My Squidoo Story

Squidoo was at eBay Live 2007, which I was unable to attend, Megan manned the booth giving away the orange T-shirts and Seth gave a presentation. They had an awesome show giveaway too.

Just prior to eBay Live 2007, Squidoo became very popular and much talked about on the eBay Stores Discussion Board. I quickly browsed a few threads and kept reading something about a lens. What the heck is a lens I thought, and do I need my digital camera?

Ah, now I get it, after checking into this more, yes, increasing traffic to our eBay stores or websites, check off a good thing. And lenses, well they are like mini web sites, cool!

* puts away my digital camera *

On June 14, 2007 I finally took the plunge, so to speak, and joined Squidoo! Now, a couple of months later I feel like an expert, well ok, not quite. But I sure have been having a swimmingly great time with my Squidoo Lenses.

Ok, so just like everyone else, it was a little tough and slow going. It took me a while to figure out how to create my first lens, but got my first lens finished and was pretty happy with it.

Although after much reading and learning these last two months (and still learning), my first lens has really changed from the initial lens I made! Did I mention I have almost 70 lenses now and I had to start my own group just so I could keep track of myself! LOL

Along the way, I started meeting other really friendly Squids and Squidettes and we now all enjoy sharing tips, suggestions and ideas to make a better lens.

We had a nice little (well, ended up not so little) thread on the eBay Stores Discussion board started by cd-shack-media where we posted links to our lenses (which most were about our eBay Stores). We all visited each others and left guestbook entries and some stars. And then, as predicted, we got booted off * ouch those pink slaps hurt *

Posting on the Stores Board lately, I dunno, it just seems like,
like, like..... ya, that's it! ---------------------------------------------->

Fortunately, just prior to our thread getting pulled, Marty mentioned about someone maybe keeping track of all the lenses. Well, me being me, I not only had a list on my 'puter already, it was in alphabetical order too! * grin *

Looking for a place to safely put this list online, and since we wanted to chat about Squidoo lenses, I figured, why not have it on Squidoo, and found a home for us on SquidU starting the eBay Store Squids Hangout to chat and Lenses from the eBay Store Squids Hangout for THE LIST was born.

And definitely.....

To ensure this, MiMi brought in "Tony and Vinnie " as Security. So our Hangout is a safe and fun place to share tips, suggestions and ideas.

And of course to chat ..... did I mention that we get a little silly sometimes too!

When I first started our eBay Store Squids Hangout thread, Randy, he's the Community Manager for eBay Sellers on Squidoo ya know, immediately dropped in and mentioned that he had asked Squidoo HQ about creating our own eBay Users Forum for us at SquidU. Wow, impressive or what!

Since I didn't know who he was, hey, I don't get out much, Stephanie informed me that Randy would be on the VIPTK list (Very Important People To Know).

We named him Squid Dude, although Noodles has been known to call him Great & Powerful Squid Dude and me thinks Randy likes this. LOL Hmmmm, I wonder if Mr. Noodles knows about this.

One of his other jobs is to keep us in line, ok, maybe not, but he sure has been extremely helpful and is fun to have around.

Whenever Randy is not performing his Squid duties,
or hanging out on our thread,
rumor has it ................
that you'll find him on the golf course.
Hey, good putt there Randy!

It all started out innocently, it was July 29/07 and we were discussing how to get the eBay Squidoo header on our eBay related lenses.

MiMi (who I think also has the longest Lens URL on Squidoo) who always makes us laugh, casually posted:

Okay...I just gotta say it...I hope I don't hurt any feelings and I really don't want to insult anyone, but...The squid on the eBay header looks like a greedy, conniving squid. Can't we get a cute, cuddly squid for our eBay header? There...I said it. Feel free to start throwing the rotten cheese. I'll bbl to clean up the mess.

Lady G who has created so many informative gem lenses, couldn't have agreed any quicker. Then she disappeared from the Squids Hangout for a wee bit, rumor has it she went to Niagara Falls for a quick romantic holiday with Lord G.

OK so getting back on topic, Randy took our comments to Squidoo HQ and the eBay Squidoo Logo Contest began.

We were all so impressed at how Squidoo was listening to us, the eBay sellers! What can I say, we just aren't used to that! And not only did they agree to hold a contest to find a new logo, but came along with prizes too! Thank you Megan and Squidoo HQ!

It was nice too that Squidoo involved us in the selection process for the new logo for our headers. We voted for our favorites from all the entries, and after the Official Judges selected the top finalists, we again voted for the final winner.

There were 32 awesome entries and Squidee, who started out as a black and white hand sketch by faery, and who we all immediately fell in love with, was the overall winner and who now graces our eBay Squidoo lenses.

When we were having the Squidee gender issue discussion, faery made a pink version. Lady G commented "Dawling...she needs some Jewels or at least a string or pearls" (go figure, this coming from a Gem Dealer! LOL)

Since they came out with the Giant Squid program, Stephanie, who has given us so many really great tips on lens building, and me (who MiMi calls Bullet LOL), well we are kind of in a (very friendly) lens race and this has enabled us to meet our 50 minimum! Of course, she is always blaming me when she makes a new lens LOL.

Noodles, who is the only one who acknowledges that I am the only one who is a serious poster (ROFTLMAO), convinced her hubby into making a lens (which by the way, he is now a full fledge Squid) and she told me that he changed his user name to Mr. Noodles after I called him that. They both got a kick out of it and it stuck. He just started posting in our thread too and apparently there is a Mr & Mrs Noodles show now! LOL

Now Patrice, who also has a great sense of humor, has already admitted "My name is Patrice ...... and I'm a Squidoo addict." and Stephanie, rumor has it, got Patrice addicted to something called Moola, and we are waiting for these two to win big, so they can take us all out to lunch!

T was the first poster to the thread, Dawn, Ann, Karen, dach, Kay and Patti pop in from time to time, Penny is new and Mr K who recently joined in and joins the Squid group with Randy and Mr. Noodles (I think they like being surrounded by all us Squidettes).

Glen, he's the SquidU mod, and he drops in once in a while to our eBay Forum. Although he doesn't post very often here, hey, he's a bizzzy Squid, I'm pretty sure he keeps a close squideye on us. Geesh, somebuddy has to! LOL

Oh ya, and as a regular poster, I'm sure MiMi will find you an agent, we all have them, and Tony and Vinnie carefully screen out the imposters, those slick agents I tell ya, you just can't trust 'em!

I get a little mixed up once in a while, must be swimming too fast sometimes! If you are a regular poster on the eBay Users Forum, you will totally understand this next one. I always try to help posters out explaining how to do things with their lenses. I wonder if I confuse them sometimes explaining where features are on their page?

Note to Self

Kathy, this is right --------------- >
Kathy, this is left < ----------------

..... more to come

It's been a while since I have updated my story, but we all got a wee bit busy trying to become Giant Squids, and Stephanie, boy she kept me hopping I tell ya, oops, I mean swimming. We all did pretty good too, there are several of us now who are proud to be Giant Squids! Oh ya, Stephanie decided that we should now all try and make 100 lenses by Halloween, yikes! And we are all working on it!

Patti gave up sleep, yardwork, laundry, and anything that resembled cooking to be able to Squidoo! Although at least she is still showing up for work (for now). She had to leave her lensing for a bit cuz she helped a friend move (we promised to slap her upside da head next time she offered LOL), but apparently we won't have to worry about that anymore.

I can hardly wait until MiMi gets back, she has been away, and gosh I miss her so much! When these two get together, there won't be a dry eye in the house! LOL Patti, our resident spammer, just kidding folks, makes us laugh on a daily basis. She has a little trouble with speeling sometimes too, but that is what makes Patti, Patti.

We lost Lady G again, she was off travelling (boy she travels a lot) and when she returned was very busy creating a whole bunch of SquidWho lenses, and I think she likes pirates (check out her SquidWho lenses LOL), and she is related to one too eh? Patrice made an awesome lens on Talk like a Pirate!

We keeping welcoming new Squids and Squidettes to the eBay Users Forum, words getting out what a fun group we are! Brenda, new squidoo addict, dropped by to say hello and said she was glad we were breaking up our threads into weekly.... wonder if that's cuz we talk too much? LOL And Patti, brought along her friend Doug, well, he might have snuck in, we're not sure, but we welcomed him with open tentacles, and he is becoming a great Squid and an eBayer.

Connie is another new Squidette joining the gang and posts when she can. She says we make her laugh! She really is enjoying creating her lenses and I have a feeling she will eventually become a Squid Addict too! Of course, she was so busy rating and leaving guestbook entries on all my lenses, once she is finished, I am sure she will start racking them up!

Patrice posts when she can and is still making new lenses and learning all kinds of new things to do with her lenses. Besides being silly, we really are very helpful to each other. And she has the cutest puppy, and we got to see June Bug's pictures too!

We often discuss our weather, well at least I do LOL, and quite often I post my smiley weatherman before I do ..... I think I have converted Noodles into liking smileys, cuz she is always asking me about our weather now for some reason. I dunno, but I think she has a thing for him LOL

Randy has been away for a bit, he has been really busy, well either that or playing golf..... or maybe we just wore him out! LOL But he does check in often to see if we have any questions, need some help or just give us some words of praise or encouragement.

I kinda lost track of my very good pal Docwoman for a while this summer, but finally dragged her back to SquidU. We have to get her creating some more lenses though LOL! She has the cutest kitty and bunny, Coconut and Pooky! I hope she will post a few pictures of them for the gang to see!

From October 2007 on, we are pretty busy with Christmas sales, and then my mom was in the hospital five times! Poor dear, I felt so bad for her. Hospitals are definitely not a fun place to be! So it may be a little while before I update this.

I plan on adding to this, kinda like my Squidoo Diary, so be sure to drop by from time to time!

When you leave, I only ask one favor, could you please make sure that you turn off the lights?

Gosh, it sure has been a long time since I have updated this lens and it has been one of those dreaded years where you just want to get it over with! This spring, I had more medical problems and permanently lost the vision in my left eye.

Then in June, my elderly mother passed away, both Rick and I shall miss her terribly. I hope to make a tribute lens for her someday, it's just too difficult to do right now.

While updating this lens a while back, I noticed, and was honored, to suddenly see a Squidoo Answer Deck logo on this lens .... not sure why, well I guess this is kinda reflective of our Squidoo community spirit here, aw heck I just think they likes me LOL.

I tell you, I sure did miss all my Squidbuds! I'm up now to over 200 lenses * phew * and I hope that one of these days I can get back to some posting and catching up..... I sure hope they remember me! LOL

Hey, they did.... look what I got!

It sure felt strange coming back to Squidoo. You know how when you are away for some time and return, you kind of feel lost, awkward and a bit out of place. And so many new folks on SquidU, so many new faces... I mean avatars, or as I usually call them, aviators LOL

But I'm back, and my old Squidbuds have not forgotten me, as a matter of fact, I was honored with being accepted as a Squidoo Greeter, now how cool is that! So, I'll be busy as a bee, and you'll definitely see my pretty bullet around!

There's a few people I do want to talk about next, our fantastic trio of Giant Squid Organizations, Bonnie, Patti and Robin. And then there is our sweet loving Chefkeem, the famous JaguarJulie, the most helpful Mr. Fluff, you know him as thefluffanutta LOL, Tony aka poddys, the man with the best sense of humor, and a few of our fabulous Giant Squid Greeters, KimGiancaterino, clouda9, beeobrien and Everythingmouse. And then there are quite a few new lensmasters I have met too.

Oh boy, I have to find some time to get writin'!

I'm worn out already! LOL

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