The Giant Squid

One Dip at a Time

damon.hedman@gmail.com — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 21:05:00 GMT

I just finished reading Seth Godin's latest book, The Dip.

Everyone has experienced the dip. Whenever you start something there is the initial excitement about the project. Ideas are flowing. Business is growing. You're in the zone.

Then it starts getting tough. The work starts to become tedious. New ideas become scarce. Your business may have hit a plateau. You are in the dip.

The dip is important because it creates scarcity on the other side. Not everyone gets through the dip. Those that do have the potential of becoming "the best in the world" at whatever they are doing.

The book also gives advice about quitting. There are times to quit and winners quit all of the time. They strategically quit projects. They may not expect to get through the dip. The rewards might not be worth the efforts. The important thing is that they can focus on getting through the dip(s) that matter the most.

In one way it is about strategically taking advantage of some opportunities and passing on others. Right now I am facing two dips with two different opportunities.

I have a dream of participating in the transformation of education, especially math education, as we move into the world of web 2.0. I am in a perfect position to do so. I have a lot of freedom and support at the school where I work. I also have access to technology, video cameras and computers, to make my dream a reality.

I could postpone this dip. There are not a lot of math teachers blogging or doing other Web 2.0 activities. I could wait a year and still get through the dip to become the "best in the world."

I have also had the dream of helping small business's build their online presence using Squidoo and other free resources. I am in a perfect position to get through this dip. Having been a Citizen Squid I am well known is the Squidoo community. I would have a lot of support from several of the best lensmasters. Now is the best time to pursue this opportunity. Although people are blogging about Squidoo, writing eBooks, and building meta-Squid communities, there is not a lot of competition to offer coaching programs.

Now is the best time to get through this dip.

I could also postpone this Dip. In a year there might be more competition for a coaching program but the market would still be huge. I could still be the "best in the world" at least for my clients.

I am going to have to postpone one of these dips.

What are people thoughts? Before I announce my decision I would like some feedback. Which dip should I pursue? Which dip should I postpone?

The Chance of a Lifetime

damon.hedman@gmail.com — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 18:26:00 GMT

I decided to do a little experiment last week while watching America's Got Talent.

Throughout the show various acts perform before three judges (Sharon Osborne, David Hasselhoff, and Piers Morgan) These judges decide if the acts go on to the Las Vegas round, where I assume viewers will vote. The grand prize is $1 million.

It is definitely the chance of a lifetime, and not just for the group that wins the million dollars. Each group they show is in front of a national audience. Most could not buy this much exposure even with the million dollars. It could easily result in more opportunities.

But only if they can be found.

My experiment was to search on Google for various acts that aired last week. I searched for 17 different acts. I found video of some acts on youtube. I found bloggers that reviewed the show.

I only found 7 websites with contact information. That is less than half.

The smart ones are: Johnny Come Lately Manuel Romero Jason and Nolan Cocoa Brown Grannie Pearl Urban Action Figure Cinda Ramseur

The other acts don't seem to understand the importance of being available. They might win the million dollars. They probably won't. The most likely outcome is they will become more popular in their hometown among people they already know. They could have done that without traveling to the auditions and enduring the agony of Piers' critique.

Hindsight is 20/20

damon.hedman@gmail.com — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 02:24:00 GMT

Today's evening news showed the following YouTube video, uploaded on March 5. Right now it has been seen by almost 1.6 million people.

Looking back it seems obvious that this video would go viral. A lot of people are interested in the Presidential campaign. Few people have a neutral opinion about Hillary Clinton. And YouTube has now become the most popular Web 2.0 site.

I'm sure it was less obvious on March 5.

This video of John Edwards was uploaded on November 8 and has been seen by just over 171,000 people. Why didn't it spread? Is John Edwards less popular? Less controversial? Someone probably expected it to go viral.

We sometimes look at the rapid spread of an idea, or invention, and think: "That was obvious." or "Why didn't I think of that?"

It feels much different when you're brainstorming the best ways to market something. The questions you ask yourself are more like: "Is Squidoo the best place to build that network?" "Would myspace be better?" "Should we make a YouTube video?"

I have found myself in the latter position. At least 6 serious entrepreneurs have contacted me about my SquidOffer. They each have a great model for a business and seem to have the determination to make it work. They have also asked for my ideas on how Squidoo can help them.

I expected to find "easy" clients that would benefit from a one hour session showing them how to add Plexo modules and set up groups. Now I find myself researching everything from the travel industry to pharmaceuticals.

Because I want the hour on the phone to be as productive as possible.

Can I guarantee that anything will be viral? No, I can't. Will I give them my best thoughts on their SquidStrategy? Absolutely.

Initial SquidOffer Results

damon.hedman@gmail.com — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 02:09:00 GMT

This morning I was able to access the stats for The Squid School after the first full day of my SquidOffer. I was curious to see the traffic while being one of the top five offers. So I asked a few friends to vote for it. (I don't do that very often.) I also made an announcement at SquidU.

The result is it has been the top Business offer most of yesterday and today. It also has a commanding lead. (Thank you to everyone who voted.) The problem is that I don't know if the traffic is because of my SquidU announcement or because it was posted on all of the maxed Business lenses. To see if I can tell I'm not going to promote it at all this week or next.

Now on to the stats: Monday I had 43 visitors. About 20 of them voted for the offer. The best news is that 3 people contacted me about my offer. That seems to be a good percentage. I should easily be able to find 20 people.

Now back to grading_

My Dream and My Plan

damon.hedman@gmail.com — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 19:02:00 GMT

In the past few weeks I have read or watched most of the material at Rich Schefren's Profit Vault. One point that really struck home is that you can't wait for everything to be perfect before launching a small business. What you need most is a vision and a plan. Although they are not perfect here are mine.

My dream is to create a service that helps small businesses gain exposure and "presence" on the internet. Does this include marketing? Perhaps. Does it include search engine optimization? Maybe. What it will include is one-on-one consulting with clients about strategy, goals, and how to reach them. I ultimately want to teach clients enough to make my services unnecessary.

How do I get there? This summer I am starting The Squid School to teach people how to get the most out of Squidoo and other sites to improve their web presence. I am publicizing it by buying a SquidOffer. I am basically offering free one-on-one tutoring to twenty lucky people. I partly want to get feedback on my ideas. I also think it's a great way to get some publicity. After all, an internet publicist should be able to do that.

How do you qualify for the free tutoring? I will be choosing 20 lucky people from among those that leave comments on my blog. The people with the best questions and/or insightful comments are the most likely to be picked. I specialize in helping people who have an existing business, or clear idea of a business, but don't have a lot of computer skills. Visit The Squid School for more details.

So feel free to leave a comment to help me get to know you better: What is your business? In what ways do you want to move it online? Do you already have a website? What is your biggest question about creating one?

Increased Traffic for Lens of the Day

damon.hedman@gmail.com — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 20:49:00 GMT

Yesterday I made screenshots of the traffic stats for my two Lenses of the Day.

Harry Potter Music was lens of the day on October 12, 2006. The spike in traffic is obvious. The peak was 125 visitors. The traffic quickly fell back down to a little above the previous level.

Waiting for Harry Potter 7 was lens of the day on March 7, 2007. The graph shows a similar spike in traffic. The peak was only 50 something but it was spread out over three days. So the total traffic was about the same.

Why am I posting this? I wanted to show people real data showing the benefit of receiving Lens of the Day. One hundred extra visitors may not seem like much, but I believe the real benefit comes from continued exposure from belonging to the group and the improved search engine results.

I will also be comparing this data with the results of next week's SquidOffer. Stay tuned for more details.

Payday at Squidoo

damon.hedman@gmail.com — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 03:27:00 GMT

Today lensmasters found out how much they made for the month of January. Megan said it was a record month. She was right. Here is some information I've gathered from various posts at SquidU and my other sources.

Rachel and Lewis were the top two earners. In addition, both of them have income from other online affiliate and/or writing gigs. So Squidoo only represents part of their online income. They both became lensmasters in April, 2006. I expect that they work almost full time on their various internet projects.

Lewis and thefluffanutta have been doubling their income every month. (See Now that it's Payday - an observation.) My income has also doubled over the last few months. In January I made just over $20. I have been a lensmaster since April 2006. I spend about 5 to 10 hours a week doing productive Squid-work. (I spend much more doing unproductive Squid-work.)

Jeffry's income increased 10 times between April 2006 and January 2007. He is also well into triple digit income--which may represent multiple accounts. (See 1,000% Increase In Pay From.....) Jeffry has been a lensmaster since November 2005. I believe he also works full time on his various internet projects.

Lessons:
1) It is possible to make more than pocket change with Squidoo.

2) It takes months of nearly full-time work to make that happen.

I'm not trying to be pessimistic. I am more passionate than ever about the power, and potential, of Squidoo. I do want people to have realistic expectations.

I believe the true power of Squidoo is the ability to build communities related to your areas of interest and to draw attention to your various enterprises. I don't have the details, but I expect dinodino has driven a lot of traffic to his aStores and that Margaret has seen an increase in sales of Amish furniture. And everyone is seeing great Google search results.

So don't quit your day job_ just use Squidoo to promote it.

(Of course, I expect SquidOffers to completely change the formula.)

Thoughts on LensRank

damon.hedman@gmail.com — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 03:52:27 GMT

I just read a great post at SquidU. Lately there has been a lot of interest in LensRank. People have been trying all sorts of methods to improve it and to figure out how it is calculated.

Rachel, a very experienced and skilled lensmaster, made some interesting points here. In short, you can work to create a quality lens, and then leave it alone. It does not need to be updated frequently and it does not need to have an excellent LensRank to be successful. (In this case the lens Wu Tang Clan is in the Top 100 most profitable list--without having been updated in over two months.)

Lewis also comments that, "The lenses I make run on autopilot. I don't make a lens if it's going to require constant updating. What a waste of time!" This is interesting advice coming from the two most profitable lensmasters for the month of January.

I think lensmasters should think about what it means to have a "successful" lens and then focus on ways to create that success. It might mean to be able to get more traffic to a blog or website, it might mean winning an award, or it might mean getting on the front page of a Google search.

In the big picture, LensRank is not that important.

Most Boring Jobs

damon.hedman@gmail.com — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 04:10:23 GMT

Once a week, or so, I'm going to post a fun Plexo Module, or other widget, that I find. This week it is a list of the most boring jobs, created by Kimberly.

If the Plexo Module doesn't load click on the post title "Most Boring Jobs" and it should.

plex74

Lens of the Day

damon.hedman@gmail.com — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 03:44:19 GMT

Yesterday Waiting for Harry Potter 7 was honored as the Lens of the Day. It will be interesting to see what happens to the traffic and the number of lenses that join.

The lens has been getting about 5 visitors a day. After the LOTD announcement the number of visitors jumped to 53. We'll see what happens today. In a few days I will post the graph of my stats to show the effect.

Two new lensmasters have joined due to the announcement. Their lenses are: Cool Motorola KRZR Cases, Covers, Faceplates and Housing and Refinancing mortgages,student loans,auto loans,payday loans.

Anyway, now that there is semi-official recognition of Room to Read - Harry Potter, I'm off to submit it to places like Mugglenet and The Leaky Cauldron...

New Book Club Challenge

damon.hedman@gmail.com — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 20:40:16 GMT

I've started a new contest for The Squidoo Book Club:

Create a new lens about a movie that was based on a book. Add it to the Squidoo Book Club and to Room to Read - Harry Potter which is a collection of lenses which donate at least 20% of their proceeds to the charity.

The lens with the highest lensrank on March 31 will be Lens of the Month for April at The Squidoo Book Club and will be highlighted at Room to Read - Harry Potter. The lensmaster will also win a free copy of Tiffany Dow's world famous eBook, Social Networking on Squidoo. She is also willing to include The Multi-Layered Mindset of Web 2.0 Marketing and Building an eBook Empire.

If you see Tiffany, thank her for her generosity.

Book Club Lens of the Month

damon.hedman@gmail.com — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 20:36:59 GMT

The Book Club Lens of the Month for March is...

JaZilla's lens about Neil Gaiman, the author of "Sandman, American Gods, and many other fantastical writings (even songs)." Neil has even mentioned her lens on his blog. Now if I could only get Jo Rowling to do that. . .

Harry Potter Countdown Timer Test

damon.hedman@gmail.com — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 03:58:43 GMT

As long as I'm testing features. Here is a countdown clock for the Harry Potter Movie and Book. . .

Web 2.0 Video

damon.hedman@gmail.com — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 03:47:02 GMT

The English teacher I work with first showed me this video. It explains in five minutes what Web 2.0 is all about. It was created by Michael Wesch, an anthropology professor at Kansas State. I want to, eventually, get my students creating videos like this...

I'm posting it here in case you're not one of the 1,321,423 people who have seen it. (I also wanted to see it I can post YouTube Videos here.)

Note: I also saw the video mentioned at The Long Tail and Seth's Blog.

Lens for Sale

damon.hedman@gmail.com — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 04:16:00 GMT

I am preparing to bid on Rachel's auction of V's Mask and Costume. It is the first auction of a profitable lens. This is one of the reasons I wanted to start my blog early. Whether or not I win the auction, I think it will be excellent publicity for Squidoo.

If I do win I may learn some of the things Rachel has done to promote her lenses. At the minimum I will have to learn how to transfer money to my paypal account.