Squidlog.net » AJ’s musings

Happy Birthday Alex (Drifter0658 on Squidoo)!

AJ — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 12:47:07 +0000

AJ would like to wish her Squidpal Alex Crabtree a Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Alex

Squidoo Lensmaster Drifter0658 (aka Alex Crabtree) has a birthday today and I would like to join various people who have written Birthday tributes in wishing one of my best buddies on Squidoo a very Happy Birthday.

This is what Alex’s Squidoo Bio says:

drifter0658 has been a member since October 23 2008, has rated 1,051 lenses, favorited 780, and has created 111 lenses from scratch. This member’s top-ranked page is “Riding The Tail Of The Dragon“.

Alex joined Squidoo three months after me and immediately embraced the ethos of the site with enthusiasm. He was soon a regular contributor at the Squidu Forum and only managed to get his knuckles rapped a couple of times by Kimberly for being a tad too honest when people were behaving like total twits

Alex originally joined Squidoo to promote his online Biker Leather store but it wasn’t long before he was not only entertaining us but also educating us. As he learned so he started to teach.

He made Giant Squid in June 2009 and by September he made the Giant Squid100 Club. Then his lensmaking dropped off as he set up and nurtured Crabbys Beach into life.

At first glance Alex gives the impression of being just a big biker, who has a liking for poker and tequila. But it’s not long before you get past the leathers and you find a man with a big, huge sharing heart, with a wicked sense of humour.

Alex has a great range of lenses. The reflective and thought provoking: What branding means to me - the tender: Cameron Joseph Isaak ~ My Grandson and the ironic: Make money at home (really).

I could go on for pages about what makes this great guy so special, but I will just say what a priviledge it is to call this man friend and to work with him on various “stuff” as I do.

You can find more birthday tributes to Alex on Bev’s beautiful blog: Native American Totems and MiMi’s Squidoo Lens Reviews.

Happy Birthday Alex!

On a similar note...

Helping your fellow Squidoo Lensmasters with critiques

AJ — Wed, 26 May 2010 16:10:30 +0000

AJ is musing about how we can help our fellow Lensmasters with some words of encouragement

Giving a critique on another Squidoo Lensmaster’s lens is one of the ways you can really get involved in the Squidoo Community. For some new Lensmasters it is the way they can start tackling that very steep learning curve that we all face when we first start publishing lenses on Squidoo.

When giving feedback you can give just a couple of tips or you can give a thorough critique.

While I was a Squidoo Angel, I stopped giving critiques because I just did not have the time. But recently I have started critiquing again. And I tend to pick the threads on the SquidU Forum that have a number of views but have had no responses.

Why do I do that?

Well……threads that have had views but no responses tend to feature lenses where there may be problems but not everyone feels comfortable giving feedback that may need to be negative. I see this as an enjoyable challenge.

The challenge is to be able to help someone and give them the opportunity to be a better Lensmaster AND to nip TOS violations in the bud. Yes, we all know that in an ideal world everyone would read the Squidoo TOS before they hit the Publish button on their first lens, but we also know that Squidoo life just ain’t like that!

I defy anyone not to be able to find something positive to say in a critique in order to be able to encourage someone to look at how they do things and then give tactful and helpful suggestions about the things that need changing.

If you approach critiquing with the attitude of “How can I help”, rather than “Sheesh, this is not good”, then you may just be helping someone who will turn into a brillaint lensmaster and everyone on Squidoo gains.

If you want some more tips about how to go about critiquing, then I started a thread on SquidU: Prepared to give a critique? Then please read this first. So go on, make someone happy today!

On a similar note...

Sometimes we can forget why we joined Squidoo!

AJ — Tue, 18 May 2010 11:04:32 +0000

AJ is musing about a change of identity and some forgotten joys

These last few weeks have seen some major introspection on my part. It always happens at this time of year but the difference this year has been that external factors have had quite an influence.

So, along with the decision to emerge from behind my Simpsonized avatar, I have again been assessing what is important to me as I go about my on-line activities. And yesterday I realised I had forgotten one of the things in my on-line life that gives me greatest satisfaction.

I love to write and create just for the sake of it

When I first joined Squidoo I was looking for something to keep me occupied. I’d had to give up my job because I had been diagnosed with Otosclerosis and could not cope with working.

The concern was that I would not have enough to keep me happy – I am not someone who gets any joy whatsoever out of cleaning and ironing and although my family would undoubtedly love never having to look for their clean clothes that are always ironed the minute they are dry, that is not exactly my idea of fun!

I had always wanted to write and when I found Squidoo I realised that not only could I indulge my passion for writing, I might just make some money as well.

Then as I learned more, the possibility of making money started to become the priority and I forgot about the joys of writing for pleasure. I stopped just writing about whatever came into my head as I started looking at topics that had more potential for generating an income.

When I look at my lenses, the ones that are the most successful on Squidoo are those that contain bits of the real me in them.

The lenses that have been made solely with the aim of trying to make sales of a product, don’t do so well. And why is that? I think it is because my heart is not in them and, although they are products I genuinely either have or would like to have, I am almost embarrassed to promote them (lenses like: Samsung 3D Gaming Monitor and Samsung 3D HD TV). I make them and think:

OK, what will be, will be

(Note: I am not knocking anyone who does make lenses for making sales, I wish you every success, it’s just not for me at the moment.)

So, over the next few weeks, as I try to make another 14 lenses in time to apply for the Giant Squid 100 Club in June, I am going to indulge myself by just writing about what grabs me at that moment in time, which yesterday was to write about my fav football song: Three Lions

As a passionate supporter of the England Football Team, I just love this song and I loved making the lens!

OK, I will do some keyword research, but I won’t be publishing to any Game Plan. I will go to where The Muse takes me and boy, all of a sudden I feel re-motivated to make some lenses again.

Hmmm, is there a lesson in there somewhere?

On a similar note...

Missing old friends on the Squidoo SquidU Forum and a new AJ

AJ — Thu, 06 May 2010 19:10:36 +0000

The return of a “regular” at the Squidoo Forum after quite an absence, has AJ thinking about other old friends who have disappeared from SquidU and some changes are afoot

Networking on Squidoo is like networking all over the net. The internet reminds me of the sea. It covers the planet but it depends which way the tide is flowing as to where you end up.

To me the tide is the trends, the latest “in” platforms, the places that shoals of Squidoo Lensmasters and networkers flock to as word gets out that this is “the” place to mix, establish backlinks and, if you are lucky, get some traffic as well.

I have been a regular on the SquidU Forum since I first started on Squidoo in the summer of 2008. I have seen celebrations, I have seen arguments. I have seen thought provoking discussions and I have seen comments that have made me wince. I have seen people reaching out to others to support them when life is getting them down.

I have seen people sharing Squidoo Tips as they help others solve problems on their lenses (thanks Flynn the Cat for pointing me in the right direction over some AllPosters code this week ). I have felt sad and I have laughed out loud.

There’s been times when I get so cross that I think I will never, ever, ever, (ever!) set foot in the Forum again. I have seen people come and I have seen people go…

But in the last couple of weeks, with the return of Rock The Ice after a long absence plus fleeting appearances from Poddys and Chef Keem, I have been reminded about a lot of great people who used to regularly visit SquidU, who I know are still publishing on Squidoo and are active on other networks, but who no longer visit the SquidU Forum.

Where are you? Poddys, Joan, MiMi, Bev, Drifter, Lakeerieartists, Spirituality, to mention just a few…… Come back! We miss your input and we miss YOU!

If your absence is due to a bug stopping you from logging in, then Kimberly has announced it has been fixed in this SquidU Forum thread.

And it was something that happened on the Forum recently that made me stop and think and do something I have been planning for some time.

AJ is changing!

On SquidU and here on Squidlog, we have often talked about being open and honest in our online activities, particularly if you are relying on people to trust you and believe what you are saying, whether it be to recommend a product or do some teaching.

Having a cartoon character for an Avatar, probably makes it harder to build credibility. I have always known that, but I had some very genuine (and honest) reasons for wanting to remain anonymous, which my online friends have always accepted and respected.

However, I always knew that one day, I would have to lose my anonymity online and on Squidoo, if I was to be able to further develop my online presence and also realise my ambition, which is to make a reasonable income through my writing, whether it be publishing on Squidoo, blogging or having my own websites.

So over the last few days, I have been editing my very personal lenses and now I have to keep my fingers crossed that these changes don’t ruin the Top Tier ranking that my school bullying lens has enjoyed for so long.

Then I made a new Avatar!

I followed MiMi’s example when she changed her avatar, what seems like a long time ago. I added my “AJ” handle to it and a mini version of the old Avatar, so that people will know it is me. Eventually the old Avatar will disappear.

My feelings about changing my avatar are in a bit of a jumble. I have reservations about mixing up my personal and private identity with my online one, which is why I don’t use Facebook for keeping in touch with family or personal contacts.

I guess I could describe how I feel as dipping my toe in and getting ready to take the plunge. The water feels a bit cold but I know I will enjoy the swim once I get in there!

Hello from the real AJ

On a similar note...

Thankful for the Volunteers on Squidoo

AJ — Sat, 01 May 2010 15:37:18 +0000

AJ is Musing about the people who give so much time to help run the Community of Squidoo and make it such a great place to publish and network

I had planned a post about the new Squidoo Angels who took to the Squidoo skies at the beginning of April and I still plan an article about them, but today I have decided to pay tribute to all the Squidoo “volunteers”.

When I joined Squidoo in July 2008, I think there were about 750,000 lenses. This has gone up to around 1.3 million!! I don’t have a clue how many Lensmasters are registered….

When you look at those numbers and the number of people actually on the paid HQ Team, (is it eight?) then it’s obvious the only way the site can run is with the help of volunteers. During my time on Squidoo there’s been Squidoo Angels, Mentors, Citizens, Greeters and Giant Squid Challenge Teamleaders (who could ever forget Joan’s Cheerleader Avatar!) plus a whole host of Lensmasters without a title, but who have also given their time to help people find their way on Squidoo. They critique lenses, they answer calls for help, they organise networks and support groups and they share Squidoo tips and ideas. They do it without a badge or a title because they are community minded.

Every one of these people, the Volunteers with and without titles, is a Lensmaster like you and me. They have their own lenses to manage and nurture and I know from my own personal experience that often your own lenses suffer while you are helping others with theirs.

But not only are these volunteers Lensmasters like you and me, they are human too. They have their own view of the world about what appeals to them in other people’s lenses, what they think is OK and what is not. Everyone is different and their view may be different to your’s.

The Volunteers who have been selected by HQ to fulfill specific roles have been chosen because HQ believes that, whichever way they decide to do their job, they will do it with honesty and integrity. And I would say that 99% of the time, this is exactly what happens.

Now I am not here to speculate or discuss what happens 1% of the time, because I want us to stop and think about the 99% and pay tribute to what the volunteers do, for the benefit of everyone who cares about the Community of Squidoo.

It is so easy, particularly when we have no responsibility, to start questioning how others with responsibility conduct themselves and to start shouting “foul”, the minute we believe they have got something wrong. It also seems to be human nature to find it easier to complain when we think something is wrong but forget to smile and say “great work”, when it goes right.

So, all I want to say here is thank you to all these Squidoo Volunteers and can the rest of us please redress the balance?

Whenever you want to raise a concern or suggest something is not going right, can you also mention something you like or something that IS going right? Because to be honest I think that there is more going right on Squidoo than is not going right and we all need to stop and remember that sometimes.

On a similar note...

A Squidoo Wedding!

AJ — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 14:36:09 +0000

AJ is musing about two of her first SquidPals, Poddys and Debnet, who are getting married in a few days time

Tony and Deb were two of the first people who I became friendly with on Squidoo and they are getting married on Wednesday 07 April, here in England.

Congratulations, Debbie & Tony!

I first got to know Lensmaster Debnet, when she commented on my lens Bullying at Primary School. Deb works with children and she was very encouraging in the comments she left in my Guestbook. Although a very good Lensmaster in her own right, she became equally well known for her long distance relationship with another Lensmaster: Poddys, who I believe got Deb interested in Squidoo.

Although they met in the UK, Tony actually was an Englishman living in the USA and Deb wrote a lovely lens about how they got together: When Debbie met Tony. Tony was very active on the SquidU forum when I first joined Squidoo in the summer of 2008 and like many new Lensmasters I was glad of someone who was so happy to reach out and give help and support to a very green Newby.

Deb received a Lens of the Day award for her brilliant very English lens about Fish and Chips, and those of us who count Tony among our friends on Squidoo heaved a huge sigh of relief when he finally got a LOTD for Bournemouth!

I cannot remember there being a wedding between two lensmasters during my time on Squidoo and I don’t know if there has ever been a “Squidoo wedding”. I hope you will all join me in sending the very best of wishes to Deb and Tony on their very special day.

Have a lovely day on Wednesday Deb and Tony and I wish you all the happiness in the world.

On a similar note...

Teaching about Squidoo and Blogging has its responsibilities

AJ — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:18:57 +0000

This past couple of weeks AJ has been musing about being a “teacher”

In a galaxy, far, far away (thanks Alex for reminding me of this phrase recently!) I used to be a teacher. Not of children, but adults.

An eclectic mix of ex-offenders (some were probably still offending), substance abusers (current and ex), alcoholics (one returned after lunch totally drunk), kids from the wrong side of town, kids from the right side of town, returners to work following illness, accident or redundancy, single Mums needing to earn in a way that would fit in with their children and others who had no issues at all apart from the fact that they had a business idea and wanted to make it a reality.

They were a “lively” bunch but what made it work, was that they all had something in common and I had the information they wanted and needed. We had a common bond.

I have not taught in the Classroom for a good number of years but all of a sudden I have found myself back in the role of Teacher again, through my Blog AJ is Always Juggling Online and on Squidoo. I did not set out thinking “I am going to teach” – it just sort of evolved…..

As I explore the workings of Matt Cutts’ Link Wheel, under the guidance of Alex (Drifter0658) and try to apply the principles to my new niche blog Year of the Tiger Tattoos, I am also blogging about my progress on a daily basis and outlining what I do, step by step. Yep, I am finally managing to blog nearly every day. And I love it!

However, over the past week or so, the responsibility attached to what I am doing has hit me hard!

I do tend to think deeply about what I do online. Right from when I first joined Squidoo in July 2008, I had a very set idea about the way I would behave and the ethics I would adhere to. Despite my need for anonymity I knew I would want to be as open and honest as that anonymity would allow. And I believe I have kept to that.

When we teach, we tend to teach what we know

OK, that might seem like I am stating the blooming obvious, but bear with me….

A lot of what we know comes not just from what we learn from others, who set out to teach us, but what we learn for ourselves. Research these days is easier than it has ever been. All we do is “Google” what we are looking for and hey presto! It is all there. Everything we could possibly want to know about Belly Button Fluff removal!

We learn and then sometimes we start passing on what we have learned.

But as far as Squidoo and Blogging are concerned, are we teaching the right way to do something or are we teaching the way that WE do something? There can be a difference. The danger is that we can become so entrenched in the Squidoo lensmaking and blogging methods we use that we can miss out on finding out about the other ways to achieve what we want to achieve. When teaching or passing information on, we can fail to present all the options from which people can choose what is right for them.

Over these past few months I have been blogging on Word Press Multi User Platforms, (WPMU) here on Squidlog and on Crabbys Beach. I love it!

I love the sense of Community on a WPMU. I love it that members of the Community will support each other with teaching, passing on information and visiting each other’s blogs. I love the collaboration that is happening on some of the Blogs. I love the fact that the leaders of these Communities, Anne and Alex, are so Community minded and I could never imagine them throwing all their toys out of the pram and just shutting their platforms down.

There is another school of thought that promotes hosting your own blog

Common sense tells us that relying on a platform owned by someone else makes us vulnerable. There could be rule changes that will suddenly disadvantage us, for example. And yes, the toys could fly out of the pram and the Platform could just disappear. Phuttt! Gone!

I have also seen arguments put forward that all you are doing is getting traffic for the Platform. I don’t agree with this and my own Stats go a long way to disproving this as I commented on Susan52’s blog when she asked the question Should you own your own blog? But I am up for setting up my own self hosted sites and seeing what happens.

Recently I have started work on a couple of sites on my own domains – hosted by Anne at SEO Praxis. I am setting them up using the same SEO plugins that I use on Crabbys Beach.

My gut feeling is that the best way to Blog is to use a mix of Multi User Platforms and Self Hosted blogs, as then you will hopefully get the best of both worlds. But I will be interested to see if either method out performs the other as far as traffic is concerned.

But just to take us back to the bit about teaching….

Disclaimer: any teaching I do is based on the way I do things. I am not claiming it is the RIGHT way

On a similar note...

Are we looking to learn from too many people about Squidoo and online marketing?

AJ — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:20:34 +0000

An email exchange with a Squidpal has AJ thinking about doing too much learning and not enough doing

Last week I posted that I am spreading my wings (finally) beyond Squidoo and today, during the course of a regular email exchange with Alex (Lensmaster Drifter0658), I found my self climbing on my soap box. I thought you might be interested in the gist of what I said as the realisation of what I was thinking hit me like a sledgehammer. Yep, I had one of those “lightbulb” moments!

The last few months have seen a huge metamorphosis as I have evolved from that newby who joined Squidoo in the Summer of 2008 (on Seth Godin’s birthday!) who wanted just to write from the heart and hope that it would earn her some money.

I will be totally honest, but from before Christmas until a couple of weeks ago I was utterly lost as far as my internet activities were concerned. Not just lost, but feeling I was swimming in a sea of treacle AND against the tide. My demons of self doubt were kicking in BIG time and I was in despair, just not knowing what direction to take and yes, I came very close to hitting the delete button on my Squidoo account. When you are depressed, or lacking in self confidence, self harm exists in many forms…..

I had a feeling I was on a threshold of something. BUT there were too many doors to choose from. Too many people I could learn from. And it seemed like some of them were saying: “Open my door, the end of the rainbow and the pot of gold might be here”!

Then, as I realised I just did not know which way to turn, or who to listen to, I had an exchange of views with Alex and he made an offer that I could not refuse. He offered to teach me about Link Wheels. We would set up a niche blog from scratch and use it as a hands on teaching exercise, that we could share with other people in our networks.

Within just a couple of days, the demons were nuked!

I now have my motivation, optimism and AJ vitality back. I think my husband is silently thanking Alex – hubby is a Sagittarius, so articulating what he is feeling comes hard, but I know him well enough to sense what he is thinking

Because of how I was feeling I did a huuuuge amount of thinking and I have come to realise that in our quest to learn and absorb as much as we can about Squidoo and online marketing, we end up listening to too many teachers and self-labelled experts. We click on so many links to free advice and we end up confused, bewildered and achieving diddly squat – a phrase I use instead of “sweet f a”!

We spend more time reading and creating “to do” and “step by step” lists and less time actually doing. Our outputs reduce as our reading increases. We constantly think

I must just look at this and then I will make a start tomorrow……

Do you identify with the feeling of sometimes being totally terrified?

Scared that if we pass up on the opportunity to subscribe to the latest “must read” blog, or download the latest “must apply these methods” free e-book, we are in danger of missing out discovering the one magic ingredient that we need add to our internet recipe – the one that will make the difference betwen failure and our success? We are so frightened of failing and yet it almost becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, because we are constantly planning and never actually taking action.

So what happens?

We lose so much time, that we end up sticking to the things we know we can do quickly and that will have some positive, even if it is miniscule, effect – we publish a Squidoo lens, or a Hubpages hub or an E-Zine article. Less than half a day, it is easy peasy and we can be happy knowing we have produced an output!

And THAT is what so many of us do – we stick with an activity that we know inside out. We crouch behind the protective fences of our Comfort Zone, too scared to leave.

(Am climbing down off my soapbox now, before I have a dizzy spell and fall off it!)

Last week I left my Comfort Zone!

Last week I did something I have not done before on Squidoo – I made a lens for the sole purpose of promoting a new niche blog. The lens Year of the Tiger Tattoos is in the rim of a Link Wheel and the hub of the wheel is the new blog, called errrr . . . . Year of the Tiger Tattoos.

The thinking behind the Link Wheel is set out in a series of posts in Blogging for Profit on my Always Juggling blog. However the principles can be applied to any micro-niche blog, no matter where it is hosted, including here on Squidlog. I will also be applying what I have learned as I develop my websites, which are hosted by Squidster on SEO Praxis.

I am just wondering who is up for trying out establishing some Link Wheels on here, with your own Squidlog micro-niche blog at the center?

On Tuesday 02 March I will be on Giant Squid Open Mike with Drifter0658 and we will be discussing Link Wheels and taking questions from the GSOM Chat Room. Show is for 30 minutes and starts at 5pm EST, which is 10pm AJT – which is also GMT

On a similar note...

Spreading my wings outside Squidoo

AJ — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:27:00 +0000

AJ is musing about thinking “outside the lens”. My post is late this week because I accepted an offer I just could not refuse but it got me thinking…..

Yep, I do a lot of thinking, alone here in my ivory tower, across the water from a lot of my on-line friends, in a very lovely part of England. And this week my brain is buzzing. Eighteen months on Squidoo and still learning all the time about this online stuff and still hoping to turn my writing into an income. Which I am doing, oh ever so slowly but the way forward is becoming more clear!

The offer I could not refuse came from one of my online buddies, Drifter, but it is not the offer I am going to talk about as I do that on my blog Always Juggling. And Alex and I will be discussing what we are doing live on Giant Squid Open Mike on 02 March, 5pm EST, in a program called “Blogging for Profit”.

What I AM going to do on here is get you thinking about something that I have been pondering these past few weeks.

All over Squidooland there’s blogs, forums, Nings and networks that provide help for Squidoo Lensmasters. People share information, they post links to their lenses and it seems to me that supporting each other is frequently focussed on increasing lensrank. The networks start out as sharing and teaching communities but how many people join them because of what the network might do for them, rather than what they can contribute to helping their fellow members?

If I asked you what ONE thing would help you in your online endeavours, what would your immediate answer be?

Would it be increased traffic to your lenses?
More Blessings from Squidoo Angels?
Would it be to always have someone instantly available to answer your questions about Lenscrafting?
Anything else to do with Squidoo?

But are we in danger of focussing too much on Lensrank? What about all the other pieces of the Internet Marketing puzzle that our lenses are only a small part of?

Currently I am seeing many threads on the SquidU Forum devoted to Lens promotion to the extent that folks are in danger of obsessing over Lensrank and are perhaps missing a crucial point. Which is that 2,000 lenses fighting for the Tier 1 payouts on a site that has over 1,000,000 lenses means that the amount of work it can take to keep a lens in the Top Tier can be hugely disproportionate to the financial benefits.

Getting back to my original question……

Do you believe that the best help you can get is something that focuses on helping you with Lensrank? Perhaps you should be thinking more “outside the box” – or in this case “outside the lens”?

So I guess the point of this post is to try to get you thinking outside the Comfort Zone of Squidoo. Don’t focus exclusively on your lenses. Think about how they should be just a small part of your online activities.

Is it time to spread your wings? I am spreading mine

In the last three weeks I have set up two websites (hosted by Squidster’s SEO Praxis) and a micro-niche blog plus I have finally published my first hub on Hubpages! More micro-niche blogs will follow. I will still be publishing lenses on Squidoo but they are just a small part of my planned Internet Mix.

I am not flying yet, but I am flexing those flight muscles. I’ll keep you posted!

On a similar note...

Self Promotion or Self Adulation – whether on Squidoo or on The Net, it is important to know the difference!

AJ — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 12:39:01 +0000

AJ is Musing about how we can lose friends fast if we embark on a campaign of Self Adulation when we thought what we were doing was Self Promotion

OK I admit it, I was struggling for a topic for this week’s article and then my daily feed from Copyblogger dropped into my in box. Thanks to a recommendation from Drifter, Copyblogger is one of the very few blogs that I try to keep up with on a daily basis and it is one that I would recommend to anyone. But I digress….

Today’s Copyblogger post is The Art of Shameless Self Promotion and it helps us distinguish between a perfectly acceptable behaviour on the net and one that will earn the disdain of our intended audience very quickly.

Nathan Hagan defines Self Promotion as:

the art of spreading ideas, concepts, and a greater vision

Self-adulation is

just the promotion of accomplishments, deeds that have already been done

By promoting ideas, especially if they are something that will benefit people in general and not necessarily just yourself, you are giving others something to cheer for. It is ideas that inspire not achievements.

There is a great comment on the blog:

Self-promotion vs. self-adulation is like self-belief vs. arrogance. The former is about your positive place in the world, and the latter is simply about you

Yep, that sums it up very succinctly!

So when trying to promote a new concept or idea in some of the great debates and discussions about Squidoo, no one needs to try to establish their credentials by highlighting their own achievements on Squidoo – we can check out their Bios if we want the details! All it will do is turn people off to the message, because they may just assume that the message is actually all about building the “Kingdom of Me”!

The Art of Shameless Self Promotion also gives tips on how to create a Self Promotion Platform – go check it out. It makes for very interesting and thought provoking reading.