How To Celebrate Your Squidoo Anniversary

I was contacted by Lensmaster, MyChildCreatesowner reminding me that I had a Squidoo birthday coming up. He has created a lens, Your Squidoo Birthday, Lets Celebrate. What a great idea.

Today, March 12, is my 2nd anniversary as a Squidoo Lensmaster. I'm proud of many of my lenses but my top lens, Are You Polar Bear Aware? was my 1st and still my favorite. It has won top awards for the last 2 years, ranked #1 overall and has been consistently in the top 100 for going on 2 years.

Some of my other lenses could use a little TLC. So, I'm going to use this birthday as a reminder to re-evaluate my lenses and step up my quality. I'll be looking at each and every lens and asking myself:

1. What are the real keepers?
2. Should any be revamped, modified, streamlined? (I'll also make sure that my Lensographies -- I have 2 -- reflect all of my efforts on Squidoo and off Squidoo.)
3. Should any be sold, traded or given away?

I'll also check to see if the lens is bear or cat related; if so, link it to Polar Bear News or Cat Care, Breeds and Resources Blog.

I want to really focus my efforts this coming year making every lens so good that when people visit one, they say, "Whoa. I love this. What other lenses does she have?"

To me, the goal for a great lens is to get people to come back, tell others about it, donate to my charity or purchase something that supports my charity or my family (could be both).

How are you celebrating your Squidoo Anniversary?

How To Review Your Own Lens Development Progress

I found a cool tool today and I wonder if other people are aware of it? I was able to organize all my lenses by the creation date, from the very first lens I ever made until the most recent. Why was it cool? It allowed me to review my own Squidoo development progress. It allowed me to take a walk down my own Squidoo Memory Lane.

It will be two years this month since I started with Squidoo and I had forgotten which was the first, the second, tenth, twentieth lens. It was interesting to line them up and click on each and see how my lens making skills had changed. What tool allowed me to do this?

The tool I am talking about is found on Squidutils. Login and click on your Advanced Dashbord. At the top of your screen you will see "Sort" this allows you to sort your lenses by a variety of criteria including "created", or the date you created your lense. See the image below for a screen grab, the arrow indicates what you are supposed to click (if you click on the photo it will enlarge).

In case you don't know Squidutils, it is a very cool website given to us by TheFluffaNutta, a well known Giant Squid from the UK. Thanks very much Fluff. Perhaps everyone already knew about this except me? Are there any other easy ways to do this?

There Aren't Enough Hours in the Day

I don't know about anyone else but I sometimes get overwhelmed. I absolutely love Squidoo and anyone who knows me is aware that my topics are wide ranged. I also belong to just about every social network known to man. I am a content writer who typically writes about 10,000 words a day (for another Marketing company). I'd like to make the most out of affiliate marketing and use Squidoo as a part of it as much as I can, but the things I love most just don't have many products. I even thought of starting my own products but then I'd have to think about the sales page and working on the website (such as for a clickbank product.)

Does anyone else feel like they are running a race against themselves? I work and get nowhere it seems! I get all of these brilliant ideas that I end up going nowhere with because I don't follow through or I get another brilliant idea. Things were so much simpler when I just wrote Squidoo lenses and that was it! Good times...good times.

Information overload is a problem we all face at one time or another. We almost have to spend so much time promoting ourselves that we lose sight of who we are and what we care about. We stop writing about what we love and start looking for things that will make us money. There has to be a happy medium. Instead of trying to work on 15 different projects I need to complete one to the end and then begin another. Does anyone else find themselves running ragged like this?

I miss Squidoo. I miss the community, the committment I used to have to writing and the creativity that was available. There just aren't enough hours in the day

Planting a Giant Seed...

Just add water. Better - add stars! Squidoo lens love, that is. Ta-ta-ah!

Ladies and Guys, may I introduce to you - Giant Squid Lensmaster seedplanter!

Not only has Bonnie written her first guest post on this blog (a "hammer", by the way) - some of you have been so smitten by her words that you've missed the nail and assumed that I (your bud Keem) was the author. Nope, I don't write that well. She does! And she did. Here:

Cooking Disasters I Lived To Tell About

The Craziest Things I Never Said

Help! I've Lost My Hippocampus!

And my latest favorite:

If Only

Seedplanter in her own words:

I'm a writer, nature photographer,and product reviewer who has flipped over the creative potential of Squidoo.

Interests: family (can you spell grandchildren?), gardening, travel, music, photography, camping, good coffee, books, history, and beading.

My friend Bonnie - in my own words:

Several months ago, someone recommended that I check out seedplanter's lenses. I never turned back - I'm still checking out every word she writes. I so love her stuff! Funny as hell, smart, witty, thoughtful, inspiring, entertaining. And then some.

Now she's writing for us, here on this blog. More than one post, I hope! Welcome, Bonnie!

Thank you for the kind comments on Bonnie's first post. I'll pass them on.

Giant Blog with Giant Benefits for Giant Squids

Gigantic idea, ESQ - thanks so much for inviting me as a contributor! Your first posts already provide some good tips for us. Thanks for sharing your expertise!

So, I'm Chef Keem and I do Squidoo. A lot. Too much, says my wife. Sorry, honey - but I love Squidoo and I'm confident that in a couple of years you'll agree with me. (While we're traveling in Europe and our online biz is running on its own.)

For today's post, I want to make an announcement:

A new batch of Squid Angels has arrived. This time, they won't retire the previous team, but rather be added as support for the huge amount of service work for new lenses and lensmasters. Squidoo's been growing by leaps and bounds. Yeah! If you'd like to find out more about "Squid Angels" please visit my lens:

"Squid Angel Blessings by Chef Keem"

If you ever wonder about the "bless-worthiness" of your page, check out this "sticky" in the Angels forum.

Squid Angels are a friendly bunch - they love to "bless" quality lenses and give them a little lensrank boost. On the other hand, Angels have the power to "ding" a lens, and send it to the bottom of the pit. Believe me - without all the "clean-up" work behind the scenes, Squidoo would be filled with spammy junk, causing a negative impact on the earning power of quality lenses.

Go, hug an Angel today!