Giant Squid Mentor

A Giant Squid is a lensmaster who has created 50 really great lenses that have been hand reviewed by the Giant Squid Organizers, and thus has been accepted into the group.

Giant Squids get privileged access to tools, a distintive gold star, (Gold stars not only look good, they give lenses a little ranking boost too!) the prominent Giant Squid badge (pictured here which appears on all of their maxed Squidoo lenses) and several other unique and really special perks.

Learn more about the Giant Squid program and its many perks by visiting Giant Squids on Squidoo

When you come across a Giant lens, chances are you'll know it even before you look for the Giant badge and gold star. Giant lenses are well written and unique. They are completely modified, leaving no default modules or cookie cutter co-brand (Squidwho, Squidlit, Squidvid, etc.) templates in place.

Before submitting your lenses for Giant Squid approval visit What Makes A Giant Squid Lensmaster a Superhero to see a simple checklist of what the Giant Organizers are looking for when they choose the next round of Giant Squid Lensmasters.

But don't stop there!

Once you've got the basics in place, use your imagination, creative talent, and personal charm to give your lenses the additional wow factor needed to get them noticed and recognized as Giants.

You'll find information about proper lens length, finding your style, choosing topics, and more ideas for quality lens building at How to Create a Quality Lens.

Giant Squid lensmasters receive the following perks.

Along with great Gianthood comes... great benefits!

Not only do you have the natural, clear advantage of running more than 50 amazing lenses, each helping you share a passion and make money...

But you ALSO get all this stuff, and a lot more:

1. Access to our (secret) Giant Squids blog and RSS feed, full of first-looks at new features and insider tips.

2. A private email address to reach us about Lens of the Day submissions.

3. A Giant Squid badge on all your lenses. (And your bio/profile page too).

4. Your shot at making The Giant Squids Top 100 list, a list of the top Giant lenses, sorted by LensRank.

5. A Custom Lens Template tool. This one's BIG. You can have multiple customized lens templates, to help you pre-populate new lenses with modules and copy that you like. Makes making lenses faster.

6. Did we mention first crack at our coolest new tools and features? For example, the Giants got to hear about HeyMonkeyBrain, Squidaholic.com, the new dashboard, the Lensmaster Bio redesign, MagicBuilder, Prediction module, and lots more--days before the rest of Squidoo.

7. No daily lens limits. Here's another big one! You can start as many lenses a day as you want, and you can have as many unimproved lenses under construction as you need. We trust you. We know you're going to build them out eventually.

8. Greenlighting. Have you heard of, or run up against, our SquidDon't spam filter? It checks lenses for language and topics that are not welcome on Squidoo. But quite often, while we're playing it safe, there are false positives. And that can be frustrating. So we're greenlighting all our Giants, so you never get stuck in the spam filter again.

And there are new giant perks being added all the time!

The next application deadline for the Giants is June 30, 2011. . Start getting your lenses ready today.

Did you know that Giants can now have multiple custom lens templates?

Read all about it HERE!

Squidoo Headquarters realizes that there are thousands of really great lenses out there that don't belong to Giant Squid lensmasters and truly appreciates each and every one of them.

The Giants have earned their recognition and rewards through their dedication to Squidoo and the consistant high quality of their many lenses.

The Giant Squid Lensmaster Program is open to everyone and if you continue to make those fabulous lenses of yours, you'll be a Giant Lensmaster in no time!

The So You Want To Be A Giant Squid eBook was written just for you by the Giant Squid Organizers. It was designed to give you a good idea of what the Giant program is all about and ideas to help you get 50 quality lenses built in time for the next Giant Squid Deadline.

Click the following link to begin a free .pdf download of the So You Want to Be A Giant Squid eBook.

So You Want To Be A Giant Squid?

Giant Squid lensmasters are chosen and inducted into the program on a quarterly basis.

The next deadline for being recognized as a Giant is on June 30, 2011

After you've got your 50 great lenses apply at: Giant Squid Application by June 30, 2011.

Start getting your 50 lenses in tip top shape today to be ready for the next deadline.

We will be counting the number of lenses that appear on your bio page.

Your bio page will only display lenses that are published. Any work in progress lenses that appear on your dashboard will not be visable and therefore they will not be counted towards your goal of 50 lenses.

In order to be sure you have the proper amount of lenses completed in time, please be sure to hit the publish button on the day before the deadline, or create a couple of extra ones to be safe.

After you've reached Giant status at Squidoo, you must maintain 50 awesome lenses.

If you fall below the 50 lens mark because you've sold, deleted, or transfered some of your lenses to another account (even if that other account is yours) you will be dropped from the Giant Squid Lensmaster program and lose all of your hard-earned Giant perks.

Sorry, all of your 50 awesome lenses must be in the same account.

We can not combine accounts. To be a Giant Squid lensmaster you must have and maintain 50 awesome lenses in one account.

No exceptions!

Believe it or not there is an esteemed group of lensmasters who've created over 100 (200, 300, and more) top notch excellent quality lenses.

These distinguished lensmasters can apply for membership in the Squidoo Top 100 Club.

Learn more about the program, its unique perks, and how you can get into it by visiting THE GIANT SQUIDS TOP 100 CLUB (and how you can become one)

The next deadline for acceptance into the top 100 club is June 30, 2011 - same as the Giants.

If you've already got 100 awesome lenses, you can apply at: 100 Club Application.