Giant Squids and Snow Scenes

Well, the snuffles turned into the worst cold I have had for five years. Having to cancel most of my appointments and in no condition to gym or swim, I was at least able to huddle by the radiator and use the computer. Talking to more experienced sellers on the forum of my merchandise shop site, I am persuaded of the need for internet promotion. Various methods are used by sellers to raise the profile of their own and other people’s products.

Facebook is a popular choice. Forced (literally) by a community arts project I took part in last year to join Facebook, I loathed the whole experience and deleted my account in less than 2 weeks. A small selection of things I hated about Facebook: People I don’t like much sending me ‘friend’ requests, endless invites to stuff I have no interest in, huge amounts of time-wasting stuff like virtual pillow fights, personality quizzes (grew out of those age 13) and games. Plus the site itself is full of bugs, glitches and things that don’t work; I found much of it incomprehensible. Lastly I have friends. Real ones. Always happy to make more of course… but my Facebook days are over.

My time spent on Twitter was even shorter. About 36 hours in total. I love to write but cannot say anything meaningful in so few characters. My tweets included fascinating insights into my life like “I am having a cheese sandwich”. I even bored myself. My account immediately drew lots of followers, mainly American internet marketing ‘experts’. Call me cynical but I don’t think they were interested in my sandwich filling choice. Hey ho, account deleted.

But a while ago I heard about Squidoo. If Wikipedia and Blogger had a baby it would be a Squidoo. It’s basically a site where anyone (yes you too) can make a web page about something they know about, for free. These pages are called ‘lenses’ because they look at something in detail. You will find everything from chocolate mousse recipes to breeding spaniels on Squidoo. The site is fun; with Squid eyeball graphics, and ways to customise your lens. A bad lens (full of nothing but ads and spam) gets labelled a Squidont, and a good lens may be blessed by a Squid Angel.

It took some figuring out but I have made my first Squidoo Lens, and I really enjoyed it. It’s the perfect platform for all those articles on painting I have wanted to write for ages. Plus if you write 50 quality lenses you get to be a ‘Giant Squid’ and what could be better than that?

Check it out here:

visit my Squidoo Lens, about framing and displaying artwork


Feel free to share the page link with anyone who may find the article useful.

Just before I became permanently attached to a box of Kleenex tissues I managed to finish my snow scene sunset (see picture), and now I am on the mend I am starting a new river painting. More about that soon…