Love Those Loons

I keep trying to take loon photos and being unhappy with the results. My new camera, a Canon Powershot SX20is has the zoom needed for capturing the loons, but I’m leary of taking it out in the boat where it might get wet or dropped or damaged.

I did find some great loon photos on Zazzle and other loon gift items on Amazon, so I created a webpage for anyone looking for loon gifts. Check it out if you love loons too. I put some interesting loon videos, links and lots of gift items featuring loons (mugs, t-shirts, mousepads, woven throw, books, plush stuffed toy, figurines, etc.)

Poster / Common Loon on Water by moxieann
Browse more Bird Posters

Those Cute Chipmunks

Rodents aren’t supposed to be so darn cute. After a mild winter this year, the chipmunks in New Hampshire are having a population explosion. It has given me an opportunity to try out the zoom on my Canon SX20is. Capturing digital images of the little critters has been fun.

What isn’t fun is the interest they’re taking in my strawberry patch. I have a photo series of the brazen culprit turning the large red strawberry around in his paws while nibbling daintily on different parts of the ripe fruit. Then we found they were even abscounding with the smaller green strawberries. As my husband waved his arms and stomped into the garden, a chipmunk took time to stuff a not-yet-ripe strawberry into each cheek before running away to safety.

I have two Squidoo lenses (webpages) about the chipmunks. The one about Ten Humane Ways to Get Rid of Chipmunks is proving quite popular. Apparently, I’m not the only one suffering from an over-abundance of these rodents with racing stripes. The second one is Fun Facts about Chipmunks and the target audience is children, but I’m finding that it appeals to adults too. It includes some of my chipmunk photos and observations that I’ve made of their behavior.

Eastern chipmunk (photo by Virginia Allain)

Promoting My Webpages Using Redgage

I’ve been posting my articles from eHow and my webpages from Squidoo to REDGAGE.  Just now and then, I take a little time and add my links on Redgage. It is supposed to help the Google ranking on my articles and lenses to have more backlinks.

While putting on a few recent lenses, I noticed that I’d been a member of Redgage for a year now. Time flies when you’re having fun. During that year, I’ve posted 512 items to the site. It only takes a few seconds to upload a link or a photograph to Redgage.

Usually I get a few comments and friend requests while I working on my postings. There are quite a few people using Redgage that I already knew from Squidoo and eHow. It’s great to see familiar faces.

During my year on Redgage, I’ve had 7210 Total Unique Views, won one contest ($25) and had a photo featured ($10). Although I’m not getting rich on the site, the pennies keep adding up. I’ve earned more than I expected, since my main motivation for posting links on Redgage was to get backlinks for my articles and lenses.

I Love RedGage by Sandyspider
Design personalized t-shirts with zazzle

“Nobody Likes Me”

Remember being a little kid and wailing the words, “nobody likes me.” Mom always hastened to reassure me that just because Mary wouldn’t share her ice cream and Sandra was too busy to jump rope, didn’t mean they didn’t like me.

Now with content on multiple websites, there’s the internet equivilent of “nobody likes me.” I have to remind myself that I probably just haven’t put the right keywords on a Squidoo lens or a blog posting or an eHow article. Here’s a list of Squidoo lenses that haven’t had a thumbs up or like from any viewers. Usually that means it’s getting outside views but not being seen by Squidoo lensmasters who are pretty faithful about rating other lenses when they read them. Sometimes, it means no one at all is even stumbling across the lens. That’s really sad.

Here’s my lenses that currently feel like orphans:

Title	Rank	Rating	Visits	$$$	Edited
Favorite Eating Places for Sol…	46,130		6	$0.00	07/10/2010
Decorating with Neon Bar Signs	57,455		5	$0.00	07/08/2010
Haunted House in Chelsea	57,760		7	$0.00	07/01/2010
Teterville, Kansas	68,347		2	$0.00	06/29/2010
Kissimmee and Old Florida	84,348		4	$0.00	06/12/2010
Golden Wedding Stamps Online	108,947		7	$0.00	05/05/2010
Holland: Memorable Books	115,967		3	$0.00	02/21/2010
Lake Forest Resort – Bulletin …	121,194		0	$0.00	07/07/2010
Cynthia Ross – Kansas Author	135,360		0	$0.00	06/28/2010
Donate Crutches to Haiti	137,497		0	$0.00	07/03/2010
Red Sox Spring Training	137,527		4	$0.00	03/05/2010
Finding Poinciana, Florida	138,565		5	$0.00	03/21/2010
BBQ Aprons for Men	140,266		7	$0.00	06/21/2010
Small Town Kansas: Reading	148,169		0	$0.00	07/08/2010
Too Much Stuff	158,370		1	$0.00	06/10/2010
Fun Facts about Moose	191,323		1	$0.00	06/19/2010
Bertha McGhee	210,697		0	$0.00	07/01/2010
Create a Catalog of Your Lense…	221,385		1	$0.00	06/28/2010
Wildlife Photo Gifts by Virgin…	229,133		0	$0.00	07/07/2010
Snow in Orlando – December Eve… |	247,828		0	$0.00	06/16/2010
Kansas Gifts from Zazzle Featu…

Thieves Stole My Writing!

I recently created a webpage promoting my favorite clog (Sloggers). Being an Amazon Affiliate, I put lots of links to Amazon so people could buy their own Sloggers. They aren’t that easy to find in stores, so I figured my webpage would help all those Slogger fans out there looking for them.

Yesterday I checked how the webpage was doing and was pleased with its page ranking on Squidoo (8,700) and the number of visitors. Then I glanced at the module I’d put on it about Bloggers Buzz about Sloggers. It changes regularly as Google picks up comments on Sloggers from the blog world.

Aack! Three of the comments in the Bloggers Buzz were just a repeat of the introduction rave that I’ve used on Squidoo. I clicked on the links to see what was happening. Sure enough, there were three webpages out there selling Sloggers and using my exact wording. This is totally unacceptable.

I did some searching about stolen content online and found out that I need to file a DMCA complaint.

In the meantime, if you want to see what was worth stealing, check out the introduction to my Squidoo webpage called Sloggers: The Best Clog Ever.

Sam’s a Super Star Cat

A few days ago I created a website (lens on Squidoo) for an online friend of mine. It was to feature all her cat related articles on eHow and her blogs about feral cats, cat adoption and feline leukemia. To pull the theme together, I used her cat, Sam, as the central focus of the lens. The title of the lens is Sam – Feline Leukemia Survivor.

My friend sent the link out to all her friends and posted it in the eHow forums. The lens took off, quickly climbing in lensrank from 95,000 up to 5,000 by the third day. The very first day it was out, the lens was awarded a purple star. Purple stars are coveted honors on Squidoo and confer a lens boost too.

I submitted the lens to the Squidoo Summer Sunshine Award which pays $99 to the named Squidoo charity and $99 to the lensmaster with a winner being named every day during the summer. Wow, if Sam’s lens won in this contest, that would be $99 for the Humane Society (official Squidoo charity) and $99 that I could contribute to my friend for the tests and treatments needed by Sam.

Please visit the lens at Sam – Feline Leukemia Survivor so you can see why Sam is such a great poster cat for this cause. Your visit and comment in the guestbook give the lens a boost and help it towards earning money for the Humane Society.

Feline Leukemia Awareness Postage by Susang6
See all other stamps available at zazzle

I’m a Winner

On Facebook, I’m a fan of Seaglass Jewelry by Tears of the Sea which promotes jewelry by a Maine artist. She uses seaglass to make her masterpieces. You have to see the necklaces and bracelets to appreciate the artistry involved. They are exquisite.

You can see the full range of the beautiful seaglass jewelry on their webpage.  

Once in awhile they have a contest on Facebook. The most recent one involved guessing the number of seaglass pieces in a tall jar. I guessed 790. The contest ended today and they revealed that the jar held 796, so my guess was the closest without going over. I win and the prize is an English seaglass pendant. Click on the Facebook link above to see the truly lovely prize. It amazes me that I’ve won a contest and even more amazing that it was something that I’ll treasure.

I’ve loved beach glass for a long time. Recently I made a Squidoo lens about blue beach glass.

Green Vibrations Greeting Card by LHSeaglass
Shop for a card at zazzle.com

Toad Encounter

 I bumped into this fellow today while I planted some impatiens. He was partially hidden in the dirt, so I almost jabbed him with my trowel. Fortunately he moved, as I really didn’t see him. His coloration blended pretty well with the soil.

I took this shot with my Canon Powershot A550. It’s a small camera that fits well in the hand and easy to hold steady for a close-up shot.

I was particularly struck by how detailed the toad’s eye pattern is in this photo. You can click on the photo to see it even larger. Somewhere I read that to get good wildlife photos to focus in on the eyes. Too many of my shots just show the animal’s rump as it disappears into the brush.

The Strawberry Queen

Since our vegetable garden was a dismal failure last year, we decided to skip the cucumbers and lettuce and zuchinni this year. Instead we opted to plant blueberry bushes, blackberries and strawberries. The first challenge was finding the plants. We trekked to Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Lowe’s, K-Mart and other places with garden centers. Finally we found some strawberry plants at Marden’s, a discount store. At $2.99, they seemed a bargain compared to the $10 strawberry plants we saw at another place.

Let’s get 10, I said, but my husband suggested getting four of the skimpy looking plants and continue our search. Later we did buy the robust looking $10 plant. Our reasoning was there were actually four plants in the gallon pot, so we could divide it.

Today I started planting the eight plants.  When I opened the box for the skimpy plants, it revealed ten bare-root plants in each box. Suddenly I had 44 plants to plant. Feeling a little overwhelmed, I tucked strawberry plants into every nook of the garden. 

Hopefully they will thrive in the somewhat sandy soil we have. Since we already had a strawberry patch of about 20 plants, next spring we may have to hold a strawberry festival for all our friends.

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Sweet-and-Juicy-Strawberries by evaq24
Make a Magnet at zazzle

My sister, Cynthia Ross wrote an article for eHow on making a raised strawberry bed.

Boosting My Laggard Lenses on Squidoo

I guess when you list things by rank, something has to be at the bottom.  Squidoo lensmasters get compulsive about checking their lensrankings. Maybe it’s just me, as I was that way with my eHow articles and before that with my Amazon reviews.

Now the challenge I’m setting myself, is to see what can be done to boost these laggard lenses that trail all the others in my list of 170 lenses (websites) on Squidoo. If nothing else, at least posting the lenses here and writing about them, creates a backlink for each of them. Google loves links and assumes you have a quality webpage if someone links to it.

This one is fairly obvious. Snow in Orlando is a seasonal topic, so it’s unlikely that anyone is going to look at it until they plan their December vacation to Disney World. When November comes around, I’ll update the dates for the snow events (all faux) in the Orlando area. Ranking is 379,796 as of June 1, 2010.

This one needs more tags (key words) for writers to find it. Only a limited number of people are looking for writer’s workshops in New Hampshire in the summer, so it is likely that Twin Farms Writing Workshop will continue to languish. Ranking is 385,410 as of June 1, 2010.

Ah, come on, there must be someone out there decorating a home bar. Surely they will want to look at my Decorating with Neon Bar Signs lens. I’d better look at the keywords on this one too. While I’m at it, I’ll check Amazon and eBay to see if there are some neon bar signs that I can add to the lens. Ranking is 386,487 as of June 1, 2010.

It’s sad to say, but the public is prone to compassion-fatique. They quickly tire of a disaster and move on to the next crisis. At the moment, people are more worried about oil-covered wildlife along the Gulf that they are in More Ways to Help Haiti. With the rainy season coming on and the potential for tropical storms and hurricanes, the displaced people of Haiti are likely to suffer even more in their makeshift camps. I’ll see if I can enhance this lens with some new information. Ranking is 393,306 as of June 1, 2010.

I still think this is a good idea. Just not sure how to promote it. Have you thought about forming a cooperative to fix things around your house and share your expertise with others?  Then you need to read What Is a Do-It-Yourself Club. Ranking is 401,063 as of June 1, 2010.

This hasn’t had fresh content added for awhile. I’ll comb through the family pictures and get some more old car photos added to Vintage Cars from My Family Album. I’ll add the great one of my grandfather next to the 1920s Ford in Greenwood County, Kansas. Ranking is 409,057 as of June 1, 2010.

Dad’s New Car by vallain
Design custom coffee mugs on zazzle.com

The audience for this one is women of a certain age… fifties and sixties. That’s the time we question our values and say “is that all there is?” The books reviewed in Growing and Nurturing Yourself all address this unease that women often fight against at that age.  Maybe I should lensroll it to my other book related lenses. Ranking is 412,629 as of June 1, 2010.

This one I can enhance with some fresh reviews of Elsie Lee books. She was popular in the 1970s and has some devoted readers, but it isn’t likely that lots of people will suddenly discover her after all this time. Ranking is 413,825 as of June 1, 2010.

Lately I’ve created several genealogy lenses as I explore my family history. I need to lensroll Family Tree Posters to those and also the reverse. Also I should check the Internet to see if there are more family tree posters that I can add. I thought after the success of the TV program “Who Do You Think You Are?” that many people would be looking for genealogy-related products like I’ve featured on this lens. Ranking is 414,9e7 as of June 1, 2010.

When I made this, I imagined lots of individuals and families struggling with their finances. In my scenario, they flocked to this lens packed with my tips about budgeting and saving. Unfortunately Make the Money Last is competing with lots of Internet spam designed to sell you eBooks on how to get out of debt and avoid foreclosure. I’d probably be better off to take bits of this lens and make personal lenses about money handling or just forget it entirely.  It is likely to remain at the bottom of this list. Ranking is 415,927 as of June 1, 2010.