thank you lensmaster – squidoo reviews

It’s been a while since I interviewed anybody on this blog. Mysticmama forced my hand though, by setting up two spiritual blogging / networking sites in the past month.

Bambi has been supportive and generous ever since her appearance on squidoo only a little over a year ago (Jan. 8th 2009). She’s in the Giant Squid 100 club, she donates her royalties to Humane Society of the United States and is generally a great addition to the community. But she’s also been appointed Squidoo Support Sites Mentor – and her lens about Squidoo blogging communities was recently made LOTD.

I think you’ll agree that there are enough reasons to be grateful, so, here’s the interview:

Why are you a squidoo lensmaster?
I actually originally joined Squidoo through cafepress to promote my store, but as a writer, I fell in love with the Squidoo platform…so I hardly use Squidoo for my cafepress store…Mostly why I’m still a lensmaster is my love of the Squidoo platform & the Squidoo community, which is the best community on the web!

What is your favorite lens?
Truthfully…if favorite were to reflect the lens that I visit the most…it would be N376’s HTML Tips For Colors which I use a lot!.
If I had to choose one of my own it would be Let’s Write:
About GrowWear’s popular SquidU story thread…just because It’s so much fun!

What lens of yours is most under appreciated?
My lens about coping with Pet loss.
I think it’s a really important & helpful lens…but because SEO & lens promotion are not my strong suits…it just doesn’t get the traffic it should.

What lens of yours is most popular?
My Hamburger lens, which somehow magically stays in the top tier.

What’s one thing you see lensmasters doing that doesn’t work – and why doesn’t it?
Bad visual presentation…using too much html or CSS, really bright mind numbing colors, really thick borders… Having too much color is worse than having none…It makes a lens hard to read & not viewer friendly. While a little html can make a great lens better…too much can ruin great lens.

What’s your most important squidoo promotion method?
Blogging, blogging & blogging lol…
I also like facebook, twitter & reddit…because I actually get traffic from those sites…I’ve tried a lot of others, but the little bit of traffic, wasn’t worth the time one needs to spend there to get it. I also find that RSS feed sites are very helpful.

Can you tell us a bit more about your blogs?

I had a bunch of blogs, but recently decided to close them & start over in a much more focused way…which is part of the reson for starting Mystic Minds, so I have just one place for the majority of my blogs… So right now I actually only have one terribly neglected blog & one super successful blog…and my main blog, while it’s highly successful & gets hundreds of hits every day…is in a totally different niche.

[BTW - I would never advise anybody to close down blogs, even if they were going to neglect them. Just let them lie low instead. See: Being a fidgety blogger. - KH]

But since you asked, here is the link:
http://my-tunes.crabbysbeach.com/blogs/

There are also multiple lenses about the Squidoo Music Blog, Alex & I started it on a whim as kind of fun side project…we made it a multi-authored blog, so we wouldn’t have to spend too much time on it…but then it skyrocketed to success so fast, that it has become one of our main projects lol…

Squidoo Music is a wonderful example though of how a blog can be used for lens promotion. Each of our writer’s tries to link back to at least one related lens with each blog post, which we call articles, because it is presented in a fun music magazine format where each of our writers writes a weekly column about a different genre of music.

One of my next projects will be to create a multi-writer “New Age” blog…because having daily posts really is a major factor in blog success…and it’s hard for just one person to consistently posts every day.

[I'll have to disagree respectfully. All Considering has a steady audience of 200+ subscribers, despite me blogging only once a week. Marketing Spiritual has 50+ subscribers, despite me blogging VERY irregularly there. Getting an audience is about setting expectations, and providing something readers want. Blogging daily is certainly one strategy, but it's not the only one that works. Quality over quantity is also a good way to go: and more likely to get you links.

I'm not saying that to discourage you from starting a group blog. I think that's a very good idea and I think you'll be great at managing it too. ]

You’ve started several online spiritual communities recently. Why?
Tarot was my first “niche” on Squidoo, and the whole “New Age” metaphysical & spirituality field is my area of expertise. I’ve been in this field basically my whole life, I’ve had 2 “New Age” retail stores, & been giving readings & teaching classes in different areas for over 25 years.

So Starting Mystic Squids, which is a Ning site for Mystic-minded Squids & Mystic Minds, which is a public blogging community for metaphysical, spiritual & New Age bloggers… was a logical next step for me. Both sites are a reflection of me getting back to my roots as I grow & develop as an online entity. I spent the greater part of 2009 playing around on Squidoo & learning new skills, and not that I sort of know what I’m doing, it was time to get serious & do something with my new skills that really reflected who I am & what I am all about.

Which lensmaster(s) have helped you most?
Boy, now that is a long list…but right off the top of my head…ChefKeem was my first mentor so big love to him…Also a_willow & spirituality have always been wonderful to me…bdkz & rms are always there whenever I need them.

I would be lost without drifter0658 & squidster…My Squidoo BFF’s, Ramkitten, AJ, GrowWear, luvmyludwig, Boshemia, & BevsPaper. The wonderful support I’ve gotten from SquidooKimberly & giltotherescue. All my Mystic Squid & RocketMoms friends, my Squidlog & Crabbysbeach friends…I could just go on all day!

I’m starting a squidoo blog here to give tribute to great lensmasters. You’ll find my best squidoo friends in the lensroll. The blogposts will be sort of a continuation of my Thank You Lensmaster blog. I think I’ve interviewed the main lensmasters, though if I find new great lensmasters, I’m sure to interview them… But on here I want to simply share great lenses I find. So far I’ve featured the Giant Squid Community Showcase, Traveling with squidoo and Cabaret Squidoo Best Recipes.

KAB took a while answering my questions, but his answers are definitely worth the wait. Aside from being a squidangel he’s also one of the leaders of a pack of lensmasters working towards the June 31st giant squid deadline: Kab’s fab squid squad.

Why are you a squidoo lensmaster?
I like to read and learn new things. I like to dive into topics that interest me, regardless of how unimportant they seem to the world. I’m like a virtual hunter and gatherer. I always thought it was such a waste that I would find the best sites, information, and products on some topic to satisfy my own curiosity, and then the next guy would have to do all that searching for himself. Now when I dive into a topic, I create a lens on it, so I earn a little money as a result of my searching, and so the next guy has everything he wants all in one tidy place. It’s a win-win, and its fun.

What is your favorite lens?
Of mine? It’s hard to choose, but I am a true nerd. I was geeky before geeky was cool. So, I think my favorite would be my lens on Celebrating Pi Day. http://www.squidoo.com/PiDay
Of someone else’s?
My Favourite CSS Tricks on Squidoo. What can I say? I hit that lens a couple times a week for that sexy two column code. Thanks, thefluffanutta.

What lens of yours is most under appreciated?
I never could pick this lens off the ground. I think it’s a lot of fun.
Neckties of Famous Classic Paintings

What lens of yours is most popular?
In terms of visits, my lens on Senior Pranks is the most popular.
It’s just a fun lens to blow time on. I guess it feeds the curiosity of a lot of different people – middle schoolers to senior citizens can get a kick out of it.

What’s one thing you see lensmasters doing that doesn’t work – and why doesn’t it?
I think a lot of lensmasters get tripped up in spending a ton of time adding extra code to lenses that simply don’t need it. The squidoo layout (and now themes) are very good. They are usually enough. I see a lot of lenses that use a bunch of different borders and backgrounds and colors and junk. I save the extras for highlighting important pieces of information. I think a few well placed pieces of code can make a world of difference, but I don’t think spending an hour or two adding lots of code to a lens is a good financially wise use of my time.

What’s your most important squidoo promotion method?
I really don’t promote like I probably should. I rarely do more than a squidcast. So, I guess my best method of promotion is to make content that I think people want, and to make sure it says all the right things so that google knows it is the content they want.

Which lensmaster(s) have helped you most?
Oh, I couldn’t possibly name everyone, and I would hate to leave someone out. But, I have been helped greatly by hanging out in Captain Squid’s chat room and learning from others there, and from the active members on squidu.

Veronica shares my passion for spirituality and paranormal phenomena, but also makes lenses about politics, where she lives and so on. As a giant squid she was already a credit to squidoo, but now she’s a squidangel too. Here’s her interview.

Why are you a squidoo lensmaster?
Because once I started at Squidoo, I couldn’t stop. Besides that, it is one of the most helpful, friendly group of people I’ve ever encountered online.

What is your favorite lens?
My favorite lens of mine (or one of them) is Ask Grandma which is at www.squidoo.com/askgrandma.

What lens of yours is most under appreciated?
I think the Paha Ska Black Hills Tours Lens But now that it is tourist season, it may pick up.

What lens of yours is most popular?
My Native American Art and Culture Lens.

What’s one thing you see lensmasters doing that doesn’t work – and why doesn’t it?
I think it would be lensmasters who have learned no more about Squidoo and how to dress up their lenses than they did when they started. There is such a wealth of information to help any lensmaster succeed.

What’s your most important squidoo promotion method?
I promote Squidoo all of the time by talking about it, wearing my Giant Squid shirt and writing about it in blogs and even emails. Squidoo is my home away from home.

Which lensmaster(s) have helped you most?
This is hard because there are so many wonderful people who have helped me. Not to leave anyone out but here are some of them:
Chef Keem (Who doesn’t love the chef??)
Joan4 (Motivational and upbeat, she’s always been encouraging)
Glen- Great HTML help!
Fluffanutta-Fluff has got to be the Master of widgets and Squidoo knowledge.
Growwear-For being a friend
Ohme (she’s such a fiesty little Pendleton lover, no?)
a_willow-since I’ve been working toward Giant 100, Michelle has helped a lot
BDKZ and the great Rocket Mom program

Thanking Squidster an old time squidangel who finally agreed to be interviewed.

Why are you a squidoo lensmaster?

Originally I was attracted to the ease with which anyone can quickly assemble a web page. Okay, the idea of shared revenue was a strong motivator as well. I heard about it in one of the IM forums and thought I’ll give it a try. My very first payday with only a handful of lenses yielded over $11 which I thought was very promising. Unfortunately, the financial trend did not quite pan out as planned, but nowadays I can honestly say I’m primarily “in it” for the community, not the money (although it helps).

What is your favorite lens?

One of my all time favorites has got to be Margaret Schaut’s Michelangelo’s David, a great example of masterpiece lenscrafting. Of my own lenses, there are a few that I’m equally fond of. One is The Last Beatles Concert EVER. It was great fun to assemble and brought back some very emotional memories. My favorite shopping lens is about Plush Dogs. It has a narrow focus, is quite comprehensive and I’d like to think that it’s nice and fun to look at as well. And, although beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, the fanciest lens is definitely The Who’s Who of SquidAngels (Angels-R-Us). It took an insane amount of work (and keeps on giving…). Although Google apparently hates it and continues to deny its existence.

What lens of yours is most under appreciated?

Even though I’m aware that the topic has been done to death by the fly-by Internet Marketing crowd, I am a little sad about the performance of my Paid Surveys lens. It’s genuinely helpful and original, yet it gets outranked by the typical clickbank hawkers which give this niche it’s spammy smell.

What lens of yours is most popular?

In terms of traffic it’s the Pictures of Tattoos wins hands down. It gets about 5x the traffic of all my other lenses combined. But judging from my peer’s reviews, within the Squidoo community my “Angels” lens takes the cake.

What’s one thing you see lensmasters doing that doesn’t work – and why doesn’t it?
Soliciting visits to their own lenses in guestbook comments. We’ve all had those: “Nice lens, bla bla, now come and visit mine (and rate it 5 stars while you’re there).” It might just work if the comment is a thoughtful contribution to the discussion, and the link complements the topic at hand. But usually that’s not the case. Savvy lensmasters either delete the comment or at least disable the HTML. But even if they don’t care or don’t know any better, the links in comments are of no SEO benefit either. It’s just wasted energy.

What’s your most important squidoo promotion method?

Truth be told, I’m not really good at this promotion stuff. I submit my better lenses to some of the lens directories, and my lensmaster feed to some RSS directories. The best promotion I think comes from participating in the SquidU forums. I just find that I don’t have nearly enough time and patience to do this properly.

Which lensmaster(s) have helped you most?

The key here is “the most”, because so many lensmasters have helped me along the way with their comments, ratings and blessings. In the “early days”, lensmasters such as Glen (N379 N376) and thefluffanutta with their classic tutorials and tools were essential reading. Margaret Schaut, JaguarJulie and Colleen (Semperfidelis), Bonnie (bdkz), (Robin) RMS, Patti (GypsyPirate) and YOU (yes, spirituality-Katinka) were all great cheerleaders which inspired me to keep going when I was struggling with my lack of measurable success. But overall, my biggest motivator is no other than ChefKeem, who has become a dear friend and Joint Venture partner in the process. His relentless support and big heart are the glue which keeps me stuck to Squidoo and brought on a whole new dimension to squidooing. He taught me community dynamics. I cannot thank him enough.

Janet21 is what most of us want to be: a self sufficient online entrepreneur. Surprisingly she’s only made 92 lenses to date, which goes to show that online income really is about quality more than quantity. Added to that of course her other online ventures.

Why are you a squidoo lensmaster?
In 2006, I made the decision to try to earn an income online. I am a stay at home mom and had no desire to work outside the home even once my youngest started Kindergarten in 2010. I discovered Squidoo in 2007 and as the saying goes, the rest is history. Since then I have expanded my online presence to other sites including my blogs and Hubpages, but Squidoo will always hold a special place in my heart. Squidoo is what started it all. It was the first site that proved to me that I can do this and I will forever be grateful for the opportunities it has given me. I will continue to be a lensmaster as long as they will have me.

What is your favorite lens?
That is a tough question, but I would say that my Fondant Cake Decorating lens is my favorite. I really like the way it turned out. I have also come across many cake decorating and baking blogs that have linked to it as their Fondant resource. I did a lot of research for that lens and it makes me feel good that other cake decorators like it and find the information valuable.

What lens of yours is most under appreciated?
My Emerson Street lens is one that I thought would do much better than it has. I had a lot of fun creating this lens, but for some reason it never really took off in terms of lensrank or traffic. However, on the little traffic it does receive, I have made one or two large 3rd party affiliate sales, so it has not been a total loss.

What lens of yours is most popular? [I had to ask, but we all knew the answer, didn't we?]
Most definitely my Work at Home with Squidoo lens. It shot up into the Top 100 ten days after it was created and has been there ever since. Currently, it has been in the Top 100 for 369 days, been favorited 1646 times, rated 1629 times and has 1530 guestbook comments. I am happy that this lens has inspired many new lensmasters and I hope it will continue to do so.

What’s one thing you see lensmasters doing that doesn’t work – and why doesn’t it?
This is just my personal opinion, but I feel that many lensmasters take the CSS/HTML coding on their lenses too far. It is nice to spruce up your lenses with fancy borders, colors, etc., however, everything in moderation. Some lenses are so overdone that they no longer even resemble a Squidoo lens and I feel this breaks up the consistency of the Squidoo site as a whole. Plus, some lenses are very difficult to read with all of the coding.

What’s your most important squidoo promotion method?
I don’t do much social networking type of promotion on my lenses except I will ocassionally Digg a lens. I submit my lenses to Squidoo groups, lensroll them to related lenses that will sometimes lensroll back, and submit to them to the following directories: Lensroll, Squoogle, Isle of Squid and Squidom. I do a lot of cross-promotion. Since most of my online writing tends to fall within a few niches, cross-promotion becomes a very powerful tool. I also promote my lenses on flickr. If I have photos that relate to one of my lenses, I upload the photos to flickr and include a link back to my lens. I receive a good deal of traffic by doing this.

[I think she's being modest. Let's recap what she does successfully: several on topic self hosted blogs about her most successful themes. They're interlinked with on topic lenses and hubpages. Then, being a squidangel, she gives back to squidoo - which is social networking old style. Compared to that lensroll, squidom etc. are really just an afterthought, even though she makes it sound like it isn't. See my SEO lens for the links to those squidoo specific directories btw.]

Which lensmaster(s) have helped you most?
Since there have been so many lensmasters that have helped me in my Squidoo journey, this is a very difficult question. However, if I had to chose just one, it would be Glen.

Susanna starts out her introduction so well, I’ll just leave it up to her from here on out .

How exciting! An interview! Heavens, I hardly know where to start – things have just happened so fast for me on Squidoo that I can hardly keep up. I’d scarcely recovered from the thrill of making the 100 Club when, out of the blue, I had a Lens of the Day followed soon after by another lens scoring a Purple Star award. In between the LOTD and the Purple Star I woke up one morning with Angel wings.
I keep pinching myself to make sure I really AM awake. See what I mean about exciting?

Why are you a squidoo lensmaster?

One day back in September of 2006, I chanced upon Squidoo and joined up to see what it was all about. I made two pretty dreadful lenses and then promptly forgot all about them. They would have stayed there forever, awful examples of lens creation, if a friend had not emailed me the address of a lens about Ancient Greece. A fabulous lens! (You guessed it, the lens was by GreekGeek ) Straight away I saw what could really be done with a lens.

So in August of 2008 I found my account again. Surprisingly it was still active after after 2 years, and I jumped in to make some lenses I wouldn’t be ashamed to show my friends. I put in some hard yakka for a full month. Now it’s something I enjoy afresh each day.

Q: What is your favorite lens?

My own favourite is How to Host a Roman Murder

I enjoyed making that one, I was smiling as I put it together. A Roman Party is wonderful fun for grown-ups in real life and I have some perfectly hysterical memories of murders round my dining table.

Q: What lens of yours is most under appreciated?

That must be my lens on Demeter

It’s my favourite Greek mythology lens but has more to it than that.
As I say in the introductory module, myths can be read as symbols, and can be used as working templates for modern times. Demeter is relevant, if you read past the supernatural, for women right here and now.

What lens of yours is most popular?

Would you believe 2000 year old recipes? It’s my Ancient Roman Cooking lens.

If you fancy some dormice for supper, I have just the recipe for you. Perfect for when you Host a Roman Murder

What’s one thing you see lensmasters doing that doesn’t work – and why doesn’t it?

Not proof-reading. I’ve seen some lenses that start off in a delightful fashion when suddenly- zoom – a big fat typo! Then there will be sentences wrongly spaced, text jammed together and no room for any words to breathe much less any sense to be made from the mess. Jumbles like this are always pasted and left ‘as-is’. They ruin the lens.

What’s your most important squidoo promotion method?

My blogs. I have a handful of blogs, each one on a different topic.
I link to a lens with a post on something similar to the content of that lens, and I use feeds both in, and out of squidoo. FaceBook is a good place to drop a lens. But not with the robot!

Which lensmaster(s) have helped you most?

Susan52 for her jolly companionship and sturdy shoulder on the journey to the 100 Club. And GreekGeek, of course, for giving me that kick-start.

For help overall

Joan4 (for her To-Do list)

thefluffanutta (for everything)

Tracey_M (for graphics)

And for entertaining me, drifter0658

While kiwisoutback’s lensmasters handle suggests a New Zealand origin, he tells me one of his niches is road trips in the USA. Looking for answers to this conundrum, I checked out his lensography and found out he’s married to one of our greenest lensmasters: TheGreenerMe

[edit]Kiwisouthback has since explained on his lensography that he chose the kiwi years ago as a handle on ebay, just because it was a unique animal. No regional associations whatsoever. Of course it probably made a difference that he and his wife are both environmentally conscious though…[/edit]

Why are you a squidoo lensmaster?

I began using Squidoo to promote my eBay store and CafePress store, but I grew to love the process of making lenses. Since then, I’ve enjoyed writing about the things I love — specifically, travel.

What is your favorite lens?

My favorite lens on Squidoo is “Are You Polar Bear Aware?” by Frankster. I’ve come back to this lens quite a few times and have found new information every time I’ve visited. It’s just filled with information.

My favorite lens of my own is my “How to Plan a U.S. Road Trip” lens. It’s built on my own personal experiences of road tripping across the USA, so I gave my own recommendations on what to pack, when to go, what to bring, and how to plan out the entire trip from scratch.

What lens of yours is most under appreciated?

I have a series of at least a dozen eBay tutorial lenses that have largely gone unnoticed by Google, starting with “Learn How to Make Money with eBay“. I’ve sold thousands of items on eBay, so I know a lot of the ins and outs of selling, and even buying. They’re very helpful, but Google doesn’t like them!

What lens of yours is most popular?

Right now, my “Planning a U.S. Road Trip: The Southern Route” is my most popular in terms of lensrank. It explores the southern road trip route across the country, taking I-10 from Florida to California, and all of the sites in between.
[That lens brings back memories for me. We lived in Austin Texas for a year when I was twelve, and did a road trip to LA before we went back to The Netherlands. We saw the Grand Canyon and Sedona and other places mentioned on that lens. Bring plenty of water though...]
What’s one thing you see lensmasters doing that doesn’t work – and why doesn’t it?

Completely random lenses. While this is okay once in a while, I wouldn’t say overall it’s going to establish the lensmaster as an expert in any sort of niche. You really need to find a few niches and make more and more lenses on that topic, covering every interesting aspect. If you can’t think of more lenses to create on that topic, just ask yourself “who, what, where, when and why” for that topic. Apply each question to your lens topic:

• Who? Who was involved?
• What? What happened (what’s the story)?
• When? When did it take place?
• Where? Where did it take place?
• Why? Why did it happen?
• How? How did it happen?

This will spawn many lens ideas in your niche.

What’s your most important squidoo promotion method?

After publishing a lens, besides using Twitter, bookmarking and Squidcasting, I link to my lenses from related lenses. This usually helps Google pick up on the lens quickly. If I can’t lensroll the lens (lenses published the same day you won’t be able to lensroll yet), I add it to a featured lenses module.

Which lensmaster(s) have helped you most?

There have been a lot of lensmasters that have lended inspiration and given help!

For HTML and CSS, I first learned from Glen’s Basic HTML Lens, and TheFluffanutta’s CSS Tricks lens, as well as Spirituality’s (thank you!) Squidoo CSS lens and GreekGeek’s CSS Codes lens.

For inspiration and support in the forums and throughout Squidoo, lensmasters like ChefKeem, A_Willow, Poddys, JaguarJulie, BDKZ, RMS, SemperFidelis, Flowergardener, Lakeerieartists and Loyalis have all answered questions and given invaluable advice when I’ve needed it!

Joan4 is one of those lensmasters that just can’t make you stop smiling. It’s not for nothing that a lens has already been made in her honor She’s a giant squid top 100 member, a rocket mom and one of the new squidangels. Generous as she is, she thanks an amazing amount of lensmasters at the bottom…

And of course she can’t limit herself to just answering my questions. She started out her e-mail to me with:

What fun!! I am flattered! I hope I have answered these questions appropriately. Feel free to edit, etc. I just had fun with the questions! my only concern is that I have left out someone vitally important on that list of lensmasters — whew! it takes a village to build a lens, for sure!

Why are you a squidoo lensmaster?
I joined because a friend recommended Squidoo. I stay because I am having so much fun creating and meeting such wonderful people!

What is your favorite lens?
Legally Blind and Plays Golf – a lens about my legally blind husband and his super attitude!
What lens of yours is most under appreciated?
Kids with Special Needs. My sister Betty DeLorme helped me with this one. She has worked with Developmental Therapy-Developmental Teaching for over 20 years – and we both sincerely believe in that program and its developer, Dr. Peg Wood.

What lens of yours is most popular?
My most consistently in the top lens is Crazy Funny Songs – which I really created just for fun!

What’s one thing you see lensmasters doing that doesn’t work – and why doesn’t it?
I am always disappointed to see a lensmaster with too much text and no break, no pictures. It’s just too hard for me to read that much text on the screen. So though the content may be excellent, I miss it because I get tired of trying to read it. I enjoy short paragraphs and lots of pictures and graphics.

What’s your most important squidoo promotion method?
Definitely twitter and facebook.

Which lensmaster(s) have helped you most?
Oh my!! What a list that would be, for sure! My sister, Ohme, is sooo good about double-checking my lenses for errors and supporting my Squidoo life! I am so glad she joined Squidoo. Chef Keem has always been helpful to me– and his angel blessings seem to always arrive on just the right day — when I need them the most. GypsyOwl pushed me to apply for Giant 100 and has always supported my work with her encouraging and kind words. Growwear featured one of my lenses on her blog when I was new, and that gave me a huge boost – and then later she created a beautiful lens about me, which still touches my heart and is probably the nicest compliment I have ever received. Mukunda22, Charlyjl, lwhitelaw, magicpocketz, blissnow are all members of our mastermind group — these ladies keep me on target toward my goals! thefluffanutta, captainsquid, potpiegirl with their excellent advice and training!

And of course, faithful followers like sittonbull, and tipigal and luvmyludwig and ccgal and so many more who visit and comment on my lenses. What a blessing!

Lakeerieartists is one of the new squidangels, a rocketmom, a giant squid and of course she blogs here on squidtop. I also have to thank her for referring regularly to my blog on her posts on squidlog.

Why are you a squidoo lensmaster?
I started as a lensmaster to promote my gallery, Lake Erie Artists Gallery. I tell the story of how I discovered Squidoo in Confessions of a Giant Squid. Shortly after joining, I realized that I could establish a stream of income that would both promote AND help support the bottom line of the gallery from Squidoo itself, and starting working toward that goal. I fell in love with Squidoo as I learned more about the community, and was already familiar with Seth Godin from working at Borders for 9 years. I have only been a lensmaster for less than a year and have already accomplished so much. It has been a great experience.

What is your favorite lens?
My personal favorite lens is not one of mine but the one that inspired me to really get serious about Squidoo. That is the lens by Janet21 called Are you a Stay at Home Mom (or Dad) Interested in Earning a Monthly Income?. Janet really caught my attention with real numbers and how she promoted her lenses. It is a great lens for all new lensmasters to read.

What lens of yours is most under appreciated?
One of my favorites to write is underappreciated, Rocky and Bullwinkle. I have fond memories of the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons from when I was a child. They are classics.

What lens of yours is most popular?
My most popular lens is not my highest ranking, but has steadily grown in traffic. Eco-Chic Green Fashion. Living green has become a more and more popular topic these days and people are looking for ways to contribute toward the earth’s well being. This lens has grown over time as I find new sources to add to it.

What’s one thing you see lensmasters doing that doesn’t work – and why doesn’t it?
Lensmasters who join rating exchanges are wasting their time. Squidoo doesn’t work like that and it is actually against the Squidoo TOS. If you get caught, you will have your lenses locked. Another issue is that rating is only one of the factors that influences lensrank and the others are much more productive.

What’s your most important squidoo promotion method?
I use a lot of methods to promote my lenses, but I think that blogging is one of the most successful. It brings attention from other lensmasters who also then may promote the lens, and also makes it visible in another way to Google, and adds a valuable incoming link.

Which lensmaster(s) have helped you most?
One of the things that I love the most about Squidoo is the wonderful community of people, and there have been several very helpful lensmasters. When I was brand new, Jaguar Julie was the most encouraging mentor. I also learned a lot from the Homeopath, Bee O’Brien, Spirtuality. Once I became more experienced, ChefKeem, Captain Squid (loyalis), and thefluffanutta have helped quite a bit. There have been many helpful people here. I have to mention bdkz as well. She has been wonderful.