What is this concept of a "Lensography" that you've been hearing so much about?
A lensography is very simply defined as a lens created by a Squidoo Lensmaster about their lenses. Now, if you are new to Squidoo, the logic behind creating such a lens may not be obvious to you. But if you've been using Squidoo long enough to become addicted to building lenses, have become a member of the Giant Squid Squad, and especially if you are a member of Squidaholics Anonymous, then the necessity for one will become quite clear. As a Giant Squid with close to 200 lenses so far, I found the lens list provided on our Profile Page to be less than ideal, and I wanted more. I wanted a way for viewers to more easily browse my collection of lenses, and a way to easily invite them to visit, and so I built my own Lensography.
To help those of you are new to Squidoo and just starting to build lenses, I'm creating this lens to provide you some guidelines for creating your own lensographies. I'll also provide some good Best Practices you can use during the creation process, based on my own experiences. When your lensography is completed, I have a Links Plexo module just for you to add a link to your lensography, so you can share your lenses with everyone else!
So Why Would A Lensmaster Want To Go To The Effort Of Creating A Lensography?
Every Squidoo lensmaster has a lens list included on their Squidoo Profile page; mine is located here. As you can see, I have a total of 186 lenses at this time. They are all listed under the heading of "My Lenses" and they are listed there in lensrank order. However, if you were looking for one specific lens of mine, and didn't have the correct URL or title, trying to find one lens among that long list would involve a lot of scrolling and reading. Not very efficient, is it?However, by creating a lensography, I have created something similar to the card catalog you would find at the library. What I have done is take my 186 lenses and organized them into various categories of like-topic lenses, so that if you wanted to see all of my Music lenses, you could find them in one section of my lensography, and skip over the Pokemon lenses that you weren't so interested in. This allows me to more efficiently get you to the content you are seeking, and by saving you time; hopefully you'll have a little more time to enjoy my lenses.
Additionally, I now have a unique URL available to market all of my Squidoo lenses. I use it as a signature line in various forums that I use, to bring new users over to Squidoo and show them the variety of ways that I'm using Squidoo.
As an extension of that, this also allows me to do targeted marketing for a GROUP of lenses by directing outside users to a specific category of lenses within my lensography. The URL can be modified to go directly to a specific module within my lens, so if I was posting in a music forum, I could modify the signature URL to go directly to my music oriented lenses.
My lensography is organized by category, and I have included a table of contents at the very top of the page. This allows the user to see all of my available categories, and then click on a topic to go directly to that section of lenses that they are interested in looking at in more detail.
"A lensography allows lensmasters to organize their list of lenses to optimize the viewer experience"
How To Define The Categories For Your Lensography
Categories are a totally optional approach to your lensography, you could just provide links to all of your lenses if you'd prefer. I recommend categories because I think they provide a much better viewer experience, and that first impression can mean so much!The easiest place to start planning out your categories is your Squidoo Dashboard, where you have all of your lenses listed. Start by scrolling up and down the list of lenses, and looking for any common themes or topics for which you have created multiple lenses. Write these categories down on a piece of scratch paper to start.
These categories can be as broad or as specific as you want - the more specific the categories you choose to work with, the smaller each group of lenses will be, and you'll probably have lots of small modules in your lensography. If you go with very broad categories, you'll have less total modules, but each module will be longer with a lot more lenses in each one.
Don't worry that you have to get everything perfect right at the start. Over time, as you continue to create new lenses and add them to your lensography, you might find that a category that is getting large could be broken up into two smaller categories. This is easily done by just inserting a new module and transferring the lenses from the old module to the new module, and deleting them from the old module.
Thinking in terms of the library card catalog, you could have just two categories : Fiction and Non-Fiction, but you'd be breaking your long list into two smaller, but still pretty long lists if you have a lot of lenses already. To be more organized and effective, I would suggest trying to go down at least one more level, and have a Miscellaneous category for any lenses that just don't quite fit in any of the categories you have written down.
You'll want to make sure that when you're finished building your lensography that it is complete, and the total number of lenses you have included in your modules equals the number of lenses on your dashboard.
For my lensography, I have broken my lenses down into the following categories:
Lenses to promote my business
My hobbies & interests
Books, Authors, and Literary Characters
TV Shows, actors, and characters
Business Tips and Tricks
The Sounds of Music
Sports Themed Lenses
Historical Lenses
Miscellaneous
Personal Lenses
Since I started my lensography, I've already taken some large categories and splintered them off into their own sub-sections. Sports and Music both used to fall under the "My Hobbies and Interests" section, until I had created enough lenses in those categories that I felt they deserved their own section.
I currently am planning on moving my Pokemon Checklist lenses out of the "Promoting my Business" section and into their own section within my lensography.
I think it's important to remember that your lensography is a constantly evolving creation - as you build more lenses, you'll add them to your lensography, and you'll probably also find that the categories you started out with need to be refined a little bit more. Over time, you'll create a more organized, effective, and efficient lensography.
If you're still stuck on what kind of categories to use for your lenses, check out my Lensography Library and see how other lensmasters have approached their lensographies.
Your Categories can become a great source of inspiration for new lenses!
For example, if you have a Music category in your Lensography, then you start to think about what other musical topics you would like to write about. Broadway musicals, singers, songwriters, favorite songs, or song lyrics would fit well in a Music Category, and the lensography inspired those lenses
How To Present The Contents Of Your Categories Of Lenses
- Links Voting (Plexo): This is the module choice I have used in my lensography for two reasons. First of all, it makes the title of each entry a link to the specific lens, making it easy for the viewer to go to the lens they want to visit. Secondly, by using the Plexo version of the Link List module, viewers will be able to vote for their favorite lenses within each category. This module is an SEO friendly one to include in your lenses, and brings viewers in from the search engines to come in and see ALL of your lenses. A well-organized list of your lenses will make a good first impression on these viewers, and hopefully they will explore several of your lenses during their visit to your lensography. I also find that making your lensography interactive through the voting mechanism will help engage the viewer in your lens.
- Link List: This option is basically the same as the first, but without the voting component available. Like the first, it makes the title of each listing a link to the specific lens being described. While this module is not quite as SEO friendly an option to use, it does present a nice clean look and will consistently provide the link to your lenses within each category for the viewer.
- Text List Voting (Plexo): Another option you can consider is using a Text List Module to present a short description of each of your lenses, and rather than including the link to the lens in the title, incorporate the link in the descriptive text about the lens. Good hyperlinking practices here will have SEO benefits for your lens, however, having the links in different places all the time might be confusing to viewers. By using the Plexo version of the module, you can gain the additional SEO and interactive benefits by allowing viewers to vote for their favorite lenses within each category.
- Text List: Finally, you can use the regular Text List option, which will not include the voting component, but allow you to incorporate the links to your lenses within the description of each lens. This one may involve a little more work as you want to create a keyword rich description that captures the attention of the view, and use good hyperlink placement for SEO purposes. However, it may provide a more content-rich, narrative-feeling to your lensography that you might find to be more appealing.
- Featured Lenses: Another approach is to use the Featured Lenses module, which inserts the intro picture into the module. One drawback is that this module is limited to 5 lenses per module, but you could use this module for smaller categories, or use multiple modules for one category of lenses. Just another approach to consider!
- Can't decide which approach you prefer? That can be a problem, especially if you're just starting to build your lensography. I would suggest that you experiment with them all until you decide which one looks the best for YOUR lenses. Perhaps use a different approach for each category, and then you can compare and contrast each one. Each lensmaster might find they prefer one approach over any of the others, and there is no one right way to present the lenses once you categorized them. That is the wonderful thing about Squidoo, is that there is so much flexibility built into the system, that each of us can find the approach that we like the best. If after a while you come to a decision that you like one best, it is not a problem to convert categories to your new preferred method of displaying your lenses by inserting a new module, transferring the information over, and deleting the old module. You will lose any voting results if you discontinue using the Plexo versions of either of these modules.
Which approach do you prefer in your Lensography?
Fetching blurbs now... please stand byLink List (with or without Plexo)
ebay-grandma says:
I like links - the argument for the Plexo Links attracting traffic does sound good. But the Text List gives more discription so that is also good. Bottom line - I think my first lensography will be a link list - still open on the voting.
Posted July 18, 2008
LindaJM says:
I used to have link lists, but switched to featured lenses. They are so much more colorful with the photos, and I love that they include the first few words of the intro module, to give people a good idea of what the lens is like.
Posted July 15, 2008
Tiddledeewinks says:
I am almost at 50 lenses to earn my Giant Squid Badge-Hooray! I like the pics in the featured lens modules.
Posted April 27, 2008
EelKat says:
I use the featured module for all of my lensographies (I have several, one for all of my lenses, and than since I'm nearing 300 lenses now, I also have one for each topic/series of lenses).
I like the featured module, because it allows my to list five of my best lenses on one topic. I just put the topic title in, add the five lenses I want to feature and hit save. It automatically adds the photo and description from my lens, so I don't have to go writing up a new one.
Posted April 13, 2008
spirituality says:
featured lenses. I dislike lensographies that don't have the pictures. Just makes it easier on the eye. a mere list of links is boring (and text list is just duller - no reason to do that)
Posted March 30, 2008
Text List (with or without Plexo)
FoxMusic says:
I prefer to write my own links, but I do like the featured lenses module for ease.
Posted March 21, 2008
N376 says:
Text List without Plexo. Though like Fluffa I do prefer the Featured Lenses module.
Posted March 15, 2008
Greekgeek says:
The main problem with lensographies is that a long list of links blurs together. I used mostly #5 - Featuered Lenses modules with a brief text introduction before each category/section to keep it chatty and break up the lists. I also like having the introduction excerpt as a teaser.
Posted March 15, 2008
Lensography Building Best Practices
- Have a Table of Contents at the beginning of your lens providing links to the individual categories you have created to organize your lenses. I have done this manually within my Lens Introduction using hyperlinks, but you can also use the new Table of Contents module to make this easier. Having a Table of Contents right at the start will allow your viewer to see which categories of lenses you have available, and skip directly to the category or categories that interest them the most.
- Cross Check your lensography total with your Dashboard total on a regular basis to make sure no lenses have been left off. This is easy to do when you're on a marathon building new lenses, and the creative juices are really flowing. I make it habit to update my lensography with my new lens as the first thing I do after hitting the "Publish" button, it's a good habit to get into. I then add up the total number of lenses in each category within my lensography to ensure that the total matches my dashboard. If it doesn't, then I track down which lens or lenses I forgot and get things fixed.
- Be sure to include a Guestbook in your lensography, so that visitors can leave you comments about what they liked and if they found your lensography useful. Sometimes it's hard to take off our Lensmaster Hat and see our lensography through the impartial unbiased eyes of a stranger. Their input can be valuable at learning new ways to make your lensography more effective.
- Don't micromanage your lens categories. Breaking your lenses down into categories that are so small that each module only has 2-3 lenses is almost as unproductive as having no attempt at organization at all. I try to aim for 15-30 lenses within a category. When a category gets near that 30 mark is when I look it over to see if perhaps I have the potential for splitting its contents into two new categories, as I have done with my Promotion of my Business category, where I will be splitting the Pokemon related lenses into their own new category.
- Don't forget to include a category for any Groups that you manage. Unless you have a LARGE number of groups, you probably don't need to create a separate Groupography just for them (but I do know one lensmaster who has done exactly that, because she loves creating groups almost as much as she loves creating lenses!)
- You can choose to display your categories in any number of ways, alphabetically, by number of lenses within each category, or by putting the categories you think will be of most interest at the top, and the ones that would be of less interest at the bottom. By having your Table of Contents available at the top of the page, the category order isn't as critical a decision, but it is something that you should think about when laying out your lens.
- Start your lensography before you get more than 30-40 lenses, if possible. The more lenses you have to sort into categories, the harder getting it started will be. But even if you're already well past that mark, the benefits of having a lensography will make it worth the work.
Please share your lensography with the rest of Squidoo Nation!
If a lensography is a card catalog for one lensmaster's lenses, than a collection of lensographies becomes like its own little library. Please add your lenses to my library by adding the link to YOUR lensography to the list below!
#1
Katiyana's Lenses
Katiyana's Collectibles ever-growing lens list org more...2 points
#2
The GypsyPirate Lensography
Well, here it is - welcome to proof of my addictio more...1 point
#3
Lensography: thefluffanutta
This was the first Lensography on Squidoo - and th more...1 point
#4
Lensography: Crystal Booth
I recently discovered Squidoo through a forum link more...1 point
#5
Who The Heck Is bdkz?
Who is bdkz? That's a tough question to answer but more...0 points
#6
Kim Giancaterino Lensography
You know you're a Squidoo addict when every time y more...0 points
#7
Damons Lens Library
Hi, my name is Damon.<br />
<br />
Als more...0 points
#8
Greekgeek's Lensography
Greetings from Greekgeek, storyteller and scholar. more...0 points
#9
great website maker on Squidoo
Squidoo that is, lots of angels and wow great plac more...0 points
#10
Who is Susan52? (A bio/lensography)
Known on Squidoo as Susan52, I think of myself as more...0 points
#11
ThinkBig's Lensography
Welcome to ThinkBig's Lensography.ThinkBig is a Sq more...0 points
Thank You For Visiting My Lensography Building Guide
I hope you find the tips & tricks presented here helpful in creating your own lensography, and will add to our library of lenses by adding yours to the list above.
Thanks for visiting, and have a Squid-alicious day!
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ebay-grandma
Very interesting. So much to learn about building lenses. Almost needs a glossary somewhere to keep up with all the terms. This helps explain. Posted July 18, 2008 |
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kellywissink
Thanks Katiyana! Posted July 17, 2008 |
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LindaJM
Good advice for those of us building lensographies. You have covered the topic well. Posted July 15, 2008 |
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BFuniv.com
It's nice to have that big list of lensographys to look over. Thank you. Posted May 04, 2008 |
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EelKat
what a great lens! I've added it as a featured lens on my "Lensographies I Like" lens (http://www.squidoo.com/Lensographies) Posted April 13, 2008 |
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Monteath
Very good lens. Thanks for sharing! Posted April 08, 2008 |
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Silver_Lotus
very informative Stephanie! Thanks. Posted March 31, 2008 |
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spirituality
helpful, thanks. Posted March 30, 2008 |
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fanfreluche
Nice lens! informative, saw you on the storeboard 5* Posted March 21, 2008 |
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FoxMusic
A Rock Star Congrats on LOTD - thank you for another great resourse of infomation. Posted March 21, 2008 |
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wildrosetreasure
Great lens. Posted March 19, 2008 |
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Music-Resource
Hi Katiyana, I like your Lensographies lens. Lensographies are among my favorite reads on Squidoo. I appreciate the helpful explanations you've provided. ~Music Resource~ Posted March 18, 2008 |
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Lakota429
Wooo-hooooo!!! Congrats on LOTD! Isn't it great?! Mine made it last year and I was overwhelmed with mail. Yours is well-deserved. Terrific info and put together nicely. Way to go! 5 stars!! Annie~ Posted March 18, 2008 |
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EvieJewelry
Great Lens and Info Congrats on LOTD Posted March 18, 2008 |
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Encourager
Super how to Katiyana. Congrats on LotD:) Posted March 16, 2008 |
This lens was Lens of the Day
on March 15, 2008
Thank you to everyone for visiting - this was my first ever LOTD and it was an honor :) 
