thank you lensmaster – squidoo reviews

I am thanking a willow on behalf of all the fresh squids out there (more on that below).
Why are you a squidoo lensmaster?

I stumbled on Squidoo accidentally – looking for something on web that led me to lens Are you a Stay at Home Mom (or Dad) Interested in Earning a Monthly Income? by Janet21. I read her lens to the bottom and thought: ‘All right, this seems like something I can do!’ And she makes it look appealing, profitable and fun! So I joined! Since she recommends making niche lenses, I started out with my article about negotiation that was published in Croatian newspapers (I only had to translate it to English) – and I broke it into 5 lenses containing different steps! After I joined, I found out that there are not many people from Croatia on Squidoo.
In matter of fact, many haven’t ever heard of it! So, now I do two things: I promote squidoo.com on my Croatian blog and promote Croatia on my Squidoo lenses!

What is your favorite lens?

I have two of them, both talking about Croatian culture: Taste of Croatia with traditional Croatian recipes but also some beautiful clips presenting my country, and Traditional Croatian Music with some great Croatian music.

What lens of yours is most under appreciated?
My HeyMonkeybrain! lens It’s All Parents Fault?!? which was intended to make people think about the way children are raised today.

What lens of yours is most popular?
How to Reuse Toilet-Paper Rolls has been on Top 100 list 44 days now! At one point it even reached #2! For someone who was on Squidoo for barely month and few days it was great encouragement to have Lens of the Day!

What motivated you to take on the Fresh Squid project?
When I joined Squidoo, I was lost! I didn’t have much experience with html, css, importing pictures, etc. Good thing is that I found SquidU pretty fast and wasn’t shy in asking help! And many people did reach out and help me! They couldn’t make lens for me, but they gave valuable suggestions! So, I thought that it would be fair to pass it forward!

But how? People who helped me, don’t really need my help – they know more than I do! Then it came to me! I can offer help to newbies! Second question was: How? So I came up with Fresh Squid group where ALL newcomers to Squidoo who submitted their lens get featured, and with Fresh Squid FAQ where rules of acceptance to group are described and recommended reading for newbies is listed. It has been a bit difficult to find potential group members and I’m ‘fishing them’ around SquidU and fan clubs.

After a while, I thought about how to promote them a bit further and prolong their promotion so I came up with Fresh Squid Contest and Fresh Squid News blog!

To tell you the truth, I didn’t think (when I started it) that it will take that much of my time but all of my efforts are rewarded when I see lensmasters like CCGAL, Portable_eBay, OldGrampa, JudyDunn and many, many others that understand that there is more to Squidoo than just profit! They became part of our lives in both Squidoo and SquidU!

What’s one thing you see lensmasters doing that doesn’t work – and why doesn’t it?
Try to do everything by themselves and not asking or accepting help!

What’s your most important squidoo promotion method?
Make lenses that are so good that others do promotion for you! ;D

Which lensmaster(s) have helped you most?
I thanked many of them when I became Giant Squid on my blog.