Blog Blog Blog and You Reach Milestone

It is amazing to note the number of search results from doing a Google web search for "blog." What is equally amazing is to note that Seth Godin is the #4 blog listed after 2 Google sites and Wikipedia. That is pretty darn good remarkable -- especially considering that searching on "blog" yields some 2,890,000,000 results! That's nearly 3 billion. Wow.

1. Blogger: Create your free blog
   Blogger is a free blog publishing tool from Google for easily sharing your thoughts with the world.
2. Blog - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
   A blog (a contraction of the term weblog) is a website, usually maintained by an individual ...
3. Official Google Blog
   Official weblog, with news of new products, events and glimpses of life inside Google.
4. Seth's Blog
   Seth Godin's riffs on marketing, respect, and the ways ideas spread.

Today is a noteworthy day in that Seth Godin achieved his 3,000 consecutive blog post. It's further noteworthy in that to be able to have 3,000 relevant, topical posts is a remarkable accomplishment.
In the Summer of 2000, I was introduced to Seth Godin's writings when I received a copy of his Permission Marketing from a fellow webmaster. After that, one by one, I would receive more of Seth Godin's books through my work with BzzAgent.

My very first blog post was over four years ago on December 22, 2004. Looking back to that blog post, what resonates with me today is this:

... it is important to have relevant and current content. Market or promote your blog by trading links ... use a lot of outbound links.

It makes just as much sense today that blog posts should be topical, relevant, and spot-on to be worthy of readers. Additionally, a blog achieves more credibility when other bloggers are backlinking to the blog.

May I recommend that you read Seth's blog post for today AND that you also take some time to read the Wikipedia entry for a blog. I've been a fan of Wikipedia for eons; there is really no other place comparable on the internet where a reader can find such a conglomeration of information that rivals the old hard-copy enclycopedias. Reading about the history and evolution of the blog reveals some amazing facts about bloggers.

A blog can be mightier than the sword! A blog can lead to 'other things.' Take Julie Powell for example. She wrote a blog about her experiences mastering the cooking of Julia Child. That blog led to a book, which led to a movie! That's pretty cool I think.

Competing for the top lensrank

Competing for the top lensrank = earning charity dollars. I've just taken a look at the Top 100 listed lenses in several categories. Some rather surprising lenses -- no, I didn't have the time to visit each and every one of these. In some categories, I'm seeing multiple lenses on the SAME topics -- I personally would like to see more of a variety. And, be a little more topical on the topics; i.e., if holiday related and the holiday is past. ;)

The lure of many a new lensmaster joining Squidoo can probably be chalked up to the enticement of sharing in the thousands of dollars that some lensmasters say they are earning each month. There are plenty of ebooks out there instructing lensmasters how they can earn boatloads of money online. This is a tough economy; people have financial issues and are watching their budgets. I personally wouldn't want to get wealthy at the expense of putting another person in debt. But, that's me.

I'm of the belief that you need to "show me the money" before I believe all those claims about lensmasters or affiliates making thousands of dollars a month. I can believe that some lensmasters are making $100, $200, $300 or possibly $400 per month off their lenses -- but it is becoming less of a viable earning platform when you consider that you are competing with over 850,000 lenses rankling for a lensrank in the Top Tier which might pay $10-$11 for that position. Remember, the Top Tier only encompasses the top 2,000 lenses.

The enticement to join Squidoo has also brought with it some pretty spammy and non-quality lenses, recently referred to as SquidJunk. Well, I don't like spam and I surely don't like junk. Thankfully, there are efforts underway to address the spam and the junk -- thank you!

OK, here is what I propose and I'm sure this will be received with mixed reviews. Change the lensrank tier position royalties to automatically default to charity. Let the lensmaster select which charity or charities they would like to earmark their royalties to benefit. That could be the first step ... how do you feel about this?