Glossary

Dashboard Each lensmaster has a page called a dashboard that pulls helpful information about your lenses and groups and displays them in one place. To get to your dashboard, log in to Squidoo, then click on "my dashboard" at the top of the screen.

Lens A single page built by a lensmaster; a set of handpicked, organized content about a single topic; a collection of modules pointing to content on a single topic; a page, a single page, that highlights one person's personal view of the web -- not the whole web, just one tiny part of it.

Lensmaster A person who creates and maintains a lens. A lensmaster uses the Squidoo platform to build a lens on a single topic or idea. Lensmasters are the cornerstone of Squidoo.

Lensmaster Workshop The "edit" screen where you build your lens. This is the primary place for editing your modules and adding content. You'll know you're in the workshop if the URL of the page you're on starts with http://www.squidoo.com/lensmaster/workshop/... To get to this screen, log in to your account, go to your dashboard, and click on "edit" for the lens you wish to alter.

LensRank Squidoo's score of the quality of a lens. It's a formula based on visitor ratings, inbound links, outbound link clicking, frequency of update, revenue earned, and other criteria.

Link List A lens module that lists recommended web sites related to your lens topic, along with your comments on why they're helpful.

Module A lens component that organizes and links to content in a variety of ways. Some modules can be automated (set to automatically pull in new, relevant content), as well as manually updated and edited.

My Lenses The lensmaster's primary lens management screen, My Lenses keeps all your lens information in one place. You can see stats on each of your lenses at a glance.

My Squidoo A Squidoo member's "home page," My Squidoo features a list of your favorite lenses, your saved searches, and links to your member profile. Members can also syndicate their My Squidoo page to share their favorites with other members.

Profile A lensmaster's personal page, which offers information about the lensmaster (such as their master bio and a "contact" email link), as well as information about that lensmaster's lenses.

Royalties Money earned by lensmasters based on lens performance. Some royalties are based on a lensmaster's share of the pooled revenue, while other royalties are based on the revenue generated by a lens's individual modules.

RSS Short for Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication, RSS feeds are an easy way to distribute news headlines and other content on the web.

Squidoo The name of our co-op.

SquidU A companion site to Squidoo, SquidU is an online learning community and "university" where lensmasters learn to build better lenses.

SquidU Review Our weekly newsletter that offers great tips for getting the most out of Squidoo. Learn more here ...

SquidWho A sister site for Squidoo that is all about people and characters, real or imaginary. When you search for a person and there is no lens on that person yet (based on the keywords you entered), SquidWho will automatically generate a starter lens for you. You can take it over and make it your own. If there is a lens for that keyword, SquidWho will automatically direct you to the top ranking lens for that keyword. To make sure yours shows up as the top lens, keep adding great content and updating it regularly.

Tag A keyword that can be applied to a lens and used to relate lenses to other lenses. Smart tagging will make your lens easier to find and easier to categorize.

Tag Cloud A visual cluster of tags used within Squidoo. The most popular (most used) tags appear in the largest type size.

Text List A module full of text written by the lensmaster. Usually most successful when used to create lists; think bullet points.

Toolbar Every lens includes a Toolbar just below its title. The Toolbar houses important tools that help you print, email, subscribe to RSS feeds for that page -- and more.

WIP (Work in Progress) A lens that has never been published, OR, has been published with less than three modules (not including the intro module), OR, has fallen below our threshold. WIP lenses will show up on your dashboard with a grey circle next to them, instead of a green check mark. Published lenses that have three or more modules will become fully published within 24 hours, after LensRank updates and the lens reaches our minimum threshold.