Great Squidoo Blogs

Adventures in Squidoo Land

AJ is Always Juggling

Captain Squid

Chef Keem's Squid Kitchen


Giant Squid Journal

Howling Squid Review

I Love Squidoo

I Squidoo, Do You?

Jaguar Julie: Blog On and On

JustBon at Squidoo

My Squidoo Love

My52Cents Online Tips

Observations and Insight from a Giant Squid

PotPieGirl.com

SquidBits

SquidBlog

SquidLog

Squidoo City Guide

Squidoo HQ

Squidoo Kindergarten

Squidoo Land

Squidoo Lens Reviews

Squidoo Me

Squidoography

Thank You Lensmaster

Valley of the Giants

Facebook Ideas for Squids

Like many lensmasters, I didn’t create a Facebook 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.

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 Twitter to me. And with the new Facbook Connect tool on Squidoo, it’s even better.

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.

But then I had an idea. What if I threw a little HTML into my response, and directed readers to my lenses?

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.

Some other tips for using Facebook to promote your Squidiness:

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.

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.

3. Do you use videos on your lenses? Whenever you add a new YouTube 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!

4. When you add a new Duel or Prediction module to a lens, invite your Facebook friends to join in the discussion. The same goes for TwttrStrm lenses, too.

5. Be nice! Have fun, all that good stuff.

Easy Blogging with Results

Many 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.

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.

MySpace is a good example of one of these mini-blogs, but your posts will only be seen by your MySpace friends - 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.

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.

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.

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.

You can search for networks from the Ning website - 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.

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.

Good News All Around

There's so many great things to report, I don't even know where to begin!
Let's start with one of my favorite Lensmasters, Bradshaw, who was super awesome for blogging about one of my lenses. He's got a great Squid blog going called Squidoo Land, and a Facebook Group for lensmasters, among other great projects. He's got the Squidoo bug bad, and it's all good for lensmasters everywhere!

I've had my first sale...it's still pending, and it's only 48 cents, but that's 48 cents more than zero! Someone was poking around on Beading and Beyond, browsing for beads, and I got lucky! So far it's the most successful of all my lenses, though it is soon to be surpassed by my most popular holiday page. Still, it will probably remain the most popular beading lens on my list, though I would love to see it hit a triple digit lensrank.

I also must give many thanks to fabulous lensmaster spirituality for including my beading group in her Great Squidoo Groups Lensography. There are some awesome bead artists showcased in the group, and I hope they'll get plenty of exposure! I highly recommend adding Great Squidoo Groups to your favorites. It's the perfect place to shop for your newest lens' first group.

A Match Made in Heaven

So I was reading a lens by Susan52 called Why Not Turn a Blog Post into a Squidoo Lens! and little light came on. One of my other blogs is about beadwork and the creative process - something I started to showcase my work and talk about beading and artists that I admire. I started thinking about it, and discovered that I could, infact, turn it into a lens! I spent some time taking new photos of my most inspired pieces, and put a together a lens called Inspirational Beading. It's image heavy, which is good in a way. If it was a really wordy lens, I might still be working on it and not the other lenses I want to do by the end of the month! It was really fun though, and I got to take a look back at some of my older beadwork, remembering where I was when I made it. Now I can share it with other beaders.

On a sadder note, my first lensography, from my Recycle It! series got a 3 star rating. I guess it really wasn't wordy enough? I had meant to add some more text and recycling tips, but I didn't think it was that bad. Perhaps I'll read up a little more on lensographies!