never heard of that. I love cooked food thats why I am unwilling to go raw. I can handle 50-60% raw but 100%? I dunno if thats any fun!

Hiya Jelly! Glad to see you dug into the RSS stuff. I went down last night with a quickie stomach flu, but I'm feeling better now. I'll keep ya posted....gotta go catch up. Glad you're staying in touch!

Hiya JB! Got a bit distracted this last 18 hours. Sitting down now to do some research. Thanks for checking in with me!!!!!!!!

thanks for the idea, I'll head on over to wiki and see what I can learn and come back to tell you what I think.

ok based on what I've read RSS is some kind of way to filter in content from a site, whatever that content may be. It filters in a ''taste'' of the new changes are on the site you are getting the feed from. Take a look at this squidoo page: http://www.squidoo.com/southern-route and look at the little words that say ''powered by flickr'' or ''powered by youtube''. I am theorizing that those may be the RSS feed. I'll come tell you when I redefine my theory.

hows it goin for you?

i'm researching too

I understand about the pic. Of course when you get to be an old guy, it doesn't matter. Do you by any chance belong to a local astronomy club wherever you are?

Hey JB, we have a local astronomy club out this way, and we are ALWAYS happy to have new visitors, with or without a scope. In fact, a few years back, I undertook a small project on my own, which was to design, build and then give away telescopes to deserving youngsters. This was prompted by a young lad at one of our star parties, where I had one of my scopes set up for solar viewing. He kept coming back for one look after another. I think it was embarrassing his mum, so I tried to convince her that was why I was there. So that HER son could see the sun safely. When I was driving home, it struck me that I had nothing to give this young lad, and that upset me greatly. By the time I arrived home, I had it in my mind that I would build a dozen or more scopes and just give them away to whomever I thought would put them to good use. Let me tell you the look on these kids faces when you do this is absolutely incredible. Even at my age they never fail to bring a tear to my eye.

Hey JB, Just spotted your RSS trouble. Same here, I just posted a question about this in the Squidoo forum. If I get an answer I'll let you know. You can also just delete the RSS thing from your lens....only just found that out a few minutes ago.

Hi again, I still do not have an answer as to exactly what the RSS feed is, but I expect it will come. A couple of experienced squidooers, if that's what you call them, have said you can just delete. But that's not really the point. I note on my Mac I have an RSS section in my email, which I just clicked on and a ton of stuff came up all from Apple. So it appears to be some kind of commercial feed. I'm guessing that this will be some sort of link to whatever you are promoting. That's pure speculation on my part, but I will find the answer.

Hi JB, I just tried to post back to you, only I did it on my page....duuuh. Anyway, I got a bit more on the RSS feed, if you go to squidoo, go into squidu forums, pick help, please, and about halfway down the second page is my request which just says RSS by cocobolo. That has cleared it up somewhat. Really, I think it will be more a matter of just doing it to see the result. Shouldn't be too hard. Check it out and see if it helps.
Love the suggestion of a gang of us, already I am seeing that there are a few of us posting on each others space.
I have a hunch that those of us who want to work at this will likely tag along and keep in touch anyway. I hope you realize that if you are in a group with me you are just bound to get into some kinda trouble!! Back in a bit.

Hi again JB. I guess you are probably out cold for the night already! Just got back from town...it's been a long day. OK, now about the gang, since it's your idea - and a great one - what are you going to call it? The Mad May Millionaires or something. Gotta have a name. We can do a quick check of our buddies and invite anyone on board who wants to come along. Should be great fun. That way we can share in each others knowledge as we go. One of my buds is good on a computer, so there's a good start. Faroshuffle already is getting into keywords in a big way. As for me, heck I'm just scrambling all over the place trying to find the door!
Actually I did have another thought this afternoon while over on Vancouver Island. I was toying with the idea of writing a short series of the "strictly for us newbies" articles. The next one would just be part two. It would reflect my ideas of how we were progressing through the 8 week action plan, and I would have to find something to tie it to which everyone could understand. I'm going to attempt the second one tomorrow and see how it goes.

Hi JB.
Well, you have to consider that these are the first lenses I have done. So I can't call them good. Very basic, and almost acceptable. Squidoo has an arrangement with Amazon, whereby when you do your lens, there is an Amazon module there for you to use. You can pick the sorts of products you want to sell right on the module. It is actualy Squidoo who is the direct affiliate with Amazon, and you get a slice of any commission you make, shared with the squid. You should be about on your first lens by now, right?

Back again....there is more on the RSS thing at Squidoo/FAQ go to number 40. Put all the explanations together and they start to make sense.

Hi JB, I think I might have PPG's squid tut. here. I've got way too many things stored now. Have to sort the wheat from the chaff. There is so much on squidoo, but the folks who reply on the forum there are so quick, and so helpful it's amazing.

Sorry JB, the PM I just sent has wrong info. Try this. Click on new messages, right on the "0" if necessary. Next page, click on user control panel, which is 2nd line down from the top. Next page the "private messages" tab. Then you can pick inbox, outbox or sent messages. Did i give you the link before? If not, I will dig it up and shoot it your way.

Hi JB, quite right about the Mt. T videos. Instead of having 99 things to remember all at once, breaking it down into a single thing at a time makes all the difference in the world.

Hi JB. I am going to send you a detailed pm about this. Then if you still have questions, get back to me.

That's right JB. It's more or less the same thing as using quotes. And the URL search just lets you know if they have that precise name. And since only 1 person can own that domain name, that part isn't quite as important. OK, you're on the right track now. Are you ready to get going on some articles now? I have just submitted my first 10 - finally - and it was 100 times easier than I expected. Let me know if you need any help.

HI JB, I did it again. Put my reply on my space instead of yours. Sorry. Go to mine and read the reply. It should help you out.

HI JB, back again. I really do hear you on the frustration level. It wasn't until about two days ago that the penny finally dropped for me, even though I knew how to go through the keyword search thing. I couldn't get my numbers to come down either. I will send you a pm, which will be far too long to put up here.

Hi JB, OK so will you give me the name of your lens....send it to my email if you like. I haven't been on either of those sites you mention yet, still been busy getting stuff up at Ezine. Finally got my notification of platinum status this morning.

Hi JB: I don't know if it is fair to call Ezine "strict", it is just that they have a set of guidelines which they expect you to follow. Go on to their site and you can see what they are. Ezine WANTS you to become successful with them. They WANT you to post articles. There is nothing unfair in any way about what they want, in fact, I would say that all article sites would be well advised to adopt the sort of standards which Ezine has. If that were the case, much of the hype and hoopla would never see the light of day on the web. And definitely remember that the service is free.
When you do your first 10 articles, all you need to do is to provide good quality information. Make sure you write 100% of your articles from scratch - it's really very easy - and do not plug any product at all in your article. Just give information which has a value to it. That's the "give" portion with Ezine.
The "take" is where you get to put a link at the end of your article. If you have made your article(s) interesting, then people will click on your link to see what it's all about. That is where you will get your business from. Ezine wants good solid informative articles which they can promote all over the web. They want to give every article away that they possibly can.
Getting platinum status is not difficult at all. All you need to gain that is 10 good articles which follow their guidelines. Make sure that your link actually works - Ezine checks every one - and you will be OK.
For the life of me I cannot understand why less than 15% of writers ever attain platinum status. It makes no sense to me at all. The benefits are enormous and ongoing. I mean, where can you get a continuous stream of visitors that easily and for free? It's a no brainer.

Back again JB, last night I put a few more articles in to Ezine, I see this morning that they are already approved! That's fast! Just to illustrate how effective they are, for the few articles I have in place there have been 475 views and 76 click throughs already. It's amazing.

Hi JB, be a good girl and send me the URL of your lens, to my email if you like, or PM. I really would like to look at it. If you think a different lens would be better to promote, then by all means do another one. But your first one might not be soooooo bad at all, (as you say!)

What on earth is all this nonsense about your lens being sooooo bad????? That's FANTASTIC!! C'mon now, add it to your WA space right here. And can you get the comment box re-installed on your lens? I see you took it out. Hey, if that's your first effort, I just cannot wait to see what you come up with next. THAT WAS GREAT!! I see that Google hasn't listed it yet as a page, but it does show your Twitter page. As soon as you get two or three (or ten) Ezine articles up Google will have it up right away. You will be number 1, guaranteed! Well done!!

Hi JB, if you put the same sort of content up at Ezine, you will do well. That is EXACTLY the sort of thing they want. You didn't try to sell anything, just gave good info. You know what they say, never mind about getting it perfect, just get it out there. Now, if you haven't already got going on the 10 articles for Ezine, make yourself a quick list of 12 or 15 articles to write. When you get to the actual writing, you may have a tendency for things to overlap (I know I did) so an extra few ideas gives you plenty of room. The thing is, you want your first 10 articles to be full of good information, that's all. Make sure your link works - Ezine WILL check it.
Now that I'm platinum, my articles are approved and up in around 12 hours. They do say up to 48 hours, but they are quicker than that.
And one final thing, when you do a lens, there is no traffic finding its' way there on its' own. So, until my Ezine articles were up, there was maybe 1 or 2 views, nothing. As soon as the articles hit - right away the click throughs started getting back to the lenses - instantly! Haven't checked this morning, but last night it was around 90 CT's.

Thanks for the tease, maybe you could let me know what it is tomorrow. I guess you are two hours ahead of us out here,so time for beddy byes now.

I get exactly what you are saying. But you think that way because you are an expert on the subject. Don't worry so much. You need to get some articles out to promote that lens.
And what makes you think ezine sucks, as you put it. You don't have to rewrite everything at all. Just write a conversational piece as though you were speaking to someone. No rewriting required.
Give it your best shot.

aah yes lol. I am a young female in college, and not too crazy about putting my picture up-would rather not get the attention.
I love astronomy and considered majoring in it alongside my creative writing major, but chose biology because I am not too strong in physics or math.

No-I wanted to join the Astronomical society, but I dont have a telescope, and most of the members have their own I think. I go to the observatory sometimes, and my university has public nights for the telescope on top of the physics building so I go to those as well.

Thanks I appreciate that 110%! If there is ever anything I can do to help you let me know. I just don't understand what an RSS feed does. What is it feeding? I just don't get how it keeps content fresh. you see what I mean?

I wish we could start a group or forum for you me and a few other newbies who started around the time we did so we can establish some friends for the long ride ahead. That and we could help each other.

is there an actual group you created? Can we create groups like on facebook? lol

how are the first two lenses going? and how did you become an affiliate for amazon stuff? I didn't know one could do tnat.

did you check out potpiegirl's squidoo tutorial? I just downloaded it and it looks good.

ok what was the name of the ten dollar thing you wanted me to look at? if I don't have a new message in my inbox then I can't get into WA mail.

ok I just looked at your squidoos for the first time, and I am so impressed! It was very neat- I almost wanted to buy something! Keep pushing forward!

The travis sago thing is pretty good. Everything seems to be alot simpler than I imagined it was! Doesn't seem difficult at all!

do you know where I can go in forum to get keyword research info. I am in desperate need for help.

hey read this:
http://www.themanicmarketer.com/finding-low-competition-high-search-volume-keywords.html

and read the bit where he says search using allintitle and inurl because those are the people that you'll truly be competing with, because if thats the case all the stuff I've been researching are great keywords because the allintitle results are less that 3 or 4!

what would you say is a good number for allintitle? less than 10, or less than 100? Because when I do stuff in just ''quotes'' there are still alot of people, but when I do allintitle the numbers go down to below 10.

alright I'm going back to the drawing board-Google. I'm frustrated because I can't really find anything under 1000 or 5000, and the only ones I am finding are so long tail that I don't think anyone would ever search for that. This keyword stuff is holding me back because I can't do anything else until I've found some, so I might be stuck on this awhile.

hi its heather again. I found out about this affiliate network called pepperjam.com and they have high quality merchants that people would actually buy from. I applied to them but they might actually reject me because it seems nicer than linkshare.

I published my first lens and I'm doing a blog. It is sssoo bad but I couldn't wait any longer.

wow platinum status how you do that? I know ezine is pretty strict and tight!

Thats good. I am not sure whether to make a new lens or whether to go ahead with the article writing. I think I'll make one more(For Practice) and then write the article. Right now I just worry about optimizing and whether I am doing it right.

http://www.squidoo.com/TheHealthBenefitsofOrganicFood
I'm not sure if everything is right(there is so much to remember) but I've been working on another one

Thank you- I didn't think it was really good. I felt I was forgetting everything they taught me!
Its so late and hot here in Louisiana and I don't know why I am up.

I found some good tools that will check your website and tell you when something is wrong with it, like links and everything from A to Z. Its some kind of Google tool. I have to be up early so I will retire now.

I don't think I am niching enough. I don't feel like my squidoo is serving an internet users ''urgency''. You know what I mean. I feel like I am giving valuable information but that's all I'm doing-informing. I don't feel many people will readily but a book about going organic. I think they'll get online to look for information about going organic and read my stuff, but I am not necessarily appealing to people ready to buy-you get me? I'm just thinking about it and evaluating.

Hi Jelly...
I'll have my first up either later today or by tomorrow....thanks for asking. How are you doing darlin? Got a campaign started?

hi there! Glad to have you in our ''exclusive'' circle lol -I'm just trying to get a network of people that joined around the time we did so we can use each other as resources. It's good to have help, and I'm not sure when to ask people like kyle, carson, dave b, pot pie girl, etc for help.

hi, I hope everything is going well for you-got your first lens up?

I do not have a lens up. I am building my campaign and doing research. I drew a bubble diagram and organized my campaign within the diagram. I am watching travis sago vids because coco turned me into them.