Cynthia starts her introduction on a personal note, telling us that her husband and daughter love this dessert. Then she goes on to say that it is quick and easy to make, again relating the task of making it to her and her family’s pleasure in eating it.

We have faith that this is a recipe she makes regularly and so we can be sure it will work if we make it. I’ve tried new recipes I’ve found online or in cookbooks and found they don’t work as well as they should so this is important.

The ingredients are clearly listed and there is a photograph alongside so we have no excuse for any misunderstanding! Then there are the instructions to make the Blackberry Cobbler dessert. They are clear and we can see it’s going to be easy to make. Just in case we have a doubt about how quick and easy it is, Cynthia provides a slide show, with directions, of each step of the recipe.

Finally we have a large close-up picture of the delicious looking dessert, complete with a serving of ice cream. My mouth is watering  just looking at it. In fact, I plan to make it this afternoon but I’ll use blueberries instead of blackberries because that’s what I have in the refrigerator.

I have accidentally started a new niche of Squidoo lenses: recipes for lemons.

I really do try to expand niches so taking my own advice given here in Nail that Niche way back in March of this year. Unfortunately, I have a bit of a butterfly mind and always want to write something new or different.

I am determined to turn over a new leaf and expand on topics I have written lenses about already and, if I start on a new subject, to first of all have ideas for other lenses in the niche to complement it.

It was funny how I started on this niche. I’ve mentioned Get Cracking With Bonnie and Robin before and how I find their daily suggestions for Squidoo lenses helpful and, sometimes, challenging – not a challenge I always rise to either!

On July 11 they suggested ‘Get Cooking’ as the topic. I wanted to find something a bit different to write about – not just another main course, cake or dessert but also something that might catch people’s interest. I came up with Make Lemon Curd, a delicious, traditional, sweet spread for bread, cakes or desserts. At the same time, I was reminded of how many excellent recipes I have for lemons and so I saw the possiblity of a niche.

The Lemon Curd page seems to have been reasonably successful in the short term (who knows how it will go over months or years?)  mainly because many Americans who left a comment hadn’t heard of it. Several thought it sounded easy and good enough to try as a way of using up a surplus of lemons in those places where they grow naturally.

This good reception encouraged me to make more pages with recipes for lemons. So far I have published Make a Glazed Lemon Cake and Make Lemon Drinks with links connecting all three lenses. I have another lemon recipes lens half finished and I hope to complete it today or tomorrow and I have plans for another two at least, perhaps more.

It seems to me that the way to make a niche of complementary pages successfully is by starting out with more lenses in mind even while you are writing the first one. Fingers crossed that my lemon niche does well.

I’ve installed cms on websites before but never blogging software and hit some small problems which held me up. I solved them, mostly through trial and error. I then installed it in a sub domain of an long standing website I run with a friend. I definitely wanted ‘pretty URLs’ there and that gave me problems. I made such a small mistake setting them up and it took me two days and four reinstalls of Wordpress. I could have given myself such a kick when I discovered the answer.

That sub domain is called Chocolate Recipes and the clue to content is in the name! I’ve stilled got a lot more recipes to put on yet.