Links for Lensmasters
Many successful lenses use hyperlinks to different areas of Squidoo -and the web - to help readers find what they're looking for.
If you've ever seen an interesting link on a lens and thought "How'd they do that?", you may find the answer here.
Contents at a Glance
Before We Begin...
Using URLs with HTML
Many of the hyperlinks a Squid will use can direct readers back to their own content. You can do this from your lenses, your blog, when asking or answering questions on a forum...the possibilties are endless.
This lens will give some basic info on using essential Squidoo URLs on your lenses, blogs and signatures. For tips on using HTML to create links, buttons and more, please consult some of Squidoo's HTML experts.
HTML 101
Learning the Basics
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My Favourite CSS Tricks on Squidoo
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The basic tools provided by Squidoo will do pretty much everything you need to get your content out to your audience. But sometimes you want to format it a little differently, and this is where inline CSS comes into play. Here I show some of the tric...
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Squidoo CSS - my favorite code to spice up a lens
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I've gathered my favorite Squidoo-code for later reference. I'm tired of trying to find that specific lens I used a css effect on and then having to go to edit-mode, copy paste, and then go back to the lens I was working on. This lens will he...
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Basic HTML for Squidoo
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Before you start reading all this, you may want to open Advanced HTML in a new tab, because you'll be wanting to check it out as soon as you've finished this! You can use basic HTML in a few of the lens modules. Mostly used to create hyperlinks (the...
Lensmaster Profiles
A Squid's profile is the place to connect and learn about someone you admire on Squidoo. Perhaps you like their style and want to see more. Maybe you'd like to follow them on Twitter. Perhaps you want to learn a little more about them.Providing that a lensmaster has filled out some of the areas in their profile, you'll be able to do all of those things, as well as join their fan club, browse through all of their published lenses, and see some of their favorites.
When you leave a comment in a guestbook or the SquidU forum, other lensmasters will check out your profile to see what you've been writing about. Your lensmaster profile is one of the easiest ways for people to find your lenses, so it can bring you a lot of traffic.
The URL
To find anyone's lensmaster profile you simply need to know their username. Then you can type this into your browser:
http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/username
Note that 'lensmasters' is plural.
Why You Need It
You can use your own profile to direct people to your lenses. Put the URL in your email signature, Twitter profile, etc.
You can also create a hyperlink from your lens bios. It might say something "More Lenses by Me" or "See All of My Lenses". Remember that not all of your readers are familiar with how Squidoo works, so giving clear directions on how to find more content is often appreciated.
Linking to someone else's profile is great when you want to give credit to another lensmaster for advice or tips. You can learn more about giving credit with the Squid Etiquette guide.
Profiles You Should See
- Seth Godin
- Author, guru and the creator of Squidoo!
- RMS
- Your Giant Squid Community Organizer, and the Squid Citizen, Giant Squid Mentor
- Megan Casey
- A founding member and the Editor in Chief of Squidoo.
- bdkz
- A Giant Squid Community Organizer
- Kimberly Dawn Wells
- Another Squidoo Community Organizer
Contacting Lensmasters
When someone views your profile, they have the option of sending you a direct message, provided that you have turned email notification on in your settings.The Contact Me button allows your readers to let you know that they like your work, ask questions and even invite you to groups.
If you join a group, the groupmaster may want to contact you about your submission. Perhaps a kind lens master may want to point out a typo in your lens, or congratulate you on a job well done.
Some lensmasters have even received fan mail from the celebrities that they write about in their lenses.
The URL
http://www.squidoo.com/utility/contact_lensmaster/lensname
"lens name" refers to the unique part of your lens URL.
Why You Need It
There are lots of ways that the Contact Me button works in the Squidoo community, but readers who are not members might not find their way to your profile. If you're interested in receiving feedback from other readers - in a safe way - you can add contact buttons directly to your lenses.
You can place a hyperlink to the contact form in your lens bio, your guestbook, or anywhere in your content that you find appropriate. For example:
If you have questions about using URLs to enchance your lenses, you can leave a message in the guestbook below, or contact me directly.
Beware of Spam
If you're lucky enough to have a very successful, high traffic lens, you may find yourself getting spammed. It's a sad but true fact of life online, and it goes with the territory.Here are some tips and facts about spam and what you can do.
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Spam-my Emails -- I Hate Spam
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Yes, so am I ... I am sick of all those spammy emails I've been receiving! Spam, spam, spam! I hate spam, spam, spam. I hate spammers. This lens showcases spammy emails that have been received by me or people I know. The IPs have been captured for re...
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Avg. Customer Rating: 
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Squidoo Referrals
Referring friends and readers to try out Squidoo can earn you a bonus, if the new lensmasters are successful with their lenses. You can refer people from your lenses or other websites and blogs.It is important that when you refer people, you do so in a professional manner that reflects well on the Squidoo community. To learn more, visit The Squidoo Logo
The URL
http://www.squidoo.com/lensmaster/referral/username
Why You Need It
Referring new members to Squidoo is not a requirement or necessity. You can be a successful - and profitable - lensmaster without ever earning a referral bonus. It's just a nice perk, and is one of the ways that many lensmasters spice up their lenses.
You can create hyperlinks to your referral page that say things like:
"Make Your Own Lens!"
"Join Squidoo Today!"
"Raise Money for Charity!"
Navigation Links
To make it easier for your readers to return to the top of your lens, it's helpful to add a hyperlink that they can click for easy access to your lensroll, the bookmark tools and star rating.To do this you can simply use the URL for your lens, which will refresh the page. To make a button that will jump them directly to the top of the page without a refresh, use the number sign.
The URL
#
Use it like so:
<a href="#">
Why You Need It
This is a nice way to direct readers to the top of the page where they can find more of your content. It's great at the bottom of your lens, but can also be helpful if your lens is quite long. Being able to jump back to the table of contents at any time is an assest to very lengthy lenses.
Thanks to lensmaster RufusQuail for suggesting this method for reminding lensmasters to rate what they read. Check out the SquidU discussion about Star Ratings.
Group ToC's
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How to Make a Table of Contents for Your Squidoo GROUP
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Squidoo groups do not allow you to add a table of contents module - and groups with lots of featured lenses really need that table of contents! But don't despair: you can have a table of contents for your Squidoo group page! It's not even difficult;...
Lens Buttons and Links
What good are all these buttons and thingies on your lenses? Some of our fellow Squids have all the answers!-
Squidoo Tagging Tricks (how to master Squidoo tags!)
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Adding tags to your lens is a great way to get found by more people. Through Google, through Squidoo Search, and through lensmasters clicking on their own tags links. Basically, tagging is very very good. But only if you know what you're doing. So...
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Squidoo Star Ratings
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Do people like your Squidoo lenses? Do they love your lenses? Or do they think your lenses suck? Star ratings are a way for people to give you anonymous feedback. Unfortunately, some people misuse and abuse the rating system. The purpose of this len...
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How To Lensroll
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No, it's not rock-n-roll, it's a bit of a twist-n-sway actually, but once you get the hang of it, it's rock-n-roll all the way. "Another way to highlight the best and brightest lenses is to feature them -- and link to them -- in your own lenses...
Squidcasts
Squidcasts are like little commercials for your lenses - a way to let your fans and readers know when you have new content that they should see. There are lots of other ways to use Squidcasts to reach your fans as well. It's a great messaging system within the Squidoo community.The URL
For lenses:
http://www.squidoo.com/lensmaster/squidcast/lensname
For groups:
http://www.squidoo.com/lensmaster/squidcast/groups..groupname
Why You Need It
There are plenty of places to send Squidcasts about your lenses. You can send them instantly from the "My Lenses" tab of your dashboard, from the "Things to Do" box when viewing your lens, and the "Tell Someone" box that appears after you publish an existing lens.
These are all very convenient places to send Squidcasts from, but knowing the correct URL to reach the form is a handy tidbit.
For groups, there are no buttons for sending out Squidcasts, so knowing how to do it by hand can be helpful when you're looking for new lenses, or want to let your fans know that you've added new content to your group headquarters.
Squidcasting 101
More Squidcast tips from the experts.-
Squidcasting - how to squidcast on squidoo
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Squidcasting is THE way to let people within squidoo know your new lens exists. You can use it in all kinds of ways - but how do you do it without annoying people?
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50 Ways To Use Squidcasting
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What the heck is Squidcasting? No it's not fishing for Squid! It's the awesome new interactive tool from the Squidoo HQ team. In a nutshell Squidcasting allows you to interact and react with your fans and fellow Squids. Check out my 50 Ways to Use Sq...
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Keeping Current With A Squidcast Calendar
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SquidCasts have the potential of bringing visitors to your lens, but they are often used inefficiently and ineffectively. I have found that squidcasts are most effective when there is some incident that prompted the cast to be sent. Plan your SquidC...
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Getting More Out Of Squidcasts
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According to the definition of Squidoo a squidcast is a squirted message, sent from a lens. From the dashboard every lensmaster can send such a squidcast, related to a specific lens, which will be shown within the favorites of anyone in the lensmaste...
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How To SquidCast A Group
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The SquidCast is a wonderful way of getting the word out about new things happening at your lens, and it would be ideal to be able to SquidCast your groups, but this tool is not available for groups...or is it? Indeed, there IS a way to SquidCast you...
Squidoo Bookmarks
More Tasty URLs
If you don't already have a folder in your browser bookmarks called "Squidoo", you should make one.Go on, I'll wait.
Now, once you have a place to store important places that you will visit while working with Squidoo, you will need to add some very important URLs.
Squidoo Help
The Answer Deck - Even if you fancy yourself a pretty experienced and savvy lensmaster, you should still stop by the Answer Deck now and then to browse the list of top Squidoo Tips lenses. You might be surprised by what you find.
SquidU - If you need help, you can find it on the SquidU forum. Visitors often comment that it's the most active and helpful online forum in the entire universe. If you've got questions, the SquidU crowd's got answers. They will also review your latest lens, if you ask really nicely.
Terms of Service - Hopefully, you've already read through the ToS at least once. It's a good idea to have it handy any time you want to make sure you're not treading on any toes. Once in awhile, you might come across something that makes you think "That ain't right!". The ToS will be able to tell you. It's also updated often, so check back once in awhile and see what's new for no-nos.
Search Engines
A big part of 'making it' on Squidoo is making sure that the search engines are picking up your lenses. You can submit your lens directly to the search engines for crawling once you've published it. It's also a good idea to re-submit it when you make major changes to your content.
Add the Big 3 to your Squidoo Bookmarks:
Google - Google is a big part of lensmaster success. You've probably heard from a help lens or two that Google loves Squidoo. If your lens is good, they should know about it.
Yahoo - You'll need a Yahoo account to submit websites to the search engine. If you don't have one already and need some convincing, it'll also give you access to services like Flickr and MyBlogLog.
MSN - Once of the most used search engines around needs to know about your latest lens so it can be found by the masses!
Your Favorite Lenses
Or at least they should be.
These are just a few of the great lenses out there that you may want to visit again and again. Just add them to you Squidoo bookmarks for easy reference.-
Free Spacers & fillers for your Lens
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Yes, Janusz is back to help you make your Lenses even better than they are already :). This is #3 in a series of "How To" make your Lens look Great!. I have made a number of Spacers & Pics that you can add to your Lens. As always all are FREE for...
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bdkz's Best Squidoo Tips
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Welcome! I'm Bonnie, lensmaster bdkz. I'm a Giant Squid & RocketMoms Organizer here on Squidoo. I have created over 400 lenses, been "Lens of the Day" twice and have had 15 of my lens in the Top 100. I have been with Squidoo fo...
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Common Newbie Squidoo Mistakes
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Making a Squidoo lens is easy. Making a good Squidoo lens, well, that's another story. A lot of Squidoo newbies ask veterans to critique their lenses, and most of these lenses are not nearly as good as they could be. (There are exceptions!) Hopefull...
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This group was awarded the Great Group Award
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This lens was started because I just got tired of all the groups out there that just aren't great. So this is dedicated to groups that ARE great. These groups are ALL great - but within the collection I would advise anybody to join especially t...
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GreekGeek's Squidoo Tips: How to Get Your Lens Found
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So, you want to learn how to build successful Squidoo lenses (or any sort of webpage), attract web traffic, and get your Squidoo lens found by Google! This three-part tutorial covers: Part I: Ten Steps to Build an Appealing (and Effective) Lens Part...
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Add Your Profile - Make New Friends
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Social Bookmarking; Web 2.0; Squidoo - All great new ways to promote your content. Squidoo Lensmasters love to promote their lenses with these sites. Use this site to Add Your Profile address and find other lensmasters profiles on the respective book...
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Squid Etiquette
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Squid Etiquette is all about what to do and what NOT to do on Squidoo! It is a very different How To Squidoo than you have probably seen before. In our enthusiasm to not only publish our first few Squidoo lenses but also get traffic, we may forget...
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Types of Squidoo Lenses
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If you are new to Squidoo, or have only been creating the "normal" lenses, you might not know yet that Squidoo actually has several breeds of them. These usually have a different layout and look and choosing the right type should help you get more vi...
More Squidoo Tips
Occassionally, I offer up some other Squidoo tips and tid-bits on my blog, Squidophile.
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byComments
Did I miss anything? If you've got a must-have URL in your bookmarks, you can share it here!
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Reply
- spirituality spirituality May 15, 2009 @ 8:54 am
- Great lens - you've been blessed by a squidoo angel :)
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Reply
- Susan52 Susan52 Apr 24, 2009 @ 9:45 am
- What a great service to your fellow squids! Thank you for putting this lens together!
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Reply
- TheGreenerMe TheGreenerMe Apr 13, 2009 @ 3:29 pm
- Those 3 HTML and CSS lenses are excellent! I agree. Thanks for accepting my lens into your Green Crusaders group! The group looks wonderful.
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Reply
- a_willow a_willow Feb 17, 2009 @ 4:29 pm
- Hey dear, come by Fresh Squid FAQ and add it to link plexo, OK? :)
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Reply
- Evelyn_Saenz Evelyn_Saenz Feb 17, 2009 @ 3:44 pm
- Thanks for the url info. and for putting it together all in one place.
- Load More
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