SquidU » Groups

How to manage Group membership
I've heard many versions of this question about group membership: “Why was I denied membership (or why was my lens booted) from a group?” The purpose of groups on Squidoo is to provide a place for like lenses to congregate, and to get your lenses even more exposure. Each group is run by a Groupmaster. Each Groupmaster decides what the group will be about, what the goals are, what participation means, and what type of lenses will be accepted. Some groupmasters are lenient about what type of lenses will be allowed, and lenses with loosely related content will be approved for membership. Other groupmasters create groups with a very specific purpose in mind, and limit membership to lenses that are designed based on their rules. When you are designing your lenses, keep in mind that lenses should focus on one topic. That isn’t to say you can’t talk about books, gardening, and football all in one lens. If your lens is about your hobbies, these three topics could be totally appropriate. (There’s even a group just for “about me” lenses. http://www.squidoo.com/groups/iam). However, you generally won’t see a lens that jumps between topics with no common connection. Likewise, the groups each of your lenses belongs to will be on related topics. If your lens is on books about gardening, you might belong to book groups and gardening groups. However your lens on why Brett Favre should or should not return to the Packers for the 2007-2008 season doesn’t belong in the scrapbooking group. And, Groupmasters: a Group is only as good as the person who runs it. Stage contests, post updates, feature great lenses, create your own permission-based email list of the people in your Group. Boot the baddies, celebrate the winners, and you'll be on your way to making an oasis of activity around your topic.