Our Squidoo Marketing Community is For Sale

[John Dilbeck]

Good morning,

As I mentioned previously, I can no longer continue to afford this community on Ning.com.

I will accept offers from any prospective purchasers, preferably members of the community, until Wednesday, October 7, 2009. If no buyer is forthcoming, I will close the community on October 8, 2009.

This should give you time to copy any content you may have published here and to get the contact information for any of your friends in the community.

I regret that it has come to this.

All the best,

JD

[Pat]

Hey John,

I've been really busy lately and have neglected this network. I just saw this post. I'm surprised at your comment about this network not working out and having little value.

Maybe it's because we members have neglected to tell you how much we appreciate all you do.

It seems to me, this is one of the more successful Ning networks that I belong to. It's a very targeted niche with very active members who are here for some other reason than spamming. The members are the most high quality and respectful people on the net! I'm proud of this network.

I'm really glad that you found a sponsor. I'm also willing to pay to be a member of this supportive site. I have also been known to drop a few pennies in a tip jar on sites that I really appreciate. Give this some thought.

I know how much time you put into keeping this network high quality and I fully support you being compensated!

I really appreciate you!

Pat

[John Dilbeck]

Good evening, Pat.

I'm sure we're all busy and don't have the time to visit all the sites we want. Participating on sites takes even more time and effort, so I understand what you're saying.

When I said this community had little value, I meant it from the perspective of basic economics. The more supply there is, the lower the value. In other words, the more places we can talk about Squidoo, marketing, our lenses, and so forth, the lower the value of each of those sites.

I agree that this is a well-targeted niche, with outstanding members, many Giant Squids, other excellent lensmasters, and great participation. In that respect, I believe it has more value than some other sites, but I'm biased.

I'm happy to know many of the members of this community, and consider a few to be real friends. That's one of the reasons I did not want to have to close or sell it. I like coming here a couple of times every day, or more, and seeing what's going on.

I am extremely grateful that GypsyOwl has agreed to sponsor the site. She deserves a lot of credit for keeping it open.

I've tried tip jars on other sites and earned a grand total of $2.00 in several months. It just didn't work out, plus I felt a bit like a beggar.

If I had not been close to starting to bounce checks, I would not have considered closing or selling the site. Fortunately GypsyOwl's sponsorship has given me some breathing room, and one of my other marketing ventures is starting to pay off, so I'm hoping to be out of this cash crunch before the end of the year.

Deb has some ideas for our community and we'll be announcing them in a few days. You may be interested in them.

Thank you for your kind words of support. I really appreciate you, too.

Act on your dream!

JD

[Mary Beth Granger]

Thank you to Gypsy Owl for sponsoring this site! I know I haven't got here as often as I'd like lately...life just happens...but I find this a valuable site with some great lensmasters. I am very glad that it is going to continue.

[Joan]

this is such a relief! John, you have built a beautiful community here. and a super spot for us to post and get great back links. I wish I could have been more help to you on this, but I am oh, so thankful that GypsyOwl stepped up to the plate! I think everybody is so stretched financially right now, but maybe as time goes on, we will all see better days, and in the meantime, we can still enjoy Squidoo Marketing! Thank you, John! Thank you, GypsyOwl!

[MiMi]

Definitely great news! Thank you John and Deborah!

[John Dilbeck]

Thanks, MiMi. I appreciate your support.

[John Dilbeck]

Thank you, Joan.

There are great people here and it's a good place to give and get help with Squidoo and marketing issues.

Right now, I don't know anyone who isn't in a financial bind. I'm sure they exist and they're out there, but everyone I know is in a tight spot.

Maybe the trick is to find what those folks with money to spend want to buy and then build lenses and other sites to sell it to them!

Who was it? Maybe Robert Kiyosaki, in one of his "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" books, who said something to the effect of, "You have to sell something before you can buy something." I thought that was good advice.

Thank you, Joan, for being one of the helpful members of our community.

JD

[John Dilbeck]

I appreciate your support, Mary Beth. Thanks!

[Katinka Hesselink / Spirituality]

Since this is the most active squidoo related ning, it would indeed have been a shame if it had closed down. Glad that was not necessary.