The Hitchhikers Guide to The Squidoo Lens Creation Universe!

The first thing, and in my opinion, one of the most important things for you to do is to go into your dash board, look for the "My Profile" at the top, click on it, and add your Bio information, then upload an avatar or picture. This will appear on your lensmaster page as well as every lens, and will add some credibility and personality to your collection of lenses. To back this up I submit the following post by Megan Casey, Squidoo's Editor and Chief. You might want to take time to read it in full! You will find it very useful as you proceed. Megan Casey, Squidoo's great Editor and Chief tells us what she sees from her view point behind the scenes! ....


Megan starts out by saying "1. The new lensmaster bio bar is getting a lot more clicks than before. A lot. Which means more people are clicking to see your other pages and your profile. That's a good thing. So when you have time, try updating your profiles to add a welcome note or a little intro to your body of work, and feel free to post links to, say, your favorite top 10 lenses right in there." "


The next thing you should know is what you must not do, out here on Squidoo, or you just might find yourself in real hot water! Ouch! Megan has made a lens detailing the behaviors that will get you in trouble. It would be wise to read, BEFORE YOU BEGIN, so that you know what is appropriate and what Spuidoo's expectations are of you. It is titled SquidDon't


The next thing I would suggest you do before you get going anywhere on the web is to read this forum post by Kimberly Dawn Wells, Squidoo's community organizer!


Kimberly so eloquently points out some very important things you need to know about cyber etiquette, or netiquette before you get started!
Kimberly has also crafted a great lens about how to build your first lens and its title is: "Do Squidoo: A much requested guide to creating a successful Squidoo lens". It is a compendium of "How To's" and lots of great resources for tips, tricks, and basic techniques of lens building.

One other lens that Kimberly has recently authored answers many questions on adding code to a lens. It is titled FAQ: Add Code to your Lens This lens goes hand in hand with the section on HTML further down this lens.

So who is .......Seth Godin...... you ask? Well, Seth is none other than Squidoo's Founder and Chief!, and In this article authored by Seth, titled: "Squidoo gives people with passion a place to tell their story", he shares the mission and objectives behind what Squidoo is all about.

Among his peers in today's competitive field of marketing and sales, Seth is a master! His skills and accomplishments stand second to none as he continues to impact the changing global scene of marketing and sales. Whether your intentions are to make a lens to market product or just to write a lens about a topic of interest to you, Seth can tell you how to do it successfully and, furthermore, how to sell it to the world! In this lens titled "Why Build a Lens?" Seth shares with you the merits and motivation for even making a lens! From this point, I have chosen for you some of my favorite interviews with, and videos of Seth Godin, you will find them to be an invaluable resource.


But before we get started on those fabulous videos of Seth, lets say hi to the whole Squidoo cast of characters and the hard working individuals that make Squidoo work for you.

At this time, I would like to introduce you to Corey Brown . Corey is Squidoo's Vice President and Managing Director.

And I have saved the best for last! DRUM ROLL .................. CYMBOL CLASH! I give you Gil. You will see him log in from time to time as "giltotherescue" Who is Gil you might ask? Well, Gil is the chief software engineer for Squidoo and is in charge of the highly technical task of problem solving and maintaining all of Squidoo's software. He also designs and implements all the new amazing features you will see appearing on Squidoo from time to time. Gil keeps his thumb on the pulse of everything that goes on out there. As with all systems, things do occasionally go wrong. During these times, Gil is the one who endures all the heat and he is the one responsible for getting any problems fixed and making sure that "all systems are go". Those are the times when all involved with Squidoo in unison proclaim YEA GIL! Our hats off to you GIL, you are our HERO! Gil has written a great article titled "How We Engineered Squidoo". This article contains great historical insights on Squidoo's humble beginnings, and is quite a fascinating story! You owe it to yourself to take the time to read it!

What NOW! Now that you have signed up to become the next famous lensmaster on the Squidoo block of fame, you are scratching your head and asking yourself this question; "what in the world is a lens"? Permit me to answer that question in my own way if I may. A lens, to put it simply, is a single web page. It is comprised of individual building blocks called "Modules" which are added to the lens to produce its content. These "Modules" are the foundational tools that you will use to build a lens. We will explain them in great detail later on in this lens.

As you roam around SquidU where the real conversations of lensmasters, new and old alike, you will see certain Squidoo badges next to some of the lensmasters login names. Here is the link that will help you to understand what they all represent.

But if you are really interested in them then you will want to look at this lens by Crystal Booth

"Squidoo Communtiy Badges and Titles".Trust me you will be entertained as well as educated!

I suppose the next question you might ask is: What is the purpose of a lens? In my opinion, a lens is what the name implies. It is a looking glass that focuses on an idea, a product, a group of products, or simply a place that one can express their knowledge on a topic, or their opinion on just about anything your heart desires. I realize that this is a simple definition that doesn't even begin to cover the width and breadth of what you can do with a lens, but for our purposes at this time it will suffice.

The next thing you will probably want to know is where do I start to build one? You start in your dashboard, a tab at the top of the screen with the title "My Lenses", when you log in to Squidoo. To begin building a lens you simply click on the BIG BLUE BOX at the bottom of the "My Lenses" page that says "Build a Lens Now".

But before you start building a lens there are some things you should do to familiarize yourself with the dashboard.

You will notice that the dashboard is full of tabs, and links on all sides. I am not going to detail them all here only to say that you should take an hour or two to drive around, and see the country side so that you know the biggest tool in making a lens there is, "THE DASHBOARD".

The links at the bottom of the dashboard are really important and helpful! You should take some time to visit some of these places as you will find a link to the faq="FAQ" means "Frequently Asked Questions" a must read!

You will also find links to About Squidoo

These first set of links contain critical information that you need to know to keep yourself out of hot water, and in good standing in the Squidoo Community. The first link in this series of links is a must read if you don't want to look very stupid at some point down the road by crossing it. You will see it referred to as the "TOS" every where on the forums.

Terms & Privacy

This link details the Squidoo story, and how they got started.Our Story

This link points to the official SquidBlog
where you can find the most up to date, and current information about what is going on from Head Quarters.The SquidBlog



This link tells you all about the lens of the day.The Lens of the Day Blog

The next set of links point to all the places where you can "Get Help"

This first link in the next column points to The Lensmaster Lounge Where lensmasters know best. W00t. Out here is probably the single most important place to get comfortable with after you are comfortable with the DashBoard.


I feel that SquidU and the Forums are so very important to every Lensmaster that I have decided to give you a great resource at this point that explains every facet of SquidU. I now give you a dear friend named Ivo, and she logs in as icjackson She has made a very informative lens titled: "Why Every Serious Lensmaster NEEDS The SquidU Discussion Forums". This lens will break the SquidU forums down by Threads, Topics, and let you know everything you need to know about navigation. If you are new to Squidoo and reading this for the first time I encourage you to take some time and read this lens. You will be glad that you did.

Out here you will find the Learning Library, or now known as The Answer Deck. You can probably find the answers to just about anything you want to know on the Answer Deck.

You will find the various Discussion Forums where lensmasters can converse with others on just about every topic imaginable as well as get help, advice, and guidence when necessary.


You will find The SquidU Review which in, and alone of it self contains a wealth of information, and great gems of knowledge one should know.


The Frequently Asked Questions page is a gold mine of information for new, and seasoned lensmaster alike. I visit here all the time, and learn new things frequently. Taking a spin through this page will also keep one from looking like a fool down the road. Trust me, I know!
FAQ


The next two links are very valuable; because, they are the only way you can report a bug to Squidoo HQ. Some people make a big mistake, and try to get action on a bug or problem on the forums. While talking about such things is frequently done on the forums to see if others are having the same problems, if you have a bug there is only one way to get it addressed, and that is through one of these two pages!
Send feedback


Report a bug


Last but certainly not least is this powerful link. Squidoo and its community will not tolerate SPAM in any way from any one! If you SPAM you will be dealt with quickly and efficiently. If you are brand new and cross a line on this one you might get some temporary grace, but make no mistake about this one thing. If you repeat your SPAMMING after you have been warned! The hammer will fall, and you won't like the results. So to be fore warned is to be fore advised. DON'T SPAM!
Report spam


and as well, you will also find links to all the different style formats of lenses you can make out here on Squidoo as we have several, and we will cover them later.

One of my favorites, and a very accomplished Lensmaster MrLewisSmile has produced a wonderful lens titled: "Why Do I Love Squidoo With All My Heart". Besides being a beautiful lens you will enjoy reading, it goes on to show you that you too can make some serious money building lenses!

Building your first lens! To start with I am going to give you a few pieces of wisdom that have saved me, and many others a lot of grief, and a lot of wasted time. First of all Squidoo is not 100% without any glitches! As hard as they try, from time to time, the constant change in various browser software, and other web factors outside of their control throws them a curve ball. When this happens we find that things don't seem to work as they should, and sometimes problems occur as a result.

So my first piece of advice to anyone building a lens is this: Build your lens in MC word or other word processing software, module by module, as you proceed building the lens. The reason for this is that when you hit the "all powerful" save button, and nothing gets saved for one reason or another! Your hard work and efforts haven't just gone up in smoke! I do everything in MC word while I am building a lens, and have saved my self a lot of grief along the way. You would do well to do the same.

The next great piece of wisdom I am going to impart on you is to back up your lenses. One of our accomplished and great lensmasters, Jack Lee, has made a great lens to cover just that single piece of the puzzle.

Here it is; How to backup your lens

Now as of the writing of this lens, there is no automatic way for you to restore a lost lens. Head Quarters must do it for you, but having the lens XML could be the difference between getting it done fairly quickly or not so quickly if necessary. So the first rule of any good software engineer is "back it up or loose it"!

The final piece of advice I am going to give you is to hit the "Keep This Draft" ORANGE button on your dashboard at the top, just to the left of the BROWN Publish! button at the top, each and every time you complete a module. This will preserve your lens in its current state even though you have not published it yet. This way if you have a, God forbid, power outage and your computer crashes for some reason. You will at least have a preserved copy of your lens to go back to. The more often you save a draft, the less work you will have to do if your computer, the net, or Squidoo goes down unexpectedly in the middle of your work.

To Build or Not to Build? I know that some of you are dying to get started, and are tired of reading anymore about anything at this point. You want to get started, dive in up to your necks, and let the good times roll!

Well, if that is what you want to do? I have selected a fabulous lensmaster, and a couple of her lenses just for you! The lensmaster I want to introduce you to is a good friend, and really knows her stuff! Her login is JaguarJulie and Julie has to her credit, Giant Squid status, Squidoo Angel status, and at this writing, has an impressive 380 lenses to her credit. A great lens that Julie has put together is about lens focus, and how important it is! The title of this lens is "The importance of TOPICABILITY!" I suggest that you read this before you start to build your first lens!

She is a real sweat heart, and knows what she is talking about, and if you want to see her full arsenal you can take a look at her Lensography. She has made a fantastic lens that all newbie's should read, because this one will give you everything you need to make a great and complete lens. So without further delay here it is: A Primer on How-to Squidoo with Tips from a GIANT Squid, and this lens tells you that You too can learn how to Squidoo -- how to create great lenses, get traffic, and make a little moola.

I will now present to you a lens that was written by one of our very seasoned, and expert lensmasters with many achievements to his credit. Among them is creating more than 483 lenses to his credit at this writing, and the Captain Squid web site. His name is Joe, and he logs in as "Loyalis", and has authored an excellent lens that I will present to you at this point. It is a lens that will show you, step by step in videos, how to get started making a lens. Joe has put together an educational lens for beginners that lays out how to get started building a lens in very simple videos titled: "Squidoo Video Training"

What you need to know! BUT! Let us consider a few things that go into a solid lens. To do this I give you some well seasoned and accomplished lensmasters, in no particular order, to get you started.


First I give you Margaret Schaut A well seasoned and experienced master at designing lenses with over 179 lenses to her credit, and certainly someone to be paid attention to! I have gone to Margaret in the past for advice and wisdom, and she has never let me down. She wrote this lens which is all about creating your first lens, and it is jam packed with information and understanding you'll need to know when creating your How to Make Your First (or Second) Squidoo Lens

The next very accomplished lensmaster, and webmaster extraordinaire I wish to introduce you to goes by the login N376 and his name is Glen. I read somewhere that he has made to date over 900 lenses to his credit, so I think you can see the experience level of this exceptional lensmaster is way up there. Glen is one, of a few, who I go to when I have a complicated problem, and he has never let me down. He speaks his mind, minces no words, and is right on 99.9% of the time. He has made several lenses that I will be placing on this lens that deal with the more complex issues of lens construction, as well as several that are for the newbie. His lenses on these issues are mainstays for many lensmasters new and old alike. They are well written and very informative, so with out further introduction here is the first one. It is intended for the person who just signed up to Squidoo, and all they have is question after question. Well read this lens, Why Squidoo? What's the Deal? and most of your questions will be answered. The next lens you might just want to take a look at by Glen is I'm a Lensmaster! What now? Welcome to The Squidoo How To Guide This lens is a Squidoo encyclopedia, all by it self, on great lens construction. Another great lens by Glen > is Where can I find the best lenses about... SQUIDOO? put in other words everything you wanted to know about How to Squidoo!

Next I am going to introduce you to someone who has been around and knows what she is talking about as well. Her login is EelKat and Wendy is no stranger to great lens making. She has created at least 299 lenses at last count. This particular lens she made specifically for the brand new person who just signed up with Squidoo, and is making their first few lenses. It's title is What Can You Do with Squidoo?", and is yet another example of a wealth of information complete with "how to's" on great lens making resources and tips.


Next in this great parade of the "Creme del la Creme" is a lensmaster who goes by the login "rms" and her name is Robin. She has authored at least 197 lenses, and helped out countless folks on Squidoo build their lenses. Her accomplishments go on and on, but she has made a great lens for the newbie who is attempting to make their first lens. Its title is "Newbie Guide to Squidoo Lensmaking" it is a great lens filled with her insights, and tips to great lens architecture and content. Go ahead and take a look!


As we come to the conclusion of great lenses that specifically tell the Squidoo Newbie how to proceed making their first lens. Let us hear from a great Squid Angel. Randy, who goes by the login "rksmythe" tells us specifically what qualities he looks for in a lens to give it a blessing! You might ask why do I care? Well, I will tell you why you should care. One of the great threads on the SquidU Forums is titled the "Angels Forum". One way to get your lens moved up in rank very fast is to submit it to the Squid Angels for a Big BLESSING! If, and I emphasize IF! In their opinion you lens is worthy of a blessing? It will be blessed by them which will cause it to rise very fast in rank, and IF you make one that is NOT WORTHY of a blessing, they also have the ability to DING your lens which will cause it to fall in rank. You can read more about that program here: "Some answers about the Angels program."
So it behooves you to know what they are looking for in a lens, and Randy has been gracious enough to give you a taste of what he looks for in a lens as a prerequisite to being blessed. His lens is titled "What I Look For in a Lens! by a Squid Angel". In this great lens Randy tells you all about Lens Making Tips That Will Get You Blessed By A Squid Angel (At Least This One)

If you wish to know more about the Squid Angels you can take a look at this beautiful lens made by Colleen who logs in as SemperFidelis. She has created a great lens on the Squid Angels titled "Squid Angel"

All this brings us to one of my favorite lensmasters. Her name is Bonnie and goes by the login "bdkz" She is one accomplished lensmaster who has been around this block for quite some time. She has at last count 371 lenses to her credit and still going strong. She is very active in the Squidoo community and you can read more about her on a lens she made titled "Who The Heck Is bdkz?" Bonnie created a great lens to tell you how to create a very high quality lens. Its title is "How To Create A Quality Lens" Check out this lens and see how the pros do it from scratch!

Ok, there are many more great lenses on Squidoo about making your first lens, and I have not intended to snub anyone. As I come upon more of them I will add them in due course.

What are Modules!
Now that you have learned the basics of lens architecture and construction, there are several things one can do to spice up your lens. I will break these down into several categories.

Lets start with the simplest ways to spice up a lens, and that is with the very building blocks of a lens it self. The foundation building blocks we call Modules. They come in a wide variety, and they do a whole host of different jobs for you to make lens making as easy as it gets.

The first lens about modules that I will point you to was written by Glen and it is titled "Squidoo Modules" and contains a comprehensive list of modules that go into making a lens, and how to use them to their fullest.

The second lens I will point you to was written by another one of my great lensmaster favorites. Her name is Ellen, and you will see her from time to time logged in as Greekgeek She has written several other lenses on building great lenses, and I encourage you to go to her lensmaster page and browse through them. She has put together a wonderful lens on modules that I wish to feature here titled "Squidoo Modules List". This lens is yet another great resource for information on what they are, how they work, how to add them and use modules in your lens.

The next lens I am going to feature here was written by our beloved Margaret Schaut. This lens is a great resource on the most important module you will be putting into everyone of your lenses. That is the "Text Module" and in this featured lens Margaret shows you every trick in the book about using the "Text Module". The title of this lens is "The Text/Write Module for Anything!" and as she so amply puts it "The Text/Write Module is Your Best Friend!" This lens will certainly be one you will want to favorite and bookmark.

Since we are talking all about the different modules you can add to your lenses. There is one module that probably doesn't get enough attention, and it is titled the Donations Module. Dr. Kristi A Dyer who we know as "Comfortdoc" has written a lens that tells you all about it in great detail titled: "How to Use the Donations Module". This lens is packed full of information on the vast collection of charities that Squidoo is set up with, as well as a very detailed introduction to each one. If you want to make a donation to a charity then this lens is a must read.

What are Tags! In a nut shell Tags are the main keywords that the Search Engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, and others look at to learn, in part, what your lens is all about. The proper selection of the right tags can make the whole difference as to whether your lens gets indexed properly in the right searches or not! It is a real biggie, so you should take time to read this fabulous lens written by yet, another favorite lensmaster of mine. MrLewisSmile has written many great lenses, but one of the two lenses I am going to feature here deals with tagging tricks. Its title is "Squidoo Tagging Tricks: (how to get more visitors and a better search engine ranking using only tags)" This lens will teach you the finer points about using Tags.

Another great lens I am going to throw into the mix at this point was also written by Lewis. If you like watching videos on how to do Squidoo, and every facet of lens making? Then you will love this lens I am about to feature next. Its title is "How-To Squidoo Videos Showcase!" This particular lens contains a wealth of information on every aspect of lens making. The sweet thing is that you can actually see the screen views as Lewis walks you through every step of building lenses.

You never know what is happening behind the scenes, but after having promoted good tag building, which I believe is a solid web design strategy. I must in all fairness to you present you with an article written by by "TheFluffaNutta" that tells you why they are not seen by the search engines. The title of his article is "Squidoo Tag Pages Have No SEO Benefit!"

Tags do still have a huge influence on the Squidoo search and the Discovery Tool, and are the only way to get found using the Squidoo Search tool! So just to clarify that what that article is talking about is indexing for the SERP's.

One thing to keep in mind is this: Squidoo for reasons known only to them, removed the indexing of tags with the flick of a pen! They could also turn the indexing back on tags just as fast in the future if they so chose! Having said that, I would encourage you to at least place a minimum of highly relevant tags on your lenses as you go. This way you lenses will get found by someone using the Squidoo Search Tool, and if Squidoo ever turns them back on for the SE's then your already set.

This forum post is all about the issue of tags and indexing if you care to read it? http://www.squidu.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=20924

Lets add pictures
Sooner or later you will want to add pictures to a lens to spice it up with graphical appeal. I am going to supply you with some lenses that will not only show you how to add pictures to your lens, but how to do it in style. These lenses will show you some great tricks that you can use to make your pictures show up exactly how you want them to.

The first lens I wish to feature in this section was written by a great lensmaster who logs in as beeobrian and has made a wonderfully informative lens about all the tricks you can do with putting photos on your lenses. Her lens is titled "HTML for Photos: A Tutorial for the Semi-Clueless" Whether it is putting a frame around a picture or placing it in a certain place in a text box, this lens explains how it is done.

The next lens I am going to feature was done by our honored lensmaster Jack Lee and the title of this lens is " How to add large photos and audio to your lens".



I will bet you that one of the questions you will ask your self, sooner or later, is this. Where in the world can I get free pictures and other graphics? Well Shea who logs in as triathlontraining
has put together a lens that will provide you with many options to address and solve that problem. The title of this lens is Free Images and How to Use Them"

Many of you want to add pictures, but don't have a clue where to get them, right? Well have I got a lens for you to read! This lensmaster goes by the login enslavedbyfaeries, and she has made a wonderful lens that tells you everything you need to know on this topic. The title of this lens is "How to Legally Add Copyrighted Pictures to Squidoo Lenses". In this excellent lens you will find out how to do exactly that!

The next lens of this series of lenses on adding photos to your lens I have saved for one of my favorite lensmasters. He logs in as "thefluffanutta" and to a long list of accomplishments he is a very competent software engineer, and knows his way around the block on the internet. Among many great lenses he has made is one titled "Tutorials and Tricks for Adobe Photoshop"


Now at this point I am going to add two great lenses by someone who is pretty new to our neighborhood! His name is Steve, and he logs in as tagsforkids Yes he just joined Squidoo a short while back at this writing, and made two great lenses which provide for some great Squidoo Graphics. The first one of his lenses on this topic is titled: A little Squid fun" and his second lens on this topic with more of the same is titled: SquidArtToo...the "Sea Quell"


At this point I have a real treat for you since you have stayed with me this long! What is it you ask? Well we just happen to have a première Graphic artist in our midst whose name is Janusz goes by the login of Janusz: fancy that! He has been around for a long while and has offered his fabulous graphic talents time and time again to many lensmasters and groupmasters. He will help you out designing a graphic for your lens or group and has a wonderful lens titled , Squidoo Design - FREE Logos for the Squidoo Community If you don't take a look at his fabulous work you will be kicking yourself later!

When we talk about adding photos to lenses. No thread on this topic would be complete without mentioning our premier Polaroid Module. This fabulous module will brighten up any lens with a larger high quality picture, and our wonderful lensmaster Dr. Kristi A. Dyer known as "Comfortdoc" has made a marvelous lens on this great module titled: "How to Use the Polaroid Module"

What is RSS?

My dear friend MrLewisSmile has put a great lens together to explain exactly what RSS is all about, and how you can use it to your benefit! The title of his lens on this topic is "RSS: How to set up an RSS reader (and how RSS can supercharge your life, save you time, and how to get started)"

Now I am going to introduce you to a teacher's teacher, a lensmaster who has several accomplishments to his credit. For starters as of this writing he has an impressive 532 lenses to his credit covering everything under the sun. He has created 4 great lenses on RSS starting out with the simple explanation of exactly what it is, progressing up the knowledge ladder to how to use it for many purposes to your benefit. His name is Jeff, and you will see him logged in from time to time as "Jeffry V"

His first lens on the topic of RSS is titled "Basics of RSS - latest updates"

His second lens on the topic of RSS is titled "RSS Resources, Tips and Tricks (Part 1)"

His third lens on the topic of RSS is titled "RSS Part 2 (Excellent Articles)"

His fourth lens on the topic of RSS is titled "RSS Part 3 (Faq's)"

The next lensmaster I will introduce to you has a very interesting lens on the topic of RSS. His name and login are the same, and he is known as Randell
and his lens on the topic of RSS is titled "The RSS Module - RSS on Squidoo"

Finally I must tell you that no topic of a technical nature would be complete with out a lens from "TheFluffaNutta! The title of his lens on the topic of RSS is "How to Get Deep Links With RSS Feeds"

What is html? Ok you have made some lenses, and you are visiting some other lenses and seeing some special effects! Pictures embedded in text, boxes filled with text in different colors and shapes, background colors, bold text, italicized text, and many other such eye catching effects. You are now scratching your head, and saying to yourself, "How Did They Do THAT?"

Well you have come to the right place to find out; because, in this next session I will give you the great lensmasters who know all about it, and the great lenses that they have written to help you out. So lets get started, shall we?

Of course you should have seen this one coming, as my first lensmaster has written some great lenses on this subject, and I reference them all the time. As a matter of fact I used them to make this lens, to get all the special effects you see here in the text boxes. He is Glen., I have introduced him to you early in this lens, and the first lens of his that I want to present to you is so very help full on this topic. The title of this lens is "Basic HTML for Squidoo", this lens is very well laid out, and very easy to follow. It comes complete with examples of the and the effects it produces, and it is very easy to follow.

The second lens I wish to present to you was written by Glen as well, and its title is "Advanced HTML for Squidoo", and everything I said about the first lens of his pertains to this one as well.

The third lens I wish to present to you was also written by Glen, and the title to this lens is "HTML Tips for Color". This lens gives you all the codes and names for the colors you will want to use for backgrounds, text, and other effects you can create using html.

Guess who the fourth lens I am about to present is written by? You guessed it; it was written by who else? Glen of course and the title to this lens is "Bulleted and Ordered Lists" These four lenses will show you how to do just about everything you will want to spice up those lenses, and really make them appealing to the eye.

Remember this one FACT! The Eye Feeds First! Usually the first impression one gets visually when they open any web site signals their intent to stay, and look further! Or leave for greener pastures. So I encourage you to learn some basic HTML if you don't know any, it is pretty easy, and these great lensmasters have laid it out in such a way that the complete novice can follow along.

There are so many great lenses on this topic, and most of the time they cover much of the same ground that others cover, but from a different direction. That small twist on the presentation is all one needs sometimes to really get it down, and understand what is going on.

So the next lensmaster is a great favorite of mine as you will see when you see his login. Of course he is "TheFluffaNutta" , and the title of his lens on the subject is "My Favorite CSS Tricks on Squidoo" Just another great lens on the topic of html, and all the wonderful tricks you can do with it. Sooner or later you will want to add a table to a lens, and you guessed it "TheFluffaNutta" has made a lens that will tell you how to do that very thing. The title of this lens is "Tables for Squidoo Lenses"

And of course if I did not include this great lens on html I would not be doing you any favors! It was written by the Greekgeek, and the title of it is "Advanced CSS: Layout Tricks and Lab Experiments"! OOOH! Doesn't that sound interesting? Trust me, it is very interesting, with some special effects you will not see elsewhere! Go take a look****

The next lensmaster extraordinaire I am going to introduce to you for the first time on this lens right here, and his name is Tom. He logs in by the login of Magicality , and his accomplishments are many. He is an IT Consultant, so he knows what he is doing. Pay attention to him, and you will learn some insights that you will find no where else! The lens he wrote for you is titled "Simple HTML tricks to use with Squidoo", go take a look, I promise you that it will be an education all by it self!

The next lens was made by Randall, and has some techniques that are unique in themselves. Come take a look at "Super Advanced HTML Tips & Tricks for Squidoo"

One lens that you will find has some very usefull html code was written by a lensmaster that has found some real jewels to put into a lens to spice it up. Her name and login is "Sonia Simone" The title to this wonderful little piece of information is "How to create symbols on your blog, Web site, or Squidoo lens with HTML numeric codes"



The next lens in this section on html is a very unique lens made by one of our great lensmasters who also just happens to be a professional musician! Who is he? It is a mystery, but I can tell you this much. He logs in as "Music Resource" and the great lens he made on this subject is titled "HTML Squidoo tricks how to lens with sample codes step-by-step". This is a fabulous resource that shows you new ways to use html.

Another great lens on HTML comes from Melissa who logs in as trekkiemelissa . She has been around for a while and has made a wonderful lens on HTML titled: "HTML and CSS". It is packed with helpful tips and graphic spice to help you out with that next lens.

I have one more link for you in this section that can come in real handy from time to time. It is Squidoo's own "Buttons and Banners" page, and on this page you simply fill in a line or two, select the graphic you want, and botta boom, botta bing, that easy it generates the html code for you!

Different Lens Styles! Squidoo has developed several different lens formats. From the editor side they pretty much look the same, but their external look is totally different.

Each one is designed to present your graphics and text in a completely unique way. I could go into great detail here, but I don't need to!

"Bonnie" has done it for me in her great lens titled "Squidoo Co-Branding", and it will tell you all about it with all the links in tow.

You Tube Videos
Sooner or later you will want to add You Tube videos to a lens. I have good news for you, and Squidoo has a special module suited just for this purpose! So I am going to include a couple lenses that will explain the whole process.

The first lens was made by someone who is a professional film maker. That should give him some foundation for talking about how to make a high quality You Tube video. So I present to you "Cinetech", and the title of the lens he has made on this topic is titled, "How To Make YouTube Videos Look Great", and contains everything you need to know on the subject.

Now that you know how to make a great You Tube video you might want to know how to put it into a lens. For this Squidoo has made a module that does that for you, and it is easy to use. A great lens on this module was written by "Rock_The_Ice" and the lens he has authored is titled "The YouTube Module", and it will explain in great detail every aspect of this great resource.

My Lens is DONE! Well not quite, you have hit the publish button, and by now have found out that it takes, at a minimum, a full over night into the next morning for it to go live. Then it becomes a featured lens on your dashboard displaying a little green circle with a white checkmark in the center. At this point your lens can be seen by the world at large, but you now see that the rank of the lens is an abomination! Your lens rank for this lens is well over 650,000 at this writing! OMG! How is anyone going to see my lens?

Here is where the rubber meets the road, and here is where I show you what to do to get your lens to start moving up in the lens ranking structure.

Don't worry, unless you have made the worst lens of the century, it will move up the lens rank ladder. How fast it does is totally up to you, and how much work you are willing to put into the process.

So for starters, "What in the world is LENS RANK?" Lens Rank is a number assigned to a lens, which puts it in a totally sequential position, from the highest number of total lenses on Squidoo to the highly coveted NUMBER 1 SLOT. As of the writing of this lens there are approximately 700,000 lenses on Squidoo. This lens you are reading started out in the 680,856 slot, and within three days of being published moved to the 2,858 slot. I'm quite sure that it will go higher as the days go by, we will see!

Who figures out what lens rank position to value a lens at, one might ask? Hmmm! That would be none other than Squidoo themselves, with a proprietary algorithm known only to them selves that takes several factors into consideration. What are they? One persons guess is as good as another's.

However the following things I am about to suggest will help you to get your lens moving up the ladder of Squidoo Lens Rank.

1. Make double sure that your lens is totally finished~! Make double sure that none of the modules have the default titles still in them!

2. Be sure to update your Bio with some useful information, and upload a picture or avatar to your default Bio. (Without this your lens looks totally bogus, and you do to!)

3. SUBMIT your lens to some relevant groups within Squidoo for acceptance. (This is a biggie) These will be the very first relevant back links pointing to your lens for one thing, and many groups on Squidoo have a very high PR making those links worth their weight in gold! Be sure to read, and follow the groups submission guidelines!

4. Lensroll other relevant lenses into your lens! You are now thinking, WHAT! Place links on my lens to other peoples lenses, are you crazy?! No I am not, it all goes to adding to the overall value of a lens, the SE's eat this stuff up like it is candy, and you will benefit greatly as a result. Not to mention it promotes Squidoo as a community to the public at large. The law of reaping and sewing is in full force, and don't forget to do unto others as you would have them do unto you! It works, trust me.

5. Submit you lens for a critique on the Critique Forum, and don't be thin skinned. Some folks will have great suggestions that will help you to improve your lens, as well as finding things you missed that need to be fixed. Write something about your lens that entices folks to want to take a look, and don't forget to place a link to your lens on the forum. Don't go to step six until this step is completed!

6. If you feel that your lens is worth the time to look at, and a high quality lens? Then go out to the Angles Forum, and ask them for a blessing. If your lens is only an average lens at best? Then don't bother them, and waste their time. Remember that they can Ding a lens just as easily as bless it!

Here is a lens that was cooked up by our lovable Chef Keem, who is a World Class Chef as well as a World Class LensMaster, titled: Squid Angel Blessings by Chef Keem If you want to know what it is going to take to get a blessing from him? You might just want to visit this lens, and he will tell you all about it! It is well worth the little time it will take to read it to learn some valuable things about Angel Blessings!

7. Wait a few days, and then submit your lens to the "Lenses We Like" Forum and tell the folks why you think they should like your lens, or in other words write something that makes me want to visit your lens! Don't forget to leave a link to your lens

8. Carefully follow all the steps laid out in our great mentor Seth Godin's lens titled: "The 9 Free Things Every Site (or Lens!) Should Do"





These eight steps will get your lens off to a good start if you follow them properly. Happy Squidooing!

Squidoo Groups!
In this section I will be covering the subject matter that deals with Squidoo Groups. What are they, how are they made, how to find and join one, and many other aspects of Squidoo Groups.

So for starters I am going to present a lens to you by, our one and only, Margaret Schaut! Margaret is not only a lensmaster of great acclaim, but a GroupMaster of some authority as well! Margaret has made, and manages over 40 groups on Squidoo. I think that she has earned the right to speak on the issue of Squidoo Groups! In the first of two lenses I am going to present to you on this topic! Margaret gives you valuable instruction on "Joining, Developing, Growing and Promoting Groups". If you are thinking about diving into creating a Squidoo Group? You owe it to your self to read this fabulous lens by Margaret. The second lens I wish to feature in this section was written by Margaret as well, and is just as important as the first one I just featured. This "How To" lens on Squidoo Groups is titled: "Make your Group's Headquarters Interesting and Beautiful!" Definitely a must read if you are planning on creating a Squidoo Group.

The next great lenses I plan on featuring here were written by none other than one who I admire greatly! "TheFluffaNutta" has put together a short lens on groups titled: "A Guide to Groups for Lensmasters". He has also written a short lens on Squidoo Groups titled: "How To Find Lenses and Groups on Squidoo", and it is very short and to the point.

I will now present to you an absolutely wonderful lens written about Charity Groups. This lens was written by one of the Squidoo Activists as part of the Squidoo Charity Answer Deck, hand-selected useful lenses for people interested in promoting or raising funds for charity. She is a very active Activist and she is responsible for more than 185 lenses and 11 groups at this writing! Permit me to introduce to you Dr. Kirsti A. Dyer who logs in by the name of "Comfortdoc" Dr. Dyer has made a very detailed, and extensive lens on the art of designing, creating, and perfecting a first class Squidoo Group. This lens deals specifically with the subject matter of Charity Groups, but the principals laid out in this lens can be used for just about any First Class Group one would wish to produce. The title of this lens on Squidoo Charity Groups is: "Make, Manage & Promote a Squidoo Charity Group", and I can't say enough about this lens. If you are interested in creating a Squidoo Group, I highly recommend that you read this lens in its entirety! You will be educated in the finer points of creating a first class group, and how to promote it to say the least!

If you know me then you know that I do something on many occasions that surprises people, and that is the fact that, I save the best for last! It is hid from those who are lazy and a sure prize for those who are diligent!

This is one of those times where I have saved the best for last. Squidoo continually endeavors to improve it self in everyway imaginable, and as of this writing has added many mentors on various topics. One of those topics is the topic of Squidoo Groups. The person that they have chosen to be the one who has attained Instructor Status of this topic is a long time favorite lensmaster of mine, and a real joy to communicate with! Her name is Linette and you will see her logged in as "Barkley" She has written and published over 206 lenses to date, and has obtained the time honored status of Giant, Angel, and Citizen of Squidoo. She is one of my favorite lensmasters, and has been chosen to be the Group Mentor for Squidoo, and has made a lens just for those of you who want to create a Squidoo Group, and she is the one you can go to with your questions about Squidoo Groups. The title of the lens is: "Groups Mentor", and you be sure to go visit this lens if you need help with a group, as well as the Help Forum.

Groups are a very powerful tool that can be used to form an entire community of like minded people on just about any subject or topic. They not only offer the benefit of being able to find a very focused resource of information, but they offer the lensmaster the ability for obtaining highly coveted one way links as well. Learn to love them, learn to support them, and certainly learn to use them.

Getting Traffic to your Lens!
Any successful lens has traffic coming to it all the time. The more traffic that comes to a lens usually signals a more successful lens. So I have put together, in this section, several great lenses and other links that will educate you on getting traffic to your lens.

I must tell you first one critical piece of information that most try to get around. IT TAKES LOTS OF HARD WORK! Unless you want to spend a lot of money, getting traffic to your lens amounts to good old fashion "fingers on the keys" hard work. You need "backlinks", and you need lots of them. The more you have will indicate to the Search Engines that your lens is popular, and being visited from different places on the web. Of course they don't want to be left out of the loop~! Why? Because that is what they do, find popular and new material to give to their customers.

There are several good methods for getting traffic to your lens, and just to name a few:

1. Posts on relevant blogs with a link back to your lens, the higher the PR of the blog the greater the value of the link, usually.

2. Posts on relevant forums with the same rules as stated in 1.

3. Posts from social sites with links back to your lens. This one has some gotchas so you need to tread carefully when treading on this ground.

4. Links back to your lens from other lenses, websites, and Squidoo friendly directories.

That pretty much sums it up, unless you want to pay for traffic. There are numerous ways to do this, and I am not going in to it here.

One word of warning! Don't waste your time on WEB TRAFFIC SITES that promise you lots of web traffic for surfing! Why? You ask; because, Squidoo frowns on them, and has placed FRAME BREAKKERS into its code! SO they won't work anyway, and you will just be wasting your time!~

Having told you the basics, I will now present to you many great lenses about getting lens traffic.

One might think that this is a strange place to start, but it lays the foundation for the right direction to go into when looking for traffic! It is a short read, and worth the time it takes to read. It was written by "TheFluffaNutta" , on his SquidUtils Blog, and a good piece of information to know before going off to find places to put links to your lens. The title of this post is "Relevance is Key!" Another great lens that "TheFluffaNutta" has made which is very helpful and a tremendous resource is titled "Lensmaster Tools and Utilities" And the final lens by "TheFluffaNutta" that is perfectly suited for this section is titled: "Squidoo Guide: Linking Tips"

The next place to visit is a lens written by a lensmaster who has the qualifications to write all about this topic. She logs in as "Linda JM" and is a web designer and SEO expert. The title of her great lens on this complex subject is How To Promote Your Squidoo Lens". This lens just about covers it all and then some!

The next great lens I am going to present here was written by a GiantSquid that logs in as "fefe", and this is her number one lens at this writing. The title of this lens is "Submit URL: Squidoo Lens Promotion", and this lens contains a great list of all the Squidoo friendly sites, and all the great directories made by other lensmasters just to promote Squidoo Lenses! It contains much more than that, but you will have to read it to find out about what else it contains! You'll be glad you did!

Another one of my favorite lensmasters has made a wonderful lens loaded with things that you need to do everyday on Squidoo. Her name is Joan and she logs in as "Joan4". She wrote a great lens filled with things to do that will keep traffic coming to your lens after you get it started titled: "Squidoo To-Do Lists". It is a wonderful compendium of critical things that you can do to keep that lens at the top of the ranks once you have put in all the hard work to get it there!

This section on getting traffic to your lens would just not be complete without one more lens from "JaguarJulie" on the topic. It is titled "Expanding Your Lens Publishing Power -- How-to Squidoo", and it is jam packed with great information that will help you out making your lens in such a way as to be traffic friendly.

This section would not be complete with out this great lens authored by the Greekgeek
titled: "GreekGeek's Squidoo Tips: How to Get Your Lens Found"





Last but not least I am going to give you some great places to go, and find all sorts of Search Engines and Directories to submit your lenses to.

1. http://freewebsubmission.com/ This is a great place to submit to the SE's.

2. http://www.onewaytextlink.com/ This is one of my favorites~!

3. http://www.addurl.nu/ Another great resource for places to farm.

4. http://www.businessseek.biz/page.php?page=web-submit These guys make it as easy as it gets!

5. http://www.directorycritic.com/new-directories.html A very comprehensive list of great directories.

There are several different search sites that one can pursue that will get you traffic, and here is a small list of some of the biggies!

Stumble
Dapp

Yahoo Pipes These things are very powerful, but can be very complex! Here is a guide to help you out by "TheFluffaNutta" titled: "A Guide to Yahoo Pipes"

del.icio.us
digg
GoArticles
OnlyWire
Furl
SocialMarking 2.0 This ones a biggie because of its coverage
wis.dom (be careful with this one, DON'T SPAM) Of course don't spam any of them, but this one is really sensitive, so only place one relevant link to one relevant lens on topic at a time! OR YOU WILL BE BANNED!

Twitter
Feedcat
Technorati
Newsvine
MillionRSS

Social Bookmarking, Web 2.0 Getting indexed on Google, Yahoo, and MSN can happen over night, or take some time. That is up to you, and how great a lens you develop, and how you promote it. One way to get your lens out there is to Social Bookmark it so the entire world at large has access to it. This normally takes a lot of research and hard work on your behalf, but one of my favorite lensmasters has done most of the work for you! His login is "BigJim", among other things he is a professional musician, and one good lensmaster. Lets give BigJim a big hand of applause for a great lens titled: "Add Your Profile - Make New Friends". This lens contains all the big Web 2.0 sites, and many lensmasters from Squidoo have taken the time to put their logins to these sites out there. Adding them as friends after you sign up to one of these sites is as easy as it can possibly be!

I would not be doing you any favors if I did not add a great lens by a great lensmaster on a completely different way to get traffic to your lenses! I had knowledge of what I am about to show you, but completely overlooked it! Thanks to Colleen who goes by the login "SemperFidelis" I am about to present to you a lens you cannot pass up reading if your serious about getting traffic to your lenses! She has made a marvelous lens all about getting traffic to your lenses by using! Oh well, I could tell you but that would ruin the whole THING! The title of this great lens is: "Traffic From Image Searches", and if you think that is all you need to know? You will have missed the whole train! Go take a peak at this lens, and I guarantee you that you will be glad you did!

The next lens I am going to provide as a tremendous resource for you was written by a good friend, and great lensmaster. His name is Jeff and you will see him logged in as "Jeffwend" Jeff has put together a lens that is loaded with great information and tips for getting traffic from outside of Squidoo. The title to this great lens is "Promoting Your Lens Outside Of Squidoo" and it is a real doozy!

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