Spread the Wealth
Michael Gibbons
Founder, Buttons of Hope
Charlotte, North Carolina
Squidoo: How did you decide what to make your lenses about?
Michael: I decided to make my lenses about things I am passionate for -- and that I think I know something about. In the past couple of years I have developed an interest in and passion for noble causes. In a world that is too fast and too hard, I think many of us have lost touch with our basic need to give. Events like charity walks, running and cycling events give even the busiest among us a ready-made opportunity to give back. Over 10 million of us walk in an event this year!
In 2005 I started a cycling team, MojoRiding, whose name will resonate with only those of a certain epoch! Basically, 26 of us went out and raised $47,000 for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. People can make a big difference! I started my most successful lens to help all those aforementioned busy people find targeted, thoughtful information on charity walking events.
Out of that experience I envisioned the buttons of hope idea, which will energize fundraising efforts by putting a face on fundraising through the use of photo buttons.
My goal is to use Squidoo to create a nexus of active charity event information, resources and advocacy. 100% of royalties from each lens will go to a specific charity. I am acting on Seth Godin’s challenge in his Helping the Fight Against Diabetes lens. My goal is twofold: to raise $1 million for charity and to be one of the 100,000 people Seth hopes will be able to quit their crummy day jobs!
S: Do you maintain a web site or blog otherwise?
M: At present I do not have a blog. I should, but I don’t. Should I? I still write letters to the editor of my local newspaper -- how '90s of me! I procrastinate and I have a million ideas for my lens! As for time to make lenses, all I know is that due to my 11-year-old daughter’s obsession with "Rent," I now known there are 525,600 minutes in a year!
S: What have you done with your lenses that you can't do elsewhere?
M: I know enough to be dangerous and if not for the lack of "options" at Squidoo, I would still be trying to determine the appropriate font and point size for my first lens! Squidoo is perfect in its simplicity -- I hate homogenization, the "Gap-ping" of America -- but for some reason, I love Squidoo. Squidoo makes it easy to focus, focus, focus on the task at hand -- empowering people and searchers with thoughtful source information. Google is like a map, but Squidoo is like a map with three different routes highlighted in three different colors. Squidoo is what Google was meant to be -- and what the future of Internet search will be!
I am on a Mac and with iLife06 had planned on doing a sweet and juicy iWeb page for my cycling team. But in the interest of time, I set up a lens -- temporarily -- to get the information out to the team. Honestly, it has worked so well that I have decided to make the lens the official team page!
S: Have you taken any cues from other lenses so far?
M: I have conversed with several other lensmasters and found their expertise and passion amazing! I am in the SquidU Lounge religiously learning and stealing -- like Bono says, "Every artist is a cannibal, every poet is a thief." I go back to the simplicity. I know our lenses look similar, but so what ? Look around the web. In most cases, the content is the same. It’s just the look that is different!
S: What advice or ideas would you offer other lensmasters?
M: We need to stay focused on content. Make the content sizzle; make it spark. While doing some research, I googled "charity walks" to see if my lens showed up again on page one and to find some new links for my lens. On the first page of search results, I found a link that led me to a page dated June 2004. That's why Squidoo will beat Google.
