How I Became a Giant Squid in 60 Days

The more you focus on Squidoo as a Team Effort, the easier it will be to see the value of the following guidelines.

We all have the same dot com address! That gives us incredible leverage in the search engines.

When links from your lens are balanced out so that there are at least as many links to Squidoo.com as there are to outside domains...you have a tactical advantage when the search engine is scanning your lens. Think about it...Search Engines are working for the client, and the best representitive of any topic is going to get the traffic. Having multiple links into the primary domain (squidoo.com), that are pertinent to the topic of your lens, will bring the highest rate of first page search results!

How To Bring Traffic to Your Lens Using the TEAM Model

*Lensroll: Find and lensroll all of the Team's Lenses that are focused on the topic of your lens. This will be very effective in bringing your lens more traffic and will boost the overall Squidoo Team Lens Rank.

I have one lens "Why I Love Squidoo" , that I use to lensroll things I find if I have not yet published the lens that I really want to lensroll to. Then I can find it again on my "Why I Love Squidoo" lens and add it to the new lens when it is published.

*Featured Lens Module: When a simple lensroll isn't enough (and it isn't when you find an extraordinary lens), use the Featured Lens module to highlight the Team Squidoo Lens.
*Groups: Submit each of your lenses to all of the Groups that fit into your lens focus. For best results, be sure to visit your groups and support all of the members of your group by lensrolling and rating their lenses.

*TAGS: Your lens will be a traffic magnet if you have included all pertinent tags (they should accurately reflect the content of your lens). Don't forget to check in your STATS page under the TRAFFIC tab to find out what tags have been suggested there. You can add new and updated tags anytime when you are in edit mode or from the STATS TRAFFIC screen of your dashboard.

*FAN CLUBS: Very powerful tool that will bring you more traffic as well. Be sure to join your Squidoo Team Members Fan Clubs and visit the lenses they have created. This works exceptionally well if you have also lensrolled similar lenses to your lenses. Additionally, you can check the FAVORITES tab in your dashboard to find out what is new with all the Team Members you have joined Fan Clubs of.

*FAVORITE: When you favorite a lens, you will receive update information in your FAVORITES TAB of your dashboard as well. This is a great way to review lenses that you have lensrolled when they are updated.

The Giant Squid Class of
JUNE 2008!

Click on the Giant Squid badge (above) and you will be taken to the official introduction of the NEW Giant Squids

To Learn The Squdoo Basics
Back To The Basics by bdkz

I have developed a system that balances all of the activities involved in building great lenses and promoting them. It isn't very complicated, and has helped me a lot. So I decided to share it with you here.

First:

Look at the big picture.

No matter how few or how many hours you have each week to devote to your Squidoo work, you will find this system can adapt to your needs.

Each part of the process gets 25% of the time you have to devote to the work

If you have 1 hour a week or 60, this system will work. I have created a detailed check list for each of the categories of activities. So all I have to do each time I sit down to work is look at my list and pick up where I left off.

This Time-Management model can be adapted for just about any project (outside of the Squidoo realm), so if you have a particular challenge you are faced with, send me a note and I will be happy to help you modify this concept to fit your situation.

To Learn The Basics
Back To The Basics by bdkz

You can research at the library, in your own book collection, on the world wide web, through television, or numerous other resources. When you are writing 'How To' topics, it is always a good idea to try out your directions step by step so that you can add little tips and suggestions along the way.

You already know a lot about your topic, yet, it can be more convincing when you support your conclusions with references..

I remember when I first started college and I would write my papers before I looked up the references. Face it, we just 'know' a lot of things. And that is great. But, sometimes we forget who else knows what we know. What we find (usually), is that about a dozen or so people know bits and pieces of what we know, so by using each of their perspectives we round out our own.

I discovered that I learned a lot from researching my topics even when I had done some of the writing before I started...

When I get an idea for a topic to write a lens about, I start by putting all of my thoughts into the mindmap. The mindmapping process is facinating and I will have a lens about how I use it ready for you very soon.

After I have brainstormed on the mindmap, I will then look at all of the previous lens topics I have written (which are on the same page), and move some of the thoughts to previous lenses (when they 'fit'), this gives me focused topics and provides content ideas to update older lenses.

Some of my 'new' ideas end up being additional content for lens topics that were not completely developed. Remember that saying I mentioned in the Giant Squid Interview ? "Build Fast and Perfect Over Time" (not sure who this is quoting, I believe it was a blog or email I remember reading sometime in May.

Dedicate time to both writing and editing your content. I try to remember to do this before I open the workshop modules. In the cases where I have created content right in a module, I go back later and find typos and grammar errors. So, it is a time saver to create your content before you begin to create the modules in your lens.

Another exceptional reason to save all of your content in a document before you begin is in case you havn't backed up your work, if the web hiccups you will not lose as much of your work.

I discovered that the export tool in the workshop will only work if you have published the lens. The tool says "Save an XML copy of your live, or last published, lens contents to your computer."

So this is a problem if you have been in draft for awhile and waiting for the right opportunity to publish, or simply not convinced it is ready yet. So having your content saved on your PC (and as flowergardener reminds us) "back up, back up, back up" in case your PC crashes. Then when you have published your lens, use the Export tool to save an XML version of your work as well.

Blogs: There are 100's of them out there! Find at least three and at least one community of bloggers and you will see results
This part of the quarter week time management schedule is just as important as all of the other three quarter week tasks.

The opportunities are seemingly endless, so I will list a few and then follow up with additional ideas over time. You can find more ideas at my newest blog, Giant Squid Journal. Over time I will be sharing tips, people who have tips, and so much more. You can subscribe to my blog via RSS or Email and you are always welcome to leave comments.

There are dozens of Lens Suggestions on this lens and on the Flip This Link Award lens that describe all of the reasons why to blog about your squidoo lenses or better yet about other lenses you find on Squidoo.

I have the following 'blogging' activities on my list for this part of the quarter week time management activity list.

*Twitter (great to keep track of little tidbits so you can backtrack to see 'what have I been doing today') Also, Twitter can be followed on a lens using the 'Twitter Follow' module. Scroll down to see mine as an example (below). See the suggested reading on the Flip This Link Awards.

For More About How To Optimize Twitter
50 Ways To Use Twitter by bdkz

*Blogspot.com
Google's Blogspot.
*Squidoo Marketing
Squidoo Marketing Community.
*BraveHeart Women
Brave Heart Women (Get A FREE Website from my page).
*Twitter
Follow Me On Twitter - Blurb When You Find or Create Great Lenses.

This part of the quarter week time management process is to visit other lensmaster's lenses. Start your journey with a cup of your favorite beverage and a list of your lenses by your side. You are going on a journey that may be the best and imho the most enjoyable part of the quarter week activities.


The journey is in search of great lenses to *Lensroll,
*Favorite, and to
*Feature on your lenses.
If you have a list of your favorite lenses to visit, or would like to start from the Squidoo Top 100, or even theLens Of The Day (LOTD), you can use these and your intuitive web surfing guides and muses to take you on your way.

As you visit each lens,
*Take your time,
*Rate them according to your evaluation system,
*Favorite them if you want to see updates as the lens develops,
*Leave a message for the lensmaster, and
*Lensroll them to your lenses that are of simular topics.
*Refer toWhen You Visit A Squidoo Lense.

*Feature lenses that are extraordinary, focused on your lens topic, and would be of added interest to your visitors.

A featured lens is a great way to add value to your lens, spread some lens love, and will bring traffic back to your lens.

*Remember:
We all have the same dot com address! That gives us incredible leverage in the search engines.

I believe that the community is most effective when there are 100 lenses on the same topic, rather than just a handful. This is because the search engines will send a visitor to the site that will best serve them.
If you were asked, "Where can I find shoes?", wouldn't you send your seeker to the mall, where they would find hundreds of options?

If you were asked, "Where can I find shoes?", wouldn't you send your seeker to the mall, where they would find hundreds of options? In contrast, if you sent them to the corner store where you saw a single pair of really great shoes, your seeker may get there and find that the shoes don't come in the size that is desired or perhaps they are hiking boots when the seeker is looking for high heels.

So, the more lenses on the same topic is a really powerful concept! Same .com address, same topic, individual recommendations, and a vast collection of perspectives, all add up to more traffic for everyone.

Team Work Works!

The more visitors to Squidoo.com the better it is for all of us. I believe that when we work to help visitors find what they are looking for, it is going to benefit the community as a whole and everyone wins.