Squidoo News

Archive for January, 2010

Happy Sunday! Here’s your Weekend Workshop LOTD:

The poll module, one of our greatest modules, and so underutilized. If you’re grasping for a reason to use the poll module, try a tip from 48 Ways to Use the Poll Module from kiwisoutback.

A few of my favorite uses are:
- decide the next lens topic (and then go build it!)
- find out what attracted readers to your lens
- link to your guestbook or duel module for more feedback
- pre and post-test readers to see how much they learned from your lens

Going beyond the basic reasons to use the poll module, aka “get feedback from readers,” Bill helps lensmasters discover how you really can use it on just about every lens to encourage participation and promotion. (Don’t forget readers can tweet or Facebook their vote.)

There’s poll kebob, poll creole, poll gumbo, poll fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There’s pineapple poll, lemon poll…

http://www.squidoo.com/poll-module

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All the details are right here.
The giveaway starts now.
Runs through March 17 2010.
May the force be with you.

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Early next week you might notice some minor display changes in lens themes and front door lens designs. The bulk of the updates will be noticeable in the headers and backgrounds of the lenses.

If you hear the words style and change and quake in terror, quake not.

This is cleanup work, simplification so that we can more speedily release new themes, new sidebar tests, new front doors, and best: so the lenses will load just a tiny bit faster. None of the layout specs are changing, your content isn’t moving, and none of your modules or custom code will be affected. There’s nothing you even need to do. (Except maybe try out that zippy new Valentine’s Day theme we released!)

You can see an indication of what kind of changes we’re addressing by viewing a few side-by-side comparisons below. Click each thumbnail for a larger view.

The default lens theme, before and after:

The “Go Camping” lens theme, before and after:

The SquidFlix movie review project lens style, before and after:

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Here are all of the Squidoo Giant Squid lenses that were awarded Purple Stars during the week ending 1/29/2010.  As always, they appear in no particular order and each is worthy of a visit from you.

• Can this Really be Cancer?
• Southern African Witchdoctors
• Broadway Shows
• Once More With Feeling
• The Best HDTVs for 2010
• Strange Parenting Tales: Fact or Fiction?
• About the Indian Spicy Foods
• The Christening Dress
• Children Learn About Haiti
• I Hate Housework
• VA Disability Compensation
• The Butterfly House
• The Baobab Tree of Zimbabwe
• Painting with a Stencil
• 10 things You should Know About Blood Pressure Readings
• Robbie Burns Day
• Retro Rockabilly Pin-up Hair
• Power User’s Guide to SAS Programming – by Phillip R Holland
• Florence Nightingale
• Want Less Crime?  Add More Guns!
  

Not sure if a Giant Squid lens that you’ve found is Purple Star worthy?   Here’s a quick guide:

If the lens makes you say WOW, or if you think EVERYONE should read it, or if you think a lens is really creative, or if you publish a lens you’re really, really proud of;  NOMINATE IT!

You’ll know it when you see it!
And when you do see it,  please take a moment to send it to purplestar@squidoo.com

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It’s great when lensmasters create challenges and contests on Squidoo. It’s even cooler when programs off Squidoo use lenses to spread the word.

Message of Love – Hearts 4 Haiti is the collective work of Zazzle artists who have joined together to raise money for an urgent fund.

(This just happens to be my favorite image from their gallery!)

This appealing lens has made good use of the Valentine’s Day theme and red Blackbox. Mixing large images in the Blackbox module with small images in the Zazzle modules is another great way to break up sales lenses and showcase a variety of products while retaining focal points.

If you’re reading this on a computer, why not buy one of these stickers to jazz up your laptop? It’s all for a great cause.

http://www.squidoo.com/sending-message-of-love-hearts-4-haiti

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Many of you are familiar with the Squidoo Lens Workshop Addon for Firefox and Chrome – if not, click the link for more information. Anyway, today I have released a new version: v1.4. This is mainly to provide increased support for Google Chrome, but it has also been slightly improved for Firefox users too. I’ve fixed the mess with the dashboard banner (sorry), and removed the now defunct support for Groups.

Firefox Users: If you already have Greasemonkey installed, then all you need to do is install the script again (step 2).

Google Chrome Users: The latest version of Chrome (4.0) has built-in support for Extensions, so all you need to do is install it.

Don’t forget, the Cleaner SquidU script still works on Firefox and Chrome.

If you have any questions, problems or ideas for new features, please let me know.

Disclaimer: this is a 3rd-party addon for Lensmasters, and is not supported by Squidoo.

Related posts:

1. Squidoo Releases New Lens Workshop
2. New Tools for Squidoo Lensmasters

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We channeled questions we hear from lensmasters every day and unleashed them on our founder. Essentially what a lot of people wonder is “I’ve made a lens. Now what?” Here is a short interview with Seth about what to *do* once you’ve created those masterpiece lenses. Hint: Diving in and being fearless is important. Publishing and shipping are critical. But after that, waiting for readers and fame and traffic and love isn’t the answer.

1. I’ve written the best lens I know how. It’s niche, it’s timely, it’s got a ton of unique content, personal stories and places for people to participate and give feedback. I’ve spent hours on the lens but it is getting absolutely no traffic. What can I do?

SETH: My rule is “first, ten.” What happens when you expose this, by hand, to ten people you like and trust (and that like and trust you?). If the ten are moved, amused or motivated, they’ll each tell four people and the next thing you know, you’re on your way. But if the ten say, “that’s nice,” then it’s not as good as you thought it was.

2. Squidoo HQ is constantly teaching us how to make masterpiece lenses and great content, but I can’t feel that I’m missing a step. Why doesn’t my remarkable content spread?

SETH: Spreading ideas is more than just being really good. It’s about leading a tribe, using your social network as a lever to do work for them, to connect them, to create ideas that they WANT to spread. You don’t need a lot of people, but those people need to be motivated to spread the word as well. The tribe might be a few bloggers who count on you for insights or reciprocation. It might be your church. There are people everywhere and they are waiting for ideas they should or could spread.

3. What three things should I do immediately after hitting the Publish button on a new lens?

SETH: Are there ten bloggers that you reference, link to, comment on and engage with? If not, there should be. If there are, then let them know when you make a new lens. Or build similar relationships with people on Facebook or twitter or on your own blog.

4. I have a lens that is one month old. When it was new it got a fair amount of traffic and comments but now there’s nothing. How can I renew interest and attention to this lens?

SETH: If you were one of the visitors, would YOU go back? If not, what would it take? How can you create personal interactions, promote individuals and their ideas, create news, highlight new Amazon products, generate and maintain debates…

5. People always talk about getting the word out, using Facebook or Twitter or email or whatever. But at some point doesn’t getting the word out too much turn into spam? When do you know if you’ve overstepped your bounds and people don’t want to hear from you anymore?

SETH: When it’s about you, not them. When they don’t ask “where have you been?” When they don’t respond…

Find a regular schedule. Anticipated, personal and relevant messages always outperform spam.

6. I really don’t understand how to use Twitter to spread the word about my lenses. Can you give me 5 hypotheticals of what I could do?

SETH: Why will people choose to follow you?

Book picks
Contests, spotlights
Interesting debates, polls, quizzes
Newsworthy analysis
Personalities

Imagine that the Apple iPad is announced or Tiger Woods quits golf or there’s a big stock market adjustment. It’s one thing to write a sentence or two, but what happens if you use a lens to dive deeper, to highlight links and pictures and tweets or debates? Won’t there be people who want to be updated when you do that?

7. Same goes for Facebook actually. My friends don’t care if I just updated my Squidoo lens. So how am I supposed to get them interested in visiting it?

SETH: I’m not kidding here: get new friends.

You can either make lenses your friends are in to (mostly personal and personality stuff) or you can find friends who like the lenses you want to build.

Most of the people who read my blog don’t like ME. They like what I write about, because I write about THEM.

8. Are blogs outdated, and am I wasting my time running a blog about Squidoo and Squidoo lenses and tips for making them? It seems like everyone is too much in a hurry to read a blog.

SETH: “Everyone” is a group you will never be able to reach. Don’t worry about everyone. Worry about just enough someones.

9. Megan is always talking about how we should all play “Editor in Chief” of our favorite niche topics, but I still don’t get it. What do I get out of spotlighting OTHER people’s lenses?

SETH: Once again, the way you need to act on behalf of people with many choices. People will follow you and listen to you when you start acting for them, as opposed to for you.

10: I’ve been on Squidoo now for a few months and I have dozens of high ranking lenses but not a lot of sales or traffic. How long should it take for me to get traffic/sales results?

SETH: I think generating revenue is a byproduct of two things: 1. build a tribe, an audience, people who trust you, and 2. build lenses that lend themselves to commerce (if that’s your thing). If a lens is all about buying a book, you’re going to sell a book. If you picked something like the Dilbert collection, which was marked down over Christmas from $80 to $30, you might have sold ten or twenty. That’s a decent return for one month for one lens.

Bonus Question! Your new book Linchpin is great, but how does it apply to a regular old Squidoo lensmaster?

SETH: Be brave. Don’t ask for instructions. Do things that frighten you. Make connections. Do art first, commerce second. Squidoo is a platform, just waiting for you to invent bold new ways to use it.

Go! Make something happen.

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Hey All, due to some unforseen real life craziness, I’ve been unable to be a good Captain and keep you all up to date on the latest ways to kick butt on Squidoo.

The most recent burst of craziness appears to be slowing down microscopically, so I anticipate being able to get back into the quest full swing this coming week.

Stay tuned for some juicy tips and updates, they are on the way!!

I’ve also been hanging out in the Chat Room a lot more lately so feel free to stop by there and Say hi to the crew if you are feeling lonely.

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Thursday’s at the Giant Squid Showcase are reserved for YOUR GOOD NEWS and this week we received some GREAT news from several Giant Squid lensmasters.  Read all about it!

Linchpin:

Our first bit of good news is that Seth Godin’s newest book Linchpin: Are you Indispensable? was released this week and with it came a fun new Squidoo co-brand template that you can use to honor the Linchpin people in your life.
See an example that I made  HERE
Or visit Linchpin Headquarters to make one of your own!
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We received some good news from Flowski:

I have been working on a new website/blog to compliment my success in the gift ideas niche on Squidoo,  Gifts and Ideas Blog , and as soon as I’m done dotting the T’s and crossing the I’s there I’m going to touch up old lenses and churn out some nice new Squidoo’s to tie into it.

You know we were on the road all last summer, then when we settled back down in Tahoe, and that Christmas lens of mine started blasting off. Then it was all I could do to keep up with it. 20,000 hits a day is more responsibility than I ever imagined, I actually felt great pressure to keep it perfect. I had to work on that lens literally constantly, replacing sold out products, rotating items not selling, trying to keep up with Gil and his editor switch over and back again etc… I bet it was updated at least 100 times a day, Google cached it every couple of hours. In fact some more good news, it’s still like #3 for “best gifts” on Google and my green gifts is #4 on Google just below it. WOW I’m #3&4 on Google for best gifts below gifts.com!!! – how cool is that?  Squidoo is so amazing…
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We got good news from Mysticmama:

The  Squidoo Music Blog at Crabby’s Beach is looking for the best Music lenses on Squidoo.
If you are interested in being featured at this great blog be sure to visit the Squidoo Music Awards lens and submit all of your best Music lenses!
This is an awesome way to grab some extra publicity for your best Music lenses.
Don’t miss out!
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This good news was sent in by luvmyludwig who is helping a friend spread some love to Haiti:

As you might know, a group of Zazzlers united trying to make a difference and help unfortunate people on Haiti – we created a store which donates all of it’s earning to Hope for Haiti and Zazzle.com is matching it’s earning by donating dollar for dollar! Yay!

What I would like to ask you is to help us spread the word!

If you could share a link to the lens: Message of Love – Hearts 4 Haiti

Or directly to the store: Hearts for Haiti to your friends, relatives, etc. or blog about it, or help in any other way, it would be great!

And you know – every little bit helps!
Have a great day!
Michelle aka a_willow
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Apple iPad

And as you probably know, the new Apple iPad was announced this week!  I think I want one but I’m not sure.  Can you help me decide?
Visit my  iPad vs Kindle and join the debate about which one I should I buy?
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What’s your good news?

Did you start a new blog?  Find some Squid Success?  Receive a special honor?   Are you going to be a Grandma?  Did you get a new puppy?  Start a new business venture? Get published?  Reach a milestone, or create a special new lens?

Whatever your good news is, no matter how large or small, we want to hear about it!

Share your Giant Squid Good News with me (rms) and I’ll blast it out to the community for you next Thursday, right here, at the Giant Squid Community Showcase!

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