Easily add great images to your Squidoo Lens

First, you'll need to decide on which category of images that you want to include on your lens.

Here are the step by step instructions to find some images:

1. Go to www.thelensflare.com.
   
   
2. Click on a link under the "Popular Artwork" section on the right side of the page. For example, if you clicked on "Landscape", you'll be taken to a gallery of landscape images. The URL for this gallery is: http://www.thelensflare.com/artwork/landscape
   
   
3. Change the last word in the address to any other single word and load that page. You'll see images related to that word.
   
   To give you an example, let's say you're creating a lens about dogs. You could try:
   http://www.thelensflare.com/artwork/pet, http://www.thelensflare.com/artwork/pets,
   http://www.thelensflare.com/artwork/dog, etc.
   
   
4. Bookmark the galleries that you like in your browser so that you can easily come back to them. I also copy the address into a text editor.
   
   
5. Click on the orange RSS link to the right of the gallery title.
   
   
6. Copy the URL of the RSS page to your text editor.
   

Once you know which photo gallery to include, it's time to add it to Squidoo's RSS Plexo.

1. Click on Add Modules
   
   
2. Click on RSS: Add Your Own Feed
   
   
3. Click on Preview Lens Layout
   
   
4. Drag your New RSS Feed to where you want it to fit between.
   
   
5. Click on Save
   
   
6. Scroll down until you see "RSS: Add Your Own Feed"
   
   
7. Click on Edit
   
   
8. Change the Title of the RSS Feed to relate to the category of images that you want to view.
   
   
9. Add a description. Since there are many more images in the galleries at The Lens Flare that won't be displayed on your Squidoo lens, it's a good idea to post a link to the gallery. This is an easy thing to do since you copied the gallery's URL in step 4 of the instructions for The Lens Flare.
   
   Posting a link is an easy thing to do. All you need to do is create an anchor html tag, which looks like this:
   
   <a href='The Lens Flare Address'>Gallery Name</a>
   
   Put the real URL where it says "The Lens Flare Address", with the http:// portion. Where it says "Gallery Name", put the name of the gallery. For example, if you're creating a link to the dog gallery, it would look like:
   
   <a href='http://www.thelensflare.com/artwork/dog'>Dog</a>
   
   
10. Enter the address to the RSS page on the question where it asks, "What URL would you like to pull RSS from?" This is the address you copied in step 3 and 4 of The Lens Flare instructions. To give you a hint, these are the addresses that end in ".xml".
    
    
11. Enter the number of pictures you want to show.
    
    
12. Change how much of the excerpt you want to show from "No Excerpt" to either "Except (100 Characters)" or "Everything Available".
    
    
13. Since the galleries are rebuilt once a day on The Lens Flare, leave the frequency question to "1 day".
    
    
14. Choose "yes" to display HTML. Otherwise, your pictures will not be displayed.
    
    
15. Click Save.
    

Be sure to publish your Squidoo lens so that your new plexo will show up to the public. Now, your page will have a list of some great pictures on your lens and will be updated from time to time automatically as new pictures are added that relate to your subject.

In addition to adding a category of images, you can add an RSS feed to your Squidoo lens for a specific artist or photographer's album, as well as several general galleries such as new, most popular, recently viewed, and newest comments for both the site as a whole or for a specific artist or photographer.

The Lens Flare is a friendly picture gallery that anyone can join. It's family friendly and viewable by all ages so you don't have to worry that images might void your "G" Squidoo lens rating.

It's free, quick, and easy to join and start uploading images. To join, visit the registration page, which consists of a simple email verification process. Accounts can be upgraded to include more features, but the free version includes enough features to include numerous RSS feeds into your Squidoo lenses.