Presidents Day have been dashed.  I have Presidents Day off and she has the whole week off, but now we have to spend them alone, 4,500 miles apart.  The next opportunity for her to come over is Easter, which is another 2 months away.  Of course we still have to wait for her visa to be approved to know if she can come over.  The waiting, since the end of October is so frustrating.  Please keep your fingers crossed for us.

Well have a good weekend everybody, stay warm, or cool if you are in the Southern Hemisphere, and if you get a chance, I have 3 lenses listed below that are in need of some love.  Please visit if you can and leave a comment to let me know that you were there.

HAVE YOU SEEN OUR NEW BLOG

Debbie (better know to some of you as Debnet) have a new blog, and we both invite you to join in the conversations there and to see what we are up to.   We plan to cover just about anything, from what each of us is doing while we are stuck 4,500 miles apart, to news, updates and information on trendy new items or web sites / software that we like.  So please if you have time drop in to see us at Off The Record.  Be sure to leave us a comment to let us know you were there. 

My SQUIDOO LENSES

My lens status as of today is as below:

LENS STATUS

Top 100: 0
Top 2,000: 3
Top 10,000: 8
Lenses: 74

NEW LENSES

The Best Breakfast Food
The Daily Joke January 2009

MY TOP 5 LENSES

1. My Pet Peeves
2. The Best Breakfast Food
3. Bournemouth
4. The Daily Joke Index
5. Religious Jokes

LENSES IN NEED OF LOVE – I AM LONELY – PLEASE VISIT ME

• Song Lyrics Baggy Trousers by Madness
• Song Lyrics Walking On The Moon by The Police
• Song Lyrics Hungry Heart by Bruce Springsteen

South Florida has warmed up nicely, thankfully, and it’s back to being a very pleasant time of year again.  It’s nice and cool at night, not cold, and during the day the temperatures are rising to the mid 70’s with plenty of sunshine and a light breeze.  No need to put the air conditioning on, open the windows to let the fresh air in, it’s practically perfect.

The weekend was fairly uneventful, with my seeing my daughters on Sunday morning for breakfast and to take them to the park, but most of the rest of the weekend I sat in and tried to work on updating lenses on Squidoo and catching up with correspondence.  

I didn’t create any new lenses this week, however I finally got around to completing my final Song Lyrics lens, YMCA by The Village People.   I created this in July 2008 but never had time to complete it, and although it had a number of blank modules, the song has done well with the search engines and I get enough traffic so that without any promotion it’s actually the best performing of my Song Lyrics lenses.  Well now I have finished it, and think I did a pretty good job, but what is the probability that Google now drops it’s position so the traffic disappears?    As well as completing the lens, I added it to more groups, lensrolled it, Stumbled it, Tagfooted it too, so you would think things would improve…   Got any lenses related to the 70’s or Party Songs?  I would be happy to add them as Featured Lenses here.   One thing I was disappointed in, is that I had wanted to add a Featured Lens Module to highlight other lenses about Greenwich Village in New York or artists that had come from there.  Could I really find anything?  Nope!  A few lenses that mentioned it, and a few really awful lenses that I didn’t feel happy with linking to.  Maybe something good will come along in the future.

Debbie and I have also been busy working on our blog (see below), and the traffic is increasing nicely, with lots of our friends from Squidoo and Tagfoot visiting.  We haven’t added many postings to the blog in the last week, but I have lots of ideas for posts and pages – just need the time to focus on them.   

One thing I have been thinking about is Google Adsense.  Sometimes a click is worth only 1 cent or fewer than 10 cents, but at other times it can be worth a dollar or even more.   I need to do some research on the keywords that pay best on Adsense, and to try to steer some postings towards those topics, hoping to target visitors who will click on the more profitable ads.   This way we might be able to go from one to five dollars a day to fifty to one hundred dollars a day.   Here’s hoping I can find the secret sometime soon and put some new ideas to work.

HAVE YOU SEEN OUR NEW BLOG

Debbie (better know to some of you as Debnet) have a new blog, and we both invite you to join in the conversations there and to see what we are up to.   We plan to cover just about anything, from what each of us is doing while we are stuck 4,500 miles apart, to news, updates and information on trendy new items or web sites / software that we like.  So please if you have time drop in to see us at Off The Record.  Be sure to leave us a comment to let us know you were there. 

My SQUIDOO LENSES

My lens status as of today is as below:

LENS STATUS

Top 100: 0
Top 2,000: 4
Top 10,000: 9
Lenses: 74

NEW LENSES

The Best Breakfast Food
The Daily Joke January 2009

MY TOP 5 LENSES

1. The Best Breakfast Food
2. My Pet Peeves
3. Bournemouth
4. Zecharia Sitchin
5. The Daily Joke – February 2008

LENSES IN NEED OF LOVE – I AM LONELY – PLEASE VISIT ME

• Song Lyrics – The Jam Town Called Malice
• Song Lyrics – Squeeze – Up The Junction
• Song Lyrics – Madness – My Girl

It’s freezing cold here in South Florida today.  Well freezing is a relative term I know.  Put it this way, the temperature when I came to work this morning was 39 degrees.  If it was in the 40’s I could have just come to work in a short sleeved shirt as usual, but since it dipped into the 30’s, I decided to put a sweater on, mostly because of the cold wind.  

It was so funny sitting in traffic, watching people smoking like crazy as they often do on the way to work, cars all fogged up because they didn’t want to have to open their windows, and then some people wearing thick winter coats with hoods pulled up over their heads, trying to drive with just eyes and nose peeking out.  I mean it was barely below 40 degrees, not Minnesota or Canada.

It’s been an odd week really so far.   Last week was tough, with it being the second full week since I returned from England, but having Monday off for Martin Luther King day, and then spending time yesterday watching the inaugaration of President Obama, it just seemed different.   Maybe in some ways it’s a relief because I was dreading something happening during the ceremony, but all went ok and the man gave a fine speech.  I really hope he will prove to be a great president, one who not only cares about the USA as a nation, but about the people, and also the world that we live in.  From his stirring speech he certainly has dreams of making big changes, and I truly hope that he can succeed.

While on the subject of the President, I saw this morning that the WHITEHOUSE.GOV web site has been redesigned.  Gone is the stuffy old fashioned web site, and in has come a sweet looking new blog, with the first of many great articles to come.  Yes there certainly is a fresh feeling in The White House already.

As for the weekend, I took my daughters out to the park twice, and to the beach (just to the boardwalk of course as it was cold), and we had a great time together. 

I also managed to create two new lenses on Squidoo.   The first I created on Friday night, having had a thought while reading about the new Twitterstorm lens format.  So I put together a lens about The Best Breakfast Food and so far it’s done really well, soaring into the Top 1,000 in a matter of days.  makes a change for me.

Secondly I thought it was about time to start putting together The Daily Joke for January 2009.  This is the twelfth monthly Daily Joke lens that I have created, and the first in a few months that has had jokes and not funny pictures.   It’s hard to find really good jokes that I haven’t used before, but having had a break I am finding some, and with the gap since the last one I created I hope to be able to use some of my newly learned lensmaster skills to make it look better.

Both Debbie and I have also been busy working on our blog (see below), and the traffic is increasing nicely, with lots of our friends from Squidoo and Tagfoot visiting.

HAVE YOU SEEN OUR NEW BLOG

Debbie (better know to some of you as Debnet) have a new blog, and we both invite you to join in the conversations there and to see what we are up to.   We plan to cover just about anything, from what each of us is doing while we are stuck 4,500 miles apart, to news, updates and information on trendy new items or web sites / software that we like.  So please if you have time drop in to see us at Off The Record.  Be sure to leave us a comment to let us know you were there. 

My SQUIDOO LENSES

My lens status as of today is as below:

LENS STATUS

Top 100: 0
Top 2,000: 4
Top 10,000: 7
Lenses: 74

NEW LENSES

The Best Breakfast Food
The Daily Joke January 2009

MY TOP 5 LENSES

1. The Best Breakfast Food
2. My Pet Peeves
3. Bournemouth
4. Zecharia Sitchin
5. The Daily Joke – February 2008

LENSES IN NEED OF LOVE – I AM LONELY – PLEASE VISIT ME

• Song Lyrics – Dire Straits – Money For Nothing
• Song Lyrics – Donna Summer – Bad Girls
• Song Lyrics – The Police – Walking On The Moon