Polar Bear: 2nd Runner Up LOTY 2007

Frankster's page Are You Polar Bear Aware is one of the most entertaining pages at Squidoo. It has been consistently in the top 100 since she first published it, and no wonder! She's brought awareness to the plight of Polar Bears everywhere, and her style and approach endear them to everyone that goes near Frankster.

If consistent performance and making a difference had anything to do with the LOTY selection, Frankster would have won it hands down. I, frankly, thought she would! Polar Bear Aware has contributed so much to the well being of a very endangered animal, has promoted ecological awareness and responsibility, and made it all FUN.

If there was ever a page that would encourage experts and those with passion for a cause to create fabulous Squidoo pages, THIS page would certainly be one of them! If you like her style, check out all her pages. They're so much fun!

Beatles: First Runner Up LOTY 2007

Zuzanna has an eye for very popular topics and good ideas. Her Beatles lens was one of the first, and most popular example, of using plexos when they first came out. Although the rest of us were in a fog about what plexos were and how best to use them, Zuzanna caught on right away.

You may also be a dreamer, Zuz, but I hope they all come true for you! Congratulations!

Absolute Best Lens at Squidoo 2007

Karendelac took Lens of the Year 2007, the absolute best lens out of 400K. She has really wowed everyone with her talent and beautiful pages this past year, and it is no surprise that with her eye for layout and great art, she would make such a beautiful page. I've enjoyed her work very much since she arrived at Squidoo and I'm very pleased to have her in my groups!

Take a look at her page RMS Titanic!

But, I suggest you don't stop there. Take a look at some of her other lenses- she has a very interesting line-up!

Boy, I sure hope its not prophetic!

Squidoo's Beauty Pageant

Kimberly Dawn Wells ran the show on a beauty pageant model (pun entirely coincidental) which was an excellent idea!

Now that we can remove the preparation H for dark circles and eye bags from squidooing, and duct tape to make our butts tight, waists tiny, and boobs high, here's the lineup so far as I know for certain.

Out of 400k lenses, I managed to take 'third runner-up'. Not bad! Last year's contest it was a big 3.5! While less of it this year, the competition was much more difficult. The entire list had fabulous lenses on it made by extraordinary lensmasters. I THINK each of them had been on the top 100 list at least once, and most of them had also won Lens of the Day at some point. If not, they should and will soon, I hope!

So, here is my

"Squid-Beauty-Bouquet"

(Eye-Squirt!) I'm so happy!

I want one of those banners!

Commerce Lens Building Tips #1

A problem: you have a great lens which is performing, but suddenly someone else builds a page and you can see they're doing MUCH better! What happened, and what can you do?

When someone else gets an idea for a page that is similar to yours, it can be very discouraging! The internet marketing focus is to find something good, make your own, and then take DOWN all competitors. It is definitely an effective strategy, but the problem with it is that is doesn't 'live and let live.' Moreover, Squidoo wants LOTS of pages on any given topic, and it has done many things to encourage that, such as all of the co-branding. Therefore, if you can have 50 different lenses on, say, handbags on the main site, you can have 50 more on handbags on Squidvids, ever.com, squidwho, and so on.

It is a REAL challenge to stand out, but it can be done successfully in such a way that it is hard to duplicate.

My suggestion is that you make your page PERSONAL.

P: pertinent to YOU.
E: experiences. Share your experience of the product, service etc.
R: relevant to life, living, and using what you offer.
S: story. Tell a story with a beginning, middle and ending. Make it satisfying.
O: overboard- at least a little! Emphasize fun, excitement, make it memorable.
A: automatic: with a compelling story, it is automatic to check out your product.
L: leave them WITH something beside a full page ad. A tip, suggestion, a reason to return, a reason to share your page with others.

The internet is buried in cleverly constructed pages designed to drag a person, willingly or unwillingly, to an ad, product, and ppc links. People are really starting to feel abused by those techniques.

You will get farther, for the longer term, if you create original stories and personal experience pages that have, as part of it, relevant offers for specific things.

I know this is more work, but it helps you build an audience, is very tough to duplicate or exploit, and it adds to the pleasure of people who use the internet to shop.

If you build pages like that, PLEASE let me know. I'll feature them in a few special ways I have planned, and I'll post them here on the blog!

Define: a Performing Squidoo Lens

When I built my first website (which took months), admittedly it wasn't optimized because I knew little or nothing about SEO. It sounds almost ridiculous to say it now, but at the time SEO was the least of my worries. It was a good looking site, and I got many compliments on that. It said what I wanted it to say, and it had loads of original content.

Once I was satisfied that I had gotten my website 'to a point' I submitted it to DMOZ, so it would be in a directory somewhere on the internet, and perhaps I'd start getting traffic.

I was a laughing-stock among my competitors (unsolicited advice, of course) and of those who knew all about the optimization field. They found it laughable that I had the nerve to submit my site to DMOZ: they had all been doing so for YEARS and never got listed. They were totally sure I'd be bounced because of my incompetence. They'd spent loads of money on all kinds of internet-marketing guru stuff. They were listed in all the 'hot' places. They MADE SURE I knew what an idiot I was.

DMOZ listed my site IMMEDIATELY. There was no delay, no waiting months and months to hear anything. I submitted one day, and shortly thereafter, I was listed- alone among many well-established and wealthy competitors.

Therefore, for my critics, the truth HAD TO BE that I had an angel, that I knew someone and THEY were well connected and got my site listed there. Let me say it here, if I DID have an angel helping me, thank you Mr. Angel and only you know who you are.

Did being listed in DMOZ define success for my site? Not for me, but it did for others, much to their annoyance.

Just like this little story, the definition of a successful PERFORMING Squidoo lens could be many different things, depending on the mindset of the lensmaster.

I'd like to know what YOU define as a performing lens. You can leave it as a comment, or you can email me with your details. I'll blog the results when I have some interesting and helpful ones.

SquidCast and the Mall on Squidoo

I've received some questions about squidcasting, and its a feature that I really like very much! This is an excellent way to get additional links to your page, to let your fans and those who have favorited your lens that you have made some changes, and an opportunity to send out information about your new lenses.

You can find the squidcast function on your dashboard, in the same line with the other functions for each lens. When you click 'cast' a dialogue box pops up where you will write the title and a description, and it takes html code so you can put the link to your page there. A record is kept of each time you've squidcasted a page!

When you want to look at what your favorite lensmasters have been up to, and see their squidcasts, you go to your 'favorites' tab, and they are all listed there.

I strongly suggest you join the fanclubs of lensmasters that you like or that are doing things you are interested in. You'll find that those lensmasters will return the favor, and your squidcasts will find an audience.

New Opportunity for Mall on Squidoo Members

If you're a Facebook member, I have created a Mall on Squidoo Page, which enables you to add your link to the page. I hear tell that a link in Facebook really helps the Google-juice, and if that's true, then you'll want to get your lens listed there!

I have also created a group on Facebook for the Mall on Squidoo. See you there!

Lens of the Year Contest for 2007- Michelangelo's David???

Once again Mall Friends and Members, I ask for your support! My lens, Michelangelo's David, has been nominate for top Lens of the Year for 2007! (Thank You jackclee!)

This has been my highest traffic lens, and well received by all kinds of new visitors. As of today, it has been on the top 100 list for 340 days!

It has been next to Wikipedia on a Google search, so it has a good authority level.

Michelangelo's David has been one of the lenses to bring LOADS of new traffic to Squidoo, one of the pages that bring in well-heeled and interested traffic who like the things that YOU offer!

Yes, that page has some fabulous competition! There are some amazing lensmasters around here that make incredible pages.

If you think that Michelangelo's David brings in the kinds of traffic that you want for customers, be sure to vote for it!

Loads of New Modules!

If you survived the last couple months with your sanity intact, I congratulate you! Not only has the economy gone topsy-turvy, and there is a presidential race from hell going on, and all other kinds of adjustments to make, Squidoo has distracted us from all that and buried us in new modules, co-brands and nifty stuff.

You may have, like I did, discover that you have many pages that will benefit from these new modules! wOOt! (Except that now I'm more behind than ever...)

Believe it or not, my test lens has actually been profitable and made some sales over time. Since it is also my test lens, where I try out changes and new modules that Gil adds, it was the appropriate place to do a totally new makeover with these fabulous new modules.

I really, REALLY like what these new modules do! I can see that they can be overdone, so be careful about that. But the Amazon Spotlight module is wonderful! I'd love to see that apply to the other merchants available! It really cleans up and dresses up a commerce lens.

I hope you'll take a look at my test lens and how I used many of these new modules!

In other news, you may have noticed that I updated the Mall group with some Valentine's Day appropriate lenses. The banner is missing at the moment because for some reason the intro module isn't holding the code for the art. Hopefully all will be back to normal shortly.

I have other news which I'll post at my next available opportunity!

I'm looking for a great new year with the Mall Group and all you Squidooers!

Gracious Seth Godin Shows Up Knol

In a social web, social skills are very much required. While Jason C at Manalo leaves a lot to be desired in that respect, Seth Godin has given us his usual and gracious response and created an insomnia page that is simply much better than Google's.

There is one other factor overlooked by Squidoo's competitors, and that is: FUN!

Squidoo is fun. It is fun to build pages, fun to be in that community, fun to read pages, fun to parody Squidoo, fun to build your little empire. It is a fun place to learn internet skills and to social network. Its a fun place to share, to help, to promote, to make friends. Its a real community. Its a fun place to care about and rewarding.

That kind of fun is spirit, something natural that can't be duplicated no matter what size of a corporation likes your ideas. Corey, Megan and Gil are fun to be around, keep Squidoo fresh and exciting, and they care very deeply about the members of their 'community' and the experience they have with it.

While Google's announcement is enough to give lots of people insomnia, in my humble opinion Squidoo has a certain panache that can't be copied- buried, maybe, but Squidoo has made the internet fun in a way that it hasn't been in a very long time.

Danger, Will Robinson! Google is Taking on Squidoo AND Wikipedia!

Perhaps you have heard, and perhaps not, but the big news is that Google is taking on Wikipedia and Squidoo with a new project they call Knol. Like Squidoo, it offers writers free pages and a share of ad revenue. It also is a social page, with rankings and votes by visitors, permits suggested edits by visitors like Wikipedia.

It isn't open to everyone as yet.

There is a lot that is unclear about this project like whether they will add revenue sharing modules as Squidoo has or not, for example. We don't know how those pages will rank next to the Google version. Google pay has rapidly overtaken Paypal, and there was the unfortunate coincidence of Squidoo going to the Ebay convention almost immediately after Ebay and Google had their big falling out. Who knows if the Google slap which lasted for months had anything to do with that? If Google overtakes the revenue modules that Squidoo offers, it is possible that the only remaining distinguishing module will be Ebay.

As to Wikipedia, since their information is public domain, and contributors/editors get nothing for their trouble, many of them may migrate to Google Knol pages to at least earn something for their contribution. Since all the information on Wikipedia is public domain (copyleft), even all the content they already have could be pillaged to make, not only Squidoo pages, but also Google Knol pages.

I was one of the folks that made a 'Google Page' prototype months ago and frankly, it wasn't much. It wasn't even close to the sophistication of Squidoo at the time. I don't recall any traffic of any kind to or from it. Google will have to do much better to overtake Squidoo quality- wise. The prototypes they're showing are really nice though.

Seth, Gil, Corey and Megan are quite bright. If anyone can 'pull a rabbit out of a hat', its them. We'll have watch and see what the big shooters do. For an admittedly far more expert take on this, visit a friend here.

I'm Back!

Hello friends, I'm back. Past the worst of the worst...

Janusz has kindly made a beautiful new header for the Mall on Squidoo for the Christmas season, and I hope that you will all take a look and compliment him on his wonderful work!

There are many things to get up-to-date with: SquidWho, SquidVids, SquidFlicks... too much to write about all at once.

My Apologies!

Sometimes life interferes with work, no matter how important. I've been in such a situation lately, where a person I care very much about was taken from lung cancer.

I was extremely preoccupied with this event and I have gotten even further behind, if you can imagine.

However, the bright spot is that there are so many terrific new lenses that have joined our group!

I wasn't ignoring you, though I surely neglected you.

I look forward to all the next phase of development in the Mall group, and looking at all these terrific lenses!

My Idea of a Top-Notch Commerce Lens!

Daoine is a favorite lensmaster of mine. Her commerce lenses are interesting, full of content and fun, and make great use of pictures.

In particular, Elsa won Lens of the Day with her Pirate Costumes for Halloween, and no wonder!

She checked on when the next pirate movie would be released (none coming yet, darn!)

She gives us a little history about Pirates (which explains why we like the rogues so much, doesn't it?)

She gives us details of a full and interesting costume for anyone, man, woman or child. She even gives us instructions on how to make the proper hat!

As a commerce resource, she includes a way to get everything, or nearly everything, we could need to have a GREAT pirate costume.

Yes, it is a seasonal lens, but it is one that is worth hanging on to and keeping fresh year by year. A little promotion at the right time and this lens will be a long-term asset for Elsa.

Very well done!