Squidoo Hopping 7/31/14

Here it is, the last day of July. Let's get squidooing!!

Ok, mostly that is probably for myself. I've visited lots of lenses this past week, but haven't done any updating to my own. Surprisingly they are all still out of WIP status.
I have my binder out and ready to get some updating once I am done with this post.

It looks like I had one small sale this past week. Of course payday for it will be in September at least. That's ok, every bit helps me get to that $25 payment threshold.

Last week while updating I ran into a lens that I had trouble getting to 100%. It was down for low quality content. I went through it adding words in the amazon module for the books that we have, or have checked out from the library. I put more words under the pictures. I even put words with the youtube videos.
This lens has a lot of allposters. I removed one of those and it finally went to 100%. I actually thought it still had too many so I took out a couple more as well.

How is your squidoo going?
I look forward to visiting your blogs and lenses this week!

An InLinkz Link-up

Squidoo Hopping 7/24/14

I hope this week I find you all doing well in squidoo land.
I wonder what day the CSS will disappear?  I know I went a little crazy when I learned about it and did several of my lenses up with colored backgrounds and such.

In fact, just the other day I was in on of my book review lenses and the review itself just wasn't standing out.  I put a border around it.  Nothing over the top, just so that someone would actually spot the review.  Now that is going to be gone!  Back to square one of trying to figure out how to make it stand out.
Is there html that will do the same thing?  It all looked like html to me!   I didn't know what CSS even was until I looked at the examples.

hhmm   maybe text modules above and below the review with the squiggly line html......if those codes are html.

Anyway....I have kept all of my lenses out of WIP since last Friday so that's good.  I continue to update a minimum of 3 lenses each day and make notes on different ways that I can update each one.
I still have lots of my 146 lenses that I've not gotten to at all.

Question:  What are you best suggestions for updating the lenslets?  We are limited to modules.
Last night I updated one, but what I did was change out an amazon item for something else.

I can't wait to see what blog posts and lenses you share with us this week.
I'm going to continue sharing 2 of my lenses that are hovering the 87,000 ranking  (is it 87,000 or 85,000 the lowest it can be for ad revenue?)

An InLinkz Link-up

Squidoo Hopping 7/3/14

Sticky notes have become my friend.  I'm not sure why I haven't always been using them!
As I am going through the pages in my binder of lenses, I am making notes on each on of updates that I need to do, or can do.

Some time back lensmaster Virginia Allain put a challenge up in one of the squidoo facebook groups.
We were to take a lens that was ranked 150,000 or something like that and do one update it each day for 5 days.
The challenge showed up just how much higher that lens would rise in lensrank with just small updates in a row.
I was amazed.

My point is that that is exactly what I am doing with my lenses right now.  With the exception of totally redoing my Latest 10 Lenses lens, I am just doing a small update on several lenses per day.

I am not just updating the WIP's either, I am also working on others as well.
My WIP status as of today is 28, down from 55.  I don't feel that's too bad.
However, Bonnie had replied in the HQ post that the lenses would stay in WIP status until we do update them.  Someone replied to her that it notes next to each lens that they will be deleted after 30 days.  Bonnie said she would check on that.  That was 13 days ago when she replied, so I replied to her asking what she had found out.
It's something to know for sure, especially if there are lenses in WIP that we don't want to see disappear.

I don't know for sure which lenses I will end up linking in today.  I'm even going to surprise myself!
Surprise me with your link ups too.

An InLinkz Link-up

Squidoo Hopping 6/26/14

I sure can't report this week that I've not done much with squidoo!
I've been updating all over the place working towards getting lenses out of WIP status.

One lens I gave a whole overhaul and another one I am working daily on a complete overhaul. The second one was a train wreck. It was one of my earliest lenses and it was total copy and paste and way too much of it too. I did find that the website that I did site for getting the information from isn't even a website anymore. That lens is climbing the ranks with each update and I can't wait to get it done and see what it does.

I didn't do any updates yesterday due to my daughter having surgery. I didn't take my handy dandy 3 ring binder with my pages of lenses and such in it with me.
I did take my laptop, but that was only to work on while she was in surgery. We thought it was an in and out surgery. It ended up being more complicated and now includes a 2 or 3 day stay at least. I do have my notebook packed for today----and need to get this typed up and get up there with her.

I am sitting at 44 WIP's as of today. I started with 50, got a few out, only to find 55 the next day. Lots of updating has me at the 44. Let's hope this is worth it!

I'm going to share the 2 lenses today that are at the bottom of my ranks just above the WIP's.....which I'm sure both of those can use updating too.
One of them is music and I know I at least has the itunes module in it.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you share this week.

An InLinkz Link-up

Squidoo Hopping 3/6/14

 

We no longer have internet at home, so I am having to work from the library when I can.
I am going to try to keep up with the things that are most important to me....my blog, bubblews, squidoo. swagbucks, my email, and a couple of paid to clicks that i do.

I'm actually writing this and scheduling it to post as I'm not sure what time I can make it here to the library to post it.

You won't believe it, but I actually updated a lens today.  I had intended to update 2...picking 2 of the 7 that I hadn't gotten to yet on deciding the 20 amazon to keep.
I did the Dora the Explorer lens.
The amazon was the easy part as I was only 2 over the 20.  One of those links wasn't good anymore.
The hard part was....omg....I had copy and pasted major information about the characters of the show from wikipedia.  I cited that's where I got the info from and all...but talk about duplicate content!!
I went through and took out most of it, but also changed wording, paraphrases, changed sentences around etc.   I did keep the link where I found the info.
Whew!  It published at 100% with no problems....hopefully it stays that way.

I also made it to work on to approving and returning some of the comments in my dashboard as well.
I'm going to truly try to work in squidoo daily, even if it's just returning a couple of comments.

This is day 3 of having to work from the public library when I am able.  So far I'm seeing that this may just be good for me.  I've had to be more organized and more thorough in getting done what needs to be done in a day.
Plus, when I am home in the evenings I am working on sewing and reading more.
Wish me luck!

I hope to see lots of link ups this week!!  Thanks to those who always take the time to check in.  I will be adding my links to the link up some time during the day.

An InLinkz Link-up

Squidoo Hopping 1/30/14

I'm pretty ashamed......
I was linking up with Nonersays this week and decided I should go in and change the how many day until Halloween on my Visit a Kansas Pumpkin Patch lens.  OMG!   It was still set for 2012, so I never even changed it last year.  Sheesh!

Also while there I seen that one of the zazzle items was only showing the coding.  It was within the google maps module.   I first thought that the t-shirt wasn't being sold anymore. I went to zazzle and searched and found a cute postcard invitation that I thought I would put in there instead.
Nope....only the code showed up again.  I am guessing that we can no longer put anything else in with the google maps module...at least not html.

I liked the post card so well that I did change out what was in the guestbook for it.  I'm adding this lens to the linky along with another one from about the middle of my lensrank.

I really do want (more like need) to get busy on working on lenses!!

Squidoo Hopping--"non-commercializing"

It's been awhile since I've been working in squidoo like I really should be, but there are so many changes going on!

Tell me if I am missing any:
1.  They want us to make our lenses not so commercial and more personal.
2.  We can only squid like up to 10 lenses per day.
3.  Angels can only bless up to 5 lenses per day, but no lens can receive more than 5 blessings total.

Then, last night the first lens I went to update, right towards the top, they are encouraging me to add an amazon module.  Oh boy, talk about confusing!  I clicked the link to see "what's this?"   So, now they are saying that if there isn't an amazon module within the first 5 modules they are encouraging us to find products that have to do with our lens to add.    Isn't that kind of going against what they are wishing on the being less commercial??

The lens I happened to be updating was my lensography, which only had a few sales things in it.  Instead, it's full of photos of my family, and then links to my directories of lenses by category.  Right under their amazon note though, I had put in a t-shirt from zazzle that says Marsha Marsha Marsha.  I guess they are only concerned about amazon.
I did go ahead and find something----yellow things, since that is my favorite color and about me.   I will link it up in the linky this week and I hope you will let me know if having that amazon in there is alright.

The other lens that I totally re-did, needed to be fixed for a long time now.  It is called Anime Fun and I built is back in 2008 for my daughter.   I had used a bunch of the anime pictures she had saved to my computer.  She had gotten them from one of the photo sharing websites.  Of course I learned long ago that just because that website says that anything you share there is open for others to take, that wasn't really the case.
I'd just put off updating the lens knowing the time it would take to do so.
Anyway......I just deleted about 10 of the pictures, but replaced all the others with posters from all posters.  Above a couple of the posters I put in a personal note with a link to another of my lenses.  I added a black box with a link to the anime that is currently her favorite.  I also changed the intro photo to a drawing that my daughter recently did.
But.......I do have a concern that with me switching it to so many posters that it's still going to be considered to be too commercial.     I am also listing it in the linky and hope that you will let me know what you think.

For this week, I hope you will share in the linky 1 or 2 of the lenses that you have recently updated to comply with their being less commercial wish!!   Also, please any blog posts you have written that pertain to squidoo at all.

Thanks!
 

Squidoo Hopping---Still Chugging Along

I'm still chugging along in my updating of lenses.  I didn't get but maybe 1 or 2 transferred from one notebook to the other, so still about 60 that I've not updated yet at all in my adventure.

Lensmaster Ruthi had me put an attribute on my toothbrush rug lens stating that the photos in the lens were my own.  That started me on a trek of going through all of my lenses with my own photos to put that blurb in.  So far I've only gotten through the lenses that I had already transferred to my alphabetical lens.

Yesterday I spent a lot of time working on my charity donations lens.  I watch the HQ posts when new charities are listed.  I had only gotten 30 of the charities in to the lens when they took the module away.
As I am going through lenses, I am adding in manually ones that I didn't get to the first time.  I doubt I ever get all of the charity choices in to the lens, but at least it's a good point to start for those wanting to know what each charity does.

On the charities, those are also being added to lenses that I hadn't gotten to yet as I do my updating.  I try to choose a charity that has something to do with the lens if I can.  Like Guitars for Vets on my music lenses, and something like Room to Read or First Book on the homeschool lenses.  If nothing really goes with it then I choose something close to my heart like the Humane Society, ASPCA, or  March of Dimes.

I'm still updating daily to the Helen Steiner Rice lens.   I would love to see it make Tier 1 and stay there.  Updating I know helps, but also need to get the word out about it more as well.

That is one thing that I don't do often enough-----get the word out about my lenses.  I'm in 4 squidoo groups and that is the point of the groups---to share---yet I rarely do.

I do hope to see lots of you link up this week.  I tend to get lost in squidoo once I get started with it.  I hope this is a good thing and will "pay off" for me.  I really must find a way to make a good income.

Thanks for reading!  Link up below.  


 

Squidoo Hopping--Have You Learned Something New This Week?

I don't think that I specifically learned anything new this week.  I'm still fighting to figure out about photo attribution and what photos are ok to share.

Here is what I need an answer to please----if I see a photo on a regular website (not flickr etc) how do I find out if I can share it?  Sometimes the person that wrote the page will have a photo attribution that I could copy.  Most of the time there isn't anything saying where they got the photo from.  I've tried right clicking for properties, but it doing so tells me anything about the photo for attribution I'm not seeing it.

I'm having a hard time even finding photos that I want on flickr that aren't All Rights Reserved meaning I can't share them without the specific consent of the person who took it.  That's fine, as most would probably allow me to use them in lenses.....however, I want the photo NOW, not wait until I get approval.  In those cases I have removed the photo I had and added a flickr module.

I've still been busy updating lenses here and there and have built at least one new one since last weeks post.  I have one more to build and then to update my lensography before I apply for Giant Squid 50.  Wish me luck!  I'm still working on getting in to update the This Day in History lenses for citings and attributions.  I have to complete what I have built already before building any new ones.

I also have quite a few more lenses to do updates on before getting them a page in my new alphabetical notebook.  It's been great though being this active with squidoo.  I look forward to May's payday to see how I do, but mostly waiting for June's payday to see if my work is paying off.  I didn't start the updating until later in March when Virginia put up her challenge.

That's my news for this week.  I look forward to seeing your lenses linked up this week  :)

 

Squidoo Hopping--Making My Way Updating

Good Thursday morning! It's that time of the week to share some squidoo love.

I've still been updating---a lot.  Ok, a lot for me is probably nothing to others, but I am slowly working through my messy record book.  As I update a lens it's going into my new notebook where I am keeping the lenses in alphabetical order.

I have the front page in my notebook a list of ways to update lenses.  This list keeps growing.  I started the list by using Virginia Allains lens: Easy Updates for Squidoo Lenses

Here is my list so far.  If you have any other things for me to add to the list, please comment and let me know!

1.  Add a charity to give 10% to
2.  change theme background
3.  Intro--change the title, make sure photo has a file name, first sentence contains key words, make sure the intro is long enough.
4.  Make sure 6 of my own lenses are in the discovery section.
5.  Make sure the table of contents is turned on, or use the table of contents module.
6.  Use lots of photos, graphics, zazzle products related to the lens.
7.  Sign back up for allposters and get some related posters thrown in
8.  Use html for back grounds and borders in modules.
9.  amazon spotlight in the sidebar
10.  add countdowns to appropriate lenses or update the ones already there.
11.  add polls, quizes, duels and/or predictions
12.  add rss feed related to lens
13.  add flickr photos
14.  Use the big arrow module to make a link stand out
15.  feature an important sentence in a talk bubble
16.  check amazon modules to make sure products are still available
17.  check that videos are still available
18.  make intro photo minimum 250x250
19.  make sure all photos that are not my own are properly attributed
20.  place an add on such as the flag counter
21.  Put a related graphic from zazzle in the guest book module
22.  add the follow me on pinterest button
23.  change all featured lenses modules over using  squidtools instead
24.  add a sticky note
25.  check to make sure the topics are correct
26.  check tags


As you can see, I have a lot to choose from, enabling me to do little updates here and there to keep the ranking up a bit along the way.  I am finding this so much more fun than sitting for hours updating just one lens.


Now it's your turn!  Comment below if you have any other update ideas to add to my list.  Link up any blog posts you have about squidoo----or link up 1 or 2 of your lenses.  Thanks!!

Squidoo Hopping--Updating Away

Welcome to another week of squidoo hopping!
I have been busily updating lenses. I have---youch!---14 lenses in the red. My goal is to get those out of the red. It looks like 2 that I updated have moved out of the red, but 2 more moved into the red.

So, is it smart of me to keep working on those, or is it smarter to concentrate on those that are in tier 3 and above instead? I sure don't want those to drop down, since if I am understanding correctly, we don't make anything on lenses that are below tier 3, or over 86,000 in rank. Is this correct?

I am placing 2 of my in the red lenses (that I have done some updates on) in the linky below this week. Please bear in mind that both can still have a lot of updating done to them. I am just doing 2 or 3 updates at a time.

Some of my updates include checking the tags and the topic. I've been surprised to find out that I had only 3 or 4 tags! Not only that, but the lenses have not even been in the right topic....or they were in the right topic but didn't have any sub topics chosen. I think this goes way back to when they changed to add more sub topics and I never went through my lenses.

I do hope to see many of you link up below :)