SquidU

Lensmaster, have you ever sat down to your computer with a blank list of lens ideas? It happens to all of us, and one savvy lensmaster and super business woman has an incredible answer: the Carnival of Squid, by SusanVillasLewis.

Every day is a special day for someone. A birthday, an anniversary, a day to shop for holiday decorations or search for baby names. It’s a day to do something special, there should be a special lens for every day. The Carnival of Squid is a monthly guide of popular holidays and events that searchers are looking for and lenses are begging to be written about.

Carnival of Squid: September 2009

Not only will you learn about special events such as Horrors!! (Stephen King’s birthday on September 21st) and Choose your Favorite Color Day (September 15th), you’ll quickly build a catalog of lenses that will enjoy popularity for years to come.

Personally, I’m hoping to see some great Favorite Trail Mix Recipes (August 31st) soon!

In fact, to celebrate the start of my favorite season - autumn - on October 1st, 2009, I’ll be selecting one awesome lens from the Plexos on September’s Carnival lens and sending the lensmaster a treat. Ready? Set? Make a lens!

Happy trail mix, er, trails.
~Kimberly Dawn Wells
YOUR Community & Charity Organizer

Hello Lensmasters,

Before you were born, your parents obsessed over what they would call you. From babies to virtual hockey clubs, names are a special right that can only be applied with careful consideration. Learn how some of our lensmasters are making a name for themselves by helping you make a name for your pet project.

***

What’s in a team name?
If you haven’t gotten in on the Fantasy Football craze, you’re already behind on the game. Sports fans spend millions of hours each year picking the best of the best to be on their team. Never mind Favre is playing for his former rivals; he can be on everyone’s fantasy team. Of course, once you’ve selected your line up, there’s still one important task at hand.

Mac33 misses nothing. What’s missing from the current selection of fantasy sports team lenses? Ideas for Fantasy Team Names!

How did Mac33 come up with the unique idea for this lens? “I paid attention to the stats on my other fantasy sports lenses. Variations of ‘team name’ were showing up in their keyword stats and I figured it would make a good supporting lens topic. So I documented all the ways I used and saw others use to come up with good team names.”

Mac33 says naming your fantasy sports team is important. “A huge part of every fantasy sport is trying to top the other players through trash talk, hype and a winning record. It’s also good to have a strong identity for your team and yourself. A commenter on the lens submitted “Victorious Secret”…that’s a brilliant name for a girl’s team. If I was a girl I’d name my team that every year!”

What’s in a city name?
Quipping Queen is the queen of more than just quips. If you’re looking for a laugh over a city name heartier than Hell, Michigan, look no further than her Funny Place Names lens.

“Living north of the 49th parallel, (where it’s frightfully cold nine months of the year while the remaining three months we’re bothered half to death by the blinking bugs, boisterous beavers, not to mention badly-behaved bears), leaves one with plenty of time to ponder pithy things like peculiar place names. Let’s face it, all a Canuck has to do is pick up a road map to find nutty nooks and crannies — especially in Newfoundland & Labrador which is home to such potty place names as:
# Run-by-guess
# Bleak Joke Cove
# Calves Nose
# Nancy Oh
# Little Looping Harbour”

How did the Queen collect all these? “Well, if truth be told, I combed the Internet for a few moons in search of strange place names. I also picked up a book by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd called, “The Deeper Meaning of Liff - A Dictionary of Things That There Aren’t Any Words For Yet.” Inside there were maps of the United Kingdom, North America, and Asia plus a host of odd place names (which became the subject of this equally odd book). Funny names tickle my funnybone, so that’s why I keep my eyes wide open all the time for out-of-the-way place names like: Berriwillock, Grimbister, Scrabster and Skoonspruit. Besides this pleasant pastime gives me a wonderful excuse to avoid my regal duties which tax my nerves and my sanity!”

What’s in a dog name?
Many dogs get their names from their circumstances, such as Lucky, Brownie, or Spot. But if you really want to find the Best Dog Name, Greg has the pulse on giving your pup a moniker.

“I had (still have) a Blogger Blog devoted to naming dogs. It received quite a bit of traffic, but most of the articles were not original and came from ezinearticles. After a while, I was so annoyed by the poor quality and un-originality, that I began writing my own original articles. I love animals and decided at some point that there was a need to at least give people some ideas when choosing a name for their new companion and family member. Plus dog names are a real hoot!”

As for Greg’s least favorite dog name? “There are so many to choose from…..I guess the worst in my mind is the name Butch. Personally, I find this name unimaginative and I associate it with a mean old mutt who once bit me on the right arm when I was 5 years old (for no real reason, I might add). But actually I have not yet discovered the real worst dog name. Thanks for the idea for a new lens -hah!”

What’s in a baby name?
Deciding on a baby name can be a stressful part of pregnancy, but finding a fun name that fits can be easy with jewelkid87’s Tips for Choosing a Name for your Baby.

Jewelkid87, aka Bethany, offers such suggestions as “consider what the initials will spell,” “choose something that fits the last name,” and “remember how it will sound all together.” Radio DJ Justin Case has probably had his fill of name jokes, as has Larry Lawrence. (Although these tips wouldn’t have helped The Wedding Singer’s Julia Guglia.)

You can trust Bethany, she even helped name her sister’s child!

What’s in YOUR name?
A teen recently told me his mother regularly Googles family members to monitor their online behavior. Even if you’re not hiding from mom, it’s possible for things to come up online that you don’t want everyone to see. A potential boss running into college party pics? Enough said! JessicaM has the pulse on finding and removing personal info you don’t want to have online.

How to Remove Personal Information from Internet & Public Data Sources

***

Fun, furry, and fabulous names are just one topic of millions that you could write about on Squidoo and use to become your very own star. Or create names for stars. Or write about superstars that already have names. See, the ideas really are endless!

Have fun,
~Kimberly Dawn Wells
YOUR Community & Charity Organizer

Hey lensmasters and locals!

Some people have a knack for creating amazing results using the tools they have. Our very own KimGiancaterino has done just that using SquidZippers to promote services she offers IRL (in real life) in her local area. Read on to learn how you can use the same virtual tricks for your brick-and-mortar products and services.

***

Squidoo: Kim, you have great lenses that are geared towards getting offline traffic to real live places, rather than just virtual eyeballs on your lens. How do you choose which brick-and-mortar stores and services you want to promote?

Kim: I’ve been a notary public for 5 years, but never advertised online until recently. I decided to create a series of SquidZipper lenses using zip codes in my coverage area. Presently there are 23 lenses, and a few have made it to Google page #1 for the search terms “notary” plus the name of the city.

Squidoo: Are these all your own shops/services, or do you promote other locations?

Kim: I’ve been making SquidZippers for a few of my notary clients too. For example, BrauHaus Salon in Pasadena, California. It helps if the client has a great website for me to extract information and images. There isn’t time to build them for everyone, but the owner of BrauHaus was so nice to me. I wanted to do something in return.

I try to help anyone who has a local business. If one of my clients has a website, I’ll add it to the links plexo on the appropriate notary SquidZipper lens. I’ll also send them a link to one of the ‘how-to’ lenses I created, so they can learn how to build their own SquidZippers. Ideally they should create and host their own SquidZipper lenses. A few of my notary clients are celebrities, so I may promote them in an oblique manner, but won’t mention the notary connection.

Squidoo: It’s easy to look spammy when you’re promoting a location. Some people see “Real Estate in 48082″ and run. How can you make the location prominent without scaring off readers?

Kim: People usually find me by searching for their city, but they are often looking for specific information about their document situation. Many of my clients are interested in living trusts, health care directives, etc. I’m in the process of writing lenses about the most common documents I see as a notary. I’m striving to make my series educational and beneficial to people who live outside my coverage area. I can also provide tools and resources that allow them to save money on attorney fees.

Squidoo: Which modules (like Google Maps, Yelp, etc.) do you use to help generate content for local areas?

Kim: I use as many as possible, including Google Maps, Weather, Hometown Stats, Zagat, Yelp, Google Blog Search, and Twitter Search.

Squidoo: When you’re promoting similar services in multiple areas, how do you generate unique content for each lens? (So it’s not copied and pasted?)

Kim: While the top half of each lens is heavy on boiler plate text, the introduction always includes a few links to modules located further down in the lens. The second half of the lens is devoted entirely to the city, with many opportunities for people to interact and promote their own business links.

Squidoo: It sounds super successful…has it been?

Kim: I’ve been very pleased with the targeted leads generated by SquidZipper lenses. I make changes to my lenses all the time, based on input from clients and other notaries. Since this is a sideline business for me, I’ve also learned that I need to set limits with regard to my availability. I’ve had calls late at night and also requests for signings NOW! I’m at a point where I’m referring business to other notaries, and concentrating on my regular clients.

***

Not only is KimGiancaterino a master at promoting her work using Squidoo, she’s a SquidAngel, member of the Giant Squid 100 Club, and has achieved purple star lenses! It’s no secret that prolific, involved lensmasters become our biggest success stories.

Thanks to Kim for taking the time to share this info with us. What will YOU do with SquidZippers?

~Kimberly Dawn Wells
YOUR Community & Charity Organizer

Happy Monday, lensmasters!

We always plan for the worst, but sometimes a glitch becomes us. Your internet connection fails while you’re editing a module, a module burps up a nasty bug, or we launch something new that goofs with your formatting. Oops.

What’s a lensmaster to do? Back it up!

There are a few ways you can back up the content on your lenses:

1. Export your lenses
Exporting your lenses is simple and fast!

1. Edit the lens you want to export.
2. Scroll down in your Workshop and look for Export in the right hand sidebar.
3. Click.
4. The XML export contains all of the text and configuration settings you made on your lens.
5. You’re done!

2. Save the lens in your browser.
By opening your lens in a browser window and clicking File -> Save Webpage, you’ll save the HTML copy of your lens AND save the images to a directory. How helpful is that?

3. Copy it into NotePad.
My personal favorite is to simply copy my text into NotePad whenever I make big changes. You can use any word editing software, and save similar lenses in the same file. Easy!

If you don’t trust your computer or external hard drive, you can even save your backup files to Box.net or another online file hosting service.

While these methods may not save every tiny tidbit of information, they’ll keep your content secure just in case. It’s always good to have a backup plan!

(If you haven’t read our Squidoo Policy Update, take 2 minutes to look it over. If your lens ends up locked *gasp* you’re responsible for backing up your content so you can use it elsewhere.)

Make it a great week!
~Kimberly Dawn Wells
YOUR Community & Charity Organizer

PS - are you making good use of our Citizen Squid Mentors?

Hi lensmasters, short post today.

Over the years we’ve worked hard to improve how lenses are promoted and monetized. Recently we’ve made even more adjustments to advertisements on maxed lenses, and we’ve had a lot of feedback.

For those who create great lenses on authentic topics, these ads can be a big boost in their revenue, or the donations they’re sending to charity. However, we realize ads aren’t for everyone.

To learn more about which ads you can remove from your lenses, and how, visit Opting Out of Squidoo Lens Ads.

And thanks for continuing to hang in there with us when we test new features. While some things we’ve tried have ended with not-so-desirable results, many have helped us get to where we are today. We promise - everything we do, we do it for you!

Happy lensmaking,
~Kimberly Dawn Wells
YOUR Community & Charity Organizer

PS - opting out of ads? Why not send your royalties to your favorite deserving charity?

Hi Lensmasters!

I’m here today with a helpful tip about buying and selling lenses and lensmaking services through Squidoo.

Just like any service that can be generated on the behalf of a client, Squidoo has become a popular place for “experts” to generate lenses on behalf of others. Maybe you bought a Squidoo lens that was already made, or hired someone to build one for you. Maybe you’re thinking of getting into the business, and making lenses for others. Like any business transaction, there are a few things to consider before buying or selling lenses. Here are a few notes on our official stance on this, plus some tips for making a buying or selling experience successful.

1. We don’t encourage or discourage the act of buying and selling lenses on Squidoo. Many a lens has been successfully transferred; the first sales and auctions were milestones of our early history. We’re mostly laissez faire on this, unless something goes wrong.

2. If something goes wrong and we get a complaint, we’re not responsible for moderating it. Simply, we’ll lock the account in question and refer the owner to the complainant for resolution. We don’t like doing that, though. We’d rather see you work it out.

3. If you’re buying or selling a lens, or a house, or a car, take the time to develop a reputation with the other party first. Know what you’re getting into, and don’t jump into unfamiliar territory.

4. If we find a lens that violates our TOS or SquidDon’t policies, or has actively spammed a network or individual, we’ll lock it, probably for good. So regardless of which end you’re on, be aware of our policies. Know what isn’t kosher to write about, and review our rules on junk and uncurrated content.

5. When in doubt, don’t do it.

There are plenty of great lensmasters who, over time, have helped others get a head start on their Squidoo account by building lenses for them. Or they’ve built lenses for their local businesses, their brother’s garage band, their niece’s class project, or their best friend’s wedding. Genuine lenses, with authentic content and solid social connections, that have performed well.

Unfortunately, there are also plenty of lensmasters whose purchased lenses ended up getting locked, because they were on movie downloads, or ten duplicate lenses on dental care in Boston, or hosted copyrighted material, or redirect scripts.

Bottom line? We’re hands off, but we won’t let you abuse the system, either. So play nice, play fair, know the rules, and everyone wins!

Make it a great day!
~Kimberly Dawn Wells
YOUR Community & Charity Organizer

PS - Curious about our stance on unofficial ebooks and tutorials?

Happy Friday, Lensmasters!

If you have a Squidoo lens, chances are it’s not your only online presence. Before finding Squidoo, most lensmasters are already into blogs, personal websites, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Ning, or one of a dozen other online networks that they started or participate in. No matter where else you’re found on the web, if you’re not promoting your Squidoo lenses there, you’re missing out! Your online communities are already interested in what you have to say, so fulfill their curiosity and answer the question, “What have you been up to?”

If you own a website…
Chances are good some or most of your lenses are related to your website topic. If you run a website about horses, you probably have a lot of lenses on horses. Just as you refer back to your website in your lenses, refer to your lenses throughout your website. You can even use them to showcase exclusive bits of information, and they make shopping easy. There’s no need to plug all that crazy affiliate coding in to your website when you can easily organize it on a lens.

If you own a blog…
Blogs aren’t as static as websites, which means that every day is a new opportunity to spotlight one of your new lenses or a major update you made. Plus, matching your niche websites with niche blogs is a little slice of lens promotion heaven. Not only are you using the SEO friendly Squidoo to publish your knowledge, if you have Feedburner, your updates can automatically be sent to readers, newsletter style. It’s another quick way to automate your advertising.

If you are on MySpace…
One really cool way to promote your lenses on MySpace is with the rotating headline button from Feedburner. This nifty gizmo takes your lensmaster bio page RSS feed and rotates a list of your top lenses. No muss, no fuss; it’s all automatic. Plus, you can use your bulletin feature wisely to notify friends of big updates and new lenses, and create groups for your niche topics.

If you are on Facebook…
Consider using the cool Facebook Connect application on Squidoo to post stories on your timeline. You can choose from three display styles, and a post or two a day will keep your status up-to-date and your readers intrigued. There are also plenty of ways to organize and display your lenses, with link and Shoebox applications.

If you are on Twitter…
We have an app for that too! Each time you publish a lens, you can tweet your major updates and new creations right from your workshop. Or, personalize your messages with a teaser. “What does Chris’s new tattoo look like?” “Have you tried this BBQ chicken recipe?” “I got a new puppy! Update at Squidoo.com.”

Squidoo isn’t an island. It was built to play well with other applications and networks, so take advantage of your resources. If you’re curious about increasing traffic but haven’t started here, you’re missing out. Solid promotion starts with a community of readers who care about what you have to say - the people you already know.

You never know what kind of difference you might make by sharing your knowledge with others. Today is a great day to start making a difference with Squidoo. It’s Seth’s birthday! Join us in saying happy birthday, then go out and start making your own difference.

Make it a great weekend,
~Kimberly Dawn Wells
YOUR Community & Charity Organizer

PS - does your charity want to win $3,000?

Everyone knows something special about summertime activities. Maybe you’re King of the Grill, with a marinading repertoire big enough to fill a cookbook. Or perhaps you’re the Princess of Pool Parties, with all the hot details about staying cool. Maybe you’re a Master Gardener, and could teach me a thing or two about keeping my annuals alive in the heat. No matter what you’re up to this summer, there’s someone out there who wants to learn from you, and there’s no time like now to make notes.

Every day is an opportunity to put what you do and what you know into a lens. What you think is normal may be totally new to someone else.

Here’s a short list of ideas for hot summer lenses:
- what to pack for the pool
- water-friendly baby needs
- finding the perfect patio furniture
- how to grill vegetables
- top ten grill accessories
- staying cool in hot dry/humid weather
- heat illness and water related first aid
- keeping your pets cool
- summer safety for seniors
- kid-friendly recipes
- shielding your skin from the sun
- keeping your annuals alive
- cool travel tips
- building the perfect sandcastle
- preparing a boating adventure
- fishing for beginners and kids
- planning the perfect graduation party
- back-to-school shopping sprees
- getting kids ready for school
- cool college stuff
- severe weather awareness
- family reunion fun

While its true that the real reward won’t come until next year, when a new season causes a summer searching surge, the here and now is where all your best ideas, photos, and tips will come from. (Of course, just as it cools off up north, the southern hemisphere is getting ready to break out their bikinis.) And when the occasional thunderstorm hits, there’s nothing more fun and rewarding than sitting down for a family lensbuilding activity. You’ll be earning income for your next family vacation, and teaching your kids valuable internet skills.

(For those of you in the southern hemisphere, do the same for winter. Track your tips and travels now and take advantage of some SEO lead time.)

Enjoy your summer!
~Kimberly Dawn Wells
YOUR Community & Charity Organizer

There’s Always Time to Promote!

Hello Lensmasters,

Today we have a special story from Lens Promotion Mentor and Master jeffwend. He’s been dutifully collecting your questions, and has some great tips to share regarding making time to promote your lenses.

Time to Promote!

The question that I get asked most about getting traffic from outside Squidoo is, “How do you find the time to use all of these tools to promote your lenses?”

The answer to that is simple. Make time.

Organization helps too. I create a folder in my browser and file each of my favorite websites that I use inside of it. When I make a new lens, I simply work my way down the list one by one. After using the list a few times you’ll find that you can easily do it in less than 30 minutes.

Remember, you do not have to promote your lens all at once either. There may be some websites that do not need to be used with every lens that you create. For example, I only use Facebook for certain lenses that have active groups that my lens would complement. If you are like me and you make a lot of lenses, plugging every lens you make into Facebook is going to seem like spam and it will make both you and Squidoo look bad.

However, when I have a lens that is on a particularly hot topic and I am a member of an active Facebook group, I will post links to the latest video or poll modules as they come out. This worked great for my Jason Castro lens a year ago. After every American Idol performance, I posted a link to the video and asked people in the group to vote in the duel module letting the world know if they liked that evening’s performance. This brought in a ton of traffic and backlinks from YouTube and other blogs on American Idol.

For sites like Digg, I urge you all to go through the guestbook list on my lens and add every single person who left their Digg username as your friend and send them shouts when you Digg one of your lenses.

Soon you will have a huge group of friends helping you to promote your lens. Remember to help out others though when they send you a shout to Digg their lens. It only takes a moment, this I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine will make a huge different in the traffic and links you can pick up through Digg. One word of caution, you do not need to Digg every lens. Only Digg the best of the lenses that you make. If you Digg subpar lenses you may find your Diggs being buried by the community.

Soon you will find that promoting your lens will become like second nature. It will simply become part of the lens creation process. Master the art of it and you will find more traffic coming to your lenses than ever before.

Thank again, jeffwend, for sharing more of your promotion secrets!

As you know, “If you build it, they will come” does not apply to the internet. With billions of options and only 24 hours in a day, most web surfers will never see your lens unless it’s worth seeing and in the right spot to be seen. You can get more lens promotion tips from jeffwend at his Lens Promotion Mentor lens.

Happy promoting!
~Kimberly Dawn Wells
YOUR Community & Charity Organizer
Get daily tips @squidoonews!

If you’ve seen the Green Living Top 100 lately, you’ll notice it’s been dominated by a few radical recyclers. This didn’t happen by accident. In fact, some of our greenest lensmasters have built their reputation not only on their ability to share the best renewable ideas, but also their ability to develop colorful, exciting, engaging lenses that are attracting the attention of reusers far and wide.

We asked two of the most prolific lensmasters for this niche, TheGreenerMe and a_willow, “What does it take to build a green lens?”

Squidoo: How did you pick your top Green Living lens topics?

TheGreenerMe: I chose the topics because I was curious to find answers to questions that I had of my own. I was asking myself questions like “What do you do with this?,” “How can you recycle this?,” “How can we prevent this from being thrown away?” I wasn’t sure if the lenses would be popular, but I knew they’d be useful.

a_willow: Well, since I started, I’ve published 20 green lenses and have 6 more in WIP. It wasn’t really intended. Inspiration came from looking for solutions to reduce amount of trash we make in our house. And then I stumbled upon the great book Extraordinary Uses For Ordinary Things containing so many tips for both reusing great number of household items and to diverse its purpose. And I thought, “Wow, have to share this!” Squidoo is perfect for sharing this kind of stuff! The second relevant thing for me was the fact that my husband is a teacher and he’s always looking for ideas for art class projects with his kids. With recession on our doorstep and less money in our pockets, the idea of compiling craft projects from reused items was born, and my creative project niche is the final result. For now, I’ve launched seven lenses connected to crafts for holidays and I’m planning to make six more to have all the major holidays covered.

Squidoo: How did you decide what readers should know about each topic?

a_willow: Since these are all lenses with tips and tricks (how to reuse lenses) and links for projects (creative project lenses) this decision wasn’t really hard - recipe is simple: ‘The more, the merrier!’. So I add to these lenses everything I can find or think of. I wasn’t thinking: ‘No, this is stupid! I’ll drop it!’. For all I know, what looks unusable to me, could be a problem solution or brilliant idea for someone else!

TheGreenerMe: I thought about what I was throwing away in my personal life and knew everyone else must be throwing these things away as well, so I knew readers would identify with the items in the lens. I’ve been able to cut my trash in 1/2 by following the guidelines and tips presented in the lenses.

Squidoo: Green living is obviously important to you! Your passion is obvious by the quality of your lens. How is passion for a topic related to making a great lens?

TheGreenerMe: Passion has been behind my best lenses! If I weren’t passionate about my topics, the lenses would’ve been cold and impersonal. I wasn’t trying to pass off a bunch of Clickbank ebooks, I was genuinely trying to pass along information to anyone that was willing to listen. I genuinely look forward to getting that information out there, and I think that makes a big difference.

a_willow: I don’t think it has so much to do with my passion for green living. More it has to do with desire to help others by sharing things that might be of help to environment but also money savers. For building part and why I’m good at it, my thoughts are: I was raised to do everything the best I could and push my limits each step of the way. So, passion is less relevant than discipline, willingness and persistence. People who only have passion burn out too fast too often! They don’t have ability to bring things to conclusion.

Squidoo: No matter what lensmasters are interested in, they have the potential to make superstar lenses. What are three quick tips you have for lensmasters?

a_willow: First would be: Never give up! What ever you do, if you hit the wall, look for a hole to crawl through. Every problem has a solution and sometimes you need to step back and things will be much clearer.

Second is: Never ever don’t be afraid to ask for help! Neither me or anyone else can help you if you don’t say what bugs you!

Third: Learn to create lenses which are outstanding and they will motivate others to do promotion for you!

TheGreenerMe: 1. Choose a niche that you know something about and continue to write. It may not be your first lens or first twenty lenses that are successful, but your 50th or 60th lens. By the time you have your first superstar lens, you’ll have a large back catalog of work for your readers to check out. If you have the material for them to read on the same niche, chances are you’ll get some readers interested in those similar topics. When you’ve found something that works, build on the success of that topic and make more lenses on that specific topic.

2. I always link lenses together with the Featured Lenses module. This seems to matter the most in terms of promotion. If you can tell readers why those lenses are similar and why they should visit them, you will encourage people to visit even more (right inside the featured lens module).

3. Pick topics that no one else is writing about, or at least do it in such an original way that isn’t presented anywhere else. Then, learn as much as you can about that topic. “Make money online” and those types of topics are so commonplace that they won’t really create a long lasting following behind you that’s going to be worth your time, and you probably won’t enjoy writing about it either.

There you have it!

Sharing the message about recycling may not be your thing, but you can use these tips to develop any niche. Using Squidoo to promote your passion not only helps the world stay green, it can help you generate some green, for your wallet or charity. Where else can you get paid for talking about toilet paper tubes!

Happy lensmaking!
~Kimberly Dawn Wells
YOUR Community & Charity Organizer