tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53365347037485433622024-02-06T18:52:18.661-08:00SquidophileConfessions of a LensmasterWTF Storehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07263314251703492801noreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5336534703748543362.post-54419802491257960602010-08-11T15:22:00.001-07:002010-08-11T15:26:14.536-07:00Squidoo Resources for Etsy SellersSquidoo and Etsy go together. Really. Whenever a fellow Etsy seller asks me "How do you know that?", the answer is almost always "Squidoo".<br /><br />Not only is affiliate marketing a great introduction to creating an online presence, but there are so many great resources for bloggers and sellers, written by Squidoo members.<br /><br />Do you know of a great Squidoo lens that would be useful to Etsy sellers? Share your lens with us!<br /><br /><script src="http://www.linkytools.com/thumbnail_linky_include.aspx?id=39241" type="text/javascript"></script>WTF Storehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07263314251703492801noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5336534703748543362.post-59673916077694054932009-10-24T22:23:00.000-07:002009-10-24T22:35:11.672-07:00Great Squidoo Blogs<p style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 10px 10px 10px 10px;"><a rel="nofollow" class="APCTitleAnchor" href="http://affiliates.allposters.com/link/redirect.asp?item=3971747&AID=820405568&PSTID=1<ID=2&lang=1" target="_blank" title="Oval Squid, Hawaii"><img src="http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/PTGPOD/OSFLD-00003216-001-FB.jpg" alt="Oval Squid, Hawaii" border="0" height="450" width="338"></a><br /><img src="http://tracking.allposters.com/allposters.gif?AID=820405568&PSTID=1<ID=2&lang=1" border="0" height="1" width="1"></p><a href="http://squidoo-eclectic-chaos.blogspot.com/">Adventures in Squidoo Land </a> <br /><br /><a href="http://aj2008.squidtop.com/">AJ is Always Juggling</a> <br /><br /><a href="http://www.captainsquid.com/">Captain Squid</a> <br /><br /><a href="http://squid-kitchen.blogspot.com/">Chef Keem's Squid Kitchen</a> <br /><br /><a href="http://giantsquidjournal.blogspot.com/"><br />Giant Squid Journal</a> <br /><br /><a href="http://www.howlingsquidreview.com/">Howling Squid Review</a> <br /><br /><a href="http://i-love-squidoo.blogspot.com/ ">I Love Squidoo</a> <br /><br /><a href="http://i-squidoo-do-you.blogspot.com/">I Squidoo, Do You?</a> <br /><br /><a href="http://jaguarjulie.blogspot.com/">Jaguar Julie: Blog On and On</a> <br /><br /><a href="http://justbon.squidtop.com/">JustBon at Squidoo</a> <br /><br /><a href="http://squidoo-love.blogspot.com/">My Squidoo Love</a> <br /><br /><a href="http://my52cents.blogspot.com/">My52Cents Online Tips</a> <br /><br /><a href="http://observations-from-a-giant-squid.blogspot.com/">Observations and Insight from a Giant Squid </a> <br /><br /><p style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 10px 10px 10px 10px;"><a rel="nofollow" class="APCTitleAnchor" href="http://affiliates.allposters.com/link/redirect.asp?item=2634608&AID=820405568&PSTID=1<ID=2&lang=1" target="_blank" title="Broadclub Cuttlefish Mating, Sulu-Sulawesi Seas, Indo-Pacific"><img src="http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/NPLPOD/1098773.jpg" alt="Broadclub Cuttlefish Mating, Sulu-Sulawesi Seas, Indo-Pacific" border="0" height="450" width="338"></a><br /><img src="http://tracking.allposters.com/allposters.gif?AID=820405568&PSTID=1<ID=2&lang=1" border="0" height="1" width="1"></p><a href="http://www.potpiegirl.com/">PotPieGirl.com</a> <br /><br /><a href="http://greekgeek.mythphile.com/">SquidBits</a> <br /><br /><a href="http://blogs.squidoo.com/squidblog/">SquidBlog</a> <br /><br /><a href="http://squidlog.com/">SquidLog</a> <br /><br /><a href="http://www.squidoocityguide.com/">Squidoo City Guide</a> <br /><br /><a href="http://www.squidoohq.com/">Squidoo HQ</a> <br /><br /><a href="http://squidoo-kindergarten.blogspot.com/">Squidoo Kindergarten</a> <br /><br /><a href="http://squidoo-land.blogspot.com/">Squidoo Land</a><br /><br /><a href="http://blog.growwear.com/">Squidoo Lens Reviews</a> <br /><br /><a href="http://squidoo-me.blogspot.com/">Squidoo Me</a> <br /><br /><a href="http://squidoography.com/">Squidoography </a> <br /><br /><a href="http://thanks.squidtop.com/">Thank You Lensmaster </a> <br /><br /><a href="http://valleyofthegiants.blogspot.com/">Valley of the Giants</a>WTF Storehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07263314251703492801noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5336534703748543362.post-79850055881248288602009-05-20T14:13:00.000-07:002009-05-20T18:38:32.473-07:00Super Squid: aj2008<p style="margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; float: left;"><img src="http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa14/Mortira/Squidoo/Always_Juggling_mini0001.jpg" alt="Lensmaster aj2008" /></p>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.<br /><br />One of these <span style="font-weight: bold;">Super Squids</span> 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, <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/apd" target="_blank">Auditory Processing Disorder</a>, she shows us that taking your time to create quality - not quantity - lenses can really make you stand out in the crowd.<br /><br />aj2008 has graciously agreed to share some of her thoughts on Squidoo and lens making. Here’s what she had to say:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" >Squidophile:</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> How did you first hear about Squidoo?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" >aj2008:</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> In the Summer of 2008 I was </span><a style="font-family: times new roman;" href="http://www.squidoo.com/otosclerosis" target="_blank">diagnosed with an illness</a><span style="font-family:times new roman;">, 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. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">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 </span><a style="font-family: times new roman;" href="http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/janet21" target="_blank" title="Lensmaster Janet21">Janet 21</a><span style="font-family:times new roman;">'s Number 1 lens </span><a style="font-family: times new roman;" href="http://www.squidoo.com/workathomewithsquidoo" target="_blank">Work at home with Squidoo</a><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> and here I am. I am not earning a huge amount but it is building up gradually!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" >S:</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> What was the topic of your first lens?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" >aj:</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> The topic of my first lens was </span><a style="font-family: times new roman;" href="http://www.squidoo.com/janeyleegrace" target="_blank">Janey Lee Grace</a><span style="font-family:times new roman;">, 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 (</span><a style="font-family: times new roman;" href="http://www.squidoo.com/bullyingatprimaryschool" target="_blank">Bullying at Primary School</a><span style="font-family:times new roman;">) first as that was one of the reasons for joining Squidoo and is what I would call my own personal Landmark.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" >S:</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> What types of lenses have you been working on recently? Is your first topic still important to you?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" >aj:</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> Natural and green living </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:times new roman;" >is</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> 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.</span><br /><br /><p style="font-family: times new roman;" align="center"><img src="http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa14/Mortira/Avatars%20and%20Logos/earth-squid.jpg" alt="Earth Friendly Squid" /></p><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" >S:</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> Can you see yourself with 100 featured lenses one day?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" >aj:</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> Yes, I can and I hope I do my second lot of 50 lenses a bit quicker than I have done the first!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" >S:</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> Is there a Squidoo habit that you wish more lensmasters had?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" >aj:</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> 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? </span><a style="font-family: times new roman;" href="http://www.squidoo.com/squid_etiquette" target="_blank">Squid Etiquette</a><span style="font-family:times new roman;">!!! </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">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 </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:times new roman;" >everyone</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> signs up to Squidoo with the attitude of "what can I </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:times new roman;" >BRING</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> to the community of Squidoo" rather than "what can Squidoo do for </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:times new roman;" >ME</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;">". This may then stem the tide of Spam, Scam and Junk and improve the overall quality of the lenses.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" >S:</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> Did you buy anything special with your first Squidoo payout?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" >aj:</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> 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.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">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 </span><a style="font-family: times new roman;" href="http://www.squidutils.com/" target="_blank" title="SquidUtils Lensmaster Tools">SquidUtils</a><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> 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 </span><a style="font-family: times new roman;" href="http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/thefluffanutta" target="_blank" title="TheFluffanutta">The Fluffanutta</a><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> in recognition of all the help he has given me.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" >S:</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> What are your top 3 Squidoo charities?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" >aj:</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> Save the children, Soldiers Angels, Covenant House</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" >S:</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> If you could nominate a charity for Squidoo donations, which one would it be?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" >aj:</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> </span><a style="font-family: times new roman;" href="http://www.squidoo.com/st-tiggywinkles" target="_blank">St Tiggywinkles</a><span style="font-family:times new roman;">. 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!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" >S:</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> Do you ever use the Squidoo co-brands? Which one is your favorite?</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" ><br />aj:</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> 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 </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" >RocketMoms</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> template for some of my lenses, which I like very much.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" >S:</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> What’s your take on star ratings? Do you use all 5 ratings?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" >aj:</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> 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.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">You have the people who, if they rate, always give 5*s</span><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">You have the people who use it the way it was intended</span><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">You have the people (and thank goodness these are in the minority) who use the ratings spitefully</span><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">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!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">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.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" >S:</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> What is your favorite method for lens promotion? What about SEO?</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" ><br />aj:</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> 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.</span><br /><br /><p style="float: left; font-family: times new roman;"><a rel="nofollow" class="APCTitleAnchor" href="http://affiliates.allposters.com/link/redirect.asp?item=2555072&AID=820405568&PSTID=1&LTID=2&lang=1" target="_blank" title="U.S. Food Administration, Ration Diet"><img src="http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/VAS/0000-5776-4.jpg" alt="U.S. Food Administration, Ration Diet" border="0" width="338" height="450" /></a><br /><img src="http://tracking.allposters.com/allposters.gif?AID=820405568&PSTID=1&LTID=2&lang=1" border="0" width="1" height="1" /></p><span style="font-family:times new roman;">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 </span><a style="font-family: times new roman;" href="http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/spirituality" target="_blank" title="Lensmaster Spirituality">Lensmaster Spirituality</a><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> (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 </span><a style="font-family: times new roman;" href="http://www.squidoo.com/lose_weight-" target="_blank">Losing weight on a wheat free diet</a><span style="font-family:times new roman;">. 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. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">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.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">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".</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" >S:</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> Do you have a favorite module?</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" ><br />aj:</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> 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.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" >S:</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> If you could invent a Squidoo module, what would it be?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" >aj:</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> 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.</span><br /><br /><p style="float: right; font-family: times new roman;"><a rel="nofollow" class="APCTitleAnchor" href="http://affiliates.allposters.com/link/redirect.asp?item=3364841&AID=820405568&PSTID=1&LTID=2&lang=1" target="_blank" title="Baby Squid"><img src="http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/GALPOD/N2-0812.jpg" alt="Baby Squid" border="0" width="337" height="450" /></a><br /><img src="http://tracking.allposters.com/allposters.gif?AID=820405568&PSTID=1&LTID=2&lang=1" border="0" width="1" height="1" /></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" >S:</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> Do you have a favorite Squid? What makes them a great lensmaster?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" >aj:</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> 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!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">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.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" >S:</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> If you could have coffee with Seth Godin, what would you talk about?</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" ><br />aj:</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> 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!</span><br /><br /><p style="margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; float: left;"><img src="http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa14/Mortira/Squidoo/AJs-heroes.jpg" alt="aj2008's Heroes"></p><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" >S:</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> Any other heroes you’d love to chat with?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" >aj: </span><span style="font-family:times new roman;">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!</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" ><br />Squidophile:</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> What is your favorite thing to do outside of Squidoo?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:times new roman;" >aj2008:</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> 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.</span><br /><br /><br />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: <a href="http://aj2008.squidtop.com/" target="_blank">AJ's musings about Squidoo</a>, and <a href="http://aj-is-alwaysjuggling.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">AJ is Always Juggling</a>.WTF Storehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07263314251703492801noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5336534703748543362.post-55987510798949703242009-04-30T15:47:00.000-07:002009-04-30T16:05:13.493-07:005 Ways to Boost Lensrank<img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 90px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 108px" alt="Top Five Tips" src="http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa14/Mortira/Avatars%20and%20Logos/funny5.gif" border="0" />Now that Squidoo <a href="http://www.squidu.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=34723" target="_blank" title="Official Lensrank Announcement">lensrank has been fixed</a> and we’re getting stats for our lenses again, why not take a look at some of the things that help to improve lensrank?<br /><br />According to “<a href="http://www.squidoo.com/lensrank-101" target="_blank" title="Lensrank Explained">Lensrank Explained - Really</a>” by spirituality, there are 8 main factors that go into the calculations, and determine how high, or low, your lens will stand in the rankings. Some of them are easy to achieve, while others take a lot of work, and even a little luck.<br /><br />Here are five specific lensrank factors that you can affect on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.<br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><strong>1. Star ratings</strong><br /><br />Most Squids are pretty generous when it comes to giving out stars to deserving lenses. Whenever someone from the Squidoo community stops by one of your masterpieces, chances are, they will let you know what they think of it by rating it from 1-5.<br /><br />To get visits from logged in Squids, send out a catchy Squidcast.<br /><br />Many lensmasters really underestimate the power of a good Squidcast. Don’t just blurt out a sentence about your new lens, or a new module you’ve added. If you want visits, you really have to sell it! Describe your lens, tell your fans why they should visit it, and don’t forget to add a hyperlink or two to some of your hottest modules.<br /><br />To make sure everyone who scrolls through your lens leaves you a star or five, add thefluffanutta’s amazingly wonderful <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/lens-love-widget" target="_blank" title="Star Rating Widget">Love This Lens Widget.</a><br /> <br /><strong>2. Visits</strong><br /><br />The best kind of visit a lens can get is from outside of Squidoo. That means that you’ve written about a topic that people are interested in, or that you’ve been bookmarked, or that someone loves your page so much they know the URL by heart.<br /><br />There are many, many ways to find the traffic you want, but they all require a little work from you. When promoting a lens, remember to:<br /><br />Share it - on Twitter, Digg, Tagfoot, Facebook, MySpace, etc.<br />Link to it - in forum posts, signatures, and profiles.<br />Blog about it - but beware of sounding spammy!<br /><br /><strong>3. Click Outs</strong><br /><br />Click outs are important for lensrank. They indicate that visitors are spending time on your lens, reading what you have to say, and visiting other sites that you recommend.<br /><br />Aside from providing affiliate links, try to find websites or lenses that people reading your lens would be interested in, and link to them. You can use anchor text links, or link lists, or make <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/basichtml#module2090724" target="_blank" title="Basic HTMl for Squidoo">buttons from pictures</a> that you use on your lens.<br /><br />Remember to include the code <em><strong>target=“_blank”</strong> </em> to open links in a new window. You can also describe your links with this code: <em><strong>title=“Name of Link Destination”</strong></em><br /><br /><strong>4. Interaction</strong><br /><br />Like click outs, when visitors click on polls or other interactive modules, it shows that you’re drawing in readers and keeping them glued to your content. Try to add something for your guests to do in each lens, such as a poll module, duel or guestbook.<br /><br />For several example of how polls can be used, check out “<a href="http://www.squidoo.com/history-surveys" target="_blank" title="Using the Poll Module">The History of Surveys</a>”.<br /><br /><strong>5. Sales</strong><br /><br />Depending on what your topic is, sales can be the hardest thing to improve on your lens. Even if you’re getting plenty of traffic, not everyone is going to rush over to eBay to buy what you’re selling.<br /><br />To help improve your chances of affiliate success, try to recommend products that you have a personal knowledge of. Describe them to your readers, and tell them why you love it so much, and why they’ll love it, too. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">In my opinion, with sales modules, less is more. You don’t need to list every single book on your topic ever published in a gigantic Amazon Plexo. One or two great books (with five star customer ratings) in Amazon Spotlight modules tells readers that you’re serious about providing them with the best advice possible.<br /></span><br />The sooner you do these things, the better. Take advantage of the new lens boost that lenses receive after being published, and push it even further up the ranks with quality, interactive content and active promotion.WTF Storehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07263314251703492801noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5336534703748543362.post-55679305040056787452009-04-21T16:36:00.000-07:002009-04-21T16:49:17.459-07:00Go Go Giant Squid Hopefuls<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHzYgGZQaL7j7qGbuusRNIdkz2O4fPVtEHhzf68Yf5ZtBKulVToKvpmYEmsAr-ZNaHNR5VB6_9hrIrda8oos7tjMTJzrTscwpOHQby5lnTTHlekIEB9s0sdxar51H5S9qPmi1SE00_ex8/s1600-h/Giant+Squid.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5327294370159214834" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 202px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="Squidoo Giant Squid Program" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHzYgGZQaL7j7qGbuusRNIdkz2O4fPVtEHhzf68Yf5ZtBKulVToKvpmYEmsAr-ZNaHNR5VB6_9hrIrda8oos7tjMTJzrTscwpOHQby5lnTTHlekIEB9s0sdxar51H5S9qPmi1SE00_ex8/s320/Giant+Squid.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><div>For those of us who are working on become <a title="Giant Squid Mentor" href="http://www.squidoo.com/giantsquidmentor" target="_blank">Giant Squids</a> one day, there are few new incentives to get those first 50 lenses published, polished and promoted. Being a Giant is about more than just having 50 lenses, and the standards get higher with each new batch. To qualify, your lenses have to be pretty good (if not great), and be “performing well.” Hopefully, they’re getting some traffic at the very least!</div><br /><div>The first carrot-on-a-stick that the Squidteam is offering is the new Purple Star. We’ve been waiting for it for a long time, and Giant Squids are now seeing the benefits of this fun new recognition system. Lensmasters who want a purple star on their best and brightest need to first become Giant Squids, and then submit their lenses in the same fashion as the Lens of the Day.<br />To learn more, check out the <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/purplestar" target="_blank" title="The Purple Star Program">Purple Star</a> rundown by bdkz.</div><br /><div>Perhaps the most interesting motivation for the next Giant Squid casting call is the <a href="http://www.blogger.com/href=" target="_blank">Giant Squid Challenge 2009</a>. Some of our favorite lensmasters and greeters are gathering up this season’s hopefuls for a mad dash to Giant Squidom. It is also open to current Giants who are working towards Club 100.</div><br /><div>Check out <a title="So You Want to Be a Giant Squid" href="http://bdkz.typepad.com/giant_squid/2009/04/the-giant-squid-challenge-june-2009-.html" target="_blank">So You Want to Be a Giant Squid</a>? To learn more about the teams. If you think you’re up to the challenge, applications will only be accepted until April 31st. After that, it’s time to start creating fabulous new lenses for your chosen team!</div><br /><div>Good luck to everyone!</div></div>WTF Storehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07263314251703492801noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5336534703748543362.post-18102803120240157722009-04-12T16:09:00.000-07:002009-04-12T16:45:29.999-07:00A Guide to SquidooGroups Changes: Part TwoMany Squidoo groups have been disbanded in the last few days, indicating that many groupmasters don’t feel up to the challenge of making their groups great. Although it us unfortunate to see many of them go, it does free up the URLs, and new lensmasters will be able to use them once SquidooGroups open up for creation again.<br /><br />In the meantime, many of us are rising to the occasion and polishing up our groups to meet the new standards. I personally find the challenge refreshing, and I’m looking at my own groups in a totally new light. Just as no lens is ever complete or perfect, groups need a lot of attention if they are to be successful.<br /><br />If you’re not ready to close or transfer any of your own Squidoo groups, make sure you read up on the new guidelines from “<a title="SquidU Review" href="http://www.squidu.com/blog/2009/04/08/making-groups-great/" target="_blank">Making Groups Great: Do you have what it takes?</a>”. There is also a handy list of things that the SquidTeam will be looking for when reviewing groups, and what they hope not to see.<br /><br />Here are the highlights from “<strong>Seven ways to make your Groups rock</strong>“:<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">1. Make your group HQ pretty.</span></strong><br /><br /><a href="http://www.squidoo.com/groups/four_seasons"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 279px" alt="The Four Seasons Group" src="http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa14/Mortira/Screenshots/GroupCSS-1.jpg" border="0" /></a>There are plenty of ways to improve the appearance of any Squidoo group beyond that of the default HQ page. Though there aren’t very many modules to choose from, most of them do have description areas that you can use to display interesting pictures that will enhance your group’s front page.<br /><br />You can use your own photos or scanned artwork, and of course there’s <a href="http://affiliates.allposters.com/link/redirect.asp?AID=820405568&PSTID=1&LTID=19&LID=110&ParentAID=820405568&lang=1" target="_top">AllPosters.com</a> links. And the internet is swimming with all kinds of free clip art as well.<br /><br />Many lensmasters are also very generous with their images, and offer up plenty of great pictures especially for use on Squidoo. Check out <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/Free-Spacers" target="_blank">Free Spacers and Fillers</a> and <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/squidoo-dividers" target="_blank">Borders and Dividers for Use on Squidoo</a> for some examples, and links to other great clip art lenses. (Please remember to give credit and link back to your sources. You can do this with a featured lens module, or with a hyperlink at the bottom of your lens.)<br /><br />If pictures aren’t your thing, or you want to do a little bit more, try using some fancy <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/squidoo-css" target="_blank">CSS Tricks</a>. To make a group even more impressive, combine your favorite CSS with the amazing palette of colors on <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/colorhtml" target="_blank">HTML Tips for Color</a>. For some pre-made module titles and more, grab yourself some <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/lenscandy" target="_blank">Lens Candy</a>.<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">2. Define the focus of your group.</span></strong><br /><br />Groups need to be about more than just the basic Squidoo category. Instead of a “<em>Travel Group</em>”, we need to have a “<em>European Destinations Group</em>” and an “<em>RV Vacations Group</em>”. The more specific your topic - and therefore collection of lenses - is, the more potential you have for visits, clickouts and return traffic. Why be the whole phone book when you can be the dog-eared restaurant guide?<br /><br />When starting a new group, it’s a good idea to use one of your own lenses as a jumping off point. Start groups about topics that you are interested in. This will help you define your group’s area of expertise.<br /><br />To fix a group that is too broad, try taking a look at the top five or top ten lenses in your group. What are they about? Check out the primary tags for each of them. Is there one that is used more than any other? Use that tag to set the main topic for your group.<br /><br />For instance, in the top 100 list of an incredibly large group dedicated simply to <em>music</em>, more than half of the top ten lenses have the word ‘songs’ in the title. This groupmaster could redefine his or her group by changing the topic to ‘<em>songs and lyrics’</em>.<br /><br />If you change the subject of your group, you will inevitably have to let some lenses go. But that’s okay! That’s what the SquidTeam wants you to do.<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">3. Go ahead. Fire people. We dare you.</span></strong><br /><br />See?<br /><br />Being a good groupmaster is a tough job. Although the small power trip one can get from rejecting lenses that don’t meet guidelines can be fun, it’s much nicer to be able to thank a lensmaster for their wonderful submission. Booting lenses altogether is hard to do. Luckily, the SquidTeam is backing us up on this one, so we don’t have to worry quite as much about offending others.<br /><br />If you’re removing lenses because you’ve narrowed your group’s focus, you could write a generic message and send it to those lensmasters who’s lenses will be removed. If your group is huge and you’re firing a lot of people, just post it on your HG page and hope for the best.<br /><br />There are other reasons why you may want to remove a lens from your group. Perhaps the quality of content has dropped, links are broken and it hasn’t been updated in months. Maybe the lensmaster is MIA, since they have not made anything new or done anything to their profile page since you added them to the group last year.<br /><br />To <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/great-group-tips" target="_blank">keep a good group going</a> strong, take some time now and then to weed out lenses that don’t contribute to the quality of your content.<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">4. Give lensmasters something to talk about.<br /></span></strong><br />Of the small selection of modules available from group pages, most of them are interaction modules like the guestbook and plexos. These tools are there to make your groups more than just a place for people to dump their lenses and get a visit from you.<br /><br /><strong>Amazon Voting Plexo</strong> - Find some Amazon products that are directly related to your topic. Ask your visitors to vote for the ones they recommend. Remember to keep plexos items down to a minimum. Huge plexos aren’t flattering to groups or lenses.<br /><br /><strong>Group Discussion</strong> - This is just like the guestbook module on lenses. You can have a comments section for members and visitors, and you can also use it to get tips or ask questions. Ask your visitors to leave their opinion on your group subject. If your group is about gardening, ask your readers to leave a tip for growing their favorite plants.<br /><br /><strong>Link Plexo</strong> - These can be used to feature your group’s lenses - giving them a nice backlink - or you can ask visitors to share their favorite links related to your group topic. There’s nothing worse than a link plexos with totally irrelevant or spammy links, so make sure that you police your list. This will make sure that you’re providing a good resource for your visitors.<br /><br /><p align="center"><img alt="Plexo Modules" src="http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa14/Mortira/Screenshots/PlexoModule1-1.jpg" /></p><br /><br /><strong>Poll Module</strong> - The possibilities are endless - ask a question, compare items, get feedback. Remember to always provide options for readers who are neutral, such as “Maybe” “Sometimes” “I don’t know” or “None of the above”. This will make sure that each visitor has a chance to interact with your page, which is great for lens rank.<br /><br /><strong>Text List Plexo</strong> - There are plenty of ways to use this module to enhance the value of your group. Make a list of tips that your members can vote on or add to, or create a wish list for lens ideas.<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">5. Show off your best faces.<br /></span></strong><br />What’s the point of joining a group if your lens is just going to get lost in the crowd?<br /><br />Use the featured lenses and links plexos modules to display some or all of the lenses in your group. If you’re visiting groups before approving them anyway, it takes only a few seconds to copy the URL and add it to your group page.<br /><br />By breaking your group’s lenses down into categories, and displaying them in the appropriate section, you help your visitors find what they’re looking for. To see this method in action, check out the <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/groups/family_time" target="_blank">Family Time Group</a>. If you're using categories, you should also know how to create a <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/grouptoc" target="_blank">group table of contents</a>.<br /><br />There are also some modules for showing off your very best group members.<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">6. Keep it current.</span></strong><br /><br />You wouldn’t let your lenses go stale, so why neglect your groups?<br /><br />The easiest way to keep a group fresh is to add new lenses to your feature modules when they are accepted. You could also change the lens picture once in awhile, add a poll, or write an article or blurb to enhance your content. Keep your page looking new with an RSS feed to a related blog (though new posts don’t count as updates).<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">7. You’re responsible for your members.</span></strong><br /><br />If you’re displaying lenses by someone whose conduct leaves something to be desired, it makes your whole group look bad. Set up some guidelines for lensmasters, not just lenses. Many groups require that lensmasters show some activity in the Squidoo community before being accepted.<br /><br />Before approving a lens, check out the lensmaster’s profile. Look at how long they’ve been a Squidoo member, and how many fields they have filled out on their profile. Do they have contact enabled? Have they uploaded a picture and written a blurb about themselves? Do they have 10 lenses about acai berries or other spam bait?<br /><br /><p align="center"><img alt="Lensmaster Profile and Fanclub" src="http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa14/Mortira/Screenshots/ContactMeButton-2.jpg" border="0" /></p><br /><br />Remember that your group is only as good as it’s members. Try thinking of yourself as an employer interviewing applicants for a job. Don’t hire people who don’t have the same ideals that you do. Try to encourage your members - and rejected applicants, too - to be active Squids with quality lenses that improve Squidoo.com as a whole. That’s what SquidooGroups is all about.WTF Storehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07263314251703492801noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5336534703748543362.post-86050251077425689912009-04-09T20:51:00.000-07:002009-04-16T17:27:42.194-07:00A Guide to SquidooGroups Changes: Part One<p>The powers that be at Squidoo have announced that some serious changes will be made to the way groups are managed at <a title="New Squidoo Home Page" href="http://www.squidoo.com/" target="_blank">Squidoo.com</a>. If you have not already read <a title="Squidoo Community Organizer" href="http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/KimberlyDawnWells" target="_blank">Kimberly</a>’s post on the SquidU Review, it has plenty of detail about the current changes, and more to come in the near future.<br /></p><p align="center"><a href="http://www.squidoo.com/Free-Spacers" target="_blank"><strong><img alt="Squidoo Squid" src="http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa14/Mortira/Avatars%20and%20Logos/OrangeSquid.gif" /></strong></a></p><br /><p>Here are the highlights from <a title="SquidU Review: Making Groups Great" href="http://www.squidu.com/blog/2009/04/08/making-groups-great/" target="_blank">Making Groups Great: Do you have what it takes?<br /></a><br /><strong><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;">“As of right now, no new Groups can be created.”</span></strong></p><p>If you were thinking of making a group to fit some of your newest, best or loneliest lenses, it will now have to wait. As the SquidTeam sorts through existing groups to see what’s what, their job will be made easier by a halt in new group creation.</p><p>No word yet on when groups will be opened up for creation again. If you’d like to sound off about it, you can join in Groundswell’s <a title="SquidooGroups Closed" href="http://www.squidoo.com/SquidooGroups-Closed" target="_blank">SquidooGroups debate</a>.</p><p><strong>What this means for lensmasters:</strong></p><p>For the time being, we no longer need to wonder if any new groups have been created that would benefit from the submission of our best lenses. In addition, this closes one avenue that might keep us from polishing our existing groups and lenses. And of course, it means those of use that might have been making groups will just have to <a title="Lensrank Secrets Right Under Your Nose" href="http://greekgeek.mythphile.com/2009/04/squidoo-lensrank-secrets/" target="_blank">make new lenses</a> instead.</p><p><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></p></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;"><strong>“We’re setting our expectations for your existing Groups a little higher.”</strong></span><br /><p></p><p>The SquidTeam is checking up on groups that have already been made. They want to see who has been running groups that make good use of the tools provided, and who is stepping up to the plate with the new standards.</p><p><strong>What this means for lensmasters:</strong></p><p>If you’ve made groups that don’t fit in with the intended purpose of SquidooGroups, you’ll need to do one of three things:</p><p><em>Close the group.</em> Many <a title="Why Are Groups Closing?" href="http://www.squidu.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=33227" target="_blank">groups have been disbanded</a> already.</p><p><em>Transfer the group.</em> Plenty of lensmasters would be happy to take over for you. Just make a post in the <a title="Squidoo Groups Forum" href="http://www.squidu.com/forum/viewforum.php?id=12" target="_blank">SquidU Groups</a> forum and let everyone know it’s up for grabs.</p><p><em>Improve the group.</em> More on that in an upcoming post!</p><p><br /><strong><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;">“We’re going to choose up to 100 of the very BEST groups on Squidoo and unlock a special tool just for them. These groups will fit a list of our criteria and be nominated by SquidStaff and our Angels.”</span></strong><br /></p><p></p><p>Our SquidTeam is looking for the best of the best, and whoever makes the cut gets a special prize. Once again, our beloved <a title="SquidLog: Squidoo Changes" href="http://squidlog.com/topics/blog-commentaries/squidoo-blogs/seeing-some-squidoo-change-lately" target="_blank">Squidoo is rewarding members</a> who do more than the bare minimum.</p><p><strong>What this means for lensmasters:</strong></p><p>If you’re already running groups to the best of your ability, you could be getting a nice bonus tool this summer. If you’re running groups with a minimum of effort, you’ll need to pull up your socks and polish your <a title="Squidoo Groups Mentor" href="http://www.squidoo.com/groupsmentor" target="_blank">group mastering skills</a> (or give someone else a chance to do it by transferring your group).</p><p>It also means that our lenses which are in groups (especially these top 100) may be getting a little more love in the future. A good group showcases their best lenses, so if you’ve been wishing your lens would get featured more often, you may see it come true.</p><p><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;"><strong>“We won’t be shy about locking spam or junk or abandoned Groups over the next few months.”</strong></span><br /></p><p></p><p>SquidU forum users have been asking for this for a long time. Most savvy lensmasters know that poorly run groups are more of a drain than a boost for our lenses. We don’t want the lens that we worked so hard on lumped in with just any old fluff.</p><p><strong>What this means for lensmasters:</strong></p><p>In addition to the groups that have been voluntarily closed since the announcement, we’ll be seeing a lot of our other groups disbanded in the future. Even if you’re pretty careful about the groups you join, if they’ve been abandoned, they’re getting the boot! Our lenses will have a much shorter group list as a result. </p><p>Though this may temporarily cause drops in lens rank, it could be offset by improvements made in groups that are here to stay. Only the SquidTeam knows for sure what <a title="Lensrank Explained" href="http://www.squidoo.com/lensrank-101" target="_blank">lensrank</a> will be doing.<br />It also means that we’ll never have to comb through endless groups looking for the ones that have something good to offer.</p><p>High five!</p><p></p><div align="center"><br /><br /><a class="APCTitleAnchor" title="Businessmen Giving High Five" href="http://affiliates.allposters.com/link/redirect.asp?item=3883278&AID=820405568&PSTID=1&LTID=2&lang=1" target="_blank"><img height="300" alt="Businessmen Giving High Five" src="http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/PTGPOD/334616-FB.jpg" width="400" border="0" /></a><img height="1" src="http://tracking.allposters.com/allposters.gif?AID=820405568&PSTID=1&LTID=2&lang=1" width="1" border="0" /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica;"><a class="APCTitleAnchor" title="Businessmen Giving High Five" href="http://affiliates.allposters.com/link/redirect.asp?item=3883278&AID=820405568&PSTID=1&LTID=2&lang=1" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:85%;">Photograph by Mark Thayer</span></a><br /></span></div>WTF Storehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07263314251703492801noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5336534703748543362.post-61844598276462423832009-04-08T17:33:00.000-07:002009-04-30T16:00:37.666-07:005 Ways to Use SquidUtils RSS Feeds<img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 90px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 108px" alt="Top Five Tips" src="http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa14/Mortira/Avatars%20and%20Logos/funny5.gif" border="0" /><br /><div>Many lensmasters are already aware of the great tools and tricks available from <a href="http://squidutils.com/" target="_blank">SquidUtils</a>. When you sign in, you can do things like: create affiliate links that work with Squidoo HTML rules, do a Squidoo only Google search, or check backlinks for your lenses. </div><br /><div>You can also view and grab RSS feeds of your lenses and groups, your latest updates, your Squidcasts or your favorite lensmasters’ Squidcasts. This is an incredibly handy resource, but what can you do with it? Plenty!</div><div><br />Here are just five things that you can do with your lensmaster feeds:</div><div><br /><strong><span style="font-family:verdana;">1. Add to your lensography, groupography or plexography.</span></strong></div><div><span style="font-family:verdana;">The next time you create or edit a </span><a href="http://www.squidoo.com/groups/lensography" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Squidoo-ography</span></a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> about yourself, add one of your Squidoo feeds to show off some of your lenses and groups. Use the recently updated feed to show readers what you've been up to.</span></div><div><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div><strong><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br />2. Add to your Yahoo home page.</span></strong></div><div><span style="font-family:verdana;">If you’re using Yahoo for Flickr, MyBlogLog or email, you can add RSS feeds to your home page. Throw up a feed of your latest lens updates and your favorite lensmaster Squidcasts.</span></div><div><br /><strong><span style="font-family:verdana;">3. Add to your Tweetfeed.</span></strong></div><div><span style="font-family:verdana;">You can add additional RSS feeds to your </span><a href="http://tweetfeed.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Tweetfeed</span></a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> home page. Why not use </span><a href="http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/thefluffanutta" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:verdana;">thefluffanutta</span></a><span style="font-family:verdana;">’s new </span><a href="http://pipes.yahoo.com/thefluffanutta/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Pipes</span></a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> program to include feeds of your lenses by category or tag? Use the same keywords as your Tweetfeeds.</span></div><div><br /><strong><span style="font-family:verdana;">4. Add to your Lijit content.</span></strong></div><div><span style="font-family:verdana;">You can add many RSS feeds to your </span><a href="http://www.lijit.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Lijit</span></a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> content or network. Keep your Lijit searches up to date with a feed of your lenses and groups. </span></div><div><br /><strong><span style="font-family:verdana;">5. Add to your blog.</span></strong></div><div><span style="font-family:verdana;">Place a feed to your latest Squidcasts on your blog or other website. Be sure to see </span><a href="http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/pmolinero" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:verdana;">pmolinero</span></a><span style="font-family:verdana;">’s tips on </span><a href="http://www.squidoo.com/getting-more-out-of-squidcasts" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:verdana;">adding backlinks to your Squidcasts</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">. <span style="font-size:100%;">This will allow you to highlight important updates and information from your latest lens, and help draw in readers from outside of Squidoo.</span></span></span></div>WTF Storehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07263314251703492801noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5336534703748543362.post-57230544783641402062009-03-28T16:41:00.000-07:002009-03-28T16:48:19.116-07:00The Big Charity PayoutIf you're not following the Squidoo Blog, you may have missed the recent post about the unclaimed royalties policy. During the upcoming Squidoo royalty payout, the Squidteam will be donating all earnings on accounts that appear to be inactive.<br /><br />That means that all lensmasters who have not recieved any payouts in the last 12 months will have their earnings redirected to the Squidoo Charity Fund. So essentially, charities are about to benefit from some of the stinkier lenses out there!<br /><br />If you've been stockpiling your royalties, you may need to take steps to make sure you receive your payments.<br /><br />Check out the post on the <a href="http://blogs.squidoo.com/squidblog/2009/03/27/are-you-here-for-the-money/" target="_blank">Squidoo Blog</a> to learn more.WTF Storehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07263314251703492801noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5336534703748543362.post-76175822790941098452009-03-17T09:11:00.000-07:002009-03-17T09:27:15.780-07:00Never Too Late for a Seasonal Lens<a href="http://www.squidoo.com/earth-hour-activities" target="_blank"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 5px 5px 0px" alt="Earth Hour 2009" src="http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa14/Mortira/Avatars%20and%20Logos/EarthHour-1.jpg" /></a>Last week I was looking at the calendar and saw that Earth Hour was coming up. Out of nowhere, I realized that it would make a great topic for a Squidoo lens. I didn’t spend any time debating whether or not it would be worthwhile to create a lens for an event that was only a few weeks away. Instead, I got up extra early and got to work on putting my ideas together.<br /><br />I was able to publish <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/earth-hour-activities">Top Ten Things to Do for Earth Hour</a> the next day. Thanks to the Twitter Storm module, it was picked up by eco-savvy Squid <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/a_willow">a_willow</a>, and has been receiving a pretty decent amount of traffic ever since.<br /><br />Is it making me millions? No.<br /><br />Has it won any awards? Nope.<br /><br />But has been in my top three lenses since it became featured, and made it into the Top 10 in the <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/topics/green">Green</a> category almost instantly. And that’s pretty darn good, if you ask me.<br /><br />The moral of this story is that although seasonal lenses are best made a few months in advance, it is never too late to create a lens on any topic, no matter how short-lived interest might be. Any notch on your dashboard is a step forward, a lesson or two learned, and one more reason for readers to find you and your work.<br /><br />And if you don’t get lucky with traffic this year, it might be a big money-maker next year!<br /><br />By the way, what are you doing for <a href="http://www.earthhour.org/">Earth Hour</a>?<br /><br /><p align="center"><a class="APCTitleAnchor" title="Earth Images I - ©Spaceshots" href="http://affiliates.allposters.com/link/redirect.asp?item=390652&AID=820405568&PSTID=1&LTID=2&lang=1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><img height="266" alt="Earth Images I - Spaceshots" src="http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/SPA/1505.jpg" width="400" border="0" /></a><br /><img height="1" src="http://tracking.allposters.com/allposters.gif?AID=820405568&PSTID=1&LTID=2&lang=1" width="1" border="0" /><br /></p>WTF Storehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07263314251703492801noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5336534703748543362.post-60274889432601990582009-03-09T00:18:00.000-07:002009-04-08T17:47:56.066-07:005 Ways to Update a Stale Lens<img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 5px 5px 0px" src="http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa14/Mortira/Avatars%20and%20Logos/funny5.gif" />Making sure that lenses are updated frequently with new content is a full time job. At the very least, a once monthly update is recommended to maintain a healthy lens rank. Not only does Squidoo appreciate your efforts to add new information, but your readers do, as well.<br /><br />The trouble is, not every lens focuses on a topic that makes it into the news every month. Some lenses present a single concept, recipe or idea that leaves little room for written improvement. And there are only so many products on Amazon that any one subject can relate to.<br /><br />So once you’ve eradicated every single typo, polished every bit of HTML, and added as many hyperlinks as you can think of, what is there to do?<br /><br />Here are just 5 of the things I like to do when a lens needs it’s monthly brush up:<br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong>1. Change the lens photo.</strong><br />It’s great to have a clear, relevant and interesting picture in the introduction module, and even better if your fans and readers recognize it when they see it. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Your <em>profile</em> picture should be like a familiar (and hopefully trusted) face, but lens photos don’t have to be. In fact, changing your lens photo once in awhile might encourage previous visitors to stop by and see what’s new.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong>2. Add a poll.</strong><br />There are a million and one ways that polls can fit into all types of lenses. Polls allow your readers to compare products or ideas, answer questions, give feed back or rate a list of items. When I can’t think of anything else to do with a lens, I sometimes add a poll or a duel module.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong>3. Edit the lens bio.</strong><br />You can add or change the greeting that is displayed in the bio area of your lens, or <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/squidoo-urls" target="_blank">add some links</a> to your lensography, blog or other places you’d like readers to go.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong>4. Optimize your pictures.</strong><br />Are your lens pictures turning up in searches? If you’ve added the alt tag, then you’re probably already seeing Google traffic for your pics. If not, you need to check out <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/traffic-from-image-searches" target="_blank">Traffic from Image Searches</a>.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong>5. Add a Lijit module.</strong><br />Having a <a href="http://www.lijit.com/" target="_blank">Lijit</a> account is like having your own personal search engine. It includes only content that you make or recommend. When you add a Lijit module to a lens, you can create an account right in the workshop, and automatically add all of your published lenses to your network. </span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">Lijit is a great way to let readers find other lenses, blog posts and content that you’ve created, and you can get keyword ideas and other stats with the traffic information that your account provides.</span><br /><br />So, whenever you have 5 or 10 minutes to spare, you can do one of these things to your most stale lens and have it smelling fresh by the next rank update.<br /><br /><p align="center"><a class="APCTitleAnchor" title="Wright's Coal Tar Soap, UK, 1920" href="http://affiliates.allposters.com/link/redirect.asp?item=4246133&AID=820405568&PSTID=1&LTID=2&lang=1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><img height="450" alt="Wright's Coal Tar Soap, UK, 1920" src="http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/ADVPOD/30510282.jpg" width="337" border="0" /></a><br /><img height="1" src="http://tracking.allposters.com/allposters.gif?AID=820405568&PSTID=1&LTID=2&lang=1" width="1" border="0" /></p>WTF Storehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07263314251703492801noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5336534703748543362.post-69959229467290722062009-02-27T16:27:00.000-08:002009-02-27T16:58:49.109-08:00Sending Better Tweets<a href="http://twitter.com/" target="_blank"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 5px 5px 0px" src="http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa14/Mortira/Avatars%20and%20Logos/TwitterBird1.gif" /></a>Twitter is one of the best tools available to lensmasters, not only for promoting their lenses, but for staying connected with Squidoo friends, finding ideas and learning new things. There’s a space for your Twitter page in your Squidoo profile, a Twitter feed module, <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/about-twttrstrm" target="_blank">TwttrStrm</a>, and of course you can Tweet your latest lens update using OpenID.<br /><br />Many lensmasters use the “Tweet Your Update” button that appears in the workshop after publishing a lens. It’s handy if you want to get your lens out there without logging in to Twitter, but is it the best way?<br /><br />When you tweet your update, the message that appears in your Twitter profile is generic: “I’ve just updated my Squidoo page…” It tells your followers what you’re doing, but it doesn’t give much incentive to visit your lens.<br /><br />To really advertise your work, sending a customized Tweet is essential. You can copy your lens URL, or use the Twitter button when viewing your lens, and write a blurb about your updates to invite your friends and followers to see what you’ve added.<br /><br />“<em>I’ve just updated my lens</em>” can become “<em>I’ve just added a new </em><a href="http://www.squidoo.com/inspirational_beading#module13450010" target="_blank"><em>Design Direction Duel</em></a>” or “<em>Add your gardening lens to the new plexo</em>!” or perhaps “<em>Don’t miss my </em><a href="http://www.squidoo.com/creative_giftbaskets" target="_blank"><em>Mother’s Day gift ideas</em></a>!”<br /><br />Using <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/tagging-tricks" target="_blank">keywords</a> in your Tweets is a good idea, because it will allow your lens Tweets to show up in searches and <a href="http://tweetfeed.com/" target="_blank">Tweetfeeds</a>.<br /><br /><p align="center"><a class="APCTitleAnchor" title="Red Face, Blue Bird" href="http://affiliates.allposters.com/link/redirect.asp?item=1518530&AID=820405568&PSTID=1&LTID=2&lang=1" target="_blank"><img height="350" alt="Red Face, Blue Bird" src="http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/SSPOD/SuperStock_456-894.jpg" width="262" border="0" /></a><br /><img height="1" src="http://tracking.allposters.com/allposters.gif?AID=820405568&PSTID=1&LTID=2&lang=1" width="1" border="0" /><span style="font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica;font-size:10;"><br /><a class="APCTitleAnchor" title="Red Face, Blue Bird" href="http://affiliates.allposters.com/link/redirect.asp?item=1518530&AID=820405568&PSTID=1&LTID=2&lang=1" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:78%;">"Red Face, Blue Bird"</span></a></span></p>WTF Storehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07263314251703492801noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5336534703748543362.post-3890050980529718452009-02-20T19:08:00.000-08:002009-02-20T19:33:00.767-08:00Not Another Facebook ScandalBy now, nearly everyone has heard of the most recent Facebook scandal that has many people questioning the intentions of the popular social website. The <a href="http://consumerist.com/5150175/facebooks-new-terms-of-service-we-can-do-anything-we-want-with-your-content-forever" target="_blank">offending terms of service agreement</a> has been discussed all over the blog world, and in some places even made the evening news.<br /><br />It seems that the online community is made up of two groups: those that are content to use Facebook, and those that love nothing more than discussing <a href="http://www.heartlessdoll.com/2008/10/top_10_most_annoying_things_about_facebook.php" target="_blank">reasons to hate Facebook</a>. The company’s new ToS was a very juicy topic for the anti-Facebook crowd, and even had many of the happy users wondering about the merit of the website they like so much.<br /><br />What’s interesting is how utterly scandalized so many people seem to be over what is essentially a very basic and not uncommon user agreement clause. Although it is <em>possible</em>, it is highly unlikely that a large and profitable company intends to copy pictures of your last birthday party and sell them.<br /><br />Facebook is not like a one-man business being run out of someone’s basement or van. They have over <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10164458-93.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20" target="_blank">175 million active users</a>. They aren’t going to trick anyone into giving up their retirement fund and then scurry off to Mexico in the middle of the night.<br /><br /><p align="center"><a class="APCTitleAnchor" title="Robber Attacks a Woman and Tries to Steal the Basket She is Carrying on Her Head" href="http://affiliates.allposters.com/link/redirect.asp?item=1866345&AID=820405568&PSTID=1&LTID=2&lang=1" target="_blank"><img height="262" alt="Robber Attacks a Woman and Tries to Steal the Basket She is Carrying on Her Head" src="http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/MEPOD/10180214.jpg" width="350" border="0" /></a><br /><img height="1" src="http://tracking.allposters.com/allposters.gif?AID=820405568&PSTID=1&LTID=2&lang=1" width="1" border="0" /></p><br /><br />Though they may choose to use members’ uploaded content for advertising, it’s not likely that they would paste your picture all over the internet without your permission. Knowing now how important <a href="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2007/12/facebook-sorry-for-beacon-slip-ups-offers-full-opt-out.ars" target="_blank">customer satisfaction</a> is, they have little to gain by abusing the trust of their users.<br /><br />These types of broad, seemingly invasive user agreements are not meant to give websites total domination over your personal information (insert maniacal laugh here). They are meant to protect the company in charge from various lawsuits. If a misguided teenager uploads nude photos of herself to Facebook, and they end up on TotallyNakedChicks dot com, Facebook isn’t interested in <a href="http://industry.bnet.com/media/10001016/will-facebook-users-demand-to-be-shown-the-money/" target="_blank">paying for it</a>.<br /><br />Asking users to sign an agreement that gives Facebook ownership of all content you upload is necessary in a society where no one is responsible for their own actions, and common sense is not a requirement for survival.<br /><br />Having one’s legal team work up a creepy-sounding contract is much the same as making sure all coffee cups say “<a href="http://www.vanosteen.com/mcdonalds-coffee-lawsuit.htm" target="_blank">Caution HOT</a>!”. The only difference is the size of the print.WTF Storehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07263314251703492801noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5336534703748543362.post-36576409467442336392009-02-19T20:24:00.000-08:002009-02-20T10:09:55.242-08:00Search Engine Calendar<p>Submitting lenses to search engines is often one of the first things we Squids do once we’ve successfully published a great new lens. Those experts that recommend this practice also say that it’s a good idea to re-submit every 4-6 weeks, or any time your lens has a major update such as new information, links or a fresh layout.</p><p><br />This may seem like an easy task when you only have a few lenses under your belt, but the job of keeping your lenses up to date with Google and Yahoo can become overwhelming when your list of lenses continues to grow. How do you remember when you last submitted your lens on <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/happyhummers" target="_blank">humming birds</a>, and did you forget to submit your latest lens on <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/ultimate_diaperbag" target="_blank">diaper bags</a>?</p><p><br />My solution to this problem is a simple text file that sits quietly on my dashboard. Whenever I make a new lens I open up my “URL Submissions” folder and paste the complete url for my latest masterpiece. Then I type in the date, and head on over to the <br /><a href="http://www.squidoo.com/squidoo-urls#module15633032" target="_blank">Big 3</a> and beg for a crawl.</p><p><br />After doing major updates, I will open up the file and check to see when my last submission was. If it’s been more than a month, I will copy the url of the lens I want to refresh and re-submit it to Google, Yahoo and MSN. By typing in the date, I’ll have a record of my activity for next time.</p><p><br />As a bonus, this handy little file contains urls for all of my lenses, so I don’t have to remember them all. I can usually recall the addresses for each of my lenses if I think about it, but to date I’m only at 27. Remembering what I called my latest page on <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/sagescupboard_justbeads" target="_blank">beads</a> might be more difficult when I’m working with 50 lenses or more. Being able to quickly link to your lenses on other sites is key to promoting your work on Squidoo.</p><br /><br /><br /><p align="center"><a rel="nofollow" class="APCTitleAnchor" title="Montage of Clocks" href="http://affiliates.allposters.com/link/redirect.asp?item=3951684&AID=820405568&PSTID=1&LTID=2&lang=1" target="_blank"><img height="400" alt="Montage of Clocks" src="http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/JUPPOD/020702_1585_0001_oshs-FB.jpg" width="400" border="0" /></a><br /><img height="1" src="http://tracking.allposters.com/allposters.gif?AID=820405568&PSTID=1&LTID=2&lang=1" width="1" border="0" /><br /></p><p align="left">Of course, you may be one who believes you <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/dontsubmit" target="_blank">should not submit your lens to search engines</a>. It's probably true that backlinks are better for promotion than hand submission. I like to use both!</p>WTF Storehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07263314251703492801noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5336534703748543362.post-83941026096260834232009-02-11T14:04:00.000-08:002009-04-08T17:49:03.066-07:00Facebook Ideas for SquidsLike many lensmasters, I didn’t create a <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/add-your-profile#module9243099" target="_blank">Facebook</a> account until after joining Squidoo. I had hoped that by posting my creations for all of my ‘friends’ to see, I would get a little extra traffic, maybe some comments or even a little praise.<br /><br />What I actually got were a lot of requests to join groups, sign petitions, and add apps like “top friends” and poker games. You know the ones. My inbox is full of requests that I just don’t have the heart to ignore, but have no intention of responding to. The only apps I have added are feeds to my Del.icio.us and Digg activities. Facebook is like a second <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/add-your-profile#module6401686" target="_blank">Twitter</a> to me. And with the new Facbook Connect tool on Squidoo, it’s even better.<br /><br />Recently many of my friends and family members started passing around a chain-letter type message on Facebook called “25 Random Things About Me”. At first, I groaned. Between Squidoo, my own website, and my two blogs, I don’t exactly have time to play Facebook tag for kicks.<br /><br />But then I had an idea. What if I threw a little HTML into my response, and directed readers to my lenses?<br /><br />Suddenly, the chain letter didn’t seem like a waste of time. I was able to work 7 or 8 lenses into my 25 responses without feeling like I was taking advantage. Just as I had hoped, my lens stats are showing a few visits from Facebook daily. Not much, but every visit counts.<br /><br /><strong>Some other tips for using Facebook to promote your Squidiness:</strong><br /><br />1. Turn comments on in your updates, so that friends will see any comments you make on notes, posted items and photos. Whenever you post a link to one of your lenses, comment on it, and more people will be able to see it when they log in.<br /><br />2. Comment on your own activities and include links to your lenses or blogs where appropriate. For example, if you RSVP to an event, comment on the update and include a link to your lens that’s related to the theme.<br /><br />3. Do you use videos on your lenses? Whenever you add a new <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/YouTube_Module" target="_blank">YouTube</a> video to a lens, post the same video to Facebook, and let your friends know that you’ve chosen it for your lens. Post a link!<br /><br />4. When you add a new Duel or <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/prediction-module" target="_blank">Prediction module</a> to a lens, invite your Facebook friends to join in the discussion. The same goes for <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/about-twttrstrm" target="_blank">TwttrStrm</a> lenses, too.<br /><br />5. Be nice! Have fun, all that good stuff.WTF Storehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07263314251703492801noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5336534703748543362.post-51219127715546986112009-01-25T22:25:00.000-08:002009-01-25T22:42:40.039-08:00Squidcast AbuseOne of my habits as a lens master is to check in with my “Favorites” tab to see what people have been up to. It’s usually what I do between lenses, when I can’t decide what to do next. There’s usually an interesting Squidcast or two to check out.<br /><br />Recently, I found that nearly every item on my Favorites page was from the same lensmaster. I won’t name any names, but this person constantly sent updates about the same lenses and groups, without any indication that there was new content to be seen. They usually seemed like generic advertisements.<br /><br />I’m not one to judge what a person uses the Squidcast for - to each their own. What bothered me about it is that there were so many, all of the other people I am following were getting bumped before I could get a chance to see their Casts. There are so many things that I could be doing while I have a chance to sit down at my keyboard. Flipping back through pages and pages of <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/getting-more-out-of-squidcasts" target="_blank">Squidcasts</a> is not one of them.<br /><br />After a few weeks, I finally got up the nerve to head on over to the lensmaster’s profile and leave the fan club. I’ve never unfavorited anything before, and I didn’t exactly enjoy doing it, but enough was enough. I wonder if I should send along some advice on <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/squidcast-101#module10504313" target="_blank">how not to annoy your fan club</a>?<br /><br /><p align="center"><a class="APCTitleAnchor" title="Victorian Boy Fly Casting" href="http://affiliates.allposters.com/link/redirect.asp?item=905190&AID=820405568&PSTID=1&LTID=2&lang=1" target="_blank"><img height="450" alt="Victorian Boy Fly Casting" src="http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/FIP/TC-00022-C.jpg" width="312" border="0" /></a><br /><img height="1" src="http://tracking.allposters.com/allposters.gif?AID=820405568&PSTID=1&LTID=2&lang=1" width="1" border="0" /></p>WTF Storehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07263314251703492801noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5336534703748543362.post-58935764197643770572009-01-12T10:24:00.000-08:002009-01-12T10:34:13.561-08:00Join the Squid PoliceHere is some food for thought: <a href="http://squidoo-eclectic-chaos.blogspot.com/2008/12/is-squidoo-dirty-word.html#comment-form">Is "Squidoo" A Dirty Word?</a><br /><br />It may not be just yet, but it is starting to feel that way. Anyone who tries to use StumbleUpon, Mixx, or Digg to promote their work on Squidoo may already be feeling the burn of everyone else's bad karma.<br /><br />A lot of the bad feelings are still lingering from <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/building-squidoo#module7343034" target="_blank">Squidoo's first taste of Spam</a>, and subsequent incidents of bad usership. Far too many people have come to think of Squidoo as a place for spam and irrelevant content.<br /><br />And who can blame them? What if every time you searched for information via Google or Yahoo, you had to sift through dozens of pages of "Great Stuff on Amazon!", without finding the answer to your question? I know it bugs me when I'm looking for lensroll content, and that's all <em>I</em> find. It must be equally annoying for non-Squids who are trying to write book reports or learn new skills.<br /><br />So what can we do about it? <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/squidgone" target="_blank">Bad behavior</a> should be reported whenever it violates the Squidoo <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/pages/tos" target="_blank">Terms of Use</a>. Don't be shy. If you truly believe that a lensmaster is not on the up-and-up, it couldn't hurt for someone at HQ to check in on their activities. This way, we can help weed out those lensmasters that are making the rest of us look bad.<br /><br /><p align="center"><a class="APCTitleAnchor" title="Young Traffic Cop Approaching Boy Swerving His Car Across the Sidewalk" href="http://affiliates.allposters.com/link/redirect.asp?item=3772657&AID=820405568&PSTID=1&LTID=2&lang=1" target="_blank"><img height="450" alt="Young Traffic Cop Approaching Boy Swerving His Car Across the Sidewalk" src="http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/LIFPOD/744652.jpg" width="338" border="0" /></a></p>WTF Storehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07263314251703492801noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5336534703748543362.post-58985721289929904782009-01-09T22:10:00.000-08:002009-01-09T22:23:30.367-08:00Proving Me Wrong and StuffA while back, I was in the mood to rant, and I listed <a href="http://squidophile.blogspot.com/2008/10/naughty-squids.html">My Top 5</a> Most Annoying Lensmaster Mistakes. I say <em>my</em> top five, and not <em>the</em> top five, because what is considered good behavior can vary from Squid to Squid. Anyone who spends a lot of time over at SquidU knows that there are all kinds of opinions on things such as adding guestbooks, leaving star ratings, and all of the things that Squids can choose to do during their day.<br /><br />One of the things that bugs me most about hastily published lenses is the default module title. A close runner up is the only slightly different module title. As I've said before, the word "stuff" does not belong in a headline, or title. <br /><br />Well, according to <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/Susan52">Susan52</a>, that's exactly where it goes! Recently on <a href="http://i-squidoo-do-you.blogspot.com/2009/01/lens-titles-and-stuff.html">I Squidoo, Do You?</a> she explained that one of her lenses actually dropped in lensrank when she removed the word stuff from the title. This is a great example of why having a lens title that appeals to your target audience is ideal. If possible, it's probably a great idea to use the exact phrase that your reader would type into Google. <br /><br />I think it might be time to go and have a look at some of my titles, and see if anything needs a good tweaking. And stuff.WTF Storehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07263314251703492801noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5336534703748543362.post-56477697126935145312009-01-07T19:31:00.000-08:002009-01-12T22:58:21.942-08:00A Warning to Etsy and eBay SellersNow that the holidays are over, I've gotten back to writing about my main passion - beading. My first lens of the new year is all about ways to use the very easy and traditional daisy chain stitch. As is my habit, I've been blogging about it where appropriate, and today I stopped in at <a href="http://crafterzone.ning.com/">CrafterZone</a> to share <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/beading_daisychain">Variety Beading: Daisy Chain</a>.<br /><br />While browsing the forum, I came across a post about a new US law that demands all products made for children be tested for harmful substances such as lead. Apparently Big Brother's panties got in a twist about last year's product recalls. You may remember that many products from China and elsewhere were pulled from shelves because of high lead and <a href="http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml08/08074.html">amphetamine</a> content. The solution? Ban all children's products that have not been submitted for intense screening.<br /><br />The problem of course, is that the law as it is applies to everyone and everything, including products manufactured in the US, and those made by home crafters. The result is that if the law should be passed, no one will be able to sell handmade toys, blankets or clothing at farmers markets or online, unless they pay the fees to have tests performed on each item they make.<br /><br /><p align="center"><a class="APCTitleAnchor" title="Gray Toy Plastic Robot Walking Towards Key Mechanism" href="http://affiliates.allposters.com/link/redirect.asp?item=3723498&AID=820405568&PSTID=1&LTID=2&lang=1" target="_blank"><img height="450" alt="Gray Toy Plastic Robot Walking Towards Key Mechanism" src="http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/JUPPOD/011127_1158_0024_lshs-FB.jpg" width="338" border="0" /></a></p><p align="left">If there is any truth to the article, then this is bad news for many Squids, especially those that have made lenses just to help promote their home shops. Under the new law, selling products that have not been individually tested will be an offense that could result in fines and even jail time. You can read about this latest economy drain at <a href="http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/263549#tab=article&sc=0&local=">Digital Journal</a>. I won't go into the endless number of ways that this law contradicts what is needed for the North American economy at this time. We all know it's just bad karma all around.<br /><br />If you are a US citizen that will be harmed by this law, you may be able to take part in the <a href="http://reformcpsia.org/2009/01/class-action-lawsuit/" target="_blank">lawsuit</a> against it.</p>WTF Storehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07263314251703492801noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5336534703748543362.post-31555636046554054212009-01-03T12:01:00.000-08:002009-01-03T12:48:24.728-08:00The Face of SpamAnyone who spends any amount of time working or playing online knows that there's always some kind of <a href="http://www.spamhaus.org/definition.html">spam</a> lurking out there, just waiting to pounce on you. Generally, the term spam refers to unsolicited information in the form of ads, email, etc. We all know it when we see it, and wonder how on earth people who create spam still manage to attract people to their site, product or cause.<br /><br />When we find a nasty little fish (or phish!) in our spam filter from "Sales Blaster" or "asdfjkl.com", we usually delete it without looking. But does anyone stop and wonder what kind of person wrote such an email? Who <em>is</em> the man or woman that so shamelessly invades our space with their nonsense?<br /><br />Recently I had the opportunity to meet a spammer <em>almost</em> face to face. One of my groups received several join requests one day, four of which were from the same lensmaster. This in itself isn't unusual, so I didn't think there was a problem until I started reviewing their lenses. Each of the four pages had similar titles, and nearly identical content. All of the links pointed to the same website, and there was little to see besides a short blurb and an Amazon module.<br /><br />Because my groups' guidelines specifically state that all lenses must have original written content, I had to deny these lenses from the group. It didn't help that they were barely related to the group topic as well.<br /><br />When I went to the lensmaster's bio page to let them know why their lenses weren't accepted into the group, I noticed that these four lenses were the only works so far made, and the lensmaster had only been a Squidoo member for a matter of weeks. I don't remember how I worded it, but I let this person know as politely as possible in my message, that their content was spam-like and not the best use of Squidoo. I try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt...sometimes people are making honest mistakes.<br /><br />I checked back in with this person's bio later, and discovered that they had added a few new lenses - all of them about credit card debt. So that was the end of that relationship. It became obvious to me that I had met a real-life spammer, and I found the experience very confusing. Here was a real person, with a photo and a bio and everything. And they were doing things that I normally associate with facelessness and codes. It's certainly possible that the photo and blurb provided were totally fake, but there's still a breathing person behind these meaningless contributions - a person who is capable of making better decisions.<br /><br />I'm very glad that I know better!<br /><br /><p align="center"><a class="APCTitleAnchor" title="Deleting Spam" href="http://affiliates.allposters.com/link/redirect.asp?item=3477968&AID=820405568&PSTID=1&LTID=2&lang=1" target="_blank"><img height="450" alt="Deleting Spam" src="http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/SSPOD/1501-265.jpg" width="338" border="0" /></a><br /><img height="1" src="http://tracking.allposters.com/allposters.gif?AID=820405568&PSTID=1&LTID=2&lang=1" width="1" border="0" /><br /></p>WTF Storehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07263314251703492801noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5336534703748543362.post-56185199489930455702008-12-06T15:53:00.000-08:002008-12-06T16:33:03.887-08:00Dressing Up List ModulesIn an effort to push up the lensrank of my holiday lenses, I've been trying to find ways to update them everyday. Ideally, this means adding new content, but the ideas don't always flow, so sometimes a tweak here and there is all I can make. A new lens photo, tag, or Amazon description is usually where I start.<br /><br />I was looking over <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/creative_giftbaskets">That's Creative: Unique Gift Baskets</a>, trying to think of ways to improve the exsiting content. The entire lens is made up mostly of list modules, and I thought it was time to give them a little more pizzaz. The logical choice is, of course, pictures. Visual content is essential for a great lens, even when the information is already in easy-to-read point form.<br /><br />Because Unique Gift Baskets has so many examples where a photo would fit, it would be pretty overwhelming to take dozens of photos of candy and gift items. That's where <a href="http://affiliates.allposters.com/link/redirect.asp?AID=820405568&PSTID=1&LTID=19&LID=110&ParentAID=820405568&lang=1" target="_top">Allposters</a> comes in. The difficult part is getting the posters to fit into the list modules in a neat and tidy way. But I did it, and now I'd like to pass on the method to other Squids.<br /><br /><strong>Step 1 - Find your picture.<br /></strong>Once you've added your lens to your list of Allposters websites, and located an appropriate poster, highlight the HTML for a thumbnail with no printing or framing links.<br /><br /><strong>Step 2 - Edit the HTML</strong><br />Remove all of the code up to the first img tag. You will be left with something like this:<br /><br /><em>a class="APCTitleAnchor" href=allposters url</em><em> target="_blank" title="Close View of a Reddish Colored Giant Or Humboldt Squid at Night"<br />img src= allposters url</em><em> Close View of a Reddish Colored Giant Or Humboldt Squid at Night" border="0" height="86" width="115"</em><br /><br /><strong>Step 3 - Set Alignment<br /></strong>To place the picture to the left of your list text, replace<br /><em>border="o" height="86" width="115" </em><br />with<br /><em>style="float: left; margin: 0px 5px 5px 0px;"/</em><br /><em></em><br /><strong>Step 4 - Add Text</strong><br />You need at least 6 lines of text and/or spaces to make sure that your list items all line up evenly. Use a BR tag in the seventh line to break up the list items and add a little space.<br /><br />And that's it. You'll end up with list items that look something like this:<br /><br /><a class="APCTitleAnchor" title="Close View of a Reddish Colored Giant Or Humboldt Squid at Night" href="http://affiliates.allposters.com/link/redirect.asp?item=1548932&AID=820405568&PSTID=1&LTID=1&lang=1" target="_blank"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 5px 5px 0px" alt="Close View of a Reddish Colored Giant Or Humboldt Squid at Night" src="http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/NGSPOD/124964_a.jpg" /></a><br /><b>The Humboldt Squid at Night</b><br />This reddish colored squid photo was taken by Brian J. Skerry.<br />Isn't it neat?<br /><br />The more text you have in each list item, the better it will look. It's a great way to dress up tired list modules, and add some color to your lens.WTF Storehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07263314251703492801noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5336534703748543362.post-54123507354538799552008-11-22T22:25:00.000-08:002008-11-22T22:30:48.037-08:00Easy Blogging with ResultsMany lens masters swear by blogging - it’s one of the easiest ways to promote your work on Squidoo, and can even help improve your search engine ranks. It can be a little time consuming though, and you don’t always get the readership that you would hope for.<br /><br />One of the easiest ways to get started with blogging is to use forums and other social sites which offer blog space as part of your membership. You don’t get the benefit of ad space or other sidebar content, but your posts are more likely to be viewed by others, especially if the forum you use has a lot of active members.<br /><br />MySpace is a good example of one of these mini-blogs, but your posts will only be seen by your <a href="http://www.myspace.com/sagescupboard" target="_blank">MySpace friends</a> - or people who find it in keyword searches if you’re lucky. If you really want to get your thoughts (and lenses) seen, you’ve got to try Ning.<br /><br />Ning networks are a lens master’s dream. Every administrator runs their forum a bit differently, but some of the cool features include an easy to use blog, a photo gallery, and a main page where you can display links to websites, photo slideshows and post updates about your activities. When you add a blog post, it will usually be displayed on the front page of the network, where members and visitors can see your update. Because you can add tags to your posts and other content, it can easily be found through searches of the forum, too.<br /><br />I’m a member of several exceptional Ning forums, all with different topics, and a good portion of my lens visits each month come from curious members who view my pages and blog posts. Most, if not all, of the members are fun to interact with, and genuinely want to exchange ideas and insights about the forum topics.<br /><br />Like any online activity - including Squidoo - you get back what you put into it. If you want people to get to know you, and be interested in what you have to say, then you’ve got to be an active member and pay it forward. There are a lot of easy ways to get involved in a Ning network, such as participating in forum discussions, rating and commenting on members’ photos and blogs, and joining groups that interest you.<br /><br />You can search for networks from the <a href="http://www.ning.com/" target="_blank">Ning website</a> - there are thousands to choose from, all on different topics. There’s even a few about Squidoo. The key is to find an active forum that focuses on your specific interests. If many of your lenses are about recycling and green living, you would probably benefit from joining and eco-friendly network and chatting with the members about cool ways to save energy. There’s no limit to the number of networks that you can join, and you use the same login for each one. Once you’ve joined your first network, you never have to upload another avatar again.<br /><br />If you’ve ever had trouble finding a place to discuss your interests online, chances are there’s a Ning out there that will fit you, and your lenses.WTF Storehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07263314251703492801noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5336534703748543362.post-30653479541913003202008-11-21T13:54:00.000-08:002008-11-21T14:05:58.698-08:00Squid StockingsI have started yet another group, and this one is the most exclusive yet. Anyone is welcome to join, of course, but the focus is on About Me lenses for the holidays.<br /><br />I don’t remember how or when the idea came to me, but I decided that my contribution to the <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/AMonthofHope" target="_blank">Month of Hope</a> challenge would be to create a list of all the things I would love to receive for Christmas this year. Perhaps that sounds a little greedy, but I always say that if no one liked getting gifts, then there wouldn’t be so much fuss about giving. So let’s all just admit that we like getting presents just as much as we like to give them. And one of the best things about giving is knowing that the person is getting exactly what they wanted.<br /><br />In any case, I wanted my lens to be autobiographical. Many lens masters indicate that they love to read about their fellow Squids. It’s true that bio lenses are fun to read, and anyone with a lensography knows that the more of <strong>You</strong> you put into it, the better. So I picked 10 of the things I’m wishing for most this year, and described what it is that I love about them.<br /><br />It occurred to me that anyone and everyone could do a Christmas wish list lens, and so I created the My Christmas Wish List group. I’ve had no new bites so far, except for an hilarious lens by <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/AntiWishList" target="_blank">kab</a>, which I stumbled across shortly after publishing the group. It’s actually a list of things that no-one - especially kab - would want for Christmas. Actually, I would like a couple of things on the list, but I’m not as normal as the average bear, so to speak.<br /><br />Although the idea behind <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/groups/my-christmas-wishlist" target="_blank">My Christmas Wish List</a> is to make a lens devoted to charity, I thought it would be a fun way for lens masters to let their friends and family know what they’d like to find under the tree. I’ve even thought of posting my own list on Facebook. Either way, I think that Santa will appreciate getting a letter that has so many visual aids.WTF Storehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07263314251703492801noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5336534703748543362.post-61311409842095611182008-11-12T14:31:00.000-08:002008-11-12T14:47:47.586-08:00It's Good To Be BadSo, ironically, <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/worstlensever" target="_blank">The Worst Lens Ever Made</a> is actually one of my best lenses. For the last few days it has been sitting at #5 on my dashboard, just hovering under my holiday lenses. It's been ascending in the overall rankings, and even broke the top 100 Squidoo Tips lenses. Who knew?<br /><br />I found it interesting how difficult it actually was to create a slapped together lens. I began simply enough, by selecting one of every keyword driven module I could find. But once I had thrown those keywords in, there was so much more to do.<br /><br />I wanted to pinpoint not only the faults of using these modules carelessly, but also other issues that many of us have with rushed lenses, such as poor language, lack of module titles, and a zero layout planning. When writing each module description, I tried to get inside the head of your average spammer-type, and figure out what they hope to accomplish when they add each module. I wonder if I was close? Sadly, we may never know.<br /><br />Some things proved more diffcult than others. The New Delicious Bookmarks kept coming up blank. Apparently not a lot of people are using the tag 'Squid". So I logged in to Delicious, Googled "squid", and saved a few bookmarks of my own. For the Twitter module, I decided that it would be better to use "Squidoo" as the keyword, so that all of the Tweets showing would point back to lensmasters.<br /><br />Even though the entire purpose of the lens is to parody pages that have no effort, it still needs touching up now and then. But I guess that's what separates the good lensmasters from the not-so-good ones. We just can't stop improving.WTF Storehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07263314251703492801noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5336534703748543362.post-38402375190971514022008-11-09T23:43:00.001-08:002009-01-09T21:52:38.586-08:00Take that Spammers!I've had it up to <em>here</em> with poorly made lenses! And here's why...<br /><br />Whenever one of my new lenses sheds it's Work in Progress status, the first thing I do is start searching related keywords and topics so that I can create a nice, juicy lensroll. I love the lensroll tool a lot. Most of the lensmasters that I recognize and interact with regularily I've met by finding their lenses on one of my keyword hunts. I think one of the things that makes a lens great is how many other lenses are in that little sidebar, and how many of them would be of direct interest to anyone who is reading that lens.<br /><br />For instance, when I made my Top Ten Movie Vampires lens, I went looking for other content related to the films and characters that I had highlighted. I was really pleased to find a bunch of great lenses about "The Lost Boys" that were fun and interesting to read.<br /><br />Sadly, I would say that at least 65% of the lenses that I look at for possible 'rolling are not even worth the bandwidth they're written with. The introduction draws me in, hoping that I'll find some thoughtful content that teaches me something new about the topic. But once I scroll down, all I find is a variety of non-written modules showing different things related to the topic. It's as if people start up the workshop and just add one of every keyword driven module possible - give or take an Amazon or two.<br /><br />For example, when I made a lens about Christmas movies, I wanted to find a lens that was just about "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". I looked at about 10 lenses, and most of them were just a bunch of Amazon and eBay modules of Grinch movies, books and toys. Eventually I got so fed up that I didn't even want to search for any of the other movies I had written about on my lens.<br /><br />It reminded me of <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/bestsquidoolens" target="_blank">The Best Squidoo Lens NOT To Do</a>. This parody is about lenses that are just landing pages for webstores, a place where tasteless people try to get you to buy their stuff. While these pages are annoying, at least they're trying to hock their own products, and not cash in on hapless Google searchers. I've seen so many of these keyword sales lenses, I've started making a note of checking out the makers' bios - they're so identical that I'd swear it's one person making them!<br /><br />I decided it was time to shine a spotlight on the stupidity of these Giant Squid wannabes. They churn out worthless lenses, hoping to get some recognition and cash, meanwhile wasting the time and patience of those lensmasters who actually take their Squid responsibilities seriously.<br /><br />So I made this: <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/worstlensever" target="_blank">The Worst Lens Ever Made</a><br /><br />Enjoy!WTF Storehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07263314251703492801noreply@blogger.com1