Types of Squidoo Lenses

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Ranked #155 in Squidoo Tips, #21,412 overall

What Kinds of Squidoo Lenses Can I Make?

If you are new to Squidoo, or have only been creating the "normal" lenses, you might not know yet that Squidoo actually has several breeds of them. These usually have a different layout and look and choosing the right type should help you get more visitors. The greatest thing is that you will be able to edit all of those different kinds of lenses using the same dashboard! You can find out what sorts of lenses are there and read their short descriptions below and vote for your favorite Squidoo sister site.

A Generic Squidoo Lens 

A page about anything you like.

This is the "bread and butter" of all Squidoo lensmasters. You can create a lens on almost any topic at all! You only need to enter a few things like title, URL and a few tags related to the lens as well as pick it's category. The new QuickBuilder will enable you to do all that on a single page - you can even add as many of the most popular modules as you want right away.

Don't forget that you will be better off using Squidoo sister sites for your specific lenses. For example, SquidFlix will work better for a movie review than a regular lens. It will be easier for other people to find, besides, the automatic lens builder will be much more helpful when you start creating your review, selecting the modules that are really useful and saving your time.

[Click here to create a new Squidoo lens...]

A SquidFlix Lens 

Your own movie review page.

The SquidFlix lenses are for movie reviews. You must enter the name of the movie, and your opinion of it: was it good, or was it bad? It's quite important that you build your lens around this theme (either "best" movie, or "worst" movie), because in the SquidFlix HQ, all lenses are sorted into these two groups.

After you choose the name of the movie you want to review, some magic happens, and you get a half-ready lens with plenty of modules that you'll need to tweak just a little. Squidoo will even find actors of said movie automatically! SquidFlix lenses usually have the Amazon spotlight, Duel, and several of Poll and Plexo (voting) modules by default, so your visitors can express their opinion on the movie, and perhaps even order it online (making you some nice cash)!

[Click here to create a new SquidFlix lens...]

A SquidLit Lens 

Your own book review page.

SquidLit is great for people who like reading, because it's Squidoo's very own book review site! The "magical" lens builder will help you a lot: after you enter the name of the book and the author, it will create Amazon links to it and to the related works of the same person; it will also get an excerpt from the Wikipedia on the author, if there is an article about him. In addition, the builder will create a poll where visitors will be able to rate the said book. Of course, you will still need to review the book, because no lens is complete without a few words of your own! Reviewing books never was easier, and your SquidLit lens will look really cool with the "typing machine" title fonts.

[Click here to create a new SquidLit lens...]

An Ever Lens 

Best, worst, cutest, silliest, etc.

The Ever lenses are a bit different from other ones, because they have a separate domain and URL format (coolest.lens.ever.com, and such). You can choose the superlative (such as "coolest") from a long list, and enter your own keyword (such as "lens"). The highlight of such lenses is the "Top Five Reasons Pie is the Best Thing" (or whatever your lens is about), and links that prove your point. By default, there will also be several YouTube videos, a RSS feed from Yahoo! for the keyword you entered, and an Amazon module. You might need to tweak these, especially if your keyword isn't popular.

[Click here to create a new "Ever" lens...]

A SquidWho Lens 

You know you're famous when you find yourself on SquidWho.

Like the name suggests, SquidWho lenses are about famous (or not so much) people. You can even create one about yourself! The lens builder is very useful here as well, populating your page automatically with an excerpt from Wikipedia, a poll, Yahoo! headlines and YouTube videos related to that person. You will still need to write some sort of introduction, and the "Three reasons to love" the person you're talking about. You can tell everything about their achievements, what they're doing, and add links to their official website. The header of your lens will have the phrase "Who is John Smith?" (or whoever your lens is about), so people will surely find it on Google!

[Click here to create a new SquidWho lens...]

A SquidBids Lens 

Your own eBay auction showcase.

A SquidBids lens will help you get more traffic to your eBay auctions (and make more money!). You are going to need an eBay Seller or Store name for the automatic lens builder to start creating your own auction showcase. You'll be asked to tell a little about yourself, what eBay category you usually sell in, and the top three reasons why people should buy from you, and not anyone else. After that, your lens will be magically built, complete with your auctions, descriptions, and polls; of course, you can tweak and improve it further.

[Click here to create a new SquidBids lens...]

A SquidVids Lens 

Your own online TV channel.

A SquidVids lens is one of the easiest to build. It's a video showcase of your favorite topic, so all you need to do is type in what you want your lens to be about, and your own online TV channel will be created in front of your eyes using the magic of AJAX. Lenses of this type usually contain a lot of YouTube modules, as well as some related links and products. The YouTube videos are found automatically when you enter the topic, but you might have some better choices in mind. Also, don't forget to write a short introduction, so people will know what your video showcase is about.

[Click here to create a new SquidVids lens...]

A Monkeybrain Lens 

Your own page for a heated debate.

The "Hey, Monkeybrain!" lenses are for starting discussions on hot topics everyone is passionate about. First, you have to type in a good argument (such as "Vynil is better than digital"), and then you will be asked to enter a bit more information, like your own opinion, and links that prove your point. The Duel module is made for this type of lens, so you will want to make good use of it: define the two sides of the argument clearly, and watch people fight on your page :-)

[Click here to create a new MonkeyBrain lens...]

A SquidZipper Lens 

Everything you need to know about a zip code.

Tell everyone about your hometown, an awesome hotel that you've stayed at, a restaurant with excellent food, or just any cool place that you visited. Let the Squidoo magic builder create your lens, and then add the finishing touches with Google Maps, real-time weather conditions, photos and all the other standard Squidoo modules. SquidZipper is for US locations only at this time.

[Click here to create a new SquidZipper lens...]

A SquidSports Lens 

How accurate are your sports predictions?

SquidSports offers great fun and excitement for the sports fans. These lenses are usually built around the Prediction module. So just make a prediction about your favorite sports team or league, and see what others think (starting a debate is a great way to get more active visitors to your lens!). Of course, SquidSports lenses can be used for other things than predictions, as well!

[Click here to create a new SquidSports lens...]

An Ink City Lens 

Tattoos and body art.

Ink City is a tattoo and body art community on Squidoo moderated by lensmaster relache. It allows you to build lenses about your favorite aspects of body art. If you're a tattoo artist/enthusiast, a fan or practitioner of body sculpting, piercing, hair dyeing and face or body painting, or just someone who likes to look at body art, you should find Ink City interesting.

[Click here to create a new InkCity lens...]

A SquidBoo Lens 

Scary stuff from the Halloween.

SquidBoo! is the best choice if you want to create a Halloween-themed lens. Not only it will have an appropriate design, it will also be listed on the SquidBoo HQ page. Like all seasonal lenses, they might not perform all that good during the rest of the year, but they really take off during Halloween.

[Click here to create a new SquidBoo lens...]

A TwttrStrm Lens 

Use Twitter to start a discussion on your Squidoo lens.

TwttrStrm (TwitterStorm? TwitterStream?) joins the power of Twitter and Squidoo, allowing you to start a debate or a Yahoo! Answers-like Q & A on your lens. After a visitor submits a comment on your lens, they will be sent to Twitter.com automatically to tweet their answer. Alternatively, a user can submit a tweet to the discussion without ever going to your lens - they just have to use the correct hash tag. Ask for advice or opinions, and you'll get feedback immediately!

[Click here to create a new TwttrStrm lens...]

A TwttrList Lens 

Make a "best of" list from Twitter tweets.

TwttrList is one more great lens format integrating Twitter and Squidoo. It allows you to create lenses on your favorite Twitter posts about a specific topic. Simply choose whose tweets you want to use (yours, those of a specific user, your favorites, or anyone's) and populate your list by searching Twitter for phrases or hashtags and adding the best posts you find. TwttrList is fully integrated with Twitter, meaning your visitors will be able to retweet your list or add suggestions with just one or two clicks.

[Click here to create a new TwttrList lens...]

A Zazzle Lens 

Show off your Zazzle products on Squidoo!

Do you have a gallery on Zazzle? Well, now you can show it off on Squidoo and get more buyers for your T-shirts and other merchandise. The highlight of this Squidoo lens format is of course the Zazzle module that lists your products - all you have to do is enter your Zazzle nickname and it will fetch them for you automatically.

Note: Zazzle showcase lenses do not have a unique theme at this point and use the default Squidoo look.

[Click here to create a new Zazzle lens...]

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by Chadrew

I didn't know all of Squidoo's projects until I stumbled upon a SquidBlog post about them. So I decided to create this lens, hopefully you will find i... (more)

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