The chaos theory states that a stimulus as tiny as the flapping of a butterfly’s wings can cause a hurricane on the other side of the world.  At Squidoo, we believe that the same thing is happening with our members.  The small actions each member takes are adding up to some great achievements!  We’re raising money for charity, creating a great place to find information, and having fun doing it.  This is living proof that YOU are important and that you make a difference, and we’re celebrating that with the launch of our new People Who Matter community.

This issue is all about YOU!

1. People Who Matter community
2. How to create an “about me” lens
3. Shameless self-promotion techniques
4. Fun stats of the week
5. Lensmaster Interview

Join us in showing the world one lens at a time that you don’t have to be famous to make a difference.  Read on to find out how!

~Kimberly Dawn Wells, Editor of the SquidU Review

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1. People Who Matter Community
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Wikipedia is a great place to find information on your favorite celebrities, politicians, and other famous people throughout past and current history.  What it doesn’t allow you to do, though, is create your own little biography on the web.  What’s with that?  Do we have to shave our heads to get some publicity around here?

Squidoo to the rescue!  We believe that you don’t have to be a movie star or run for president to matter.  Everyone has something to offer, and that’s why we’ve started the People Who Matter community.  Here you are welcome to create a lens entirely about YOU!  Build a resume, share your hobbies and goals, or add photos of your family.  This is your virtual biography to build as you please, and no one will tell you you’re not important enough to be listed!

Get started by designing your own biography lens at http://www.squidoo.com/people/hq

Not sure what you would put on such a lens?  It can be challenging to write about yourself.  Keep reading for ideas and suggestions for creating a fabulous personal lens.

Hint: If you have an existing lens you wish to add to the community, just keep an eye open for the “add existing lens” link to appear.  Or, practice your lensmastery by creating a brand new lens!

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2. How to create an “about me” lens
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When asked to write about myself I am often stuck.  What should I say?  What do other people want to hear about?  What really matters?  The great thing about creating a personal lens is that you get to decide what to share and what matters. 

What are readers curious about?

• Your career - even if your lens doesn’t focus on your job (ie, resume lens) you can still share a bit about what you do. How did you get into it? What kind of training did you need? What is your schedule like? What’s the most fun, least fun about it?
• Your family - awwww…we want to see all the cute photos of your spouse/partner, kids, dogs, cats, chinchillas, etc.
• Your hobbies - do you race modified stock cars on the weekends? Have a 4000 piece keychain collection? Build wooden trellises in your backyard? Show off your hobbies.
• Your oddities - yup, you’re weird. But that’s ok! Are you double jointed? Do you have an aversion to butterflies? Do you fold your socks? Can you only drink the REALLY fresh milk? (Um, ok, only the last two apply to me…)
• Tell me about your childhood - where did you grow up? What was your house like? What are some of the things you remember?
• Goals and ambitions - what do you want to be when you grow up? Even if you’re grown up, what else do you want to do? (If you’re over 18 and not grown up, high five!)
• Fun photos and games - just like on MySpace, you can share fun images and links to games on your About Me page.
• Your Squidoo lenses - don’t forget those!!

How can you use modules to your advantage?

• Flickr and YouTube - easily add photos and homemade videos from your personal online album.
• RSS - this module makes it easy to add a rolling feed from your blog. Just set your desired number of posts and update intervals. You’re live!
• Quick poll - find out how much people really know about you with a quiz, or let the audience pick whether you should buy the silver car or black one.
• NetFlix - make a little extra cash when people sign up for NetFlix after seeing your favorite movie titles.
• Amazon, CafePress, SuperStore, etc. - these modules, also money makers, can be used to display your favorite movie, music, and book lists, great clothing and gift ideas, and fun things from your Wish List.
• Google Maps - where are you? Or, map some of your favorite places to visit, locations you’ve lived, or future travel destinations.
• Guestbook - this is important - let people give you lots of kudos with a guestbook.

You can also use any of the Plexo lists to show off your personal favorites while letting your visitors rank theirs. 

Creating a personal lens is fun, easy, and FREE.  You can make it as short or as long as you want.  You’ll be famous in no time!

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3. Shameless self-promotion techniques
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The only thing harder than writing about yourself is promoting yourself.  When you’re feeling like a tiny squid in a big ocean, how can you make a splash without making a scene?  Here are some fun and creative ways to promote your personal lens.

1. Send your friends and family a press release

“While she may not have starred in any big films, been arrested lately, or participated in the world record for snow angel making, Sandy is making headlines with her People Who Matter community lens on Squidoo.” 

A fun note is sure to grab the attention of your great-aunt Lucy, plus it gives you an excuse to get in touch with friends you haven’t connected with in a while.  Just make sure you hide that picture from Cozumel – you know the one – before your mother sees!

2. Get linked

Where ever you have contact with other people, promote your lens.  This includes:

·         in your email signature

·         on your business card

·         in the biography paragraph of articles

·         contact links from other sites

·         signature on your forum posts

3. Make your lens viral and sticky

Give your visitors a reason to share your lens and a reason to come back.  Create a fun poll to see how well people know you, or host a look-alike contest.  Use Plexo to your advantage by creating lists that readers can grab and post on their own websites (you’ll benefit from a link back to your lens).  Host a questions and answers session.  Readers will be sure to look for their question on your list.

Promoting yourself doesn’t have to be difficult.  Look for opportunities to interact with others and provide them with the chance to click on your link or leave a message.  Also, don’t forget that your readers love change.  Update your lens often with new photos and your latest projects.

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4. Fun Stats of the Week
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Did you know?

·         one lens is created every minute and a half

·         two Squidoo lenses are viewed every second

Wowzahs!  We’re really on a roll here, and it’s getting better every day.

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5. Lensmaster Profile
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Stay-at-home-dad and SquidU Forum regular ChouDoufu explains where he gets ideas for his diverse and detailed lenses, and what matters in the end.

Get all the details, along with some amazing information about Taiwanese Hot Pot, here:  http://www.squidu.com/Profiles/choudoufu

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Happy Belated Valentine’s Day! Thank you to everyone who commented on the newsletter last week. We’re very excited to have it up and running again, and your questions and suggestions will help us write useful articles for the future.

What’s on the docket for this week’s newsletter?

1. Make Your Pet Famous Contest—Results!
2. Three Ways to Win With Links
3. Hip Contests on Squidoo
4. Fun Statistic of the Week
5. Lensmaster Interview

In honor of Valentine’s Day, Squidoo is sponsoring the Share the Love project to benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. We at Squidoo believe that the best way to celebrate someone you admire is to create a lens in their honor! Come see how fellow lensmasters are honoring their favorite people in their lives, and get ideas for your own lens. It’s a free and highly viral way to show someone how much you care. A little better than a flower arrangement, and this one lasts (and keeps giving back) forever.

http://www.squidoo.com/sharethelove/hq

Keep sharing the love!
~Kimberly Dawn Wells
Editor of the SquidU Review

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1. Make Your Pet Famous Contest, sponsored by ASPCA
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The results are in, and this month three lucky pets are getting some special attention from readers all over the world. Alistair (the cat of many hats), and dogs Indigo and Frankie are basking in the glow of superstardom as their lenses were awarded the top prize for February 2007’s Make Your Pet Famous Contest, sponsored by the ASPCA.

What opportunities will this new attention provide them with? Movie deals? Recording contracts? Prime sleeping territory at the foot of the bed? One thing is for sure - these pets are loved! Hop, wiggle, or stalk over to the ASPCA Headquarters on Squidoo to learn more about over 680 unique and loveable pets that are sure to melt your heart.

http://www.squidoo.com/aspca/hq.

PS: If your pet’s lens didn’t win, don’t fret! Each month the ASPCA will be selecting three new lenses to spotlight. Didn’t create a lens yet? It isn’t too late to get started.

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2. Three Ways to Win with Links
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The links module is one of the most popular modules on Squidoo, but did you know you’re no longer limited to a static list? That’s right! With the addition of the Links Plexo module, you now have a chance to get creative with how you manage and display your links.

1. Play Favorites
Links Plexo allows you to hand-pick your favorite links and let others vote them up or down. It’s an easy way to share only what you want to and still let visitors have a say.

2. A Little Help from your Friends
Maybe you know where to find all the best websites for golf courses in Florida but need a little help finding courses in Georgia. By letting visitors add their own links, you’re a lens-making superstar and they get to show off their smarts.

3. Share
Looking for a fun way to share Squidoo? Look no further than Plexo! Each of the Plexo modules has a special sharing feature, so you can easily spread your fame all over the Internet. Just allow visitors to ‘share it’ and they’ll be able to grab your list and post it on their own site, blog or lens. You still control the content, and the widget links back to your site.

For each of the options above, you’ll need to make a few simple choices. When you edit your Links Plexo module, four tabs at the bottom of the module editor help you decide who gets access to which features. Go ahead, play around with it. You might come up with a fabulous new way to use Plexo!

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3. Hip Contests on Squidoo
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Many lensmasters are using Squidoo to run fun contests on people, places, ideas, and thingamabobs. Below are a few for you to visit. Have an idea of your own? Visit the SquidU Forum and post the details in our Challenges and Contests thread.

Everything Photography Lens of the Month
http://www.squidoo.com/groups/everythingphotography

Social Networker’s Challenge
http://www.squidoo.com/groups/socialmarketing101

People’s Choice Awards
http://www.squidoo.com/peopleschoice

Favorite Graphic Novels Lens
http://www.squidoo.com/groups/books

Anything Art Jigsaw Puzzle Challenge
http://www.squidoo.com/groups/AnythingArt

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4. Fun Statistics of the Week
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Did you know that 50 of the world’s smartest nonprofits met with Seth this week to learn more about Org 2.0 (that’s “web 2.0” for nonprofits)? Did you know that nearly half of all lensmasters are donating some of their royalties to charity? Squidoo makes it simple to help those in need. Consider creating a lens for your favorite charity!
Read more at: http://www.squidoo.com/blog/?p=121

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5. Lensmaster Profile
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This week lensmaster and resident happy-man Lewis Smile interviews fellow lensmaster Sanjay Agrawal. Sanjay is a self-development enthusiast with a love for Squidoo and an extensive list of blogging and forum moderator projects.

How does he describe Squidoo? “Lensmasters come from all over the globe, and bring with them the diversity that human race is made up of. You will something unique in each of the lenses on Squidoo.”

Get the full interview here:
http://www.squidu.com/Profiles/sanjay-agrawal

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Hello! This is Kimberly Dawn Wells, Citizen Squid and lensmaster speaking, er, writing, and I have some big news for you. Starting this week, the SquidU Review returns from hiatus and is now going to be lensmaster driven! That’s right. Every week you’ll get insider scoop on the latest and greatest that’s happening at Squidoo, straight from people in the trenches with you.

Let’s see what we have in store for you this week:

1. What is Plexo, really?
2. How to manage Group membership
3. Tagging Tricks
4. Fun stats of the week
5. Lensmaster Interview

Keep up the great work on your lenses! I’m looking forward to some fun times with the Review.a

~Kimberly Dawn Wells, Editor of the SquidU Review

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1. What is Plexo, really?
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What the heck is Plexo? You’ve seen it on lenses, you’ve noticed “Plexo” modules hanging out in your Add Modules function. Well…. according to Seth, “Plexo is social bookmarking meets Digg meets the long tail.” A Plexo module is an interactive voting module that allows you to do things with your lens, and for your readers, that the regular modules don’t.

For example, with a regular module, you can make your very own Top 10 list of great movies or music, or the ugliest cat pictures, or whatever. That’s great. Those are your recommendations. BUT, others can’t tell you what THEY think. By offering favorite movies in a Plexo module, registered Squidoo users can vote on your picks, and even add their own if you decide to let them.

Why would you want to use Plexo on your lens?

1. People LOVE lists. They love to take polls and surveys too. This gives them the opportunity to make their opinions matter. Focusing on your readers is just plain smart.
2. If you vote in an especially interesting poll, chances are you’ll come back later to see who’s winning. No? Sure you would. A-ha! Repeat traffic to your lens. Plexo introduces a new watercooler effect to Squidoo.
3. If you let people “grab” your Plexo, they can take that list and stick in on their blog or site, or even clone it onto their lens. This points more people your way, multiplies the votes on your lens, and positions you as the expert running the poll.

Hint: If you just want to list your own stuff, favorite links, best videos, etc, keep using the standard modules. Plexo is for recommendations that you want to leave open to popular opinion.

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2. How to manage Group membership
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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.

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3. Tagging Tricks
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Tags are important to getting found on search engines such as Google, and mastering them can be tricky. Savvy lensmasters to the rescue! A few smarties are testing how individual words and phrases are affecting their search results.

Read the whole conversation here: http://www.squidu.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1699

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4. Fun Stats of the Week
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My inside sources tell me that Squidoo now has over 75,000 lenses! This totally amazes me. When I first joined Squidoo there were fewer than 30,000. The word is definitely spreading about the functionality and power of Squidoo. Probably thanks to you!

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5. Lensmaster Profile
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This week lensmaster extraordinaire Angela Harms interviews fellow lensmaster Thomas Clifford. Thomas is an international award-winning documentary filmmaker & storyteller, specializing in creating ‘moving visions’ for organizations; Fortune 500 to local non-profits.

His thoughts on making great lenses? “We all have passions in life and I think that’s what Squidoo provided me… a platform and a context to express my passions in life in a simple, friendly and quick manner. Once you start, it’s hard to stop.”

Don’t miss the full interview here:
http://www.squidu.com/Profiles/director-tom

 

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