Squidoo to Do for Me and You

Playing with Yahoo Pipes

2009-04-16T07:39:00.011-05:00

I have Squidoosphere a Squidoo blog link, linked to my blog on the right in my blog roll. I was checking my email for blog updates and I noticed something a little different when I clicked on the Squidoosphere logo. It seems Harmony (Squidom) has changed Squidoosphere up a bit.

Squidoosphere is now running through pipes and it looks like a neat way to pull together your Internet content and mash it with other content. Pipes is a Yahoo thing and seemingly has been around for a couple of years. I'm not too sure exactly how it works yet. It seems similar to Sprouts, which I already use and like.

I wondered if pipes would be useful for generating lens traffic? For instance, I have a few lenses related to Texas content wise: Guadalupe River, Canyon Lake, Port Aransas, and Cypress Cove. Could I create a pipe with my Texas lenses, pull in some other great Texas lenses, and distribute for all to see? However, I could not get a pipe together using my lens URLs. I gave up on the idea until I found thefluffanutta's lens: A Guide to Yahoo Pipes. Now I can do it using one of the fluffanutta's pipes, which I cloned and input my parameters in and published. However, it didn't show what I previewed in the published version. I'll have to read more about it to figure out what I'm doing...

I'm curious if pipes could be used for product feeds from Pepperjam? Then imported to a module to be utilized on a lens. As of now I have yet to find a way to use PJN product feeds on Squidoo.

I'm going to try building a Pepperjam product feed pipe and see what comes of it. If I can't get it done, I'll be looking to the fluffanutta's pipes again.

Squidoo To-Do:

Investigate pipes
Build a pipe
Try using the pipe to feed my lenses

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A New Computer is Causing Updates All Around Me

2009-04-02T12:00:00.003-05:00

I've been a busy bee lately. For my birthday this year my office got an update. I mean a major update: A new chair, a new shredder, and by golly a new computer.

You may notice I've taken some time to first re-do the look of my blogs. This was really for my own benefit. The new computer has a big monitor and my blogs looked discombobulated when I viewed them.

A couple of weeks ago I added Amazon to my list of affiliates I'm working with. I thought, why not? So I jumped on the bandwagon and joined. I'm learning the site and adding links here and there on my blogs.

What I don't understand about all this affiliate stuff is how does anyone have time to build content or lenses? I've found myself more worried about checking for links, researching content to add for the links, and building up product lists. It's insane.

A few posts back I mentioned the rank on a lot of my lenses was really below par. Well, I did submit one to Isle of Squid, but that's as far as I got. However, I did get to linking lenses and lensrolling a lot of them. All in all, I'm seeing a bit of an improvement.

I'm building another blog in addition to the fish blog. I decided to start a recipe blog. Actually this on is more for the kids than me (I'm trying to teach the teen to cook), but I think I can make it work for affiliate stuff, seo, and a little niche on the side.

The newest blogs are definitely works in progress. From some of the research I've done, I can see I have a lot of work ahead of me.

Squidoo To-Do:

Research and build content
Work updates and check links
Learn Vista

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Privacy Policy

2009-03-13T11:01:00.000-05:00

Squidoo to Do for Me and You uses third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies use Cookies to track pertinent information for sales and/or advertising.

What are Cookies? Cookies are little snippets of information sent from the server to the client. Cookies store information related to everything from authentication to shopping preferences. Cookies only affect the operation of your web server.

These companies may use non-personal or identifying information about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, follow these links:

NAI

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Pepperjam Network

Amazon

Thank you for visiting Squidoo to Do for Me and You!

Earn Online or Hit the Daily Grind?

2009-02-24T10:48:00.006-06:00

The last weeks I've been looking at various strategies to earn online. I'm following tweets, blogs, and doing a lot of research to find the best route for me. A lot of these things I'm already dabbling in but not concentrating on.

Pretty soon the little one will be starting school. Registration is right around the corner, then summer, and then she'll join the daily school grind. This being an eminent factor in my life I have come to this conclusion: I will have to get going on earning online lest I will have to go back to the daily grind.

I've been earning online but not like some and surely not enough to be considered a livable income. For the most part I've been playing around. It's time to get serious.

I wonder if the potential to earn online still good? I think so. I know the economy is bad right now. But from what I've been reading online business is booming.

In light of this I'm putting myself in the shoes of the consumer. Heck, I'm an online shopper myself. I decided to follow my own online shopping experiences. Sooooo...

I have two Squidoo lenses about fish: Bettas: The Fish Full of Personality and The Best Aquariums and Fish Tank Supplies (must re-do that title). Given that I am an affiliate for AquariumsDirect.com, and I know a little about fish, I decided to build a fish blog.

I've lensrolled the two lenses together (I should have done that a long time ago). I added the RSS of the new blog to the lenses so they will be getting fresh content frequently. I found a couple of clickbank products to attach to the blog and to the lenses. I'm working on building the blog content.

I still have to add the new blog to my feedburner, technorati, and other accounts...All in good time.

From the blogs I read I guess I'm taking the right approach to this, however backwards. Let's face it, I tend to come in on the back end of things sometimes. I'll get there eventually. I always do. You know what they say, slow and steady wins the race...

Squidoo To-Do:

Continue linking things together
Find correlated niches I can build on
Continue updates

View Privacy Policy

Squidoo Earnings: What I Need to Improve

2009-02-11T07:22:00.007-06:00

December caught up to me when I received my Squidoo earnings report. It was about half of November earnings. Of course, I know the reasons: I was out of pocket for most of the month, I did no promotion, and several of my lenses are not in the earning tiers.

I have a feeling January's report might follow suit. I can't do much about it except start from today.

My strategy is to keep doing what I've been doing with updates. Yesterday I added the Fluffanutta's new SquidUtils toolbar to my browser. This, plus the Squidoo FF extension I added last week, should help me keep my lenses up with content.

Next, I'm going to work on improving the lens rank of these lenses:

Dr. Brown's Baby Bottles

Visit Canyon Lake

Debt Free

They are on the cusp of being on the earning tier. They're not the only ones, I have about 20 I need to bump up. I'm going to take it in small chunks so I can really concentrate my efforts.

I'll be submitting their URLs to Lensroll, working on their SEO structure, and adding them to groups.

I'm also going join Isle of Squid and Squoogle. So I can start submitting lenses to those directories.

Prior to the holidays I only worked on becoming a Giant. I linked lenses here and there for promotion, but I didn't do enough. Since I've been doing updates and scouring other lenses I can see where I'm lacking and what needs improvement.

Squidoo To-Do:

Implement lens strategy
Submit URLs
Continue updates

View Privacy Policy

Squidoo Firefox Extension Great for Lens Updates!

2009-01-29T09:52:00.005-06:00

While updating lenses the other day I noticed a link on my Squidoo dashboard that read something like Got firefox? Grab the Squidoo firefox extension! I do, so I did.

It's a simple pair of buttons that puts a quick link to your lenses and "add to Squidoo" on your FF browser. I like having the quick link to my dashboard right on the browser. Now when I'm wanting to hit Squidoo, I can just click. Previously I had to open my favorites/bookmark menu or type in the URL.

I tried out the add to button and I think that tool is really going to come in handy for adding quick content to my lenses. Especially when I'm researching and just want a fast link. No more copy and paste for me there. Lens updates will be smooth as silk from now on...

Squidoo To-Do:

Don't be afraid to try new things
Keep an eye out for things to add to lenses
Update to keep lenses fresh

In Pursuit of Squidoo Greatness

2009-01-26T08:38:00.004-06:00

Like just about every other lensmaster I've been working to improve my Squidoo lenses. Perusing other lenses I've seen the best lenses have a lot of content, content that is updated frequently, and flow well with keywords (granted, this is the short list). Striving to be great, as I stated in a previous post, I want to keep working on my lenses until I figure it all out (then duplicate the method in future lenses).

My Cream of Mushroom soup lens is fairing pretty well with hits. I've been analyzing it to see what I did with this lens I did not do with others.

I tend to use a lot of the same modules in most my lenses. I noticed I have a featured lens module on it. I do have the featured lens module in a few of my other lenses. Can you guess which ones? Almost all the top ones on my lensmaster page.

Second, lenses I have Google blog search on are doing better than those without it. Researching this pheonoma I found Google sees this as updated content during the spider crawls. Internet pages that are continually updated rank better. In light of this, Google blog search is being added to any lens I don't already have it on.

Third, the mushroom lens is chock full of images. I have each of the images tagged with alt= and something about the lens in there. I try to do this with all my images, but scouring through lenses I found I missed a few in lens building frenzies.

Squidoo To-Do:

Find related lenses I can feature on my lenses
Ensure Google Blog Search module is on all lenses
Check all alt= html tags for lens revelent keywords

How to use Animated Graphics on Squidoo

2009-01-22T08:40:00.004-06:00

I've been using animated graphics on quite a few of my Squidoo lenses. Since I started using the graphics, I've gotten quite a few messages and comments about them. I decided I should put up a little post about the animations.

I get most of the animated graphics I use from Magic Lantern Graphics. Note that due to the number of graphics they have, the pages load slowly. The animations are free. They do build web pages and have links to a variety of different services some may be interested in.

To use the animations you have to copy them to your computer. You do this by right clicking the animated graphic, save image as (or the like), and saving it to your pictures.

For the animation to work on Squidoo you must then upload the graphics to a hosting site. I like Photobucket, it's free. If you only upload the image from your computer to Squidoo the animation is a still picture.

Once you have your animations uploaded, html code is generated for them. After you get the html code, you can use it in a variety of modules on Squidoo: Text/Write, your bio, and in your module description boxes.

On Photobucket you are give 4 different code choices: Email/IM, Direct link, HTML, and IMG code. Of course you use the html for Squidoo. The html code looks something like this:

< href="http://the photobucket URL .jpg" target="_blank">< src="http://the photobucket URL .jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"> < /a >

If you want your new animation to link to something, like your Squidoo referral link, then you replace the http in the a href tag with your Squidoo referral link. Your code will then look something like this:

< href=" http://www.squidoo.com/lensmaster/referral/Eclectic_Muse " target="_blank">< src="http://the photobucket URL .jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"> < /a >

Note I have spaces throughout the example. Your working code will be space free. Call me lazy but I didn't take the time to create snapshots of the html code for illustration on this post. You can get some great html tips from N376, and beeobrian's lens HTML for Photos: A Tutorial for the Semi-clueless. I have some other HTML helpers linked in My Squidoo Cheat-Sheet, if you need more resources.

If you just want to have the animation without a link you remove the a href tag. You code will then look something like this:

< src="http://the photobucket URL .jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket">

If you do not remove the a href tag, your animation will link back to your image on photobucket.

Here's some useful erroneous information for you:

a href="URL" is your link tag
img src="..." is you image tag
target="_blank" opens your link in another window so your page still remains viewable by your reader.
alt="Photobucket" is your image title. In IE when you hover your mouse over the image whatever is written in the alt tag is displayed. I like to change the alt tag to something related to my lens, to my keyword/keyword phrase, or to my URL.
border="0" is the border around your image.

Check out how I used some of the animated graphics on the Mexican Food Group!

Squidoo To-Do:

Consider adding animated graphics to your lenses
Learn html and make it work to your advantage
Utilize free resources and give them kudos

Squidoo Lens Health Check: Striving for "Great"

2009-01-21T10:11:00.004-06:00

I've been working on updating and adding content to my Squidoo lenses all morning. As lensmasters know, the Lens Health check, developed by the Fluffanutta, has been added to the workshop. I had been using the health check through SquidUtils occasionally, but having it right in the workshop is so handy.

I'm trying to ensure my lenses are all great. This is not the easiest thing to do. Right now, about half way through my checks, I've got good to great...Seemingly a "great" title is impossible to achieve nor is a "great" intro title.

I have gotten a great check or two for my introductions. I noticed those I have more than 80 words get great checks. I obviously have some introductions to work on.

I'm stuck with good marks on my intro image and tags also. I just can't figure out how to get great marks across the board.

Maybe I'm putting too much into it. Maybe every check can't be great.

At least I'm eliminating the negative "needs work" marks.

Another thing I've been doing with my lenses is adjusting the royalty settings to combined on all of them. Prior to this update I only had 5 lenses donating to charity. I decided a portion of all my lenses should be donated to charity. You know what they say, you must give in order to recieve.

Lastly, I'm adding google blogs/news modules to some of my recipe lenses. I did a search and found some great recipes showing up in various google blogs using my lens keyword for the search. I really hope that counts for fresh lens content.

Squidoo To-Do:

Give lenses a health check regularly
Finish changing charity settings
Add fresh content through google blogs module

Working on Lens and Time Management

2009-01-19T11:30:00.006-06:00

Every day I try to do something productive. If I'm not writing posts, building or updating a lens, or visiting those who have taken the time to visit me, I'm stagnating. I found the way I'm going about getting things done is not working. So I'm going to work on my time management skills.

I have my computer set up to maintain itself on Wednesdays. I know this and for whatever reason I always seem to get myself into the lens building mood on Wednesday. Then I'm forced to suspend the computer from its duties or stop my creative vein from flowing. I'm going to change my computer's schedule.

Why am I bringing this up? Last Wednesday I posted here about some lenses I'd like to start building. Of course I got into the mood to begin those lenses. About the same time the computer maintenance began. The whole system bogged down and I lost some valuable work before I was able to suspend the computer.

All is on an even keel now. I have 3 WIP lenses on my topic choices. I hope to get one, if not all, of those lenses finished and published this week, probably on Wednesday.

I'm up to 59 lenses now. I'm finding maintaining them relatively easy as far as ad link checks go. My Pepperjam Affiliates are really handy about notifying me when a link needs to be eliminated or changed.

Where I'm having problems with lens management is content. Fresh content is apparently where it's at. Looking at my lenses I see some are not really geared for me to add much content to them. For instance the recipe lenses are not going to get much updating, save the ads, unless I come up with a recipe that compliments my own or a new creation similar to the original. I'll be watching some other recipe lenses to see what they are doing to combat this dilemma.

Squidoo To-Do:

Work on time management
Follow recipe lenses for content freshness
Finish WIP lenses

It's Squidoo News to Me: PotPieGirl's Top 100 List and Some Personal Stuff

2009-01-14T09:30:00.004-06:00

I was just reading through posts on blogs I follow and have linked to my blogs. To my surprise, I have news. My Squidoo blog, the one you're reading now, has been named in PotPieGirl's top 100 Squidoo blogs! See Post. I'm honored and shocked.

I've been playing a lot of catch up lately. I know it seems I'm always saying that, but life never stops around this house. I posted on Inspired Day by Day that my Father-in-Law passed on Christmas Eve in "Dear Dad...". His passing has really taken a toll on our family and especially Mom.

Christmas just was not all that happy go lucky as it has been in past years. The whole week between Christmas and New Years was filled with getting things together for Dad's funeral, which happened to fall on New Year's Eve.

We had family in from all over the states. It was really nice for my husband to see some of his cousins, his sister, and an aunt he hadn't seen in years. After the funeral we had a reception at our home.

All in all, I've decided to turn these experiences into a Squidoo lens or ten. I was thinking about several different topics: funeral planning, dealing with grief, loss of spouse, loss of parent/grandparent and so on. I know there is a lot of this information on the Internet and on Squidoo, but I want to put my experiences/thoughts out there.

So I've added a few things to my New Year's plate. I mentioned in my last post I wanted to work on my WIP lenses. I did two of those last week and finally got them published. I still have one to go. I think I'm going to put off the Tamale lens for a bit so I can focus on my new lens ideas.

I must remember is everything is not written in granite, change can be a good thing. Life is short, too short. I intend to do everything I can to better myself, fuflill my dreams, and keep my family together.

Squidoo To-Do:

Continue updating current lenses and ads, a never ending process
Research keywords for new lens ideas
Seek Pepperjam affiliates that align with new topics

Playing around with Squidoo

2008-12-23T09:02:00.004-06:00

I love the new workshop at Squidoo! Yesterday I had to perform quite a few updates for Pepperjam. The work was so much easier. I loved it so much I added modules and rearranged things I hadn't planned on previously.

Today the girls and I are making Tamales. I was thinking about building a lens on our experiences. We started the process yesterday actually. It's a two day ordeal. I went to get my digital to snap some pictures for the lens and it was dead...I put it on the charger so I could get images today. Most of the work comes today anyway.

Once I get the lens together, I'll be adding it to my Mexican Food Group to show off our work. Speaking of the group, since I built it, I haven't done much with it promotion wise. I really need to get more lenses on there. A few lensmasters have joined on their own. I suppose I should add promoting it to my list of things to do in the New Year.

I'm still working on some other WIP lenses. I've got two banked. If I add a Tamale lens, then I'll have three new ones after New Year's Day.

Strangly, my Recipes Using Cream of Mushroom Soup: Versatility in a Can! lens has overtaken My Squidoo Cheat-Sheet in popularity. I've decided to examine that lens closely to see what I did differently. My other recipe lenses aren't getting near the hits.

One thing else I noted is the mushroom lens isn't getting rated like the cheat-sheet had been. I'm assuming one of two things: visitors are non-Squidoo members or visitors want to try the recipes before they rate it.

I'm off to make Tamales...

Squidoo To-Do:

Promote Mexican Food Group
Work on WIP lenses for January publish
Examine popular lenses to apply techniques to others

Squidoo: Planning for the New Year

2008-12-12T09:07:00.004-06:00

I've been working on a new lens. It seems my lens efforts have slowed with the holidays. Hopefully I can get back into the swing of things after New Year's Day.

I had a pleasant surprise on Squidoo this morning. I've hit the double digits on page view earnings. This is truly inspiring. Along with what I've got coming from Pepperjam I'm elated. Still combined I'm no where near what some are earning, but I can see the potential on the horizon.

I've been diligently working on updating my lenses and visiting the lenses of those wonderful lensmasters who have added me to their favorites. There is really a lot of great work out there. I wish I had more hours in the day so I could explore more.

Though I have a lot going on this month, next month I will be concentrating on building lenses. I've added a few new affiliates to my list at Pepperjam and I want to build some lenses specifically for them.

I've gotten pretty good at running through my current lenses to check links, spy errors, and add content. I don't know how well I'll keep up once I have 100 or more lenses, but I'll do my best.

Squidoo to-do:

Work up New Year's plan
Continue updates
Step up Pepperjam lenses

Working Updates, Link Issues, and Building Up Lenses

2008-11-25T10:49:00.006-06:00

I've made it through some more updates on a few lenses. Working the updates and keeping things as fresh as possible is a daunting task.

One issue I'm having is with my Dereon lenses: Girls clothes and Bar tending. I want to have images linking to the items for visitors to purchase, if they like. Customers can click and shop without having to hunt. Should be a win/win situation, right? Well, my links keep dying.

Just about every other week, sometimes less, I have to check the links. It's only happening with the Dereon lenses. My other Pepperjam affiliate links update on their own.

Then there's an issue when an item sells out. If I have the item pictured, the link dies there too. It would be nice if the link went to another similar item, or even the home page for search, rather than just becoming a dead link. I've noticed a couple of the other programs I'm promoting do that.

Finally, I'm trying to build up some of my thin lenses. I'm adding content and widgets or images everywhere I can. I've got a couple of WIP lenses I have yet to publish because they are so thin.

I think my favorite content builder is the Wikipedia module. However, it fails to load sometimes or the content changes from what I originally loaded. To combat that problem I've added in extra youtube videos. I know my own content is best, but the Wikipedia makes nice filler until you write up something suitable on your own.

Squidoo To-Do:

Keep on top of updates
Check links often
Fatten up thin lenses

Squidoo Lens Updates: An Update

2008-11-06T15:18:00.004-06:00

I finally finished updating all the bios on my lenses with ads. What a chore that was. I've already started to see some of the PPC (pay per click) on Pepperjam. Hey it's only pennies, but every penny counts.

I joined another advertiser too. I added them to my Bettas: The Fish Full of Personality lens. Heck I'm hoping I can get really good at all this affiliate stuff just so I can shop at that aquarium place!

I started playing around with Pepperjam's new store builder. I can add the code to my blogs but not to the lenses. I hope they get it set up so you can add them to your lenses. I really think they're more for that than a blog. However, you never know.

Squidoo to-do:

If you haven't done it yet, Join Pepperjam Network today!
Update lenses
Utilize new tools and modules

Squidoo: Busy is Good!

2008-10-24T15:37:00.003-05:00

I've been crazy busy today. This week I got a lot of comments on Squidoo. I have my comments on approval because I want to know when a comment comes in so I can reciprocate. I decided this after I found a comment on a lens I had never seen...Long story short, I think having your Squidoo comments on approval is better. Each has their own method.

So I've been visiting a lot of lenses this week. For the most part I'm leaving comments to let the lensmaster know I was there. If I don't leave a comment, I favorite the lens or lens roll it or do both.

I also started updating the bios on all my lenses. I want each lens to have a semi unique bio. Or, I should say, I want to post more ads in that space. Some of my lens bios are directing visitors to my new Mexican Food Group and ads. Some bios are reiterating the point of the lens and ads. Some are just ads. Hey, I'm no fool, the ads bring in revenue.

See The Butterfly Alphabet Book for an example.

Squidoo to-do:

Update those bios!
Utilize ads, they are your friend
Understand the power of Squidoo

Building Squidoo Lenses with QuickBuilder

2008-10-16T07:09:00.004-05:00

I published a new Squidoo lens using a template I built with QuickBuilder. Oh how quickly this lens came together: Porcelain Figurines Make Fine Gifts! I'm so happy I went to all the effort to get to Giant Squid status.

The lens is specifically for one of my PepperjamNetwork...sign up today! Affiliate partners:

Granted, I wanted to get the lens published fast, so I'm not quite finished with it. I need to add more content and grab more links...All in good time (I hope).

Building the lens was an experiment. I needed to build a lens for TheFineChinaStore.com
as Christmas is swiftly approaching and I want to take advantage of potential revenue from sales--there are a lot of porcelain collectors in the world.

My first attempt failed. Of course I clicked build a lens and proceeded through the normal course of lens building. When I got to the module point I could not understand why the template I created was not there. I went back to the QuickBuilder to figure out what went wrong and discovered I had to start the lens with the program. Live and Learn.

I deleted a lens for the first time ever. Boy when you delete a lens, Squidoo really makes sure you want to delete that puppy.

In the end my QuickBuilder experiment was successful.

Squidoo to-do:

Learn from your mistakes
Update and add content
Find and fix broken links

Lots to-do on Squidoo

2008-10-10T06:42:00.005-05:00

I've been filtering through the Squidoo Giant information. It's all starting to make sense now. Once you become a Giant, things get easier. One thing that gets much easier is you can build lenses faster using templates you create. This is really going to be helpful to me.

Since I like to use basically the same module format, having those templates ready and waiting is going to be a fantastic time saver. Yesterday I made a couple of templates just to get the feel of it. I'm telling you it's going to be like having the wind up my sail for me on Squidoo from now on!

I'm still working on editing those lenses I built to submit to the Giant program. I've got a lot of work to do on that front...I've got one lens WIP I need to get published. I'm going to start building new lenses next week to try out the new templates.

Squidoo to-do:

On the road to Giant Squid? Read the "So You Want to be a Giant Squid" ebook!
Check out the useful Squidoo lenses on My Squidoo Cheat-Sheet.
Build lenses and keep them fresh!

I'm a Giant Squid on Squidoo!

2008-10-07T15:15:00.004-05:00

I can't believe it...I'm a Giant Squid! I'd like to thank all the judges for considering and accepting me into the Giant Squid program. I'd like to thank my family for putting up with my excessive computer time in the final weeks before submitting to become Giant Squid.

I'm so taken aback by this and honored. Check out my shiny new badge: on My Squidoo Cheat-Sheet!

All of the hard work to get my lenses presentable paid off. I have to tell you, now, I really had a hard time with my computer the last month. It became almost unbearable at times. I have it all under control now--check out Inspired Day by Day post.

So, I'm a Giant Squid...I've seen a lot of Giants on Squidoo. I've really got to put my nose to the grind stone now.

Squidoo to-do:

Check out the Squidoo Giant stuff
Build more lenses
Keep working on edits

Submitted to Squidoo Giants, Now the Work Begins

2008-10-03T15:42:00.004-05:00

I had an epiphany on the 30th and battened down the hatches around here. Since I said I was going to submit to the Giant Squid program, I completed all 50 plus 1. Okay, I made last few kind of short. I had to in order to get them submitted. I always try to do what I say I'll do.

With that done, I'm in wait mode. They say the results will (should) be posted on Monday. Here's hoping I made it with what I had. If I didn't there is always the next round.

Now I have to work on bringing those baby lenses up to par. I used the same module format I have been using. Wiki-Text-Amazon spotlight-Amazon-Blackbox-Twitter-Guestbook-Contents. If Wiki does not have an article it gets scrapped. Depending on the lens topic I might throw in a You tube, Duel, or Plexo. Knowing exactly which modules I'll use each time helps me speed up the layout a bit.

Squidoo to-do:

Set modules
Update lenses
Edit content over and over again--I found two typos on one lens last week!

Giant Squid: 50 Lenses Onward and Upward

2008-09-23T08:55:00.005-05:00

Forty down and ten to go! Working toward my goal to be a Giant Squid has been overwhelming at times. So much to do...

I'm beginning to think I won't make the 50 mark in time for the September 30 deadline. There are certian requirements other than number. For instance rank, views, quality, ratings...Among others.

I completed "Career Matching Made Easy" this morning. It's an affiliate lens for my work on PepperjamNetwork.com - Next generation affiliate marketing. I'll be making a couple more lenses for other affiliate partners I've got this week. This should help me get to the 50 mark a little faster. However, I don't want to lose quality in a mad rush to hit 50.

In the last week I completed three more food lenses:

The Cream Cheese lens is submitted to the Squidinner Appetizer contest lens. I'm telling you, submitting to those contest lenses is really worth it. I'm getting page views and a lot of click through from them. More so now than ever. I'm also enjoying reading the other submissions--I'm getting great ideas for other lenses and improvements I can make on my own.

Squidoo to-do:

Stay on task with goals
Maintain quality
Enter contests: gain viewers and learn from others

Squidoo Lens Promotion: Enter Contests!

2008-09-17T08:52:00.003-05:00

Well I've certainly got the Squidoo promotion bug! I mentioned I entered the Squidboo Halloween lens contest with my lens, Carve the Perfect Pumpkin for Halloween. I thought, if anything it's good for lens promotion. Now I'm on a roll entering lenses into lens promotion contests all over.

I found two more lens promotion contests: Squidinner Main Dishes and Squidinner Soup Recipes! So I entered my Recipes Using Cream of Mushroom Soup: Versatility in a Can! on the main dishes and my Cabbage Soup for a Healthier You! on the soup contest lens.

I have to say I've been seeing a lot more traffic since implementing my Squidoo Mission to become a Giant. I've had the idea to become a Giant Squid for a long time. So building lenses to meet the criteria was a given. I also have been reading, voting, and commenting on other lenses since the beginning. But entering lens contests is all new.

My thoughts are, winning or losing doesn't matter. What does matter is the promotional aspect of entering my lenses. I will gain exposure, gain links, and maybe even win.

Squidoo to-do:

Enter contests
Join groups
Read, rate, and comment on lenses

My Squidoo Schedule: Build, Network, Link

2008-09-15T09:04:00.004-05:00

My Squidoo quest is moving right along. I've actually come up with a little Squidoo schedule (so to speak) I'd like to share.

As everyone knows time is precious. It never seems there is enough of it. Working on my Squidoo lenses has taken up the majority of my time lately.

Build:

Just about every day I sign onto Squidoo. If I have a lens in progress, I try to add some content to it so I can get it published as quickly as possible. For instance, I'll add an image, add a module, or research some content I would like to put in. It seems my turn around from starting a lens to getting it published is between 2-4 days.

If I come up with an idea for a lens, I get it rolling right away. I'll hit Google ad words and come up with a URL I feel will be fairly decent and discoverable. (Check out this SEO post. I've put a lot of links to my other blog in this post. Some very useful information and sources to peruse). This is something I did not do with my first lenses.

Once it's become a WIP, I delete/add modules. Then I'll go through and title those modules. One big issue I've seen with most Squidoo Giants and Angels is those module titles can make or break your lens. It's all part of making your lens your own.

Then I get to adding content. Most times I'll write some content up then step away for a day. Then I edit. I think most of the best lensmasters are like this.

Before I hit the publish button I go over it once more. I check each module title, ensure I have a table of contents, and a guest book. All in all, the process probably takes me between 4 and 8 hours of work total.

Network:

Networking is a big part of making Squidoo work for you. Now that I've got some lenses under my belt, I've been pressing on networking hard. I'm visiting similar lenses and lensrolling them to mine, I'm joining groups, and I'm visiting the lenses of my favorites and commenting. I'm networking probably between 3-4 hours a week. Shesh, that's not enough, I really need to bump it up.

Link:

Finally, I'm getting my lenses linked everywhere I can. Thank goodness for tabs. I didn't do much linking in the beginning. Poor oversight on my part. I'm getting to those early stragglers though. Backlinks are the backbone of your lens so link, link, link. Adding links is consuming about 1 hour a week.

Squidoo to-do:

Build lenses
Check out other lenses, visit group lenses, visit lenses of your favorites
Link your lenses to your blog(s), sites, and anywhere else you can

Squidoo Mission: Become a Giant Squid!

2008-09-12T09:18:00.003-05:00

I've been on a mission to become a Giant Squid. While reading through Squidoo blogs I came across a fun contest for lensmasters on the road to Giant Squid-dom: A Halloween Contest for Future Giants. A Halloween Squidoo lens submission is required.

I built and entered a lens: Carve the Perfect Pumpkin for Halloween! If you're on a mission to become a Giant Squid, you should check the contest out and submit a lens. If not, check out my submission and vote it up on the Contest lens...I'm shameless, I know.

In the spirit of the contest, I got on a roll and built another Halloween geared lens: Halloween Ghosts and Goblins Beware! Costumes for Kids are Everywhere... It's not a contest lens because I didn't use the Squidboo.com template. But I think it's pretty good for my Affiliate work.

Squidoo to-do:

Build lenses
Read lenses and blogs about Squidoo
Enter contests to make yourself known in Squidoo land

Joining Squidoo Groups

2008-09-08T10:40:00.003-05:00

Toward the end of last week I was thinking heavily about Squidoo promotion. What else can I do? Then it occurred to me about joining Squidoo Groups. I had joined a few and saw an increase in traffic on those lenses.

So why haven't I been joining more Squidoo groups? Well, during the summer I had all I could do to build the lenses I did and fulfill other obligations I had. So I put joining Squidoo groups on hold.

This week I'm joining groups. I've got several lenses submitted and I'll be submitting more. I'm even thinking of making a group of my own.

Squidoo to-do:

Submit your lenses to appropriate Squidoo groups.
Be sure to visit the lenses of other group members and either rate, fav, or sign the guestbook so they know you've visited.
If the group has polls, duels, or guestbooks, do some interacting and take advantage of them!