Super Squid: aj2008

Of all the thousands of lensmasters out there, there are some that really stand out. Some of them create amazing lenses, or help out in the community, or run great groups. Some of them do all of these things and more.

One of these Super Squids is aj2008. She’s coming up on her one year Squidoo anniversary, and is well on her way to Giant Squidom. With 41 featured lenses to date, including the two time Lens of the Day, Auditory Processing Disorder, she shows us that taking your time to create quality - not quantity - lenses can really make you stand out in the crowd.

aj2008 has graciously agreed to share some of her thoughts on Squidoo and lens making. Here’s what she had to say:

Squidophile: How did you first hear about Squidoo?

aj2008: In the Summer of 2008 I was diagnosed with an illness, which meant I had to stop working. As my job was a short term contract I had to give it up, even though it would probably have been renewed, had I not become ill. Financially, this made things difficult for us and I was left trying to think how I could earn money at a time when I was suffering dreadful dizziness and disorientation.

Fortunately I was not suffering from vertigo and found I could still work on the PC. I have always wanted to write so I started researching "writing on the net". I ended up on Janet 21's Number 1 lens Work at home with Squidoo and here I am. I am not earning a huge amount but it is building up gradually!

S: What was the topic of your first lens?

aj: The topic of my first lens was Janey Lee Grace, a BBC Radio 2 presenter who I had met a few days previously. It wasn't meant to be my first lens, but I got sidetracked. The underlying theme of the lens is natural and eco-living. I actually wish I had gone ahead and published the second lens (Bullying at Primary School) first as that was one of the reasons for joining Squidoo and is what I would call my own personal Landmark.

S: What types of lenses have you been working on recently? Is your first topic still important to you?

aj: Natural and green living is very important to me and I have published five more lenses that I would group together under this topic. However, I do have a very diverse range of interests, which is reflected in the range of topics on my lenses. I have started publishing in a new niche just recently (Tips for WAHMs) that will be based on my knowledge about working from home and business start-up and management, as I used to train people who wanted to become self employed.

S: Can you see yourself with 100 featured lenses one day?

aj: Yes, I can and I hope I do my second lot of 50 lenses a bit quicker than I have done the first!

S: Is there a Squidoo habit that you wish more lensmasters had?

aj: Oooo, I could go to town on this one! Occasionally, I see all sorts of "behaviour" on Squidoo that makes me wince and it is hard to retain your sense of humour. But the most hilarious incident was the Lensmaster who spammed one of my Guestbooks with a completely irrelevant link. The lens? Squid Etiquette!!!

I did not delete the comment but replied in the Guestbook saying I was leaving it on the lens as a classic example of Spamming a Guestbook. However, if I had one wish it is that everyone signs up to Squidoo with the attitude of "what can I BRING to the community of Squidoo" rather than "what can Squidoo do for ME". This may then stem the tide of Spam, Scam and Junk and improve the overall quality of the lenses.

S: Did you buy anything special with your first Squidoo payout?

aj: No, I did not earn enough - I could have bought a bag of sherbet lemons but that would have been about it! I have been banking my earnings and using them for what I call "Squidoo Business Development" - that is buying the occasional e-book and anything else related to my Squidooing.

I told myself that when I hit a certain target I would make a donation to a Lensmaster whose tools I use all the time. I am always logging on to SquidUtils and using the brilliant free tools and I also have the toolbar on my browser. So in the New Year, when the total in my Paypal account reached my target, I sent a donation to The Fluffanutta in recognition of all the help he has given me.

S: What are your top 3 Squidoo charities?

aj: Save the children, Soldiers Angels, Covenant House

S: If you could nominate a charity for Squidoo donations, which one would it be?

aj: St Tiggywinkles. Its the biggest wildlife hospital in the world and about an hour's drive from me. I have made the journey there with injured birds and they also released a couple of rehabilitated hedgehogs into my garden some years ago. I last visited a few weeks back - which reminds me, I have some new photos to add to the lens!

S: Do you ever use the Squidoo co-brands? Which one is your favorite?

aj: Until recently I rarely used the Squidoo co-brands, because to be totally honest I am not keen on the templates. However, I am now using the RocketMoms template for some of my lenses, which I like very much.

S: What’s your take on star ratings? Do you use all 5 ratings?

aj: Yes, I do use all the ratings but very infrequently do I use less than 5*s. For me the star ratings system does NOT work - *gasp* - did I just say that? It does not work because people use it in different ways.

You have the people who, if they rate, always give 5*s
You have the people who use it the way it was intended
You have the people (and thank goodness these are in the minority) who use the ratings spitefully
Then you have the people who abuse the fact that they have multiple accounts to give their own lenses a boost - but of course not all multi-account holders do this!

Because the majority of people who rate only use the 5*s, this results in people getting upset if they receive a rating less than 5*s. However, a 1* is actually better than no star at all. So the people who "1 star" you are actually doing you a favour. And when you think about it, the rating will only show when you first publish the lens. I have had it happen on both my newest lenses and I am not going to lose sleep over it. If it is a good lens and you get regular traffic then the lower rating will fade from view as more 5*s are given.

S: What is your favorite method for lens promotion? What about SEO?

aj: When I first joined Squidoo, SEO was a completely new concept and I must confess I had problems grasping it. I am sure that like me, a lot of lensmasters would go back and change the URLs of their first few lenses if they could! However, whenever I start on anything new I do a lot of "how to" research and I set about reading up everything I could about Lens promotion and SEO. This is one of the reasons I did not make my lenses as quickly as others who joined at the same time as I did.

But it was not until January 2009 that I began to see the light as far as SEO and Keywords are concerned and I must say that it was Lensmaster Spirituality (Katinka) who was waving the lantern. I had blogged that I was going to conduct an experiment by making a lens on one of the most published topics on the internet and see if I could get traffic. It is also one of the most spammed topics on Squidoo, so I knew I was taking a risk but I went ahead and published Losing weight on a wheat free diet. Katinka emailed me and asked if I would mind if she pulled apart the lens as far as SEO was concerned and blogged about it. How could I refuse such an offer from an SEO expert? Although, I must admit I was a bit worried because I saw myself as such an SEO amateur.

Katinka's feedback was complimentary in some areas and critical in others but over the weeks I learned so much from her and the lens has been very successful. It is the top weight loss lens on Squidoo, currently in the Top 100 AND getting traffic from Google. Much of this is down to Katinka's patient guidance and I try to apply what I learned from her to all my lenses now.

As far as Lens promotion is concerned, I have developed a system and I keep a record on an Excel chart that lists my lenses down the first colum and then there's headings across the top for the places I go to promote the lenses. Once I have promoted the lens I tick the box so I can keep track as I don't want to damage my reputation by over-promoting in one place. They include: SquidU, relevant forums outside Squidoo, my two blogs, Twitter, Tagfoot, SquidLog and some article sites. Writing articles is my newest strategy and is "under development".

S: Do you have a favorite module?

aj: It has to be the text module. It is so versatile and given a bit of knowledge about HTML (and there's lots of helpful lenses about that) you can do so much with it.

S: If you could invent a Squidoo module, what would it be?

aj: This is a tough one, because there is a brilliant range of modules and there's still some that I have not experimented with yet. I would like to be able to set rules and filters for adding links to Plexos to stop being spammed. I would also like to be able to pull up a list of what Fanclubs I have joined.

S: Do you have a favorite Squid? What makes them a great lensmaster?

aj: Oh no! That's the question I always dread. There are so many great Lensmasters on Squidoo and each one brings something unique that I have learned so much from. There's blogs I follow, Lensmasters I exchange emails with. To pick just one to spotlight would be extremely unfair and even if you said I could name 10, it would still be too difficult. So sorry, I am not even going there! However, I keep thinking that I should blog about a different Lensmaster each week and say what I have learned from them - so thanks for prompting me to do it!

I would like to add that I never cease to be overwhelemed by the help and support that I have received from the Lensmasters I know on Squidoo. It is great to be part of such a wonderful community.

S: If you could have coffee with Seth Godin, what would you talk about?

aj: Seth already knows what Squidoo means to me as we have exchanged emails about it, but the first thing I would do is thank him again for saving my sanity when it looked like my life as I knew it was having to change so radically, when I became ill. I would be really interested to ask Seth whether the Squidoo that we know today is the Squidoo he envisioned when he first evolved the idea. I would ask him if what I call the "dark side" of Squidoo (plagiarism, cheating, spiteful ratings etc) is what he imagined happening and to be honest, I would be surprised if he said no as Seth is one very wise cookie and I doubt that much happens on Squidoo that surprises him. But I would want to talk more about what he loves about Squidoo and what his vision is for the short, medium and long term. Then I would ask him for a job!

S: Any other heroes you’d love to chat with?

aj: There's many people I admire, but there's very few people I am actually in awe of. My heroes are my Dad (80 this year), whose devotion to and care of my mother (81) who has mobility problems, is absolutely incredible and there is my Lovely Hubby, whose care and support of me as I tread a very slow road to recovery reduces me to tears when I think about it. There's many husbands who would not be able to cope with all the domestic tasks he has had to carry out over the last year, in addition to managing a team of 14 people and working long hours. I would not be able to Squidoo like I do if I did not have my husband's support and understanding. Although he doesn't understand what I am talking about half the time!

Squidophile: What is your favorite thing to do outside of Squidoo?

aj2008: I perform in amateur theatre and yes, applause gives me a huge buzz. I love my garden, which was completely bare when we moved in 12 years ago and which we have designed and planted up - there's a lens there methinks! I am also a huge fan of Manchester United and enjoy watching football (soccer in the USA) on the TV.


Aj2008 is currently volunteering as one of our lovely Squidoo Angels. In her entire Squidoo career to date, she has rated over 1400 lenses! She is also a regular contributor in the SquidU forums, and an all around Super Squid. For more on what aj2008 is up to, check out her wonderful blogs: AJ's musings about Squidoo, and AJ is Always Juggling.