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Cute modules to spice up your lens

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Advanced modules tutorial

Cute modules that will help your lens stand out. Go beyond the text-module and the link-list module and use some color. These modules are built into squidoo and really make your lens look good. Some are hard to find, so I added descriptions on where they are in the 'add modules' mode.

Table of Contents

Squidoo now has an automatic table of content within the 'introduction module'. If you don't want to add a description on top, that option is probably best in most cases. Just click 'on'.

But if you want to have a table of content at the end of your lens, adding the module in addition to the one in the introduction is probably a good idea. It is a great module for your larger lenses (in fact, on this one I have two!). Squidoo will automatically change this module if you put more in your lens, so there is no need to create your own table of contents.

You can choose which modules to show, and which to ignore in your table of contents.

Take note: the table of contents has an option to add text, but most of it will be cut off. I used a text/write module to get text first and the table of content later.
  1. Table of Contents
  2. The Introduction module
  3. Text / Write module
  4. Blackbox
  5. Polaroid
  6. Text with BIG Picture
  7. Caption Contest
  8. Photo Gallery
  9. StickyNote
  10. Talk Bubble
  11. The Most Important Thing
  12. Big Arrow Link
  13. Squidoo
  14. Featured lenses
  15. My Lenses
  17. Duel
  18. Poll Module
  19. Quiz
  20. Google Maps
  21. Google Blog Search
  22. Amazon Spotlight
  23. Amazon
  24. Amazon Voting (Plexo)
  25. eBay
  26. CafePress
  27. Current Weather
  29. Video Module
  30. About Me module
  31. How to use modules well, add your tips [comments plexo]
  32. More about squidoo - squidoo answer deck etc.
  33. Guestbook
  34. More by me
  35. More questions?

The Introduction module

This module isn't really an advanced lensmasters module. Still its features are quite extensive. I've devoted a whole lens to it.

[I've used a 'featured lenses' module to showcase it here]
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Text / Write module

This is the most used module in squidoo. You can do a lot with it.

You can add as many as you want, because they won't show up on your lens until you've added content to them. I often end up having a bunch of empty text/write modules at the bottom of my new lenses - just because I can.

This makes adding content later easier.

Blackbox

The blackbox is great for really spotlighting something. It's a bit black (obviously), so on some lenses I prefer other ways of spotlighting my central point. Depends on the atmosphere you want on there.

And it's no longer always black :) (on normal squidoo pages). On this lens orange seems appropriate :)

Polaroid

An easy way to put big pictures on your lens.

Polaroid - find this under 'add unique content'.

It works as follows:

1) Upload any picture from your own computer, squidoo will resize to the size you see here. Pictures look better if they were at least 400 px wide to start with. Smaller pictures will be blown up, while larger pictures will be shrunk automatically.
2) Add a description in the title. You can't put too much text in there - squidoo will limit your text to 130 characters.

Note If you want to use pictures hosted elsewhere you can do two things:

1) Save to your own computer, then upload in the polaroid module. be respectful to the photographer and only do this if they explicitly told you you could...
2) Bypass the Polaroid module and use HTML to get your picture in your lens. Be aware that this means that if the original website moves or deletes the picture, your lens will look weird.

Polaroid 

Text with BIG Picture

This one is great - it will accept pictures up to 1,045,876 bytes. You can find it under the T for Text, or under 'Categories' and then 'Pictures and Video'. I choose a rather small picture to show that it will be automatically centered.

Caption Contest

Very much a fun module. Ask people to comment on the picture you added. Again: maximum size for a picture in 1Mb.


Find the module under the C for Caption Contest.

You will usually want to set this module to 'let people contribute'. However, because I'm getting overwhelmed with emails from places like squidoo, I'm setting this one to 'don't let anyone add to my list'.

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It must have been some party!

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Dang that's a lot of drinking!

2 points

Grab this list

Photo Gallery

Up to 10 pictures

Find this module under P for Photo Gallery. Add pictures of any size up to 1000 pixels wide. They'll be resized for you. Do add text - it makes for a much more interesting lens.

Find this module under P for Photo Gallery. Add pictures of any size up to 1000 pixels wide. They'll be resized for you. Do add text - it makes for a much more interesting lens.

Find this module under P for Photo Gallery. Add pictures of any size up to 1000 pixels wide. They'll be resized for you. Do add text - it makes for a much more interesting lens.
DON'T add any description till you've added all the pictures you want & deleted the ones you don't. Deleting a picture will erase your whole story.
You can decide to rotate or not rotate. On this lens I've turned off rotation because as a reader noted: unless the pictures are the same size, the page will 'jump' when set to rotate.

StickyNote

I really like the look of the sticky note. You'll find it under 'add unique content' (page 2). Note that it also has a different font than most other modules.

Talk Bubble

The 'Talk Bubble' looks great on a lens that also has the 'most important thing' module (see below).

The Talk Bubble can be found under 'add unique content' or under 'T'. The text is limited to 100 characters and excess text will just be thrown out.

“Great to have orange on a lens. This automatically breaks off your text if you have too much of it..”

Important!

The Most Important Thing

This orange rectangle is called 'The Most Important Thing'. It can be found under 'add unique content'. Like the talk bubble it can handle only a limited amount of text.

The 'most important thing' module breaks your text off at 500 characters.

I'll be using this a lot more now that I know what it's called.

Big Arrow Link

This module gives you a chance to really showcase this one website you want to show your readers. It should be something related to your lens-topic. In this case I've just used the Squidoo-URL because that's what this lens is all about.

For some reason this module is under 'sell stuff', but the 'B' works as well.

Squidoo

Featured lenses

This is one of the more popular modules, so it is right there on the edit screen. Look for 'Add Modules (Shortcut!)'.

You can list your favorite lenses here. Do make sure you count the amount of lenses you want to showcase. On its own it will just limit it to ONE lens. This can be very annoying if you don't look out. I've had to redo a few because it just threw away most of the lenses I've entered.
Actually it seems what squidoo does is the following:

  • It remembers all the lenses you put in

  • It randomly shows the amount you choose (1 to 5), or ALL (even if more than five, just no longer random)

  • Each time you refresh a different selection is shown

  • Unless you say 'ALL' - in that case ALL the lenses you put in are shown, in the order you entered them. There does not seem to be a limit to this.


This means that for a lensography you could, in theory, use one featured lenses module to show all your lenses. I would not recommend that: try and organize your lenses in groups and use a featured lenses module for each group. If you have more than five in a row, it's time to start thinking about splitting things up. BUT YOU DO NOT HAVE TO...

BUT for other purposes it can be nice to show a random selection of a larger group of lenses. For instance if you have one very popular lens and you want your other lenses on the same topic to profit. Then you can just enter them all and set the total number to 5. It won't look as spammy as creating a long link-list at the bottom of your lens.

You can even add lenses in the 'ever.com' project (greatest.something.ever.com for instance) - but to find out how to do it, first look at that lens in edit mode. You will see something like: http://www.squidoo.com/lensmaster/workshop/funniest-spirituality-ever in the URL. Just take the last bit of that, for instance funniest-spirituality-ever and add that in the appropriate field. Obviously that technique works best with your own lenses. But those are the lenses you are going to list in any lensography anyhow.

In this case I've just shown lenses by other lensmasters that help you become a better lensmaster. I use this a lot to show my readers other lenses that are related in topic on the bottom of a lens somewhere.

This is also the basic module for lensographies.

The amount of text you can put in the featured lenses module is now no longer limited, but on this lens I am still using a text/write module.
These are some other lenses you may want to check out to become a better lensmaster.
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My Lenses

Just what it says, a way to automatically feature some of your own lenses. You can select a category or a tag to filter by and then sort them by lensrank, recently created, recently updated and alphabetically by lens title. On this one I have put up the 5 most recently created lenses on this account.
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The My Lenses module is great for SEO, so I've elaborated on it's use in a lens:
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Duel

This one is called the DUEL. It's basicly the module you need if you want two sides of an argument to be fought out on your lens. I've used it a few times myself - though getting people to actually give their opinion turns out to be a challenge...

Have you succeeded in getting people to 'sound off'?

Loading Fetching blurbs now... please stand by

Yes, my duels have always sparked debate

goo2eyes says:

i only have 2 duel comments- can i say half-no and half-yes?

Posted June 22, 2011

jctatum says:

I've only put up one duel so far about employers checking our your facebook page before hiring and it's doing pretty good.

Posted October 07, 2010

ohcaroline says:

Yes, my duels do pretty good. I like duels!

Posted September 22, 2010

skiesgreen says:

Yes, when the right questions are asked people do like to answer.

Posted April 11, 2010

Norma_Budden says:

On some lenses, the duel mode is more effective than others.

Posted February 08, 2010

no, debate just never seems to happen...

iQwestArticles says:

Most of my lenses don't overly lend themselves to the "Duel" module, but I haven't had much success on the ones that do! It's definitely something I'd like to improve upon.

Posted September 19, 2011

Frischy says:

Nope

Posted August 17, 2011

akumar46 says:

In some lenses it works beautifully according to the subject matter...

Posted May 22, 2011

Retro_Loco says:

Nope. I haven't tried the duel module, yet. I bet if I use my imagination I can come up with a fun duel that is related to retro things! Thank you for putting the idea in my head!

Posted March 22, 2011

TWOnline2 says:

i am still new.i will try this one

Posted December 10, 2010

 
view all 42 comments

Poll Module

The poll module can be found under 'starter package' or under 'p' for 'poll'. It is the module you use if you want to have your visitors vote on something. You can add as many options to vote for as you wish. These polls don't have the option of selecting two or more answers at the same time: your visitors will have to choose.

These days you can even set your comment module to have it's own guestbook.

Loading poll. Please Wait...

Quiz

Yeah, squidoo has added a quiz module. Bet you wonder where you can find it? Take the quiz...

Google Maps

To be found under 'G' for google maps.

Any lens on something local should have a map, and this is the easiest way to get one. I have found, so far, that in most cases it's best to just set the 'display options' to 'Fartherer' - which means people will get the least detail and the most possible context.

Personally I would like to have even 'further' views possible. For instance, I can't just show my whole country (The Netherlands) - in fact I can't show the whole of the capital: Amsterdam.

Don't bother about the note that says the google maps module only works for the USA. It does work for The Netherlands, so I guess it will work for any country. Just try.

Google Blog Search

This module gives you a way to have links to the latest blogposts or news on your lens - without you going the trouble to actually type it in :)
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Amazon Spotlight

Under A for Amazon

The Amazon spotlight is where you highlight just one Amazon product.

It's right here on the edit screen - just click 'profitable'.

On my lenses this is usually a book, but it can be any product sold on Amazon. You will want to use this only once or twice per lens - if only because you need to actually describe why your readers should buy this product, and not the tons of other products out there.

Make sure to check the display options. Unfortunately at the moment the 'rank' option (which used to give the star rating) no longer works. Leave it off.
HTML and XHTML Pocket Reference (Pocket Reference (O'Reilly))

HTML and XHTML Pocket Reference (Pocket Reference (O'Reilly))

by: Jennifer Niederst Robbins

Amazon Price: $4.57 (as of 02/14/2012)Buy Now

Spotlighting an affordable HTML and CSS reference here, because lensmasters should really know basic HTML and CSS. I have a few references myself - this one is affordable and has all the basics.

Amazon

money making module

This module is so popular it's on the edit screen itself under 'Add Modules (Shortcut!)'.

You can let Amazon pick based on your topic, or you can pick stuff yourself. I usually start out with what Amazon picks and see whether it makes any sense. Do check out the display options as well. This lens holds a maximum of 5 products.

Again - the star ratings no longer work.
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Amazon Voting (Plexo)

This module too can be found right there on the edit screen. Just click 'profitable' under 'Add Modules (Shortcut!)'.

This module can hold an apparently limitless amount of products - if you choose to pick products yourself.

Make sure to edit the descriptions: they often contain code that doesn't show up very well.

I don't use this module much myself. People don't vote for their favorites anyhow.

However, I do like the ook when you opt for NO one line item description. What that means is you get a lot MORE of the description showing. Like here. See under 'display'.

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Small Is the New Big: and 183 Other Riffs, Rants, and Remarkable Business Ideas by Seth Godin

Small Is the New Big: and 183 Other Riffs, Rants, and Remarkable Business Ideas by Seth Godin

More provocative business thinking from the bestselling author of Purple Cow and All Marketers Are Liars. As one of today's most influential business thinkers, Seth Godin helps his army of fans stay focused, stay connected, and stay dissatisfied with the status quo, the ordinary, the boring. His books, blog posts, magazine articles, and speeches have inspired countless entrepreneurs, marketing people, innovators, and managers around the world.2 points

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Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync? by Seth Godin

Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync? by Seth Godin

Gotta get me some of that New Marketing. Bring me blogs, e-mail, YouTube videos, MySpace pages, Google AdWords . . . I don't care, as long as it's shiny and new. Wait. According to bestselling author Seth Godin, all these tactics are like the toppings at an ice cream parlor. If you start with ice cream, adding cherries and hot fudge and whipped cream will make it taste great.1 point

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The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick) by Seth Godin

The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick) by Seth Godin

The old saying is wrong. winners do quit, and quitters do win. Every new project (or job, or hobby, or company) starts out exciting and fun. Then it gets harder and less fun, until it hits a low point really hard, and not much fun at all. And then you find yourself asking if the goal is even worth the hassle. Maybe you are in a Dip - a temporary setback that will get better if you keep pushing.0 points

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Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin

Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin

You're either a Purple Cow or you're not. You're either remarkable or invisible. Make your choice.

What do Starbucks and JetBlue and KrispyKreme and Apple and DutchBoy and Kensington and Zespri and Hard Candy have that you don't? How do they continue to confound critics and achieve spectacular growth, leaving behind former tried-and true brands to gasp their last?

Face it, the checklist of tired 'P's marketers have used for decades to get their p...0 points

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All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World by Seth Godin

All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World by Seth Godin

Every marketer tells a story. And if they do it right, we believe them. We believe that wine tastes better in a $20 glass than a $1 glass. We believe that an $80,000 Porsche Cayenne is vastly superior to a $36,000 VW Touareg, which is virtually the same car. We believe that $225 Pumas will make our feet feel better-and look cooler-than $20 no-names . . . and believing it makes it true.

Successful marketers don't talk about features or even benefits. Instead, they tell a story. A story we want t...

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eBay

Again: right there on the edit screen - just click 'profitable'.

In this case you have to let eBay pick based on your keyword, or pick a seller that specialises in your subject - because you don't want the product you were selling yesterday to be sold today - and have nothing show up on your lens. Like the previous modules: a maximum of 5 products for sale per module.
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CafePress

Like all the money making modules: this is under 'profitable'.

Cafepress is a popular design-it-yourself network online. Pick from over 22 million original designs on tons of customizable products--tote bags and t-shirts and mousepads and more! Find this under 'sell stuff'.
Also a maximum of five products per module.

And yes - you get a percentage of each sale you make (though I've yet to make even one with this module). It's a normal affiliate program that way. You're the advertiser, so you get a share of the profit.
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Current Weather

There are two 'weather' modules in squidoo. One is for showing people what the weather is where they're at. This might be useful if you are writing about the weather or something, but not on my lenses.

The other weather module is relevant for any lens on a local area. Whether it's a country or a town - doesn't matter.

Find this one under 'W' for weather or just search 'weather' in module search.

Just type in any town (well, fairly large town), or in the US you can type in the postal code. If it knows the town, it will just show the weather.
If it has multiple options (like I did: I typed in London) - it will show you which London's you might mean. Copy paste the one you do mean into the box and save again.

Don't bother typing in the text box: it won't show up. This text was added by typing in an ordinary text/write module.

Error: Multiple matches found

Please edit the module a select the correct city.

Video Module

Adds a video from youtube, vimeo, revver, howcast, aniboom, godtube, metacafe, myspace or veoh to your lens.

Want more video's? Add more modules. The interface is simple: find the link of that video and copy paste.

This module is found right there on the edit screen.

The video below is from youtube.

Note that you can add as much text above the video as you want and that there is no description text imported. If you want the youtube description imported on your lens, you should go for the youtube module (under Y for Youtube).
[But it's better to write your own text - that way google will know your lens is interesting in its own right, not just a youtube copycat.]

I do like that the video's shown with the video module are nice and big.
powered by Youtube

About Me module

You can choose whether to show your profile picture (I would if you have one), whether to show the bio squidoo creates, whether to show what you've written about yourself and whether to show the five featured lenses you have set. For this example I've gone with all of the above + the text you can add.

In the 'add modules' bit at the top of the page, choose 'all modules'. This one is the first listed.

Unfortunately this module may make your lens look ancient, because the date you joined Squidoo will show up on your lens - and Google may pull it out in the serps. Better avoid this module as long as that issue is not fixed.
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How to use modules well, add your tips [comments plexo]

Add your favorite tips and vote for the ones you think are most important.

[This is the rarely used comments plexo: to be found under 'c' for comments or under 'interact']

In this case I've set this module to 'Don't Let Anyone Add to my List', because I'm getting overwhelmed with emails from squidoo and am trying to cut things down.

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Do change the titles of the modules

Modules with generic titles are annoying.8 points

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Add interactive modules...

To let your readers participate and feel like they more...5 points

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Plexo's can be edited!

If people add things to your plexo's, please edit more...2 points

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Titles of modules should be descriptive and catchy

Be a real writer: use words people will want to se more...0 points

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Do check out the options on your modules

Learning makes your lenses better0 points

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Use the comments plexo for feedback

Ask for suggestions in the description. People lov more...0 points

More about squidoo - squidoo answer deck etc.

Vote for your favorite squidoo answer deck lens (well, mine anyway)

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squidoo css - my favorite code

I've gathered my favorite Squidoo-code for later r more...41 points

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Lensrank explained (really)

Well, squidoo lensrank has, by common consensus, t more...38 points

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SEO for squidoo - how to get google search traffic

SEO - search engine optimization - has many differ more...20 points

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Advanced css for squidoo - spice up your lens MORE

My lens about css for squidoo often gets the quest more...15 points

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Editing your squidoo lens - ideas

It's the last week of the month. To get your lense more...11 points

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All Posters.Com the cutest affiliate program EVER

I do love this affiliate program. allPosters.com g more...11 points

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How to do Keyword Research for squidoo

It is an under statement to say that keywords are more...10 points

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Stumbleupon explained for lensmasters

Stumbleupon is great fun, and a tool for self-prom more...9 points

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Squidoo money makers

This lens is meant to investigate what ways people more...9 points

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If you want to become popular on squidoo...

In some ways squidoo is like a popularity contest. more...7 points

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Would you rather have a squidangel blessing or a quality link?

Would you rather have a squidangel blessing or a q more...6 points

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Cute modules to spice up your lens

Cute modules that will help your lens stand out. G more...5 points

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The Introduction Module in Squidoo

Squidoo recently changed the Introduction module. more...5 points

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Optimizing tags for squidoo

Tags are a great way for websites like squidoo to more...5 points

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SEO traffic stats: ranking report for squidoo lenses

Someone asked me to make a lens about my traffic s more...5 points

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10 tips to get found in Google

SEO = Search Engine Optimization. In practice SEO more...5 points

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How to get found on Google - FAQ

Sorry people, I've become too busy to answer all y more...5 points

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My Lenses Module on squidoo

My new favorite module is the My Lenses Module. No more...5 points

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Human Forum Promotion

This lens is a list of tips for promoting your onl more...4 points

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Google Blogsearch Module

I love to make a lens better by using google blog more...3 points

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How to make a banner for your website or myspace

I make my own banners because I just don't want an more...3 points

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Why did I suddenly lose google traffic?

I hear this question so often in the Squidoo forum more...2 points

created by squidoohelp

Guestbook


Every lens should have a guestbook, if only because some groups won't accept lenses if you don't have one. Squid-angels are also more likely to bless a lens if it has a guestbook. Make sure you at least touch the 'edit' button, that way the standard description 'new guestbook' gets replaced by the friendlier title 'reader feedback'.

If you want a listing at the Isle Of Squid you will need to change the text of this module to something other than 'reader feedback' or 'new guestbook'.

That said: I'm breaking that rule on quite a few of my lenses these days: trying to cut back on emails I have to deal with.

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Back up to the modules

  1. Table of Contents
  2. The Introduction module
  3. Text / Write module
  4. Blackbox
  5. Polaroid
  6. Polaroid
  7. Text with BIG Picture
  8. Caption Contest
  9. Photo Gallery
  10. StickyNote
  11. Talk Bubble
  12. The Most Important Thing
  13. Big Arrow Link
  14. Squidoo
  15. Featured lenses
  16. My Lenses
  18. Duel
  19. Poll Module
  20. Quiz
  21. Google Maps
  22. Google Blog Search
  23. Amazon Spotlight
  24. Amazon
  25. Amazon Voting (Plexo)
  26. eBay
  27. CafePress
  28. Current Weather
  30. Video Module
  31. About Me module
  32. How to use modules well, add your tips [comments plexo]
  33. More about squidoo - squidoo answer deck etc.
  34. Guestbook
  35. More questions?

More by me

More questions?

Unfortunately changes in my personal life, and in the way squidu is managed, have made me decide to stop answering questions on that forum. I'm also too busy to answer questions elsewhere.

I am available for consulting though, but that doesn't come cheap. For $99 you get a month of asking whatever questions you want and advice on your SEO strategy, link building, optimizing your blog etc. SEO consult online publishing.

If you aren't willing to pay up, you'll have to be content to stay updated on my Marketing Spiritual Blog where I am also willing to answer any questions related to the posts. It also contains a free ebook.

I'm active on twitter and facebook.

by

squidoohelp

I'm a webmaster and getting addicted to squidoo. I made this lens to remind myself of the coolest modules out there - and where to find them (because... more »

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