eHow, Helium, and Squidoo all shut down. It's time to move all the articles on HubPages to the blogosphere.

I can string words together and have fairly good grammar. I have ideas and information to share. I started with eHow and learned a lot there but they shut us down. So, I moved some of my articles to Helium.

I liked Helium and had a very good time with new writing friends. I practiced my craft at article writing and actually made some money but they also shut down. I moved some of those articles to my computer and the rest found their way to Squidoo. I have enough articles on camping to write my own book which I may do someday.

I had a great time on Squidoo but we were told that they were closing their doors too. It was discouraging but Squidoo had made arrangements with HubPages to take all our lenses and make them hubs. Before the transfer, I deleted more than 50 articles because I knew they weren't going to make it on HubPages. That left about 150 which I edited to conform with their rules. I was enjoying my time until yesterday when all of a sudden some of my hubs became "unfeatured" for quality. I took a hard look at the three of them and could see where they needed to be updated.

However, I am tired of trying to fit what I want to say into other people's rules. It appears that the hubs that were former lenses are being dealt a deathblow. We (those from Squidoo) think HubPages is regretting its decision to take our lenses and this is their way of weeding them out. I updated a healthy lens today only to have it drop into unfeatured for quality. It's about baseball with lots of original photos and even more information on how to be a good baseball parent, including what not to buy.

That will be the first one that I post here next week. Our grandson has been playing baseball since he was five and now that he's got one more year in Junior High, we know a great deal about youth baseball. That information is worth sharing for other parents who might be starting out.

I will not spend any more time complaining about eHow, Helium, Squidoo, and HubPages. What I post now is only me sharing what I know and saying what I want to say.

National Tortilla Chip Day and National Letter Writing Week are the two latest lenses on Squidoo that won't make money but were fun to write. It started with a quest on Squidoo to create a silly or obscure January holiday and the one for February quickly followed. I am considering one for each month now so we'll see.

Brand New Page on Squidoo - Knott's Berry Farm

Like the Wilson's Creek Battlefield page, my newest one is one that I am really proud of. We are buying season tickets to Knott's Berry Farm which sent me back to the past. This is the one place that is full of family memories from my childhood. We are talking 60 years of memories. I am totally happy with this one and see that there is so much more to add. Can't wait until I find all my pictures.

Still catching up

Just finished the last fundraising article on the Student Store and posted it on the Elementary School Fundraising blog along with the others that were rewritten. The project on Helium is complete so I am not making any more money. Now I have to find articles that pay and compete with others. Out of the three that I have done, two were accepted and paid while the third was not. The competition is good for me.

I have been really busy on Squidoo

I've written more than 20 lenses. Been selected to be a SquidAngel for the month of December and applied to be a giant squid. Helium has taken a backseat. Now I am going back there to catch up on my rating and grading. I did submit 3 articles to the new marketplace system and will see if it is worth my time. Until the articles closes I will not know if I made $6.00, $3.00 or absolutely nothing.

It's Christmas Day. Everyone is still asleep. This is the last day that my Christmas lenses will do well. I almost made it to the top 100 with "I heard the bells on Christmas Day" landing at 162 today. Now, I'll have to wait until next year to see how it does.

I hate change

OK, I don't hate change but good grief, changes that are dumped on a talented bunch of writers at the last minute make such a muddle of everything. Helium has changed its payment policies and everyone is in an uproar. Given the new titles that they are offering, I can't find anything to write to and even if I did, there is no promise that I will earn anything but pennies. Still, I will wait and see before making a decision.

In the meantime, I am a RocketMom on Squidoo and have written 18 lenses in the last two weeks. I was also asked to be a SquidAngel and I get to go around and bless lenses that I think are great. It's a 30 day adventure and I have set a lens up to track those I bless. These are the ones that I have found something that touches me or are just very well done. It's been very fun there and while I will not make lots of money, it gives me more space to spread my wings. I can write in 1st person, I can be silly and I can address topics that mean something to me. The serious lenses are not monetized and not aggressively promoted. I think it's a choice on my part because to try to make money from them is against what I believe. Any, Squidoo is fun.

Change in focus

I have not rated or written on Helium in over a week. In fact, I haven't even logged in. My focus has been on Squidoo and I have been writing there. It's a problem because I can make money on Helium and it's needed for Christmas. I am just having more fun on Squidoo. I have made 11 lenses this month and I am really proud of several of them. I received an invitation to join the RocketMoms and am working on the challenge. Along the way, I have discovered that Squidoo rewards with points and silly bonus stuff that is just fun. Since most of my lenses are new, they are not earning. Even my older lenses don't make money because they are not monetized.

I'm not sure why Helium is not where I want to be. It really doesn't matter, I have to start next week because money is money. Maybe the break will be good.

Computer glitches

This is the 3rd day that the beta portion of Helium is down. It's annoying but it's also making my Squidoo lenses less effective. I have my how-to guides from Helium tied into them. Since they are part of the beta system, anyone checking them gets an error message.

I should be writing articles but they are not as much fun as the how-to guides. OH well, guess I'll go write something.

A collection of writing tips

This may be my favorite lens on Squidoo. I found all these tips on StumbleUpon and think that they are great. So, it is the featured item at the top of the blog. There is a lensrolled lens on the right that has even more information. No one can say they have writers block now.