SquidU

Like the economy, low flying planes, and swine flu, if there’s one thing on the minds of lensmasters it’s traffic!  And we don’t mean the Pontiac kind.  Traffic is a crucial element to a health lens.  Without it, your lens is like buried treasure.  You know it’s there, but the rest of the world has yet to experience it.

While many lensmasters say they work hard to promote their lenses, most are missing out on the most basic ways to share their knowledge with friends and family and use social tools to their benefit. Could you be missing out on some of the easiest ways to get traffic?

Squidoo has social, seo, and promotional tools built right in, and they’re free and available to everyone. Are you using them all?

1. Lensrolling
Lensrolling relevant lenses to each other is a socially responsible way to help everyone on Squidoo prosper. Readers find more lenses to answer their questions, lensmasters share traffic with one another, and lenses get indexed more quickly. Everyone wins!

2. Twitter
Squidoo makes it easy to tell everyone you have a new or updated lens, and you don’t have to type a word to do it. Scroll to the bottom of the My Profile tab on your dashboard to set it up. Then learn 50 Ways to Use Twitter and start a TWTTRSTRM.

3. Facebook Connect
Even if you’re not an active Wall-to-Waller, you can let your Facebook frenzied friends know what you’re doing on Squidoo. Facebook Connect on Squidoo helps you publish blurbs about your new and fresh lenses. We know of at least seven great reasons to use it, and we bet you’ll discover thousands more.

4. Groups
“But I thought groups were gone?” With recent changes to how we’re approaching groups, it’s true that a lot of groups have disappeared, but it’s been mostly for the better. The groups that still exist are run by more passionate groupmasters who have promoting their niche topics at heart. That’s good news for you! It means you might find just the active collection of lenses you were looking for. Meet your group match.

5. Tags
Many people forget about tags as an SEO tool. Not only is it easy to add and edit the tags on your lenses, you can easily add tags others are using to find your lens. Pick your favorite lens and head to the stats page. On the traffic tab, you’ll see a box in the right column. If you see words with little linked + signs next to them, this means readers have used keywords to find your lens that weren’t included on your tag list. Click the + next to words and phrases you’d like to add, then republish.

6. Tips from a Mentor
If you’re still looking for some promotion tips, ask jeffwend. He’s our Lens Promotion Mentor, and a whiz at teaching lensmasters how to hook up with popular websites and social tools.

6.5. If YOU’RE the promotion wizard, share your knowledge by volunteering as a mentor. Help as little or as much as you want. Signing up on our Mentor Matches lens is easy, and there’s no long-term commitment required.

7. Take a hint from a SquidAngel.
Our SquidAngels are committed to keeping the top lists on Squidoo squeaky clean, and it’s a job they take seriously. As such, they’re pretty honest about what does and doesn’t fly with Angels. It’s true that Angels have the power to give your lens a little boost if they really love it, and the recommendations they give are based on nearly 100 combined years of Squidoo experience. Pretty impressive! While the tips Angels give aren’t directly related to promoting your lens, they’ll help you create a lens that has long-term sustainability. In the end, quality speaks for itself.

Promoting your lenses gets a little more challenging every day. As thousands of new web pages are developed, standing out amidst the noise takes increasing commitment and a fresh perspective. The benefit of this is that people looking to make an easy buck quickly get frustrated and disappear. Covering your bases is the first step to securing the spot you deserve - it’s where most scammers and fly-by-night operations end. The basics help your readers develop trust. If you’re willing to build a strong foundation and stick it out, long-term treasure can easily be yours.

~Kimberly Dawn Wells
YOUR Community & Charity Organizer
Learn something new every day at @squidoonews.

Hi Lensmasters,

SquidooGroups, as you know, was a feature announced in the fall of 2006 to help groupmasters bring together like-minded lenses and lensmasters for the benefit of all. The main idea was twofold: that lenses would get discovered more when organized into relevant niches, and that giving a Groupmaster a platform for listing and featuring and communicating with her group members would lead to higher quality lenses and increased participation. That’s still an overall concept we believe in, and we intend to support it in several ways big and small throughout the site.

To help set the foundation for even better interactions between lensmasters on Squidoo, and to align with the new quality assurance programs we’re putting in place going forward, we’re making a few changes to SquidooGroups:

1. As of right now, no new Groups can be created.
2. That means the Groups you already have are special. It’s a closed privilege. As such, we’re setting our expectations for your existing Groups a little higher. We hope you’ll take some time to check out our list for taking your Groups from Good to Great, below.
3. Some time before June 1 2009, we’re going to choose up to 100 of the very BEST groups on Squidoo and unlock a special tool just for them.  These groups will fit a list of our criteria and be nominated by SquidStaff and our Angels.
4. At the same time, we won’t be shy about locking spam or junk or abandoned Groups over the next few months. So make sure yours don’t get mistaken for such.

To help, we’ve put together 7 important things you can (and should!) do to your Groups to make them better, and three things that probably signal that your Group is spam or junk.

Seven ways to make your Groups rock:

1. Make your group HQ pretty.
The front door of your group is a pretty good indicator of how dedicated you are when you start the group.  We’ve seen some lensmasters spend hours on designing a fun group, while some others just phone it in with empty modules and blank HQs.  Plus, setting this page up in advance can make it easier to maintain in the future.
I like: The Netherlands

2. Define the focus of your group.
Some groupmasters MIGHT be able to pull off a group on something as big a “travel.”  But did you know that by being more selective you can get even more attention and better submissions?  Think as niche as you can.  “Vegetarian soup recipes” or “Great kitchen gadgets for advanced chefs” is way better than a “Cooking” group, because it lets you set the rules, have criteria for accepting or rejecting lenses, and gives you a clear topic to discuss with your group members. Plus it’s better for traffic, and a lot more interesting.
I like: Tropical Fish Headquarters

3. Go ahead. Fire people. We dare you.
Size doesn’t matter.  In fact, the worst performing groups are the ones with tens of thousands of lenses with nothing in common and have no focus. Groups are about curating and showcasing lenses on a specific topic, and about giving you a chance to play Editor in Chief of your slice of the web. It isn’t personal - if you have a lens that doesn’t belong in your group, boot it.  If you have a lensmaster who doesn’t participate, kindly bid adieu.
I like: The Costumers’ Guild

4. Give lensmasters something to talk about.
You don’t get to become part of an elite group for the purpose of doing nothing.  Give your lensmasters something to do.  Host a weekly poll about a hot topic.  Start threads on the guestbook.  Post Plexos of favorite related links or lenses. Run lensmaking challenges; require a brand new lens every week in order for them to stay in your Group. Go above and beyond and blog or Tweet about your members. Make it a place people WANT to belong to.
I like: Green Crusaders Headquarters

5. Show off your best faces.
The Featured Lens and Featured Lensmaster modules are two of my favorite modules to use on a group homepage.  In fact, you can show off your newest members without doing anything - groups come standard with one each of these modules that automatically pulls from the five most recent adds. Better yet, try posting weekly Q&A sessions with your top Group members. Spotlight a review of a new lens that joined your Group. The more you do for your members, the more they’ll do for you.
I like: Ethnic Food Headquarters

6. Keep it current.
If your group hasn’t been published in a while, it’s time for a facelift.  Rotate in the new and out the old.  Use Featured Lens modules to publicize the most current lenses in your Group. There’s nothing as sad as a stale, abandoned Group.
I like: Shopping Headquarters

7. You’re responsible for your members.
Your group is only as good at its weakest link. If the members of your groups have spammy, junky, and/or SquidDon’t lenses, that reflects on you and could get your Group locked. (Yup, you let them in, after all.)  Remember:  it’s ok to have specific rules about what lenses must include and what lensmasters must do in order to be a member.  If they can follow those directions, they get the prize.
I like: Pimp My Lens

And three common Group mistakes that don’t work (and could get your Group locked someday soon):

1. “Anyone can join” groups
Having groups just for the sake of having them.  Creating the biggest group on Squidoo might be a fun trick, but totally pointless if you’re looking for things that matter, like participation, traffic, friends or sales.

2. Groups set up for SquidDon’t lenses
Some lensmasters have taken spam and junk to the next level by creating groups to contain all their lenses.  All this really does is draw more attention to them and increase their chances of getting locked or deleted.

3. Topics that are way too general
Groups set up to contain Squidoo categories (entertainment, shopping, and business, for example) aren’t just redundant, they’re usually ineffective for all involved.  But if you can prove us otherwise, we’d love to hear about it.

Many of you have been vocal about great ideas for new Groups-related tools and technology and features, and we know we haven’t spent a lot of time on those, in a long time. And here’s one reason why: Great groups can be developed without those extra tools.  The secret to a good Group is how you run it. How good of a leader you are. How good your members are.  It’s about quality and spirit and going niche and staying relevant and mentoring each other. So if you can rock groups with what you’ve got, we’ll know that they’re a good use of our development time and more attention going forward. So get out there and make your Groups Great!

~Kimberly
YOUR Community and Charity Organizer
PS - learn more about great groups with our Groups Mentor, Barkely

Hello lensmaster!

On Squidoo, there are hundreds of ways to help. If you like to create lenses, you can help a favorite charity by developing a lens or two for them. If you love to read lenses, you can share advice for making them better. If you’re a veteran lensmaster with mad customer service skillz, you can be a Mentor or Angel, and help Squidoo grow.

Here are a few ways you can help others this week:

1. Stop by the forum and share your ONE best tip for using Squidoo.

2. Help a new lensmaster become better by critiquing new lenses.

3. Create a lens or two or ten for charity. You can see them all here.

4. If you’re a pro at using Squidoo, and you know what all new lenses need, apply to be our new New Lens Mentor. You’ll help thousands of new lensmasters get a jumpstart on the must-haves for great lenses.

5. Or, if photos and video are your thing, apply to be our new Image and Video Mentor. You’ll do the same thing, but for our great photo and video modules, and front doors like SquidFlix, SquidVids, and Photo Phights.

Did you know that volunteering can reduce stress and decrease your chance of becoming depressed? Just another great reason to help a fellow lensmaster on Squidoo.

Squidoo hearts ALL our volunteers!
~Kimberly Dawn Wells
YOUR Community & Charity Organizer
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