Angel in Disguise

Buy at AllPosters.com

The best thing about being an Angel is being able to bless a lens. As an Angel, you know you are going to give pleasure and encouragement to the lensmaster and the lens will get a short-term boost in rank as well.

A ding is the opposite. Your lens is bad and it breaks Squidoo's Terms of Service (TOS). Actually, even if it's a great lens in appearance and writing, if it infringes the TOS, it will still get dinged. The people in Squidoo HQ didn't write them because they were bored. They wrote the TOS to keep the junk lenses off Squidoo. The junk hurts all the good lensmasters who work hard on making great lenses that conform to the rules because junk lenses give Squidoo as a whole a bad reputation that rubs off on everybody. Make sure you are part of the solution, not part of the problem.

Buy at AllPosters.com

I believe that you have to capture your visitor's attention the moment they come onto your lens. It must look attractive and inviting so that people want to read it. You have a heartbeat or two before someone will bounce away if anything puts them off.

I won't bless a lens that doesn't have a picture of the lensmaster or an avatar and which still has the default text in the bio section, top right.

I want to see a well planned lens with some kind of logic to the order of modules.

Pictures are usually essential, they relieve a text heavy appearance and make a lens more attractive. There should always be a picture in the Introduction module.

The writing style should be clear and easy to understand. I don't expect to be sent elsewhere, even if it is to your own blog or website, to get the information the title of the lens promises.

Care should be taken with spelling, punctuation and grammar. Correct usage helps make your meaning clear.

Write original content, don't copy and paste large passages of text. If you do copy and paste a small section, make sure you have permission (unless it's so small that it is covered by 'fair use') and that you cite your source with a link. This also applies to all graphics. Using text or pictures without permission is plagiarism.

Show your passion for your subject. Let me see you are interested in it. If appropriate, express your personal opinion or relate a relevant personal experience.

Personal experience and opinions are particularly important if you are writing about a product whether it is a book, DVD, electronic device, computer program, website or anything at all. If you don't write from this perspective, how can I trust you to tell me if it's worthwhile buying?

Except for the ones from allposters.com, all pictures shown here are in the Public Domain and I found them on Wikipedia Commons.