Treasures By Brenda

Focus, focus, focus. That is the name of the game for me today.

I MUST prepare listings for my eBay store, Treasures By Brenda. I ordinarily try to have listings on hand in advance ready to upload on Sunday but a few other things ‘ranked’ higher in my priority list this week. However, I do have a selection of items to write up…including children’s Harry Pawter dog-themed parody t-shirts; Timberland fleece jackets; new and pre-owned DVDs, VHS tapes and CDs; collectible mugs; jigsaw puzzles, toys and games; and much more.

In order to do this:

I must NOT write any new lenses on Squidoo.

I must NOT promote my lowest ranked lenses, Canada Post Flat Rate Shipping or If Company’s Coming Use Jean Pare’s Cookbooks, on or off of Squidoo.

I must NOT keep peeking at my highest ranked lens Your Life Sentence ~~ Six-Word Memoirs or Quotations to see how many visits it has had. (It is in position #7!)

I CANNOT( sorry) process any of the HUNDREDS (I have not actually counted them but it sure seems like hundreds) of comments Your Life Sentence ~~ Six-Word Memoirs or Quotations has received since it was ranked Lens of the Day earlier this week. (I can say Thank You and that I will get back to processing your comments as soon as possible.)

I must focus on my goal for today.
I must process 50 items before I come back here (to Squidoo).
I wish myself luck. (It is tough to ignore Squidoo.)

So I will see you tomorrow…

or maybe I’ll drop by tonight for a little peek and let you know how I’ve done!

Brenda

Thank you to everyone who helped make Your Life Sentence ~~ Six-Word Memoirs or Quotations the Lens of the Day.

Thank you for your advice.
Thank you for your quotes.
Your efforts were and are appreciated!

Thank you, too, to those working silently behind the scene.

Have a great day!
Brenda

Three. That is the number of lenses I have that are dedicated to Christmas. I am anxious to see what the coming of the Christmas season does for them. I can honestly say that I have never been anxious for Christmas to come for reasons quite like these!

My newest lens:

Star Wars Christmas Ornaments and Decorations is up and running this morning and green checked almost immediately! (Perhaps in response to my blogging about it!)

My existing Christmas lenses:

Elvis Presley Christmas Duets has been up and running for a few weeks and is slowly gaining momentum.

Christmas Music CDs is not quite as current as the Elvis one but receives some visits.

Hope your holiday preparations are going forward nicely!
Brenda

I have finally published my latest lens — Recipe For Finding Good Cookbooks — it gave me plenty of difficulty.

Most importantly, there was the subject of content. I wanted to do a Squidbid lens to support the large number of cookbooks that I have for sale in my eBay store, Treasures By Brenda but I wanted there to be great content as well. I finally came up with the angle of providing guidelines for purchasing good cookbooks. I think the suggestions I found are helpful and am pleased that the lens has allowed me to showcase many great cookbooks.

Even the title was difficult. I wanted to use ‘good cookbooks’ because I think people might search for ‘good cookbooks’ and the lens might receive more hits than one with just ‘cookbook’ would. I know that titles are very important to search engines. Some of the titles I considered were:

How to find good cookbooks.
How to find a perfect cookbook.
Recipe for a good cookbook.
Recipe for the perfect cookbook.
Recipe for finding good cookbooks.
Recipe for finding perfect cookbooks.

I wonder what the best choice is from the perspective of search engines.

I think that the recommendations on how to find a good cookbook are great but the most interesting part of the lens may be the Hard-To-Find and Rare Titles at Auction on EBay Right Now section in which there is currently a cookbook with more than 20 bids selling for $257. It will be interesting to see what the final price is on this book as well as to see what other items the eBay RSS feed deposits here in the future. Please note the cookbook referenced in this paragraph has sold for $257.

I hope I will be able to help many people with their cookbook purchases because of this lens!

Brenda

P.S. Instead of creating this blog as a post, I created it as a page…and managed to delete it when I tried to change it to a post so this is the second time I had to write this note. (Hopefully, that is not a sign of how this lens will perform!)

In August, I was lucky enough to have Mimi review my lens, Welcome to Jigsaw Puzzle Country. After the fact, she posted a Lensmaster Interview — with me! If you are interested in seeing it and checking out Mimi’s reviews, you can find the original lens review at Squidoo Lens Review — Welcome To Jigsaw Puzzle Country and the interview at Squidoo Lensmasters Interview.

Brenda

Change is often a good thing, and I try to embrace it and be positive. However, yesterday was a trying day in that regard. I had been away from my computer for awhile and discovered a couple of rather large changes.

First, I logged into my eBay account to discover a brand-new look and format. For a busy seller on eBay, that is a big change! Naturally, it comes with a learning curve…and so I am waiting for help from eBay with a simple thing like editing an item. There simply does not seem to be an ‘edit’ choice for each item. I am sure there is a way to do it and am looking forward to learning it and a lot of other new ‘tricks.’ Struggling with such a simple task is very frustrating but at least my store, Treasures By Brenda, is back in business after a long summer holiday.

Then I visited Squidtop and discovered the brand-new look here — and along with it no way to access my own blog. I eventually found the way through a question I had answered earlier and safely bookmarked myself. Now I am trying to change my Squidtop/Word Press password and looking for the appropriate place to do so…

Change can be trying but I am trying to keep smiling!

Brenda

Wow, new look, more learning…

I just spent several minutes trying to find this page where I can write, manage, etc. my blogs.  I finally found myself by entering Susan’s Squidoo Diary and clicking on a comment I had already left there. Is there not an easier way to find oneself from the main page of Squidtop?

Anyway, I am finally finished all my mini-vacations for this summer and I must say that I really enjoyed our time camping and being away from the computer for SEVEN entire days. (It was tough, particularly at first, I must admit.)

Tomorrow, our new furnace arrives and my eBay store, Treasures By Brenda, will be open for business again. I hope September will deliver lots of action, for both my store and my lenses.

My Christmas lenses, Elvis Presley Christmas Duets and Christmas Music CDs are all set to go. This will be my first Christmas on Squidoo, I am curious to see how they fare. I wonder what the secret is of a top-ranking Christmas lens.

My most exciting lens, Your Life Sentence ~~ Six-Word Memoirs or Quotations, is on a topic which is travelling like lightning throughout the world and the internet, is my best performer to date and almost has a life of its own. I am curious to see how high in the rankings it will go. (I’ll only dream of reaching the top!) If you do not know what six-word memoirs is all about, you need to check it out (and leave your six-word memoir as well as your comments and rating.)

Brenda

Elvis Presley is Alive and Well!

Well, you might be forgiven for thinking that he is when you read that he is releasing a new Christmas album this year entitled Elvis Presley Christmas Duets. On this album, he will be joined by some of today’s finest contemporary country singers. Check out my lens to find out which artists he is joined by and how this magical feat was accomplished!

 Brenda

I did it! (Well not by my first goal of July 27th but definitely well in advance of my revised date of August 24th.) What a relief it is to know that I have 102 items ready to go once my company departs, my new furnace is installed, etc. I’ll be all set to get my eBay store back in business when I turn it back on later this month!

I have even managed to squeeze a little bit of time into lens work. My goal in that regard is to see if I can earn ANY affiliate income and to accomplish that I have increased the number of items available for purchase on my Squidbid lens, Are You Puzzled by Jigsaw Puzzles, as well as in my Roots Canada Ltd. and Company’s Coming lenses where it seemed appropriate to do so.

Brenda

This morning I am thrilled to announce that Mimi of Growwear has reviewed my lens, Welcome to Jigsaw Puzzle Country, at her blog Squidoo Lens Reviews. Visit Mimi’s review to see what she said about my lens and consider submitting your lens to Mimi for review.

Of course, my new puzzle lens would appreciate your rating and comments, too! On it you will find interesting and moving human-interest stories about people and their passionate hobby of working jigsaw puzzles.

Brenda