Posts tagged squidoo tips
It’s a Hit
Feb 16th
I’m pleased to announce that day one of “Get Cracking with Bonnie and Robin” was an amazing success!
We had a terrific amount of participation and a bunch of super creative lenses built for our “first” challenge.
Some of the new lenses built included the first reel to reel tape recorders, Things for your First Apartment, casting a first spell and even a first time jump from an aeroplane!
One of the creative lens ideas that stood out for me was a lens created by LeanneChesser for her first grandchild. She started the lens to use as a journal to record information about her daughter’s pregnancy and her new grandson before he’s born.
Take a look! My First Grandchild
Great idea on Leanne’s part and a great way to show off the fact that just because we are making quick lenses at the Get Cracking Facebook group, doesn’t mean you can’t go back and add more information and build on to these lenses later on!
Let’s Get Cracking!
Feb 9th
Looking for ideas, tips, and motivation to help you reach your personal Squidoo goals?
Interested in learning how to promote your lenses?
Want to be part of a group of like-minded lensmasters who work together to succeed?
Get Cracking with Bonnie and Robin is a brand new group that will meet on Facebook daily beginning on 2/15/2010. To learn more click the following link to begin a free .pdf download of the Get Cracking with Bonnie and Robin eBook.
Get Cracking with Bonnie and Robin .pdf download
Or Visit the Get Cracking with Bonnie and Robin lens.
Get Cracking with Bonnie and Robin
A Learning Experience for Me
Sep 25th
Yes, unfortunately it’s true that the example pages made for Brands in Public are being taken down. And yes it’s true that the lensmasters who participated are being rewarded with a bonus for their time. But I’m not here to grieve the loss of a few hours of my time. I’m here to celebrate what I learned while making those wonderful example pages.
In a nutshell: People LOVE to participate. And yes Seth has been telling us this for years, “make something that people want to come back to” but it took Brands in Public to show me the best way to do that.
Here’s what I Learned
In addition to writing my original content I need to:
1. Add lots of places for the public to have their say. Add polls for them to answer. Add guest books with thought provoking questions where people can share their stories. Give the public a podium to shout from by adding a duel module or two where they can debate each other.
2. One or two Amazon.com spotlight modules is all you need if you choose really GREAT products to promote.
3. Find a couple of fantastic blogs on your subject and follow them with an rss feed module so people can see what others are saying about the topic.
4. Let the public SEE the Twitter responses being Tweeted in real time with a few Twitter Follow modules.
5. Add lots of great links on my subject to help people find even more information.
And YES, I already do some of these things on most of my lenses but what I learned in my short time making BIP pages is that I need to add ALL of these wonderful features to ALL of my lenses!
I’m off now to start making my lenses even better! Won’t you join me?
Summer School Lenses are HOT
Jun 25th
I offered to be the caretaker of the Giant Squid Summer School Assignment lenses because I was expecting huge things from our Giant Squid Lensmasters and I selfishly wanted to be the first one to see their assignment lenses. I have to say that I haven’t been let down at all! All of the participating RocketMoms are doing a great job of keeping up as well!
The assignment for last week was to create a lens about your most prized possession. As of this posting I’ve read through 48 lenses, each one just as interesting and entertaining as the last. We’ve gotten a nice mix of serious and sentimental, cute and comedic, and even enticingly educational.
It’s fun to witness the way a single assignment can be interpreted in so many awesome creative ways!
If you’ve got a little time to spare, you’d do well to stop by the Summer School Week #2 Assignment Lens HERE and visit the creative works of the Giant Squid Summer School Class of 2009.
Summer School Week One Assignment Lenses: Caption Contest
Summer School Week Two Assignment Lenses: Most Prized Possession
Spotlight on Mickie_G – Earn Respect, Not Profits
Jun 8th
Giant Squid Lensmaster Mickie_G learned a valuable lesson, the hard way.
She’s chosen to use her day in the spotlight to keep others from making that same mistake.
Mickie_G: “The hardest, but the best, lesson I learned during my quest for Giantdom was this: Do not make a lens JUST to make $$$.
Last autumn, my daughter (a mother of three children under 5) was already planning for Christmas. She asked my help in finding the best prices for “construction” ride-on toys for her two boys (3yrs and 1yr). With the economy in such a state, she wanted to make sure the dollars she would spend were justified.
Her request resulted in my –”Ride On Toys For Three Year Old Boys“. I did research and found some really good sites with wonderful toys. I became an affiliate for those companies and began assembling my lens. (I just added my own photos of my grandsons at play on some of the toys I recommended!)
Another result: I also became an “affiliate maniac” and applied for all kinds of programs with three different affiliate sites. I was blinded by the possibility of big bucks.
As a result of this addiction, I began creating lenses about products I thought would sell. I thought these products were so cool and maybe bring a hefty commission. What a mistake.”A Beautiful Rocking Horse“ began as a lens about something I really did not know squat about. I am still working on that lens trying to give it some substance. I still think the toy is beautiful.
When the commissions did not roll in, I was so “kerfuffled”. Why? Why? When the answer came to me, it hurt. My $$$ making lenses were about nothing that mattered to me–meaningless fluff!
Most of this realization on my part occurred right after I did not make Giant the first time I applied. I revisited all my lenses and began to transform them into non-fluff. It paid off. I made Giant! Now, I am revisiting those lenses and adding more transformations. My goal is to earn respect, not profits.”
Spotlight On Flighty02
Apr 24th
Today we turn the Spotlight on to new Giant Squid Lensmaster Flighty02.
Flighty02 shares some excellent Squidoo tips and also talks about how she got started at Squidoo.com.
Squidoo for me started off as just one lens. One lens where I had the opportunity to say what I thought about something which I am very passionate about. I didn’t realise at the time that I would go on to make another (at the time of writing) 65 of them, even more than that if you include the ones that I wasn’t too proud of and so ended up deleted!
That first lens, Greyhounds Anonymous – Life In The Slow Lane, is the one I am most proud of (though in my opinion I have made better lenses since) and it came about because we have a rescued ex racing greyhound, Flynn, who is so special to us. He was one of a litter of four, who knows what fate befell his sisters. Flynn makes an absolutely superb pet, he lives with two cats and is very gentle and loving. I just thought that I needed to vent off and try to raise awareness of the treatment that some of these wonderful dogs receive when they are of no use as a racing dog, and show through Flynn that these dogs would make somebody a great pet. Squidoo gave me the opportunity to do that.
The thing with Squidoo is that you start one lens and bam! you’re addicted! 
Then you begin to realise its possibilities and off you go writing about, hopefully, what interests you… and when you can’t possibly think what else to write about you might start a silly lens, in my case (inspired by a game on the message board) A Squidoo Story, a lens which you don’t advertise, you don’t expect anyone to visit, it is purely for your own benefit to help you get over ‘writers block’ so you can move on to make another lens.
So what are my best tips?
- learn some basic html and use it along with images to add interest to your lens
- keep all the bits of html and text that you use regularly, for instance custom guestbooks, in one handy text file so you caan cut and paste into your lens.
- Write about what interests you – if you aren’t interested what makes you think that your reader will be?
- Keep writing and keep making lenses, the more you do the easier it gets and more ideas will present themselves to you.
Spotlight On OttoBlotto
Apr 14th
We asked brand new Giant OttoBlotto to share her best Giant Tip with us. Here’s Ottoblotto in her own words:“Stuff happens to everyone, and it’s not always great stuff. One Giant Tip I would give would be to take a situation in your life and write a lens about how to handle it or make it better. Chances are, someone else is going through the same thing, and a little advice from someone who has already gone through something similar can really help. Let me give an example.
My father passed away in January of this year, and it has been an extraordinarily tough time for me. I wrote my lens, Gifts for Grieving Families as part of the process of coping with my situation, and helping others know how to be helpful when someone they know is experiencing a similar loss, which is sometimes really hard to do. In my lens, I wrote about all the incredible gifts we were given as we began the grieving process, and how much they helped us as a family.
Of course, there are a lot of other experiences you could write about that are more upbeat, such as how to negotiate the sale of your home, or how to find the right homeschooling group for your kids. I think people respond very well to concisely written, helpful advice on complicated situations. These lenses aren’t likely to sell much, but they do enhance the squidoo experience for us all, and that’s important, too.”
Here’s a few more favorite OttoBlotto lenses:
Spotlight On Charlyjl
Apr 11th
Charlyjl is one of the people who took my Potential Giant Squid Challenge at Squidu and successfully accomplished her goal of becoming a Giant Squid Lensmaster on March 31st!
She has graciously offered to share her best Giant Squid tip with us and also talk about several of her favorite lenses.
Here’s NEW Giant Charlyjl in her own words:
I think the lenses that I would most like to feature are my ‘Australia’ series of lenses, which started with: My City: Canberra, Australia – and now features 7 lenses – from Australian Christmas Carols, Aussie Rock Legends and one of our Bush Fires. I started with the Canberra lens, just for something to write about. I had been looking at the Squid tips on lens creating ideas and writing about your home town was one of those examples. From there, the creation of new lenses became a little easier.
I created my lenses on Vegemite and Aeroplane Jelly because they are truly ‘iconic’ in Australia. The Jingles that existed for the two
products and the marketing have ensured their general use in the average Australian household. I knew that there would be a few Youtube videos that would be great to share and there was lots of information to share. Creating these lenses were a lot of fun and I learnt a lot more
about the topics…. which was a big bonus.
My Aussie Rock Legends series really came about because my kids asked about an artist who appeared on TV recently and they didn’t know who he was – so I went to YouTube and looked him up – the number of videos available really inspired me to create lenses around my favourite
singers. Sharing some of our great artists, that don’t necessarily make International acclaim has been great. We have some amazing talent in
Australia, and I love to share….
The most difficult lens to create was the Canberra Bushfires . My motivation for this lens was the recent Bushfires in Victoria and being able to share, from a personal stand point, just how scary it was and promote the Bushfire Appeal for Victoria - providing some financial aid for those who have been devastated by the fires this year, was a big motivation. I found this lens to one of my challenging because of the memories it bought up. I was really surprised when I saw the footage on Youtube that was available from the Canberra bushfires – and definitely shed another tear or two when watching them.
Charlyjl’s Best Giant Tip
My best tip for lensbuilding is to write from the heart.
Choose a topic you’re interested in, use the resources that are available on the Internet to include information – but make sure attribute your sources if you are using all their content. I treat the creation of a lens a lot like a school project – I research a topic, find interesting information and then write my text modules by combining what I find. Sometimes, I’ll find an interesting Video on Youtube and I’ll structure my lens content around that, or I’ll find a series of interesting photos and write about those (see Amazing Striped Icebergs as an example of that).
