Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Still Updating Groups

Boy, updating my groups has been very time consuming. I hope that the work will be worth it. I am only about a third of the way at the time of this post on my Natural Health group. So far, the work seems to be paying off as it is now number 2 in the health category.

I am hoping that Squidoo will find the time to fix the groups. They desperately need new modules and tools.

It has been so time consuming that I have barely had the time to make any new lenses. I snuck in a quick Squidwho site today on one of my favorite mixed martial artist, Urijah Faber.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Squidoo Groups

Squidoo groups are generally neglected. Only a few lensmasters responsibly handle their groups.

There are many reasons for this problem. One problem is the ease of making a group. Anyone can start one, but few actually regularly moderate them.

There there is the problem with auto accept or manual accept. Manual takes a lot of time, but is the best way to ensure quality lenses to be included into your group.

Recently, Cinetech contacted me and we had a discussion about my Squidlit group. He helped to inspire me to actively run this group and to promote ever lens that is accepted. After spending the last few hours of booting lenses that do not belong, and featuring the others, If feel that me lens is ready to be viewed. So here it is for your to see, All Squidlit.

If you have any quality Squidlit lenses, feel free to submit them and if I like them, they will be accepted and featured.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Using Squidoo To Promote A Charitable Event

My wife came to me to ask my help in regards to lens building. A friend of hers from work has a son named Ausin who recently passed away from neuroblastoma. This June, they are throwing their third annual cancer crushing carnival to help raise funds for neurblastoma research.

The carnival is small, mostly friends and neighbors. It was always fun for both kids and grown ups alike, and most importantly, they have raised a decent amount of money at every carnival.

This year, they wanted a website, but did not have any funding for building one in their budget. This is where Squidoo comes in.

Thanks to Squidoo, we build a free site to help promote the carnival, give directions, and to get a head count.

Being a lensmaster is really a blessing, not only can we help supplement our incomes, we can also help others. Keep your mind open to ways that you too may be able to help with a charity or a fund raiser.

To learn more about Austin's fund raising carnival, visit Cancer Crushing Carnival

Monday, May 19, 2008

Using Squidaholic For Lens Ideas

Tonight I was watching Hannity's America and he did a piece on crystal skulls. I later was watching another news program and the same topic came up.

This made me decide to go to Squidaholic to see if crystal skulls was a top search term. Sure enough, It was number 5 on the list of most popular searches on Google for the day.

So that inspired me to make a quick lens, http://www.squidoo.com/crystal-skulls. If you are ever stuck for a topic, don't hesitate to check out squidaholic for some inspiration on hot search topics to make a lens on.


Sunday, May 18, 2008

Using Amazon Spotlight To Promote Star Wars Books

For my first post about lenses I want to talk about how great Amazon Spotlight modules are. Amazon Spotlight modules promote one particular product instead of up to five like the traditional Amazon Module. You can see how I use these modules at my Star Wars Books lens.

In my opinion, the Amazon Spotlight is the best choice if you are highlighting 1 item, or in this case several that are all on the same topic. I did not use the traditional Amazon Module because the individual books would have been clustered in groups of 5 and I believe that they look better and are more detailed with the spotlight.

I also took advantage of using the Amazon ratings and the list price which can be selected when editing the module under the display options.


My First Post From A Giant Squid

I created this blog to help showcase some of my favorite Squidoo lenses. Some of these will be my own, and others will be from some of the best of the other Giant Squids out there.

I will also be sharing tips and tricks for building lenses and some of my favorite methods of lens promotion.