Updates and Reminders
Almost Ready to be Giant Squid?
Mar 9th
March 31st is the deadline to apply for Giant Squid lensmaster or new 100 club member at Squidoo.com.
Need a few more lenses before you can apply? Join us at Get Cracking with Bonnie and Robin where we provide daily lens ideas to help you reach your Squid goals or check out my new SquidClub The Cupcake Club on Squidoo where you can quickly and easily make lenses about your favorite cupcakes or cupcake related merchandise. All Get Cracking with Bonnie and Robin and Cupcake Club on Squidoo lenses count towards your necessary 50 or 100 lenses.
Once you’ve got your fabulous 50 or awesome 100 lenses done send us a link to your bio page to apply!
Potential giants apply at: giants@squidoo.com
Potential 100 club members apply at: 100club@squidoo.com
Next Deadline for Giant Squid Membership
Mar 2nd
The next deadline to become a Giant Squid Lensmaster is March 31, 2010. Are you ready? Know someone else who is?
Apply for Giant Squid lensmaster today by sending us a link to your bio page (or theirs) to giants@squidoo.com
Ready to join the 100 Club? Send your bio link to 100club@squidoo.com
Need a few more lenses to qualify?
To become a Giant Squid you’ll need 50 quality lenses. To apply for 100 club you’ll need 50 more than that!
To quickly get your numbers up visit us on Facebook at Get Cracking with Bonnie and Robin where we supply great daily lens ideas and tips to help you succeed.
Learn more here: Get Cracking with Bonnie and Robin
The Best Way to Help Out Fellow Squids
Feb 27th
The Answer Deck is, by far, the best place to send Squids with enquiring minds. And with all the good information, tips, and advice you’ll find there it pays for even experienced Squids to spend some time there on a regular basis.
If you’re a Giant Squid and have special knowledge about Squidoo, (how to create the fanciest lensography, or how to sell books like a mad woman, or how to get incoming links using articles), you can create a lens to share there. So before you start building your next Squidoo Tips lens, visit the Answer Deck and use the button there to create your own branded Answer Deck lens.
And the next time you receive a question from a new Squid looking for help and good advice be sure to point them to the Answer Deck.
Whether or not you visit to learn, or share, the Answer Deck really is the best place to help your fellow Squids.
Learn more here: Big Answer Deck FAQ
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!
Refer a Friend to Squidoo, Win an iPad
Jan 31st
For every new lensmaster you refer and teach to make 5 great lenses (each), you get an entry into the Squidoo iPad giveaway.
Find Complete Rules and More Information Here:
The Squidoo iPad Giveaway
Contest runs January 29th 2010 through March 17th 2010 (St. Patrick’s Day!)
December’s Top Lenses and New Lens Challenge Information
Jan 11th
During the December Giant Squid Challenge, which was held at the Ning, the Giant Squid Greeters ran several lens challenges for our participants. Top lenses were chosen for their Giant Squid quality and let me tell you that it was reported to me that the competition was really tough. A visit to each of these amazing lenses is well worth your time!
Here are the top lenses created by our potential Giants from those challenges.
- Local Lens Challenge – Top Ten Sport Climbing Areas In Colorado
- Animals and Nature – Really Weird Mammals
- Books – The Best True-Life Family History Stories
- About Me – Survival as a Straight Spouse
- How To and DIY – How to Cook Healthy
- Parenting and Kids – Ever Wonder What It’s Like to Homeschool?
- Halloween – Group Halloween Costume Guessing Game
- Entertainment – The Best Marilyn Monroe Movie: The Seven Year Itch
- Holiday – Have a Chic White Christmas Party
- Pop Culture – Life Lessons from Snoopy and the Peanuts Gang
- Shopping – Wine Gift Ideas for Wine Enthusiasts
Stop back tomorrow to see the top lenses that were created by the potential 100 Club members!
This time around Bonnie and I will be posting the top lenses at both the So You Want to be a Giant Squid blog and here at the Showcase, on a weekly basis. (Two separate posts to give you double the backlink power!) There will now be 3 categories so that everyone can join the fun!
Going for Giant – for people who have 1 – 50 (or more) lenses who are not yet a Giant Squid.
Going for 100 Club – for people who have 51 – 100 (or more) lenses and not yet a member of the 100 club.
100 Club Members – for lensmasters who are already members of the 100 Club.
Please Note: We’ll be posting the new lens challenges at Squidu on Wednesdays from now on. (Instead of our usual Friday) So be sure to start looking for the top lenses from the new contests every Wednesday starting January 20, 2010.
Do You Really Want to be a Giant Squid?
Jan 10th
With the March Challenge set to begin tomorrow (January 11, 2010) at Squidu I thought it might be a good time to go over the differences between what it means to be a regular lensmaster and a Giant Squid lensmaster.
Lensmasters
All people who make pages at Squidoo are lensmasters and lensmasters come to Squidoo.com for many different reasons. Some lensmasters are looking to promote other sites, or to raise money for charity, or even just to earn money for themselves. Squidoo makes it easy for everyone to create free pages that can do all of those things so basically “anyone” can be a lensmaster.
Giant Squid Lensmasters
Giant Squid lensmasters do more than just create 50 well-written lenses. Giant Squid lensmasters use their imaginations to build truly personalized pages. They don’t follow formulas; they create them. They don’t copy, or purchase articles; they write them. Giant Squid lensmasters are inspirational. They become a part of the Squidoo community by giving of themselves either through their writing, their teaching, their helping, their sharing, their commenting and rating or their spirit.
We know that not everyone will be able to, or have the time, or even want to take the extra steps to become a Giant Squid lensmaster and honestly, that’s okay. Squidoo will still be here for anyone who wants to use it.
But if you really want the badge, the honor, and the rewards of being a Giant Squid lensmaster, you’re going to have to earn it. It’s as simple as that!
You can join us (starting tomorrow) at the So You Want to Be a Giant Squid section of the Squidu forum for more information, help, and encouragement for your own Giant Squid journey.
In the meantime, please share your thoughts about what it means to be a Giant Squid lensmaster in the comments section here.
Thank You Greeters
Jan 9th
Bonnie and I would like to offer our thanks to our wonderful team of Giant Squid Greeters. They worked hard and shared their wisdom, time, and energy with the community helping many of you achieve your goals of making Giant Squid Lensmaster and new 100 Club member this time around.
Due to the Giant Squid Challenge’s switch from the Ning to the Squidu forum, the official Giant Squid Greeters program will be ending but our team has promised to visit the new Official Giant Squid Training Camp often, and will continue to offer advice and encouragement whenever they are able.
Many of our Greeters are busy planning new ventures. Be sure to stop by their lenses to offer them your thanks and to wish them much success with their own future accomplishments!
Multiple Giant Squid Accounts
Jan 8th
About Multiple Giant Squid Accounts
As some of you already know, we were not allowing new multiple Giant Squid accounts but in light of lensmasters requesting second accounts for use with special niche topics, we have reconsidered, and I’m happy to announce that starting with the next deadline, March 31st 2010, we will allow lensmasters to have more than one Giant Squid Account with the following stipulations:
No transferring lenses from one account to the other.
No cross-rating your own lenses from account to account.
The 50 new lenses in your second account will be held to our highest standards.
And please no anonymity — if multiple accounts are yours and you’d like them considered for Giant, let us know about it!
That gives you the entire quarter to make those second account lenses sparkle!
Good luck!
Congratulations!
Jan 7th
Today’s the day!
Congratulations to all of our newest members of the 100 Club and to all of our New Giant Squid Lensmasters!
P.S. Badges and gold stars may take a little time to show up.
