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The 10 Day Squidoo eBay Challenge 2008

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Review of the 10 Day Squidoo eBay Challenge

UPDATE! THE CONTEST IS OVER!

Congrats to our 2 incredible winners. Yep, count 'em, one and two.

Want to learn what SquidBids is all about? Check this out.

Not to worry - keep watching SquidU for more challenges and contests and keep buildling up your lens count. Make it to 50 - and you could become a Giant Squid like these fine folks!

I'm Katiyana, a Giant Squid with 200 lenses under my belt, and an eBayer since 1999. There is a lot of synergy to be found between the world of eBay and the world of Squidoo. And this is your chance to take advantage of that, leading up to the eBay Live 2008 convention (in Chicago, June 19-21).

So here's the challenge, in a nutshell: Make 1 lens a day, spotlighting just 1 item or theme of items you have for sale, for 10 days.

Winner (ie, the person with the best eBay lens as voted on by our judges) gets a free iPod, and way better: Lens of the Day and a reference in Seth Godin's presentation at eBay Live. Not to mention 10 great pages pointing to the stuff you sell...

The Challenge starts Wednesday June 4th 2008, and ends on Tuesday June 17th at 10PM EST. (Hey, we'll give you weekends off).

Read on for more details!

This page at a glance

1 lens a day. 10 days. Winner take all.
Here's how it works
The Prizes
Stuck for ideas?
A few great examples
Challenge FAQ
Are you ready?
Have you ever heard Seth Godin speak?
Just for fun: Add your Challenge Lenses here!
Announcing the Finalists!
Thank you for participating in the Squidoo eBay Challenge!!
This lens was Lens of the Day on June 4, 2008
AND THE WINNERS ARE...

Important!

1 lens a day. 10 days. Winner take all.

Here's how it works

Are you ready to take the 10 day challenge?

The challenge runs from June 4th through June 17th.

Your task: Create 1 lens a day for each day of the challenge. A lens to highlight each of your bestsellers. Or your newest stuff for sale. Or to organize your themes. Or to plumb the topic of what you're selling. Or just about how eBay impacts your life.

Then, send them to us!

At the end of the challenge you'll have 10 awesome lenses about you and eBay, each pointing to all your best stuff for sale--or your favorite stuff to shop for!

Oh, I should say: eBay sellers AND buyers are both welcome.

Are you an eBay seller? Create a lens about your eBay business, tell us about your eBay store, create a SquidBids lens if you haven't already! Use the RSS Feeds and/or eBay modules to showcase your eBay listings and tell us about what you sell.

Are you an eBay buyer? Create a lens about what you shop for on eBay, tell us about what you are collecting and what great items you've added to your collection from eBay. Everyone has a wacky eBay story, right?

At the end of the 10 days, you'll have 10 lenses highlighting your funkiest, newest, bestselling stuff OR your coolest, rarest, and most interseting purchases.

But a challenge wouldn't be fun if there weren't PRIZES involved - so here's what is at stake!

The Prizes

First, you gotta nominate yourself!

When you have finished your 10 eBay lenses, email them in to me and Squidoo HQ at ebayaward@squidoo.com.

We and a panel of volunteer lensmasters will select a winner: the person who made the most authentic, most creative, most unique eBay lens for the contest.

Prizes! Winner gets:

--A free ipod
--The lucky winner also gets one of their eBay lenses showcased as the Squidoo Lens of the Day on June 19 (The first day of eBay live)
--And gets featured as a case study in Seth Godin's talk at eBay Live!

In addition, anyone who participated should ping us again in 30 days and let us know how your lenses and eBay sales are doing. Squidoo HQ will feature a roundup of successful case studies on the Squid blog.

Stuck for ideas?

If you sell Elvis memorabilia, try making a lens about Graceland, and point to all your items for sale along the way.

If you sell beach jewelry, make a page about why you love the beach, or your last beach vacation, and link to your 5 favorite items for sale.

If you sell funky tshirts, why not make 1 lens for every single t-shirt? Talk about what inspired it, how you made it, and of course... where people can buy it.

If you sell a whole bunch of Halloween Costume gear, have a lens for each costume theme. A pirates lens, a witches lens, and so on.

And hey, if you're a buyer rather than a seller, just showcase the coolest stuff you've bought over the years. A rare, signed U2 album for your wife? Tell the story on a lens. A bunch of white legos to make a lego cake for your wedding? You KNOW that story needs a lens...

A few great examples

Making 10 great eBay lenses is easier than you think! Check out some of these lenses to get inspired!

Challenge FAQ

Get your answers to commonly asked questions about the challenge here! No charge!

Can you submit already created lenses?

We know you are pretty busy eBayers, and some of you have already created some fabulous lenses to promote your eBay store. So if you want to submit some of your pre-existing lenses you can (but make them good ones!). Please submit no more than 5 lenses created before 6/4/08 - I'm sure you can get at least 5 new lenses done during the challenge. This will get you a chance to see the new modules and new features Squidoo has to offer!!
Can I submit more than 10 lenses?

To keep things fair, no more than 10 submissions per lensmaster will be accepted. So make sure the ones you submit are the best ones you can create! Once you hit 10 - you can keep submitting, but they will not be considered for the prizes.
Where can I see the finalists?

The finalists will be selected by the morning of June 18th. I will post the finalists here in this lens for you to see, and do a SquidCast to let you know they've been posted. They will then be forwarded on to the judges for their vote. The winner will also be posted here, and their eBay business or story showcased for all to see!
Do the lenses need to be 100% ebay auctions or can they be mostly ebay with some other amazon and/or 3rd party affiliate links?

The lenses primary focus should be on your eBay business, but if you'd like to include Amazong and 3rd party affiliate links as well, that's fine with me!
Is adding my lens to the Plexo in this lens the same as submitting it to the email address ebayaward@squidoo.com?

No - sorry, only lenses submitted via the email address will be considered for the contest. The Plexo module is just for fun, and to help inspire others by showing off your work.

Are you ready?

Do you have your 10 new eBay lenses all ready to go? Are they as good as they get? Would you be proud to have the world see them?

Then it's time.

Submit your lenses by emailing them (we need links for all 10, please) to: ebayaward@squidoo.com.

Emails must be received by 10pm EST on June 17th to be eligible for the prizes. The 10 finalists will be submitted to the judges on June 18th with the winner announced on June 19th.

P.S. If you spam, you're out. If you made a bunch of junk, you're out. Make stuff you're proud of, and we'll probably agree...

Have you ever heard Seth Godin speak?

Wouldn't you love to have one of YOUR lenses used in his eBay Live presentation?

Here's one of his best presentations, from a Google talk he gave.

Just for fun: Add your Challenge Lenses here!

Let's add all of the participating lenses here to show off your Squidoo lens building skills, and your love of eBay!

SQUIDOO LENSES ONLY PLEASE!