Here Are Some New Lenses I've Put Together

Well, I've been busy creating lenses and once again, here are my latest lenses. The first one is Jellycat which features the cute little plush toys from the company of the same name. There are over 180 different variations of these soft little toys. Hopefully people will find the lens in time for Christmas, but it is one that should continue to grow after the holidays.

Another one I've put together is for the Montreal Canadiens' team captain, Saku Koivu. I've already got a bunch of hockey lenses on Gordie Howe, Maurice Richard, and newcomers, Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin.

I Finally Got Myself A Halloween Lens

Hopefully, I'll be able to cobble together some more for next year, but I do have a new Halloween lens. I've called it Ghost Pictures and it's a lens showing a bunch of photographs about scary spookies and ghosties and the like with some cool video throw in. I just felt I had to put something together for Halloween. Tell me what you think. I kinda like it. Now I've really got to concentrate on putting out some Xmas lenses. I've been mulling over quite a few ideas, and have one almost finished (mentioned below), but the ideas just keep popping into my melon so I put them on the back burner. It's a good thing I write my ideas down. I've got a couple of booklets where I scribble ideas and diagrams and such. Maybe I should just walk away for a week. Nah, I can't!

I've also put together a Christmas lens called iPods For Christmas, but it's still a work in progress, but hopefully it'll be up and running later this evening. Other new lenses are Jon Hamm (the lead guy from Mad Men), and of course my brand new Hockey group lens, Hockey World Headquarters. Including that Xmas lens I still have 16 more lenses waiting in the wings!

I really need to slow down and re-assess my current lenses. At this rate I'll have 200 by Christmas.

I've Started A Squidoo Group

I've taken the plunge. I just started my first group and it has 34 lenses in it already. Called Hockey World, basically if you have a Squidoo lens with anything hockey related, join and you're in. So far it's mostly contains individual players, but there are some others like Detroit Red Wings win the Cup again. There's a Gordie Howe lens, a Maurice Richard lens. You get the picture. Also, it has Sid the Kid and Ovechkin. Take a look and let me know what you think.

4 New Modules Now Available For Your Squidoo Lens

Squidoo just keeps adding to the list of tools available to lensmasters. There are four new types of modules that you can use to create your lenses:

1. Big Picture Module
2. Amazon MP3 Module
3. Amazon Search Module
4. Twitter Search Module

I'm especially happy to see the module which allows you to put a larger picture in your lens. I've been using the polaroid mod a lot and I'm not entirely happy with it. Hopefully I'll be able to replace some polaroids with even larger pictures. I'll test it out and get back to you.

The Amazon MP3 mod is interesting, but I think it would work best with music lenses. Of course, I'm wondering if I can use it to allow visitors to listen to TV show theme songs (are they available?).

The Amazon Search mod will be handy to help your visitors find related topics to those you are showcasing on your lens. Maybe you have the latest Stephen King book and your visitor might want to look for other horror books or books also written by the novelist. There are many variations on this idea that you can use.

Finally, there's the Twitter Search mod. Seth Godin wrote about twitter search recently in his blog. I haven't really used Twitter too much, but I know many lensmasters love this option and have mentioned using it to generate traffic.

It seems Squidoo is continually adding to the lensmaster's repertoire. These new mods will allow yet another way for you to differentiate your lens from someone elses. What's going to show up next from Squidoo?

Craigslist As A SEO Tool For Squidoo? Who Knew?

One of the better lensmasters at Squidoo shared some news about how the site craigslist had a posting with a link to her Squidoo lens called How to Reuse Toilet-Paper Rolls and she's getting a fair bit of traffic going to her lens. The lens shows a huge number of uses that the lowly toilet paper roll can be used for (there's even video!).

There's always different ways to generate traffic and sometimes it comes from unexpected sources as this. It just shows that if you create offbeat and useful lenses, people will find you. The lens in question is just one of many that promote recycling and going green. Now, if only I could get someone at craigslist to mention a couple of my lenses...

Hey I Got Chosen Lensmaster of the Day at Squidoo!

What is up with that? Apparently I've been selected as the Lensmaster of the Day for my work at Squidoo. For real! The link above leads to the page that gives all the gory details.

I'm glad that this is only for one day because I hate having the spotlight on me like this, but I am honored. How can they put my feeble efforts alongside Judy and Crystal, both of whom are so much better at lensmaking then I am? I didn't know that some of my lenses had reached a Google rank of 2. The page highlights 3 of my lenses, The Richest Man In Babylon, I Lost 50 Pounds in 6 Months, and Traitor: The Case of Benedict Arnold. To me, they are actually unfinished and need to be updated. Yeesh! Hopefully, new visitors won't be disappointed, especially after seeing the previous LMOTD winners' excellent lenses. I wish I had time to fix them up a little bit more. It's like when you have unexpected visitors and your house is a mess. I should run over and sweep up a bit before anyone shows up.

Still I'm VERY honored at the recognition. I read something about getting a badge of some kind on the Squidoo forums which is cool. I can't wait to see who is next to get LMOTD. Many thanks to Portable_eBay who came up with the Lensmaster of the Day honor.

Seth Godin's New Book "Tribes"

Hey, Seth's new book is available from Amazon! Seth Godin's latest book is called Tribes: We Need You To Lead Us, will be unleashed on the public 16October and is also available as an Audio CD. You might want to pick up a copy for yourself or for the online marketer in the family (Mom are you reading this? Darn, I knew I should have told her about my blog.)

Here's a list of some other bestsellers from marketing whiz Seth Godin that you can also take a look for at Amazon:

Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync?
The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)
Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
The Big Red Fez: How To Make Any Web Site Better
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers
All Marketers are Liars

Seth is a busy guy. He's an author and also the guy who started Squidoo. If you haven't been to Squidoo, take a look. It's a great site where you can make some money simply by writing about whatever you want.

New Giant Squids Announced at Squidoo

Congratulations to the 15 newly annointed Giant Squids over at Squidoo. Here's a list of those I've seen who have been given Giant status and a link to them:

beeobrien
vbright105
LindaJM
Joan4
stargazer00
icjackson
a_willow
NancyOram
RichLeigh
ebay-grandma
Stazjia
JasonE
naturegirl7
Mac33
lakeerieartists


If I've missed anyone, let me know and I'll get you a link. If you have any questions about what being a Giant Squid means, look at RMS' Giant Squid Mentor lens, and also, GypsyPirate's Giant Squid FAQ's.

Others who didn't make the cut this time around, hang in there! It's a momentary setback and keep up the hard work. You should make it easily when the next Giant Squids get chosen. Deadline ends 31 December 2008.

Payday At Squidoo!

Hey, today's the day all you Squids have been waiting for! PAYDAY! From the ruckus on the forums it sounds like most folks are very happy with what they've earned with their lenses. On a personal level, I earned a tiny $0.08 which was actually a surprise for me because I didn't think I deserved anything. I joined Squidoo 14 August 2008, and started working on my first lens... and got no traffic, no visitors. Nothing except a colossal feeling that I had to do better. After 2 weeks I had a few more lenses and some visits from some of the great folks at Squidoo who encouraged me on to greater things.

I got cracking and soon had 20 lens! And some traffic (not much but it was starting to show up). This payout was for the entire month of August. Squidoo pays out a whole month after the end of each month. Therefore, September's payout should be paid out about this same time next month. The payout is usually based on what each lens ranked on average for the entire month. That first lens I created was in the top 2,000 for just about the entire month of September, so I can expect to earn at least $10 for it next month. $10 is the minimum payout figure that you have to earn before you actually receive your money (through PayPal).

The Squidoo payouts are based on your monthly lens ranking, with the top tier being those with an overall ranking of 1-about 2,000. Each of those lenses earned their lensmasters $10.87 per lens. The rest of the lenses are paid on a sliding scale. I've had one lens in the top tier all through September and October so I believe something similar will be provided next month. I've also got several other lenses hovering near the top 2K, so possibly I could see $20-plus. Several other lensmasters have mentioned their individual earnings with a couple mentioning earning "four figures" while others have had more modest earnings. I think that might be where I'd like to be positioned in about a year.

Most lensmasters advise that it can be as long as 6 months before you will see anything substantial as far as earnings and I am working hard to get where I want to be, but in the meantime, I am just enjoying creating lenses about topics I enjoy writing about, adding cool pictures and video and adding eBay and Amazon links and watching as my traffic seems to increase each day. Some lensmasters easily get 200-300 unique visitors each and every day to each of their lenses. Some get more, some much less. I'm on the low end, but some lenses are beginning to show some life traffic-wise and most seem to be moving up the rankings. Each month I expect to see more and more money being generated, but the best part is this doesn't feel like work. It's fun, the people are great, the forums are informative and you can get paid. What more could you ask for?!

Giant Squid By December?

I've decided to revise my goals and put myself forward for Giant Squid status for the next round in December 2008. To become a Giant Squid, you need to create 50 quality lenses. I have over 100 already and I think many would meet the scrutiny of any selection committee, but I refrained from putting my name in for September's round because to be honest, I don't think 50 of them are at the level, quality-wise, that would guarantee approval. You have to remember that I've only been creating lenses for since mid-august so although I have exceeded my own expectations, I don't think I've quite reached the point where I can request a Giant Squid patch for my lenses.

I have read in the Squidoo forums that some lensmakers think that just having a total of 50 lenses is enough to be selected. Others differ in their opinion, (and I'm on this side) and feel more quality is needed than sheer quantity. I know several of my lenses would easily pass, but by December, I will have had more time to polish up the best of my lenses and will have put together more which any lensmaster would be proud. I am currently working on 7 new lenses that I'm keeping in WIP (Work In Progress) status rather than creating them and publishing them immediately as I've done in the past. At least of them should have a good ranking and will have some traffic. I'll let you know here when I publish them and also I'll announce them in the Squidoo forum "Critique My Lens."

Currently there are about 179 lensmasters with Giant Squid status, with all the powers and priviledges that membership bestows. My plan is now to become one of them by December. Then I'll be taught the secret "tentacle handshake" and move on to my next goals which will be to make at least 1K from Squidoo and also join the even more exclusive Griant Squid Top 100 Club. Wish me luck!