Archive for April, 2007
Tax-time has passed (whew!) and Spring is finally upon us. A few weeks ago you did some housekeeping on your lenses. Now that they’re all tidied up, it’s time to take a look at your text.
Compelling online writing can be a challenge for even the smartest wordsmiths among us, so this week we have a few tips for writing great copy on your lenses. (And a few secret features you might not know about).
1. Writing lens copy
2. Proofreading your lenses
3. Modules made for words
4. Secret features worth your time
5. Your name here!
Don’t forget to post your lens URLS at the SquidU forum. Lots of fellow lensmasters are ready and willing to give your lens a thorough review and offer suggestions.
Keep on Squidooing!
Kimberly Dawn Wells
Editor of the SquidU Review
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Writing Lens Copy
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ugh, an intro module. If you’re just not good at writing summaries, even the little things can seem daunting. You want to describe your lens without sounding fake and without taking up the entire page. How can you project your enthusiasm into words while still sounding genuine?
1. Get personal
It’s ok to let customers see your softer side. Tell a joke about your family and post your picture. If your customers know there’s a real person behind the words, they will seem more believable.
2. Get silly
Part of the Web 2.0 revolution has brought websites out of the sterile businessy age into the personal, fun, it’s-ok-to-say-silly-things age. Case in point - check out the Squidoo Terms of Service. Flickr does it, Moo.com does it, and BzzAgent does it. This doesn’t mean you need to go overboard, just don’t be boring.
3. Use the words you speak
In a sales copy class I was forced to use words like “powerful” and “magic.” I don’t usually use these words in my every day language, so when I wrote them my letters seemed forced. However, I do use the word “fabulous” quite often, and have no problem injecting that into every other sentence. When you write like you speak, your message will feel more comfortable. It’s fabulous.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2. Proofreading your Lenses
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Typos and errors and grammar, oh my! Not everyone is an expert when it comes to writing, and it’s easy for mistakes to slip through your fingers and get onto your lens. There are some basic things you can do to avoid these awful errors and create lens copy you can be proud of.
1. Spell check
Copy your text into Microsoft Word or your other favorite word processor and send it through spell check. Most web copy that contains errors contains blatant ones, ones that even an electronic proofreading system can detect. This is your first line of defense in editing.
2. Read it out loud
Read the following to yourself. Then read it out loud one word at a time. Did you catch it?
FOR WHOM THE
THE BELL TOLLS
When you read what you’ve written out loud, you engage more of your senses. You’re forced to slow down and read each word individually and recognize when you’ve skipped words, transposed words, or, as in the example above, duplicated words. This will also help you recognize run on sentences and phrases that just don’t sound right.
3. Ask a friend to read it
As a writer, I have proven to the universe that it is possible to read your own work 100 times or more and still glaze over the same blatant error. This is why it’s so important to have someone else read it over. Forward it to your coworker, or have your spouse skim through it. An error you’ve missed several times might pop out at someone who is unfamiliar with your content. Find another lensmaster to be your writing buddy, or post your lens URL on the SquidU Forum for some added exposure and critique.
Additionally, DON’T USE ALL CAPS or lots of exclamation points!!!! Besides marking you as an amateur, it comes across as obnoxious and even rude. Don’t do it on your lens, and please don’t do it when you email people.
Even the best editors occasionally let mistakes slip through, but by spell checking, reading aloud, and showing a fresh set of eyes, you will catch 99% of the mistakes in your text and create lens copy that shines.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3. Modules Made for Words
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you’re not a particularly wordy person, you’re in luck! Squidoo modules offer a variety of ways to organize your thoughts without the need to write a lot. Here are some modules to try:
Write/Text Module
If you can say it in 2500 characters or less, the Write/Text module will let you do it, and even gives you the option of some basic HTML formatting options.
Link List
If you’re using several links to illustrate a point, try the Link List. It gives your readers a clean view of your links with a short description field so they know what to expect. (Also try Links Plexo!)
Make a List
For bulletted, numbered, and plain lists, you can’t go wrong with the Make a List Module. Bullet-lists are a classic way to simplify your information and turn your text into eye candy. If you’re not big on sentences and paragraphs, the Make a List module is just what you need.
Amazon
What? That’s right - especially awesome for doing reviews, the Amazon and Amazon Plexo modules allow you to 1-5 products for sale with plenty of room to describe and review them. Displaying five favorite books? Create one module for each and tell us what you think.
RSS Feed
Don’t forget - if you own a blog, you can add instant updates to your lens using the RSS module. You get to blog, and your lens gets instant updates.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4. Secret Features Worth Your Time
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Okay, they’re not so secret, but you might not have heard of them yet! Here are a few neat features on Squidoo that are kind of underpromoted, but totally fabulous in their own right.
Flickr Slideshow
The Flickr module now has a slideshow feature. A little moving eye candy on your lens can go a long way for hooking first time visitors!
Shhh…an Orbitz travel module!
Got a travel lens? Planning your summer vacation? Reviewing your favorite hot spots? Look in the Module Picker for the Orbitz module, and display airfares, hotels, and cool deals. Yup, it’s a moneymaker.
Grab your own Plexo
Do you have a hot Plexo on your lens? A best of list, a top 10 list, something that’s on fire with votes? Grab your own Plexo and stick it on your blog, site, or even another lens. It’s a handy widget that helps you drive traffic to your lens — not to mention more votes!
Delicious–yummm
Did you know that del.icio.us is one of Squidoo’s top 20 traffic referrers? That means lots of lenses are getting bookmarked and tagged in del.icio.us, and discovered by others there. Got a lens reviewing the latest GPS gadget? Spring footwear? Wedding planning? Post it to del.icio.us, tag it with your lens tags, and watch new people find you every day.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
5. Your Name Here!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Every week we like to profile someone who is doing some exceptional lens-mastering. Does your name belong here? We think so.
Stop by http://www.squidoo.com/squidureview and drop us a note.
One of the things about living in WI is you have to be ready for surprises. It’s snowing again, and I’m just hoping it’s temporary and spring really will be right around the corner! It’s a good thing I have a brand new digital camera to play with.
If you’re in to photography, or just like to snap pictures of your adorable cats, there are some great photo ops waiting for you on Squidoo! How can I count the ways to have fun?
1. Kindness in Focus Photo Contest
2. Photo Phights
3. Creating a photo gallery lens
4. Hot tips for images
5. Promoting your projects with lenses
While I’m not the world’s greatest photographer and my photos consist mainly of, well, my adorable cats, Squidoo offers plenty of places to use up those pics and show off your favorite things, even the pictures where they blinked.
Kimberly Dawn Wells
Editor of the SquidU Review
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Kindness in Focus Contest
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Every day, millions of us volunteer in our communities. We adopt abandoned animals. We check in on elderly neighbors. We spend a few hours laying down carpet for a homeless shelter. We read to kids down at the school. We hold the door.
These moments of human kindness and generosity happen countless times a day. And when we notice them, and especially when we play a part, the good feeling that’s generated isn’t just powerful. It’s down-right contagious.
Which is why VolunteerMatch and Squidoo.com are inviting you to share your favorite photos showing the impact of giving back. This is your chance to inspire others with images of every kindness and the spirit of volunteerism and community. And we want to hear the story that lies behind these images, too.
For two special photos, an image won’t just be worth a thousand words, either. They’ll be worth $1,000, for charity. That’s right. If our online community here votes your photo into one of the top two slots, we’ll give $1,000 to the nonprofit organization of your choice.
Sound like something you can handle? For examples and submission details, visit http://www.squidoo.com/kindnessinfocusexamples
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2. Photo Phights
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Your mother told you never to get in a fight, but we have a friendly feud we’re inviting everyone to. If you’re into photography and love to see the best of the best, Photo Phights could be right up your alley!
Pick your topic, organize the best of the best photos in a Flickr Plexo, and away you go!
Do you love:
Beautiful sunsets? http://www.squidoo.com/beautifulsunsets/
Metallica? http://www.squidoo.com/metallicapics/
Cosplay? http://www.squidoo.com/cosplexo/
Funny t-shirts? http://www.squidoo.com/thatsfunny/
Butterfly tattoos? http://www.squidoo.com/butterflytattoocontest/
Squids? http://www.squidoo.com/squidpix/
This fantastic feature combines the best of Squidoo with the best of Flickr. Who can resist? Start your own phun photo phight today!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3.. Creating a Photo Gallery Lens
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Flickr and Squidoo are one POWERFUL combination. Not only can you use them to create your own Photo Phights, you can use them to show off your photos. The good news is, you don’t have to be a pro to have a gallery!
Squidoo recently awarded lensmaster wmccave with Lens of the Day for his photo gallery lens: http://www.squidoo.com/linksnmore-photography What makes this lens a star?
1. Organize your photos
Lensmaster Bill has categorized his photos. Besides some of his more recent shots, you’ll also see images from Yosemite and of Lompoc Murals. Perhaps your photos will be organized by event, subject, or location.
2. Tell us what you’re using
Bill has offered us reviews of a few cameras. You might not have the skill to offer reviews, but show us what you’re using. You can even use the Camera World moneymaking module to display your current choice.
3. Sell your snapshots
With a little graphic know-how, you can design your own custom merchandise through CafePress. Then use the CafePress moneymaking module to entice us with your art.
4. Describe the photos
Every picture is worth 1,000 words, but we’ll settle for just a few. Where were you? Why did you take it? What is important about it to you?
5. Experiment!
Go ahead, play around! You might discover some neat tricks for taking and showcasing photos.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4. Hot Tips for Image Hosting
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Did you know that Google has a free image editor?
http://picasa.google.com/
- If you haven’t yet tried Flickr, the time has come. Get your free account today! http://www.flickr.com
- Tired of boring intro images on your lenses? Lensmaster Lewis has just the trick for you! http://www.squidoo.com/coolpics/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
5. Promote Your Projects with Lenses!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How can you generate traffic to your websites and products using Squidoo lenses? Lensmaster luckycharms shares secrets for creating an interest in the larger picture.
Read more here: http://squidu.com/profiles/luckycharms
One of the big highlights of Squidoo, something that really sets it apart from other expertise/recommendation websites, is your ability to automatically send your royalties to charity. Squidoo users have raised tens of thousands of dollars for charity in just the past few months! That translates to real world achievement, like funding schools in Cambodia, reading rooms in India, contributing to important cancer research, sending HIV medicine to hundreds of children, rescuing animals, and a lot more.
How can you support some really great charities using Squidoo?
1. Set your lens to support a charity
2. What should you make your charity lens about?
3. Tiny donations add up
4. Fun stats of the week
5. Lensmaster Interview
Join us in learning how you can make a difference by building lenses that support our charities. Just one lens can make a difference, and could keep donating royalties for years to come.
~Kimberly Dawn Wells, Editor of the SquidU Review
~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~
1. Set your lens to support a charity
~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~
Hooray! Your lens made a little money! Want to learn how you can be a superstar and send that money directly to charity? Squidoo makes it easy.
First, visit your dashboard. Then click on the link to your lens of choice to go to its edit page.
In the dark grey column on the right, scroll down one, two, three, FOUR sections to the line titled “Payment Options.” Click the orange “edit” button.
Here you’ll see a drop-down menu that lists the charities. You can set your royalties to go to the Squidoo Charity Fund, and let Squidoo decide who gets the honors each month, or select a specific charity. You can even play around and set percentages of your lens to go to various sources.
For the best results, your lens should sell something directly related to the topic of your lens. Try some of the newest moneymakers that make it easy to sell cookware, sporting goods, and digital cameras!
~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~
2. What Should You Make Your Charity Lens About?
~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~
A lot of lensmasters are hesitant to create lenses for charity because they just aren’t sure where to start. Here are three tips for lens topics:
1. Go obvious: Match your lens topic directly to the charity.
Make a lens in the theme of the charity. Stay relevant and help them tell their story. For instance, Lensmaster “Timefortravel” supports the Asante Africa Foundation with her lens on African travel and life (http://www.squidoo.com/asante). “Cryptic Fragments” has a lens on communicating with cats supports no-kill cat shelters (http://www.squidoo.com/cattalker).
2. Get creative: Connect your topic to the charity in clever ways.
Sometimes you just can’t build a lens directly related to the charity, but you can get creative with your associations. The Polly Klaas Foundation works to find missing children and prevent children from going missing, and Gadgets That Prevent You from Losing Things helps you, well, avoid losing things! http://www.squidoo.com/pollyklaas..dontloseyourkeys/
3. Do your own thing (every little bit helps!): Create an entirely unrelated lens, but quietly support the charity at the same time.
Your third option is to create a lens that is totally unrelated to the charity topic. The most popular of these is books. Everyone loves books and everyone has their favorites. In about fifteen minutes, you can create a Top Five book list and ship your proceeds off to charity. “Genglo” has a Vegetarian Easter lens that supports the Ferrets Unlimited organization. http://www.squidoo.com/FerretsUnlimited/easter
As long as you design a lens that has solid content and is well organized, it doesn’t have to be related to your charity. Just be sure to include a few relevant money makers and Squidoo will make your monthly donations a nobrainer!
~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~
3. Tiny Donations Add Up
~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~
Think your ten cents here and twenty cents there don’t make a difference? Think again.
People are often afraid to donate if they know they can only donate a little bit. “Oh,” they think, “it would be so embarrassing to only give fifty cents, so I’m better off just saying no.” If 50,000 people didn’t donate anything because they didn’t think their little bit would matter, we’d have nothing.
But what if everybody donated “just a little bit?” What if 50,000 people donated just a dollar a month - that would be $600,000 in a year!! And get this: it’s not like you’re digging into your pockets to do it. You’re getting “free” money from Squidoo and sending it to charity. Doesn’t that feel good!
The concept of microdonations has never been hotter–or more impactful–and Squidoo is leading the charge.
If you’re like me, you have lenses that don’t sell anything specific and just make a few cents here and there from those Google ads and SquidOffers. If you set a handful of those lenses to go to charity, that’s an extra few dollars each month that an organization can use for cancer research, school supplies, or to find a loving home for an abandoned golden retriever puppy. (That’s right, I’m turning the cute factor way up!)
Get started today by finding a charity that interests you: http://www.squidoo.com/squidoocharities/
~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~
4. Fun Stats of the Week
~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~
Did you know?
- Squidoo currently supports 75+ charities that in turn support pets, medicine, education, the arts, and more.
- Squidoo recently partnered with the Covenant House, working together to help shelter homeless children. Why not take 5 minutes and make a Books That Changed Your Life lens, and sit back and watch the royalties accrue for Covenant house, a nickel or a dime a month:
http://www.squidoo.com/covenanthouse/hq
- In February alone, lensmasters donated nearly $5000 to the Squidoo Charity Fund (which has recently donated big chunks to orgs like Modest Needs, Donors Choose, JDRF and Acumen Fund). In February you also raised an additional $5000+–distributed among 75 charities. (Room to Read being a huge favorite). WOW!
- Any charity that is interested can register at http://www.squidoo.com/pages/getdonations
~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~
5. Lensmaster Profile
~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~
Are you passionate about your charities? Smartie lensmaster Rusty-Quill says, “If you create lenses about topics you are passionate about, it will show.”
Boy will it.
Find out more, here: http://www.squidu.com/Profiles/rustyquill
