My personal testimonial for Squidoo
This is my 50th Squidoo lens. What an adventure!
On this lens, I'm looking back at what Squidooing has added to my life. I'm having a great time and growing a lot, and I expect to grow even more as I go forward.
Since the time I made this lens, I have been approved as a Giant Squid! I'm so excited!
On this lens, I'm looking back at what Squidooing has added to my life. I'm having a great time and growing a lot, and I expect to grow even more as I go forward.
Since the time I made this lens, I have been approved as a Giant Squid! I'm so excited!
Contents at a Glance
- How I started with Squidoo
- Squidoo has given me the perfect platform for expressing myself.
- Squidoo has spurred me to work on my writing.
How I started with Squidoo
On June 4th, 2009, I was minding my own business, looking at igoogle Showcase. One of the people profiled there was someone I had never heard of, Seth Godin. The profile mentioned that Seth was the founder of Squidoo.com, a site I had never heard of either. They mentioned free web hosting, so I decided to check it out.
I started nosing around Squidoo, and I was intrigued by their motto: "Everyone's an expert (on something)". I thought for a minute, "Do I believe that? Am I an expert on something?" And it struck me that I was. I don't want to sound full of myself, but I'm something of an expert on choir directing. I've been doing it for a long time, and I know a lot about it. I would never have considered putting up a whole web domain called JoansChoirKnowledge.com, but just one little page as a part of a big community where everybody is writing about their favorite stuff? And it's free?
Anything that you've always wanted to say to the world, Squidoo is the place where you can say it.I looked at a few lenses to get an idea of what lenses were like, and I took the plunge. Within a couple hours of first seeing Seth's face, I was hard at work on my first lens: Directing a Gospel Choir. Since that day, I think it has always been among my top five ranked lenses.
After doing that first lens, I got ideas to do more. Anything that you've always wanted to say to the world, Squidoo is the place where you can say it. Next was a little "About me" page, then my homeschooling lens, then Cinderella.
I started nosing around Squidoo, and I was intrigued by their motto: "Everyone's an expert (on something)". I thought for a minute, "Do I believe that? Am I an expert on something?" And it struck me that I was. I don't want to sound full of myself, but I'm something of an expert on choir directing. I've been doing it for a long time, and I know a lot about it. I would never have considered putting up a whole web domain called JoansChoirKnowledge.com, but just one little page as a part of a big community where everybody is writing about their favorite stuff? And it's free?
Anything that you've always wanted to say to the world, Squidoo is the place where you can say it.I looked at a few lenses to get an idea of what lenses were like, and I took the plunge. Within a couple hours of first seeing Seth's face, I was hard at work on my first lens: Directing a Gospel Choir. Since that day, I think it has always been among my top five ranked lenses.
After doing that first lens, I got ideas to do more. Anything that you've always wanted to say to the world, Squidoo is the place where you can say it. Next was a little "About me" page, then my homeschooling lens, then Cinderella.
Squidoo has given me the perfect platform for expressing myself.
OK, maybe I shouldn't say perfect; nothing's perfect. But the way Squidoo is set up is an excellent fit for me.
With Squidoo I can talk about as many subjects as I want and each one has its own piece of real estate.I love being able to have a limitless number of lenses on a limitless number of topics. That's one advantage Squidoo has over a blog. With Squidoo I can talk about as many subjects as I want and each one has its own piece of real estate. If someone wants to read my thoughts about the Consistent Life Ethic, they don't have to sit through my gushings about the cute thing my kid did yesterday. Or if they do want to share in my homeschooling adventure, they don't have to get hit over the head with my political beliefs.
I love being able to combine static and dynamic information on one page. On a blog, people get turned off if the top post they see is six months old. But on a lens, if I say something that I think is timeless, it can stay there on the page forever. At the same time, I can add and delete other modules or use RSS feeds to keep fresh information coming in.
With Squidoo I can talk about as many subjects as I want and each one has its own piece of real estate.I love being able to have a limitless number of lenses on a limitless number of topics. That's one advantage Squidoo has over a blog. With Squidoo I can talk about as many subjects as I want and each one has its own piece of real estate. If someone wants to read my thoughts about the Consistent Life Ethic, they don't have to sit through my gushings about the cute thing my kid did yesterday. Or if they do want to share in my homeschooling adventure, they don't have to get hit over the head with my political beliefs.
I love being able to combine static and dynamic information on one page. On a blog, people get turned off if the top post they see is six months old. But on a lens, if I say something that I think is timeless, it can stay there on the page forever. At the same time, I can add and delete other modules or use RSS feeds to keep fresh information coming in.
Squidoo has spurred me to work on my writing.
Writing is always something I've enjoyed, and Squidoo has given me the opportunity to practice at it. For years I'd had ideas running around in the back of my mind for a rewrite of "Cinderella". But I had never taken the time to sit down and do it. Squidoo inspired me to finally get Cinderella out of my head and onto the page.I had about five lenses under my belt when Mimi invited me to be on her team for the next Giant Squid Challenge. Writing 50 lenses seemed like an enormous endeavor, but I figured that Mimi knew a lot more about Squidoo than I did, so if she thought I could do it I would trust her judgment. Again, I took the plunge.
Writing is an exercise. As you do more reps, your writing style gets leaner and stronger.The way to get better at something is to do a lot of it, and once I signed up for the Giant Squid Challenge, I was writing A LOT. I started noticing some things about my writing -- words and phrases that I overused, an over-reliance on italics. Those things start jumping out at you when you're seeing them for the tenth or twentieth time. Then you can work on improving them. Writing is an exercise. As you do more reps, your writing style gets leaner and stronger.
The Giant Challenge has forced me to dig into the recesses of my brain looking for lens ideas. I've had to pull out things that have been floating around back there with no direction, and shape them into something that other people would want to read.
Being on a Challenge team also gave me opportunities to write about topics that I never would have considered on my own. Weekly challenges and other ideas that were floated around at team headquarters had me writing things I never would have expected. And, lo and behold, I ended up with lenses that I really liked.
Mimi, my Team Captain.
Squidoo has made me learn more about the things I already knew.
In teaching, we learn.When I started writing lenses, I found myself studying things in more depth than ever. I was scouring YouTube for examples to illustrate choir directing concepts, researching websites that teach music theory, looking at gospel music blogs and forums. All of this was for the purpose of expressing things clearly to readers I would never meet, but some of what I found gave me ideas for new ways to teach music concepts to my own choir at home. In teaching, we learn.
We Squids are not only exhorted to write about the things we're experts on, we're also encouraged to write about things we have a passion for, even if we're not experts. This has led me into studying things that may not have directly improved my work productivity, but they have been personally enriching.
We Squids are not only exhorted to write about the things we're experts on, we're also encouraged to write about things we have a passion for, even if we're not experts. This has led me into studying things that may not have directly improved my work productivity, but they have been personally enriching.
Squidoo has taught me about things I'd never thought about (or heard of) before.
Along with being such a great setting for writing, Squidoo is also a smorgasbord of good reading. I had never heard of Vedic math, or fiddlehead ferns, or National Apple Dumpling Day before. There's always something new to pick up here.
Squidoo has taught me a bunch about HTML.
A big THANK YOU to all the folks out there who share their HTML/CSS knowledge with us newbies.
I couldn't do half of this stuff before!
I couldn't do half of this stuff before!
Squidoo gave me an idea to start my own business!
One of the things I was envying at Squidoo was how so many people had their own little stores, selling their artwork or photography. I'm not visually artistic, so I was feeling left out.
One night I was pondering this as I bounced back and forth between making Squidoo lenses and working on some practice CDs for my choir when I realized that my business niche was obvious! The next thing I knew I was developing . . .
One night I was pondering this as I bounced back and forth between making Squidoo lenses and working on some practice CDs for my choir when I realized that my business niche was obvious! The next thing I knew I was developing . . .
Here's my favorite link:
Squidoo is the reason that ChoirParts.com happened! I'm very excited about my online store, and I'm ready to get to work developing and promoting it.
I've made a lens about it now, where I explain the service in detail.
-
What is ChoirParts.com?
-
Most gospel choirs learn their music completely by ear. Every part has to be repeated until it is memorized. In the early days of gospel music, this was easy to do; the melodies and harmonies of the songs tended to be simple. But as gospe...
Squidoo has introduced me to some wonderful people.
First, I want to give some love to my Team One teammates. You guys are the greatest!Thanks to Mimi for being such a devoted and supportive team captain, and to our wonderful coaches, Melissa and Bev. I appreciate your taking on the responsibility to share your knowledge with us Baby Squids and give us feedback and encouragement.
And to my rank-and-file teammates: You all are fantastic lensmakers as well as awesome friends! Thank you for taking the time to review my lenses even when I've been to busy at times to get to all of yours (but I promise you, I will visit every last one of them).
I also appreciate the Angels who have visited me and sprinkled me with their special fairy dust. You've made me feel so welcome, and your lensmaking work has been an inspiration to me.
And to everybody who's dropped by my lenses. Thank you for your comments, ideas, backlinks, favoriting a lens or becoming a fan. I hope you've gotten some value from visiting my pages, because I certainly have benefited from seeing yours.
Much love to everybody! You will be seeing more of me!
The Team One coaches!
This lens is dedicated to the Team One posse
Glad to see you!
submit
-
Reply
- WordCustard WordCustard Dec 19, 2009 @ 5:27 am
- This was an inspiring read - thanks for sharing your Squidoo story! I have just made my 50th lens and it's amazing to look back over the journey. I really enjoyed seeing it through someone else's eyes.
-
Reply
- spirituality spirituality Nov 25, 2009 @ 4:12 am
- Great to hear that you've started your own online business :) If I could bless this again, I would.
-
Reply
- Spook Spook Nov 23, 2009 @ 11:44 am
- I wish you every success with your online store. Blessed by an Angel.
-
Reply
- ElizabethJeanAllen ElizabethJeanAllen Nov 10, 2009 @ 3:48 pm
- I love Squidoo. My friends and family don't really understand the passion, but they know its real. I spend all my free time on the computer.
Thanks for sharing
Lizzy
-
Reply
- CherylK CherylK Oct 30, 2009 @ 2:56 pm
- Congratulations on your 50th lens! This is such a nice tribute to all things Squidoo. I looked at your website, too. It's very nice...if I had a choir, I'd sure know where to get the music! Best of luck to you in everything you try, Joan.
-
Reply
- kiwisoutback kiwisoutback Oct 28, 2009 @ 3:46 pm
- Squidoo definitely does give you that platform to express yourself, while teaching you how to make something of yourself in the online world. Pre-Squidoo, I was struggling with HTML, online advertising, etc, but this is the place to learn much of that. Congratulations on making Giant Squid! Squid Angel blessed.
-
Reply
- spunkyduckling spunkyduckling Oct 19, 2009 @ 3:52 pm
- This lens is so exciting. I don't know if I want to be a giant squid though
-
Reply
- GrowWear GrowWear Oct 17, 2009 @ 6:00 pm
- Joan, isn't it amazing! Not many people could start out with five or so lenses and make Giant in two months. Congratulations again!
-
Reply
- pkmcr pkmcr Oct 16, 2009 @ 3:34 pm
- This is a wonderful lens that really demonstrates how amazing Squidoo can be for an individual who is prepared to work hard. Blessed by a SquidAngel
-
Reply
- divacratus divacratus Oct 15, 2009 @ 1:51 pm
- A really sweet dedication there! :)
- Load More
by _Joan_
Joan lives in Southern California.
Lens blessed by Katinka, Treasures-by-Brenda, Paul, kiwisoutback, and Spook.
(more)
Follow me on Twitter! -- HeyJoan
Lens blessed by Katinka, Treasures-by-Brenda, Paul, kiwisoutback, and Spook.
(more)
Explore related pages
The Niche Blogger Training by Amy Bass- Does this sound familiar? You have been trying to make money online, you have be...
Teaching Writing (and Editing) to Kids -- A Curriculum Starter- This Squidoo lens is dedicated to homeschoolers, teachers, and those wanting to...
Free Editing For Squidoo Lenses And Common Mistakes To Look For- I'd be happy to help. As long as your lens isn't against Squidoo Terms o...
Make a Reader Friendly Lens- When I visit a lens or web page for the first time, I quickly scan down it to se...
Write Squidoo Lenses for Fun and Profit- If you haven't heard of Web 2.0 yet, you soon will. Chances are you'll be hearin...
Exposing Our Secretocracy- The real intent of the First Amendment was to prevent national suicide by making...
