The Selling Lounge Squidooer's

It is important to keep your Squidoo Lens' fresh with new content from time to time. So if you have not worked on yours in awhile, please do so.

The Selling Lounge had 3 mini Squidoo Workshops Hosted by: OrganicGiftsByDiana, below are the notes from the workshops.

Part 1 - The Selling Lounge Squidoo Workshop
Starting Your First Squidoo Lens - How Do I?

Pick a subject to write about and enter it in the box to get started on your lens
I will be putting = tired stinky feet

click next and it will ask you what kind of page it will be - I put the first one about the getting the word out - the easiest option, click next...

Now, it will ask you to fill in your url
(hyphens are better than underscores)
I put = tired-stinky-feet

pick a category , I picked = health and medicine

rate your lens, I picked = g rated

To all, Think of it as writing a paper - each "module" is a paragraph starting with an intro.

Now we are at step 4
It is asking you what keywords or phrases you want to use

I will use = "my poor feet" "tired feet fixes" "Smelly feet"

*** Do not stress over these - everything except the url can be changed later on if you like ;)

Now, type in the code so Squidoo knows you are a person and not a bot and click "done"

Now, you see your very basic lens.

Click on to "edit" button for any section to make changes or add content...
Do NOT click the "Publish" button yet as the search engines will come and you are not ready to be seen ;)
Instead, click the "save draft" button to save your work for later.

The Selling Lounge had 3 mini Squidoo Workshops Hosted by: OrganicGiftsByDiana, below are the notes from the workshops.

Part 2 -The Selling Lounge Squidoo Workshop
Add TEXT to your Squidoo

Have some text ready about your topic and have a few photos that you want to use already uploaded to your computer.

Go to your Squidoo dashboard and click on "edit" for for lens.
(It will be under your lens' title when you hover your mouse over it.)

Now your lens will come up in the edit mode.

The first thing you'll want to edit, is to add the text and the photo for the introduction, so click "edit" in the intro section.

Now fill out the title, description and add a photo.

For my title, I put "Tired, stinky feet"

For my description, I put "What can you do with those tired toxic tootsies ?
I will offer some simple natural solutions for you to try."

I will go into more detail later in my text.

Now I am adding my intro photo of a pair of my shoe sachets for now - I can change it later if I want to.

click on "save" to save your work so far.
Then click "edit" again so we can go in and do more work on the intro.

Click the "table of contents" tab and then hit the "on" button.

Now click the "discovery tool" tab and make sure it is checked "yes" - later, when you have more lenses that are similar OR you find other similar lens, you add them here to help promote them.

Make sure you hit "save" again.

Now, ignore the other modules/boxes for now and just fill out the first text box with a title and description...
You break up your text into boxes just like when you write a paper in paragraphs for school or for a story...

My first text box title = Help for you poor, tired, stinky feet

I am not doing a subtitle for now, but might later (I don't always have one)

My text in the description box = First thing's first, keep them clean by changing your socks often.
Also, try to wear natural fiber socks to allow your feet to get airflow.
Whenever you wash your feet or take a bath or shower, make sure to dry your feet thoroughly - especially between your toes.
Now, you can add a photo in this box too if you want using the upload function at the bottom.

Either way, hit "save"

Now, for my other paragraphs/text boxes - I will need to get another text box module.
Look on the right side of the screen - see the "Workshop Tools" ?
Look there and see the green + signs.

Click on the green + sign that reads "text" module.

Now, you will have a number "1" in the box - change it be the number of paragraphs you have (you can add more later or get rid of some) and click on the orange "ADD" box

Now, still in the Workshop tools", you see the reorder modules section right underneath the "add modules" section where you just added text boxes - Click on the RSS module and drag it down to the bottom of the other modules in the list

Do the same with the amazon, flicker, you-tube,delicious, plexo, google blog.

If you use these, they should be toward the bottom of your lens UNLESS they give good info to back up your text.

I usually cllick the boxes next to them and delete them.

You can do either.

Either way, now click "Apply" to save your choices.

I drag my guestbook down either to just before or after the RSS feed.

You do what you want here. and click "apply" again if you changed any module order.

Now, it is time for your second textbox.

Do the same - fill out the title, subtitle (if you wish) and the description boxes.

add a photo at the bottom in the upload box if you want and hit save.

I put:
Title = Baby those feet...

subtitle = give them a special treat...

description = For a special treat, give your feet a nice soak in a warm foot bath (a basin or bowl big enough to allow your feet to rest on the bottom comfortable is good) with salts and herbs%u2026

Try this:
To about a gallon of warm water, add ½ cup of Epsom salts, 1 ounce of milk, 1 Tablespoon of sea salt, 1 Tablespoon of oatmeal, 1 teaspoon of baking soda or citric acid, a handful of fresh thyme, a fresh rosemary sprig, a tablespoon of lavender buds, a teaspoon of fresh peppermint leaves

Or, you can just get one of my Bath Salt Teas that come in a reusable or compostable cotton muslin bag.

DON'T FORGET TO SAVE YOUR WORK !

Now, continue adding your text modules with photos if you like.

You can hit "Publish" after you finish your text boxes if you like.
I will so you can see what mine looks like so far.

Here is mine so far =

I will finish my text by putting each paragraph into a new text box with its own title (sometimes a subtitle) and description.

Next week, we will work on adding our RSS feed and perhaps adding a you-tube video or something else...so be on the lookout for what you would like to add to your lens.

The Selling Lounge had 3 mini Squidoo Workshops Hosted by: OrganicGiftsByDiana, below are the notes from the workshops.

Part 3 -The Selling Lounge Squidoo Workshop
Add your RSS Feed and set up the Guestbook

RSS FEED Instruction:
TO GRAB THE URL for YOUR FEED:
In your Squiddo dashboard, hit "edit lens" and then hit "edit RSS" to open up the RSS feed text box.
Fill out the title and description too if you like.

I put: "RSS for Diana's Shoe Sachets" as my title
In your Squiddo dashboard, hit "edit lens" and then hit "edit RSS" to open up the RSS feed text box.
Fill out the title and description too if you like.

I put: "RSS for Diana's Shoe Sachets" as my title
In your Squiddo dashboard, hit "edit lens" and then hit "edit RSS" to open up the RSS feed text box.
Fill out the title and description too if you like.

I put: "RSS for Diana's Shoe Sachets" as my title

1. Go to the 'product Listing' page of the feed you want to send... usually by clicking on 'browse all' or on a specific category.
   
2. On that page, find the RSS symbol, and click on it.
   
3. Once you are on your feed page, highlight the entire URL in the address bar and copy it.
   

In your Squiddo dashboard, hit "edit lens" and then hit "edit RSS" to open up the RSS feed text box.

Fill out the title and description too if you like.

I put: "RSS for Diana's Shoe Sachets" as my title

Now, you can have the RSS feed point to the newest products of your whole store or you can pick a certain category or a price range ...
You can even put a few RSS feed boxes if you like - I have both mine and my daughters on many of my Squidoo lenses.

For my "Tired, Stinky Feet" lens, I think will use just the Shoe Sachet category's RSS feed.
So, I will click on that category then when the screen comes up that shows the RSS page - I will go up into the address box and copy the whole web address of http://organicgiftsbydiana.mybisi.com/rss/2530 and put that into the RSS box.

For - How many headlines, I put "10"

For - Would you like to include an excerpt from each link in the feed??
I put "100 characters"

For - How frequently should the module be updated?
I put "1 day"

For- Would you like to display HTML in the excerpt?
I put - Yes

Now click "save"
And you will see your lens come up.
Check to see if the RSS section looks like you want it.

For my selections, there is a small product photo, a short description with a price for each of my items listed. - Each one is also linked to my store.

For eCRATER, there will also be a "Buy it now" button for each item.

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Now, onto getting your GuestBook set up.
Hit the "edit Guestbook"
And enter your selections.

* I like to screen the entries before they go up - so I use these options:

---------------------------------------------------

Who do you want commenting?
= Anyone...

When should their blurbs be approved?
= Ask me first

Send you an approval email for pending blurbs?
= Yep

Show how many blurbs per page? Show commenter photos (thumbnails)?
= I leave it at 5, but as always, do what you like.

Strip all HTML out of blurbs?
= Yep (because I do not want folks leaving all sorts of spam)

Always remember to hit "save" so you don't lose your work.
Hit "save as draft" and go to your "profile/bio" page.

Hit "edit your profile" page

Now, go down to the bottom and you will see "Social Application Settings"
Set them up with your Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Now, you can automatically update them whenever you update your lens.

Go back to your lens and see if you like it.
If so, hit "publish" and a new screen will come up showing your lens and the words "Publish Successful"

Under that, it will say something about telling folks on Twitter and Facebook and ask if you want to send a Squidcast.

Since this is new, go ahead and do them all if you like.

I do Twitter and Facebook first because they will come up in a new screen.
Then send the Suidcast to any followers on Squidoo.

I hope everyone enjoyed our 3 Squidoo Mini Workshops !

This was the last one as we have covered the main points.

If you would like more information about Squidoo and more tips and hints...
Please see this thread: Squidoo Hints and Tips

We have a list of Selling Lounge Members who have a Squidoo Lens, please click on their links and HUG them.