Passionate Potter KilnGoddess Tells All
Passionate potter KilnGoddess spends some time chatting about her craft. Guest Editor Glen reporting.Glen: Where did you first hear about Squidoo?
KilnGoddess: WetCanvas.com’s Art Business Forum, I was actually trying to write a resource page for my upcoming pottery classes using yahoo groups for interaction. I surfed over to squidoo and took a gander, two months later after not having much success at getting my class to use the yahoo group I moved it here.
Glen: Do you sit down and turn it on (the writing process)? Or do you take notes when the ideas hit and then type them all up later?
KilnGoddess: My computer screen is full of digital stickies with notes and links and ideas. But I don’t like to start a lens til I have a good mental picture of where i want it to go tho I very rarely sit down and write a lens from beginning to end. My lenses seem to grow beyond where I planned them to end. And suddenly I have another lens that I am more excited about, the first one flounders a bit til the muse hits me again.
Glen: What success secret can you divulge (that is not currently being discussed in the forums)?
KilnGoddess: Secrets? The only thing I can think of is the narrow focus I use for this identity. It is almost all clay related with a few related art lenses. I think having this focus makes my expertise more believable, so my visitors trust my words and trust the links I take them too. I am truly a Clay Geek at heart, my focus makes this very clear. I also try to keep some similarities in my lenses… I refer to my clay lenses as ‘Clay Pits’ and try to have the lens end with a guestbook and a Cafepress module, though sometimes it might be an Amazon module.
Glen: How often are you updating your lenses?
KilnGoddess: I used to have a rule of once every two weeks but I have become a bit more busy in real life so now hopefully every two weeks for my better trafficked lenses and once a month for most other but if I miss updating I don’t sweat it.
Glen: What common mistake do you see even experienced lensmasters make that you think you have a solution to?
KilnGoddess: I guess writing about stuff they only have a passing knowledge of.
Glen: What mistakes have you corrected as you’ve built up your Squidoo expertise?
KilnGoddess: Gosh, my first lens became a runaway train. Too much info, I truly thought I could present all the info I had in my head about working with clay in one lens. I learned I have way more info in my head than I thought and I can talk on a subject an awful lot. Now I am more careful about what info I want to present on one lens. If I see a topic starting to take over a multi-topic lens I start to split it up, as I recently did with my www.squidoo.com/kilns lens. My info on electric kilns was starting to overwhelm the lens so I broke off and made www.squidoo.com/electrickilns Neither lens is completely finished and I can see me eventually breaking it up even farther.
Glen: What are your three favorite things about Squidoo?
KilnGoddess: #1 I love the part in the TOS that makes no claim on my writing. So many sites I’ve visited look so nice - only to have a huge rights grab in the TOS. If any site has the words ‘perpetual royalty-free right’ I hit the back button. #2. I like the ease of use. Yes, I could get all fancy using html but I don’t have to. #3. Love that Google juice that Squidoo generates. I know I couldn’t rate so well in Google on my own
Glen: How do you choose when to make several lenses on different angles of the same topic, or when to just make one very long lens?
KilnGoddess: I had many people suggest to break up my Handbuilding in Clay lens up into the 4 distinct methods that it covers, but I love the flow from one method to another that the lens already has. It is basically a condensed version of my real life handbuilding class. So, when do I decide? When it feels right. I am actually thinking of a Handbuilding 2 lens to cover more than just the basics, a lens talking about combining the methods to make vessels than just presenting them separately.
Glen: What is your own favorite lens and why?
KilnGoddess: I think it is Handbuilding in Clay. It seems to flow better than the others. Strangely, I spend more time with clay wheelthrowing in the studio, but my handbuilding lens seemed to come together better.
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Learn more about KilnGoddess and her crafty lens methods.
