Lens Ideas
Awesome Work Being Done
Feb 23rd
There is some truly awesome work being done at the Get Cracking with Bonnie and Robin Facebook group. Bonnie and I are both really impressed with the quality of these quick lenses. In little over a week the Get Cracking participants have already created more than 135 new lenses and the creativity with the challenge topics is amazing.
Yesterday’s topic was to create a lens about a favorite car and lenses were built about everything from a Nash Rambler to a 1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee with a nice Mitsubishi 3000gt, a Citroen 2CV Charleston, and a Corvette thrown in to boot!
One of the most imaginative ideas to come from our car challenge was a lens created about women mechanics that contains the story of one female lensmaster’s experience working on her husband’s car.
Visit the Get Cracking with Bonnie and Robin Facebook Group to see all of the wonderful lenses being created there or become a fan and join us and the over 200 members already participating in the Get Cracking with Bonnie and Robin daily lens building challenge.
Challenge yourself for a day, a week, a month, or any amount of time in between. It’s up to you!
I’ve created a lens to hold all of our past Get Cracking daily lens challenges that includes examples of some of the lenses that were built for each challenge. Use it the next time you need an idea for building a new lens or leave us a comment there with your own favorite lens writing prompt. We might just use your idea in the future!
Squidoo Pets
Feb 8th
Giant Squid lensmaster OhMe has created a fun lens about Squidoo Pets.
Excerpt: Lensmasters on Squidoo have often written about their pets so I thought it would be fun to have a quiz to see who can quess which pet belongs to who.
The lens is just adorable but what I really like about it is the way it’s designed, and how she used several Quiz modules, each containing one question, instead of placing all of the questions into one. This really spotlights each question, and pet, and I’d bet it inspires more people to answer her questions.
Have you used a quiz module in a creative way? Share the link here so we can all take a look.
And be sure to stop by OhMe’s Squidoo Pets lens to try your luck!
It’s Monday! Are you busy working on a new lens? Did you know that more lenses get created on Mondays than any other day of the week?
The next busiest day for lens creation is hump day, Wednesday.
Have You Made Your 2010 Goal Visualization Lens Yet?
Jan 3rd
By now, everyone knows the benefits of making and viewing a goal visualization board. Seeing the things we want to achieve and accomplish on a daily basis puts those desires in the spotlight and helps us to reach our goals sooner.
Why not use a Squidoo lens to easily make a 2010 Goal Visualization board of your own today!
It’s easy, fast and fun! No scissors or glue required!
Here’s mine: Visualize Your goals with a page at Squidoo
I’ve included a plexo at the bottom where you can add a link to your Goal Visualization lens after you’ve made it.
My RSS Feeds
Aug 25th
Giant Squid lensmaster Poddys has come up with a creative new idea! He’s created a lens that features all of his many rss feeds in one place; an rss feed lensography, if you will.
“On Squidoo we already have Lensographies (a collection of lenses) and Plexographies (a collection of Link Voting Modules). I would like to introduce you to the new revolution – the Feedography” ~ Poddys
Poddys has collected the rss feeds to his Squidoo lenses, his blogs, his Zazzle store, his Twitterings and more here:
I think a Feedography makes a great home for of all your web writing and makes it easy for your followers to keep track of all your newest stuff!
Take a look at Poddys lens and then why not make a Feedography of your own?
http://www.squidoo.com/rss_feeds
Opposites Attract
Jul 30th
The debate is still on fire at my HEY MONKEYBRAIN! lens, Cats are Smarter than Dogs.
I chose my topic hoping it would cause a stir and boy, did it ever! It seems that people are really passionate about their pet’s intelligence.
The lens has seen steady traffic since it’s inception and the comments I receive there are always very dramatic and fun to read.
Do you have a lens that incites passion from it’s readers?
If you do please share the link here in the comments section. If not, why not cause a stir of your own?
Choose a topic that you are passionate about and share your views. Don’t be afraid to go against the status quo. Chances are, there are people out there who feel the same way you do; people who are looking for a place to have their say, shout their opinion, or just meet others who feel the same way they do.
You see, opposites really do attract – opposing opinions really do attract comments, that is!
Need proof? Take a look here:
Promote a Flop Day
Mar 11th
I, for one, happen to love all of my Squidoo.com lenses but that doesn’t mean that everyone else does. I’ve made more than my share of lenses that just didn’t seem to go anywhere. They sit at the bottom of my lens list day after day while many of my other lenses enjoy good traffic, sales, and Squid compliments from my fellow lensmasters. I don’t like to think of my lower ranking lenses as flops but perhaps that is what they are.
Keeping that in mind, I’ve decided to proclaim today “Promote a Flop Day” and I ask you to join me in giving those lesser ranking lenses another chance at the limelight.
Just for today, instead of concentrating on the upper portion of your lens list, take a good look at the lower half. Revisit those less popular lenses that you might have thought about giving up on and give them a Health Check.
Take a look at your tags. Update your intro or title. Add a new module or two and then get out there and market that flop as if it were a brand new lens.
Shout about it on Twitter.com.
Share it with your friends at Facebook.com.
Add it to your signature on your favorite forum.
Digg it. Lensroll it. Add it to a new group.
Visit the following lenses to find more promotional ideas for your lenses:
Top Ways to Promote Your Squidoo Lenses
How to Promote Your Squidoo Lens
Promoting Your Lens Outside of Squidoo
Give your favorite flop a second chance today and it just might surprise you with a big payoff tomorrow!
I am Woman
Mar 10th
In honor of Women’s History Month I’d like you all to take a look at a fantastic lens by Giant Lensmaster Margo_Arrowsmith.
“As women’s history month begins and black history month ends, I thought this was perfect. This lens is close to my heart” And Ain’t I a Woman –Margo_Arrowsmith
The lens is a tribute to Sojourner Truth, an amazing woman at the backbone of the Abolishionist Movement.
“If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.” Sojourner Truth
In addition to containing a huge piece of history that we should all know this lens is a wonderful example of what an awesome Giant Squid lens should look like.
After viewing this lens, why not spend some time creating your own tribute to a powerful woman who has inspired you?
You can follow Margo_Arrowsmith’s lead and create a lens about your favorite historical personality, pay tribute to an impressive modern day woman who is actively changing history today, or simply tell the world how great your own mom, wife, daughter, or sister is!
P.S. And if anyone knows how to change the fonts on a Wordpress blog I sure could use your help!
Do You Have A Family Disaster Plan?
Mar 6th
“If you live in an area that is frequented by hurricanes, tropical storms, tornadoes, earthquakes, or ice storms then you really need to have a family disaster plan in place.”
Take a look at Family Disaster Plan by Giant Squid Lensmaster Thrivingmom to get ideas for designing your own plan of action so your family will know what to do to remain safe and be ready - just in case.
“It’s now March. Here in Texas, that means the start to tornado season and
before you know it huricane season will be here again.” Thrivingmom
This lens does an excellent job of providing important information to the public. On it, Thrivingmom shares her own experience with disaster and discusses the importance of pre-planning your own escape routes.
I’ve never experienced a natural disaster but was living in close enough proximity to the World Trade Center disaster on 9/11 that the fear of personal danger was severe. For me, the worst part of the experience was not having a family plan of action for keeping in touch during a crisis. Both of my boys were in different schools and my husband was at work when that disaster struck. I wasn’t able to relax until I’d had contact with my entire family.
Have you ever lived through a natural or man made disaster? Why not make a lens that describes your experience and shares your own family disaster plan advice for others who might one day find themselves caught up in something similar?
New All About YOU
Feb 24th
Have you gotten a chance to check out the new “About Me” module yet?
It automatically pulls information from your lensmaster bio page and makes an awesome addition to your lensography. It can also be added to any of your lenses where you want the public to know who wrote your lens and why.
You can see the “About Me” module in action at the top of my lensography. I’ve got mine set to show all of the options available but you can pick and choose between your automatic bio and your default bio. You can also let it show your bio photo (or not) and your featured lenses.
One thing I noticed after activating my “About Me” module was that I wasn’t happy with how my bio information looked. I had posted some advertisements on my bio page that I hadn’t thought about for a long time. When I saw what they looked like on my lens I quickly removed them.
I’m glad the new “About Me” module gave me a chance to rethink what I was telling the world about myself because I want to be seen by the public as a serious writer and a reputable member of the Squidoo.com community and not just another salesperson.
What is your bio page saying about YOU? Give the new ‘About Me” module a whirl and take another look.
I’m glad I did!
How to Quickly Increase Your Squidoo Earning Potential
Jan 6th
In this week’s issue of the Food-Writing.com ezine, the author wrote a wonderful article about picking your niche within a niche. (If you enjoy writing about food I highly recommend that you subscribe to this ezine. Check it out HERE.)
Of course the article speaks specifically about food writing but it got me thinking that the same concept could be used for writing Squidoo lenses on any topic.
The idea is to take your chosen niche topic and narrow it down even further.
With respect to the article, let’s say FOOD is your chosen niche topic. Your “niche within a niche” could be PIZZA. So instead of writing one lens about PIZZA in general, you write many very focused lenses such as, Why You Should Use Whole Wheat PIZZA Dough, Baking Brick Oven PIZZA, Lowfat PIZZA Recipes, Choosing the Best PIZZA Products, Spice Up Your PIZZA, I Could Live On PIZZA, The Best PIZZA Movies, PIZZA Collectibles, etc. etc. etc.
If you carefully choose a niche-within-a-niche-topic that you’re really passionate about, your research time will be next to nothing and you’ll be able to create oodles of outstanding lenses in no time. You’ll soon become an expert and greatly increase your lens count as well as your Squidoo earning potential.
Let me point out that the KEY word here is passion. As a Giant Squid Organizer, I’ve looked at thousands of lenses and what I’ve noticed from each and every lensmaster, Giants and New Squids alike, is that the lenses that were built with passion really stand out. That’s not to say that a good lens can’t be built on a topic you don’t really care about, but the passionate lenses seem to GLOW with Awesomeness. The passionate lenses send out invisible tentacles that pull the reader in as they silently demand, “Read me from top to bottom!”
Don’t believe me? Take a look at the Top 100 Lists and I bet the majority of the lenses found on each and every one of them was built by someone who truly loved their topic.
What are you really and truly passionate about? Grab a piece of paper (You can use that coffee-stained napkin sitting beside your keyboard) and do a little brainstorming. Quickly write down the things you sincerely love. Dig deep but do it fast – without any destructive rationalizing.
Now, looking at your list, choose the one thing you’ve written that you feel you are the most knowledgable of and start building lenses. It’s that easy! I guarantee that if you’ve chosen honestly, the ideas will begin to flow furiously and even though those lenses might be some of the fastest you’ve ever built, those lenses will glow with your passion, pull your readers in (as well as the search engines) and quickly grow your Squidoo.com earning potential.
Has this technique already worked for you? Are you going to try it? Share your thoughts in the comments section here.
