I have a feeling that lot’s more is to come. Squidoo, like everything else in life, has grown in fits and spurts over the last 20 months I’ve been a part of it. I really think that another tipping point is coming and that this fall we are going to see a significant number of new people coming to Squidoo to learn, give, and earn. 

Not to be a grouchy Captain, but I have a feeling that if you didn’t get your Giant Squid application in by the end of September, you will be facing some stiff competition come the next round.

I’m already starting to see it show up in the daily rankings. There’s been a steady upward creep in the amount of traffic/sales/ratings it takes to get a lens up to a certain rank, much less stay there. I say that not because LR matters from a monetary standpoint (It really shouldn’t, there’s other money to be made) but just from an analysis of the data I have at my disposal.

What does this mean? There are going to be a lot of new tribes and communities popping up all over Squidoo. Find one you like and become a part of it. It’s amazing what happens when you work at something.. nearly always the effort put in reflects the reward taken out.

With these new Community actions Squidoo’s vets and HQ are doing everything they can to empower people to create something worth talking about.

It’s going to be an interesting fall

Mega-Mentor  - N376

Genuine Genius - thefluffanutta

Seller Superstar  - Janet21

Generous Giant  - Comfortdoc

Courteous Commenter  - KimGiancaterino

Pop Culture Pro  - blondeheroine

Deliciously Devilish Debater  - kab

Craftiest Creations  - katiyana

Animal Activist - genglo

Liveliest Lensographer - JaguarJulie

Special congratulations are in order for fluffanutta and katiyana who both spend an inordinate amount of time in the squidoo chat room and on SquidU helping and correcting misconceptions. 

I wonder if these awards will be continuously given out over the next few quarters or if HQ will change the ‘titles’ so to speak…

either way, it’s a great way to show recognition towards several of the people who bust their butt for hours a week just to help other people both on and off Squidoo.

This one is a little bit less demanding than the eBay contest. Simply build 5 lenses about regular everyday superheroes that you know who make a difference. I believe the deadline is June 30 (?).  SuperGiant Squid Jeff Wend has already got his SuperHero Squidoo Project off to a great start and the Giant Squids Mentor Blog has some more information on the SuperHero Project as well.

Seth Godin defines what a true SuperHero is in his mind. Pretty interesting paradox of impatience and patience..

First,  a shameless plug. I Answered a question over on the Giant Squid mentor Blog by a fantastic new lensmaster (JigsawForte) on how to expand a niche of lenses to reach a wider audience. If you are a webcomic fan, make sure and check out Jigsaw’s webcomic (It’s the Deadliest one around) at Last Resort.

SquidUber has a cool post on how someone contacted him through one of his lenses to write a paid review! Pretty Cool!

The Squidoo – Ebay Lensbuilding Challenge is in Full Swing! I’ve got 9 lenses done so far with one to go. Much Squid fame and glory awaits the winner, so if you haven’t started yet get to it! There’s still plenty of time to get your lenses done (You’ve got all the rest of this week plus the weekend!).

If you have a squidoo blog, let me know so I can swing by and check it out! I love seeing new lensmasters blogs. If not, why not head over to Squidtop and set up a squidoo blog? The community over there is growing quite nicely and it’s a blast to drop in on other Lensmasters to see what they are doing.

If you would like to get Captain Squid Updates for free in your inbox or RSS reader, snag my RSS feed.

This thing is going to be awesome for lens management, with filters, labels, and lots of other goodies.

Without further adieu, here are some screenshots!

This is what a list of labeled lenses looks like:

Here’s what the Daily Digest front page looks like:

Here’s one from Megan at HQ on the page where you add labels (love the checkboxes!)

My thoughts -

The New labels function is going to go miles for me in turning lenses into manageable groups. Maybe a traffic, revenue, and lens count on each label and filter page as well as the current daily digest? That would really let you see how segments of your lenses are performing which would be huge.

A pending revenue total on the daily digest would be sweet.

The ‘Top lens of the day’ section on the Daily Digest could have Today’s traffic as well so you could see how well it was doing today.

the ‘Needs some love’ section could probably go without the lenses I have in WIP, but some lensmasters may want it to include WIP lenses …

The sorting function by traffic is a little buggy. (Disclaimer: HQ is still ironing out tons of UI stuff so that’s probably where this is coming from)

Being able to set labels or filters based on things like # of stars or LR or traffic would be sweet. For example, say I want to track the #  of lenses I have between LR 20,000 and 50,000 on one list…

Overall, I think it is going to be a bajillion times better than the previous incarnation. I can’t wait to see what they do to the workshop!

What do you guys think?