My Squidoo Pages Are Moving

As some of you know, I also write on Squidoo, and have over 30 published articles there...but Squidoo is going away (aquired by Hubpages).  Some of my lenses will be moved to Hubpages but not all.  Wherever they eventually move to,  you will be able to find links to where they move to on this post!  So please bookmark this post for later.  Thanks!

Links to my Squidoo Pages' new locations will be posted here as I find new homes for them.

Until the move you can 

FIND MY  LENSES HERE
(But save this page because they won't be there long)

Sources for Free Graphics

The following places are good for finding photos and artwork to use on your blogs or websites. Most have specific terms for use, so pay attention to those. I give some instructions regarding this in the descriptions on the site.

Flickr

To use flickr to find images that you can use, you will need to do an advanced search. First, search as usual...then click advanced search and then click "Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content."  If you sell advertising on your site you will want to further limit it by clicking "Find content to use commercially."  All of these photos must be attributed, so link the picture back to its flickr page and credit the photographer.  If you want to use a flickr photo that is not under creative commons, you can contact the photographer and ask permission first.  

CompFight

This basically uses Flickr, but has a layout that makes it very easy to find commercial images. Just do your search and click "commercial" on the sidebar under licensing and it will narrow it to commercial sites.

Every Stock Photo

Search for the photo, click one you want to use, then click the licensing tab to learn how you can use it. Most of these are licenced under creative commons.

Wikipedia Commons

Make sure to check the licence each of these is under. Many can be used publicly, some without even attribution, but read the licence carefully.

Pixabay

Pixabay.com is a repository for free public domain images. You can upload your own photos and share your work with others. You can use any image from this website freely for personal and commercial use without attributing the original author. They have really beautiful quality images.

The Graphics Fairy

She posts public domain images, mostly Victorian. You may use these images commercially. She asks that you not use more than 6 on a single project or within a single page of a blog or website.

Percy and Bloom

Collection of 100+ Years Old Copyright Free Images

Open Clip Art Gallery

All graphics donated to this site are required be waived of all rights, including copyright, according to the CC0 Public Domain Dedication. In other words, you can use these however you want.

Creative Commons Content Directories

This lists various sites which collect creative commons material. Creative commons pictures are often free for use, depending on the type of licence. Scroll down to the section on images to find many places you can search for photos.

Free Web Graphics: Where to Get Them (Legally!)

A very good lens with a fairly complete list of places to find free graphics. Has many sites I don't have listed here.

Reusable Art

Reusable Art - free images for crafts and other designers.

morgueFile

Morguefile.com free stock photos - free photos for creatives by creatives. Make sure to read the terms on each photo.

Public Domain Pictures - Free Stock Photos

Carefully read the terms on each picture. If they can't pull up a free picture for your search they will list pictures you need to pay a royalty for underneath, so be cautious.

Free Images and How to Use Them

Another lens on how to use free images and various places to find them, some of which I haven't tried yet!

Squidoo Hop: Flagging Frustrations

Hello, and welcome fellow Squido Lensmasters! For those who aren't travelling here by blog hop and don't know what Squidoo is, it's just a place where you can make nifty little web pages about any topic you choose, and maybe earn a little money for yourself or a charity in the process.

Oh, and Squidoo has been making some changes...not allowing things that have been fine for sometime, locking lense, flagging lenses.  And I've been scrambling to keep up.

Before I flagging had even started, I went in to edit My Vintage Alphabet Posters lens and learned I couldn't publish it without fixing it first.  That lead to me doing a bunch of research about the posters I had featured, and even lead to a lead for some other great additions (one Etsy seller I asked a question of offered to help me in future research...I'll be posting some of her vintage restorations soon).   

The the flagging officially began, and I found several of mine flagged.  One I deleted (a one about Black Friday linkies I didn't care to try to keep up anyways).   I worked like crazy and got two of them fixed.  Another I worked like crazy on but couldn't figure out why it wouldn't publish.   Easter weekend (when I usually fast from the internet) was approaching and so I decided to quit  since "they would only be unpublishing them" and I'd have more time to work on getting them republished later...or so I thought.

Come Monday morning I saw that one of the lenses I had left "to work on later" had been unflagged, one still had a flag but said I had until late April to fix it...and two of them had been locked.  CRAP.    I'm letting one of those (My Art Nouveau Calendar One) go.  The other, My Giveaway Linkies Lens, which I had worked like crazy to try to fix and which didn't have ONE money-making module on it (or affiliate link out), I have moved to this blog.  It was one which got tons of traffic, was consistently in tier 2, and which I used for my own reference frequently.  I'm frustrated because other similar giveaway linky list lenses on Squidoo remained...so I was wrong about it being a banned subject (thought after trying to fix it unsuccessfully that maybe they considered it a gambling lens).  I think now that maybe I just used the word "giveaway" on it too many times.  WHO KNOWS.  I wish the algorithm would have been more clear on WHAT was wrong with the lenses.

Anyways, so then the next day I go on Squidoo to fix the one that was flagged but not locked (My Texas Christmas Cards and Ornaments Lens).  It was now LOCKED.  (Grrrrrr....I had started to fix and I would have finished the day before, but they said "you have this much time."  The algorithm LIED.)

And then, today, I go in again to work on some stuff and I see ANOTHER lens of mine has been flagged.  SHOOT.  I thought this was OVER!  

It's the uncertainty that is freaking me out!    I don't trust the dates they give anymore...but I am going to risk letting it go one more night.  HOPEFULLY, that newly flagged lens will not be locked in the morning. 

Squidoo Hop - Greenlighting Your Flagged Lens

Hello, and welcome fellow Squido Lensmasters! For those who aren't travelling here by blog hop and don't know what Squidoo is, it's just a place where you can make nifty little web pages about any topic you choose, and maybe earn a little money for yourself or a charity in the process.

Well, Squidoo has been going through some changes and lots of lenses have been flagged, mostly  for being "too commercial."   And we have to fix them by March 31st or they'll be unpublished.  

Several of my lenses were flagged and I've been scrambling like crazy to fix them.  How about you?  


Here's some things I've learned along the way...

 FIXING YOUR PAGE

• I read on a blog post by Virginia Allain that as a "rough guideline, that Google wanted to see at least 500 words throughout a page if it had 10 products on it."  I don't know that they are actually requiring that many though.  On my CafePress lens it only took a couple lines of code per module to get it greenlighted.  The lens with a lot of Zazzle products seemed to take a couple lines per product.  Amazon modules may require a different amount.  Not sure.  There's some other great suggestions on this Fanfreleche Blog (such as combining two thin pages on similar subjects into one "thicker" one).  

MOVING YOUR PAGE
If you decide to move your content to another platform in stead of trying to adjust it to the new rules, here's some tips.  

• While there is a nifty button to save your lens text to your computer, but IT DOESN'T SAVE INFO IN SOME MODULES, like the CafePress Module.  Your products and links to those product may be lost.  But you can easily save all your links and products on blogger.   Even if you want to put this content somewhere other than blogger eventually, this will allow you to get all the code to the links, which you can then transfer to it's final destination.

1.  First, go to blogger and start a new post or page--make sure you are in the "compose" editor, not the HTML editor.   

1.  Go to the page you want to copy.  Highlight the content from each module from your Squidoo workshop you want to move and press CTR+C (or whatever you use to copy text on your browser/operating system). Paste into your blogger post.   

4.  VERY IMPORTANT.  Since I'm pretty sure having Squidoo affiliate links on your blog or anywhere other than Squidoo will get you in major trouble, you will need to switch into the HTML tab in your editor and remove all the affiliate info from CafePress, Amazon, and other Squidoo money making module links (you can then replace with your own affiliate codes).  I've shown how to do that for CafePress modules in more detail further down on this page.   If you don't have time to fix the affiliate code right away, though, you can always save the in stead of publishing the post, and work on it later. 

If you are part of the CafePress or Amazon affiliate program, it shouldn't be a problem using their product images since they are remote linked on Squidoo from CafePress/Amazon. Be careful not to grab any Squidoo graphics.   There may be copyright issues with the layout also...but I'm honestly not sure.  

•  BEFORE DELETING YOUR SQUIDOO PAGE...make sure to check your stats for the last 90 days to see who's linking to you, so you can notify them of where your new page will be.  

HOW TO REMOVE/REPLACE THE REFERRAL CODE FROM CAFEPRESS PRODUCTS

1.  There are four URLS you will need to replace code in for each product in the CafePress Module.  To find these use your browser's find function (usually CTRL+F) to find www.cafepress.com --you will need to change parts of this URL and some code directly befor it.  Below is an example of the first instance of that code from one of my lenses.   I've highlighted the parts that need to be deleted or  changed.

 <a href="http://www.qksrv.net/click-3123248-10463747?URL=http://www.cafepress.com/+texas_womens_plus_size_vneck_dark_tshirt,581771619&amp;SID=texastees" rel="nofollow" style="color: #752502; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">

You will need to remove the part listed in red  (everything between the a href=" and the http://www.cafepress.com...) .   The part highlighted in green you need to replace with  ?aid=your own affilliate code.  (For example, I would replace the green text above with ?aid=823456 because 823456 is  my CafePress affiliate code).   You can sign up for the CafePress affiliate program here.

I find grabbing the HTML from blogger, moving it to a notepad, and using the "search/replace" function makes this process faster. 

Squidoo Hop: Lensrank

Hello, and welcome fellow Squido Lensmasters! For those who aren't travelling here by blog hop and don't know what Squidoo is, it's just a place where you can make nifty little web pages about any topic you choose, and maybe earn a little money for yourself or a charity in the process.

Last week Marsha asked about how our payday was going, and that gave me and idea for a topic.

I thought maybe I'd break down my earnings and look at them. 

They stayed at around $1-5 a month (jumping to up to $20 during Nov-Dec, the holiday months) for the longest time.  But since I joined this hop, it's started to improve...and I think I know why:

1. Other hoppers have motivated me to make more lenses and improve the ones I have.  Thanks hoppers!  
2. Hoppers also taught me things about Squidoo which made me care about my lens-rank a lot more and get serious about improving it.

Before joining up with this hop I thought

• Lens-rank only affected your rankings in the Squidoo lens directory
• Lenses earned ad revenue based on how many hits they got

But thanks to fellow hoppers I now know that...

• Lensrank DOES affect your earnings!  Squidoo takes 45% off all Ad revenue and puts it in an Ad Pool.   Ad Pool earnings are divided among lensmasters through a four-tiered system based on lensrank. The higher tier you're lens is in, the more money you get from the ad pool.  The fourth tier, the lowest one, gets nothing.   
• Your lensrank is affected by numerous factors (including traffic, click-outs, etc.). 

So, with the four tiers in mind, lets look at my last three month's Squidoo earnings (remembering I don't have any Tier 1 Lenses).  Remember, Nov - Dec are holiday earnings, which are unusually high due to commissions from sales.  (Really unusually high...I never made over $100 before this Nov!)

JANUARY 
TOTAL:  $12.01
FROM SALES COMMISSIONS:  $0.48

• Rock Walls for Theater - $0.48 

FROM AD POOL:  $11.49

• TIER 2 LENSES:  $6.22  (Top Blog Giveaway Linkies)
• TIER 3 LENSES:  $5.27 (17 lenses)
  

DECEMBER
TOTAL:  $111.09
FROM SALES COMMISSIONS:  $97.53

• Texas T-Shirts - $87.83 
• Texas Christmas Ornaments and More - $6.25
• Rock Walls for Theater - $3.45

FROM AD POOL:  $13.57

• TIER 2 LENSES:  $7.72  (Top Blog Giveaway Linkies)
• TIER 3 LENSES:  $5.85 (15 lenses)

NOVEMBER
TOTAL: $122.17
FROM SALES COMMISSIONS:  $109.95

• Texas T-Shirts - $48.35
• California T-Shirts -  $34.25
• Texas Christmas Ornaments and More - $27.35

FROM AD POOL:  $12:22

• TIER 2 LENSES:  $6.97  (Top Blog Giveaway Linkies)
• TIER 3 LENSES:  $5.25 (15 lenses) 

 _____

A note about Tier 1 lenses - since I don't have any I did a little research and found out that for  these months, Tier 1 lenses were making the following (according to Squidoo Payday Questions and Answers):

JANUARY - $40.64

DECEMBER - $45.42

NOVEMBER - $36.58

Wouldn't it be nice to be in THAT tier? Looking January results, Tier 1 got $40.64, Tier 1 got $6.22, Tier 3 got $0.31 cents, and Tier 4 got nothing (as always).  So, having one Tier 2 lens is worth about the same as having 20 tier three lenses.  Having one Tier I lens is worth about 6.5 Tier 2 lenses, or 132 tier three lenses.  And of course, having any lenses in the top three tiers is worth more than having an infinate number of Tier 4 lenses (unless those lenses made you a commission).

Considering that, I'm going to work on improving the lensrank on lenses that are close to the next level up.

How do you know what Tier your lens is in?  It's based on lensrank

Lenses 1 - 2,000 = tier 1
Lenses 2.001 - 10,000 = tier 2
Lenses 10,001 - 85,000 = tier 3


But THAT isn't on an EXACT basis, I've heard.  According to this forum post, when people in the higher tiers opt out of advertising, it makes more room in those tiers.  So, for example, in Feb 2010 lenses ranking 2,256 got into Tier 1, and lenses ranking 10,983 got bumped to Tier 2. 

While we're talking about tiers, I want to mention a concern I have about them.  Tiers are based on hard ranking, not on percentage ranking.  Since only the top 85,000 lenses get a piece of the ad pool, that means that as more and more authors contribute to Squidoo, more and more lenses will not make that cut.  I'm not the only one concerned about this.  If you're concerned about this too I hope you'll write Squidoo about this, and also vote up this suggestion on the Squidoo Wishlish lens.

Great Lenses on Lensrank

Squidoo Lensrank Factors

How to Improve Lensrank

Hop and Squidoo!

Hello, and welcome fellow Squido Lensmasters! For those who aren't travelling here by blog hop and don't know what Squidoo is, it's just a place where you can make nifty little web pages about any topic you choose, and maybe earn a little money for yourself or a charity in the process.

QUESTS AND QUESTIONS?
Squidoo has been having a lot of one day quests where you go out and find a lens on a particular topic to like.   Today's is Pigs, Pork, and Bacon.  So, here's the thing, if you happen to have a lens on that topic, or any other squidoo quest topic that's "likeable" this week, I'd love to hear about your lens.  Just leave a comment below with the lens you have and the quest related to it, and I'll take a look at it.

NEW LENS - WANT TO SWOP LINKS?
I have a new lens on Teaching and Educational Linky Parties.  If you have an education related lens, I might want to swop sidebar links with you.  Let me know.  :-)

Hello, and welcome fellow Squido Lensmasters! For those who aren't travelling here by blog hop and don't know what Squidoo is, it's just a place where you can make nifty little web pages about any topic you choose, and maybe earn a little money for yourself or a charity in the process.

This month I've been holding an event on this blog to spread awareness of modern slavery (human trafficking).  So, I was so happy to see a new charity on Squidoo that deals specifically with human trafficking:  Promise of Hope.  See all 10 new charity partners added this month here.

Another charity on Squidoo which has programs dealing with child trafficking is Save the Children. 

---

Question for Squidooers

Anyone have a Spring Themed Quest?  I'm still looking for a lens to like for the Spring Fever Quest.  I've already gotten one for the "Grouch" quest.  If you need one for that, this might work:

Squidoo Wishlist 

(Lots of Grouching Going On Here)

Squidoo Blog Hop

Hello, and welcome fellow Squido Lensmasters! For those who aren't travelling here by blog hop and don't know what Squidoo is, it's just a place where you can make nifty little web pages about any topic you choose, and maybe earn a little money for yourself or a charity in the process.

Got some exciting stuff to share this week!

I THINK I GOT ON THE FRONT PAGE OF SQUIDOO!
Last month I entered My Nazareth Lens (my only purple star) in the Purple Star Quest, a quest you could enter which gave you the chance to get on the Squidoo front page.  On Jan 23 squidoo sent a note thanking me for entering and saying to "Stop by the Squidoo homepage during the week of 1/23/2012 to see if your lens was included in the rotation there."  On the 23rd I started to get a bunch of likes and comments, and both my lensrank and my hits have shot up.  In the last week I got 137 visits (usually get about 20 a week on that lens) and the lensrank, which was up to  12,000 something, is now down to 4,331.  So, I MUST have been featured., though I've gone to the homepage gobs of times and can't find it. 


NEW LENS AND AN EVENT TO FIGHT SLAVERY!

Some of you know about the event I'm holding here at this blog.  It's a giveaway event to spread awareness of modern slavery, which affects as many as 27 million people today.  One of the extra entry methods I'm offering for my giveaway is to blog about slavery, and I wanted to offer bloggers some resources...so I made a Squidoo Page with tips and tools people could use when they blogged about this issue.  This is the second Squidoo lens I've made about modern slavery.  The first was my Shop 2 Fight Slavery Lens.  Another excellent lens on this subject (not by me) is Stop Human Trafficking.

What's New at Squidoo

Hello, and welcome fellow Squido Lensmasters! For those who aren't travelling here by blog hop and don't know what Squidoo is, it's just a place where you can make nifty little web pages about any topic you choose, and maybe earn a little money for yourself or a charity in the process.

Just one quick update.  My kiddo added another lego creation tutorial to his lego lens!  Actually, another 3 animals that combine into one.  Check it out here!

Squidoo Blog Hop

Hello, and welcome fellow Squido Lensmasters! Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!  I really enjoyed this Christmas, though it was busy.  But this december I still managed to get a couple lenses done!

First one is a Scribbleprints Geek Gifts lens featuring goodies for geeks at my shops!

And the other is one I just finished that I hope you can all help me out with.  Remember how there used to be a suggestion section in the Squidu Forums...then they got rid of it?  Well, I just made a 2012 Squidoo Wishlist lens where people can share what they hope will be added, fixed and changed at Squidoo in 2012.  I'm hoping if it's popular enough Squidoo staff will take notice!  So I hope you'll visit and add and vote on wishes, but also let me know if there's anything you see that might need changing/improving!  Thanks!



________________________________________________________________________
For those who aren't travelling here by blog hop and don't know what Squidoo is, it's just a place where you can make nifty little web pages about any topic you choose, and maybe earn a little money for yourself or a charity in the process.

Squidoo - Christmas Shopping

Hello, and welcome fellow Squido Lensmasters! For those who aren't travelling here by blog hop and don't know what Squidoo is, it's just a place where you can make nifty little web pages about any topic you choose, and maybe earn a little money for yourself or a charity in the process.

The holiday season is upon us, so I'd like to share some of my lenses related to gift shopping!



 Here's two shopping lenses I've just added:

• Shop 2 Fight Slavery
  A lot like my general shopping for charity lens, only just for this cause, with a lot of extra information added.

• Literary Christmas Cards
  A great collection of Christmas cards for book lovers!

 And more of my shopping lenses:

• Shop 4 Charity

• Scribbleprints (my own little shop page)

• Coupon Codes for Custom Photo Gifts (Updated)

• Color Match Art 

• Art Nouveau Calendars (Updated)

• NOT a Onesie (ok, sort of gift shopping related)

• Texas Christmas Cards and Gifts (Updated)

• Texas T-Shirts (Updated)

• California T-Shirts (Updated)

If you see anything intriguing, hope you'll click through for a visit.  Thanks!

Squidoo Blog Hop - GPS Tracking on Pictures

Hello, and welcome fellow Squido Lensmasters! For those who aren't travelling here by blog hop and don't know what Squidoo is, it's just a place where you can make nifty little web pages about any topic you choose, and maybe earn a little money for yourself or a charity in the process.

This week I want to talk about something that came to my attention recently that's a real concern to me both as a blogger and as a Squidoo writer.

I recently learned that that if you have a Smart Phone and take pictures on it, it's likely that these pictures are stamped with your GPS location...which means that people who know how could get this info off of photos you post on blogs and such if you took them with your phone. In other words, people can find out where you live if you take pictures in your home (even if the picture is of an apple pie, a craft project, or other usually non-identifying photos).  That's creepy!

You can change your phone setting so they DON'T add this info to your photos...

This article tells how:
How to Avoid the Potential Risks of Geotagging - wikiHow

And here's two methods to remove it from current photos:
How to Remove Location Info from Mobile Phone Pictures
Removing Metadata from Photos (Windows)

Now, some websites do strip geotagging info out of photos they host (Facebook and Flickr does this)...I'm not sure if blogger or Squidoo does this, and plan to look into it.  If I find anything I'll share it with you next blog hop (or edit and post it here).

Squidoo Blog Hop

Hello, and welcome fellow Squido Lensmasters! For those who aren't travelling here by blog hop and don't know what Squidoo is, it's just a place where you can make nifty little web pages about any topic you choose, and maybe earn a little money for yourself or a charity in the process.  

This hop has been a real inspiration to me.  I've made more lenses since joining than I have in the whole year before I joined.  You all are such an encouragement!   Thanks!

Now here's my Squid-news....

NEW LENS
I finished another lens this week!  Did you know that the term onesie is trademark of Gerber?  Until a few years ago I thought "Onesie" was just a generic term for a type of baby clothes.  But I found out after I changed the names on a bunch of my products at CafePress from Infant Creeper (their name for it back then...they now call them infant bodysuits) to Onesie.  Then I had to change them all back when I found out Gerber owned that name and vigilantly protects their trademark of it.

To save other businesses from the same mistake, and encourage people to search under other terms for this product (since when Gerber makes you take "Onesie" off your product descriptions it falls out of the search results too), I made the lens NOT a Onesie.

UPDATED LENSES
I updated my Blog Events and Linky Party lens this week.  Added a bunch of new blog events.

THANKS
Thanks to Marsha for adding my son's Lego Creation lens to your Lego Lens!

Squidoo Blog Hop - My Kiddo Made a Lens!

Hello, and welcome fellow Squido Lensmasters! For those who aren't travelling here by blog hop and don't know what Squidoo is, it's just a place where you can make nifty little web pages about any topic you choose, and maybe earn a little money for yourself or a charity in the process.

Today I want to brag on another lensmaster...my son!  He published his first lens last week:  Lego Creations.   Below is his Dragon Hero from the lens,  just one of the lego creatures you can find there.


I showed him how to use Squidoo and helped him with spelling and offered a few suggestions (and added just a few notes from me so that people would know this is HIS lens, not MINE...since it's on my account).  But all the content is his and his alone. 

It was so much fun working with him on this, and this process...helping him make this lens, gave me a whole new viewpoint of Squidoo.  I never thought about just how many steps there is to adding a video, if you're making a video yourself (filming it, adding it to a video site, all the tagging and description, then putting it on Squidoo and describing it some more.

I had him pick out a charity to support for his lens, and the charity he picked was DoSomething.org.  He liked that it was something that helped kids to be able to make a difference.    He picked Aqua for his theme because "this is a website for kids and I think kids would like that better." 

When we went on to publish he noticed the green bar on the top of the sidebar and asked me about it...and that led him to add a longer intro...which was not an easy task...especially since he was doing the typing himself (I'd forgotten how slow hunting and pecking went).  I found myself explaining what "keywords" were and we worked on adding some.

I hope you'll  stop by his lens and give him a friendly comment if you have the time.  I know he'll be thrilled.

Hop and Squidoo

Hello, and welcome fellow Squido Lensmasters! For those who aren't travelling here by blog hop and don't know what Squidoo is, it's just a place where you can make nifty little web pages about any topic you choose, and maybe earn a little money for yourself or a charity in the process.

I have a new lens to share this week!  My Color Match Lens is about how to use the Zazzle customization feature to change artwork to match your decor. 

I'm also in the process of updating my Scribbleprints lens (got it out of the pink - horay!).  I've added a section explaining my scribble style of art, and plan to add a short bio...but I'd love more suggestions of how I can improve this lens.

In other news, a lens I had nominated for lens of the day, Theater Set Questions Answered, actually GOT lens of the day this last week!!  (Not that I can take credit for that, as there were probably other people that nominated it too...but makes me glad all the same).

Hop and Squidoo

Hello, and welcome fellow Squido Lensmasters! For those who aren't travelling here by blog hop and don't know what Squidoo is, it's just a place where you can make nifty little web pages about any topic you choose, and maybe earn a little money for yourself or a charity in the process.

This has been a busy and exciting week on Squidoo for me.

Here's the biggest news:

  

I got my first purple star!!  I bet you can guess which lens...Nazareth!

I also made two new lenses this week.  I made one on Vintage Alphabet Posters and another on Local Blog Linkies (Blog Hops and Parties where you can share posts about your home town or other places you've been).  I've also updated my Texas T-Shirts lens with some shirts about this summer's Texas Heat Wave (it's been in the triple digets all summer here...ug...so ready for fall!).

Thanks everyone who commented last week about the Squidoo Questions linky idea.  Everyone was positive but I think I'm going to hold off for now...I've been trying to cut down my time online and adding something else to do just isn't the best idea for me right now.  If anyone else wants to take that ball and run with it I'd be happy to play along though.

Hop and Squidoo

Hello, and welcome fellow Squido Lensmasters! For those who aren't travelling here by blog hop and don't know what Squidoo is, it's just a place where you can make nifty little web pages about any topic you choose, and maybe earn a little money for yourself or a charity in the process.

Haven't had much time to work on Squidoo this week...though I do have a fun piece of news.  My Nazareth Lens was nominated for Lens of the Day by Gracieonline, and after seeing the other lenses she had nominated, wow...I feel really honored. 

And I have another question for you all.  Last week when I asked my questions Ruthi suggested I turn it into a linky, asking different questions about Squidoo each week that we could answer on our blogs.  I've thought this over and if I did it I think I would want to only do it once a month, both to give me a chance to think up better questions, and so as not to overlap too much with Martha's hop.  And I only want to do it if people are really interested in it.  So, what do you think of the idea of a monthly linky where you could answer Squidoo related questions on your blog?  I really want honest oppinions...because if people feel that would be too much on top of already doing the blog hop then I don't think I'll do it.  But if people seem interested I might. 

Squidoo Blog Hop

Hello, and welcome fellow Squido Lensmasters! For those who aren't travelling here by blog hop and don't know what Squidoo is, it's just a place where you can make nifty little web pages about any topic you choose, and maybe earn a little money for yourself or a charity in the process.

Well, I'm back from Vacation...so of course, no updates to share.  And I haven't been back long enough to attempt something really informative.  So I thought it might be fun in stead to ask/answer some questions this week.  You can copy paste these and answer them in the comments (skip any you don't care to answer).


1.   How long have you been making lenses on Squidoo?
2.  What lens seems to earn you (or your charity) the most?
3.  What's your highest ranking lens (and it's rank, if you would like to share)?
4.  What's your lowest ranking published lens? Is it in the green or the pink?
5.  How many lenses have you started and not yet published?

MY ANSWERS

1.   How long have you been making lenses on Squidoo?

Since 2007.

2.  What lens seems to earn you (or your charity) the most?

Texas Tees  (though someone just bought a $400 item through Amazon on my Rock Wall lens, so this month it will beat it by a long shot).

3.  What's your biggest Squidoo pet Peeve.

That plexos aren't moderated on the dashboard like comment are.  

4.  What do you like about Squidoo the most?

I like that it's so easy to use.  So easy to add content, affiliate content (without having to join a dozen different affiliate programs), photos, etc.  

5.  How many lenses have you started and not yet published?

Fifty three!  Some of them are alphabet based ones I'm waiting to publish until all 26 are done, but still...that's a lot.  When I get an idea for something sometimes I put up what I have and then ad to it gradually.  Still, there's some I should just delete, cause I don't think I'll ever finish them.

Squidoo Blog Hop

Hello, and welcome fellow Squido Lensmasters! For those who aren't travelling here by blog hop and don't know what Squidoo is, it's just a place where you can make nifty little web pages about any topic you choose, and maybe earn a little money for yourself or a charity in the process.





My Lens Updates

• I found a great YouTube video to ad to my Nazareth Lens, and realized I had only added one of the links about making natural dyes I had found (and meant to add several of them)...so those are added too now.   
• I found a new POD to ad to POD Reviews...a place that only sells buttons with artist contributed designs.  You can find it in this section.

A Few Questions For My Fellow "Squids":
Do you post often post your lenses on the critique forum in Squidu?  I've found people there can be very helpful.

Which leads to another question.  How do you feel about suggestions/critiques of your lenses?  I love them, so long as it's polite.  I don't always act on the suggestions, but I always appreciate them.

Squidoo Blog-hop: Interactive Content

Hello, and welcome fellow Squido Lensmasters! For those who aren't travelling here by blog hop and don't know what Squidoo is, it's just a place where you can make nifty little web pages about any topic you choose, and maybe earn a little money for yourself or a charity in the process.

Last week I started a new interactive lens, The Daily Disaster Log for Parents....which I shared with you all on the hop.    It's already gotten a bunch of log entries, and even more people taking the polls!  AND, there's been hits from Facebook and Stumbleupon, even though I haven't  shared it on either of those places yet...which means other people are sharing it!  Feels good!

Past lenses I've tried to make more interactive haven't worked out so well...

On previous lenses it was like pulling teeth trying to get people to participate, and a lot of the participation I did get was spam.  I used to put plexos on nearly every lens...but I've gone back and removed a lot of those because of the spam and how hard they were to moderate.   You actually have to go into the lens and open up and edit that plexo module to moderate submissions.  I REALLY wish they let you moderate submissions from your dashboard like they do with guestbook comments!   (It's why I made the log on the disaster list out of a comment module, not a text plexo). 

One lens made of mainly interactive content I'm wondering what to do with now.  It's a lens for Work at Home Mom (WAHM) sales and coupons.  I was getting a lot of spam unrelated to the topic and it got to hard babysitting the plexos.  I don't even really list my own sales there anymore.

After previous conversations on the hop, I've decided not to just delete it.  I  found out that you can transfer your lenses to other people., and I'm really thinking of doing that with this. If anyone here is interested in taking this lens off my hand, please let me know.

(Oh, and I started a thread for Interactive Lenses on the Squidu Forums ...so if you have an interactive lens, stop by and join in!)