Arr... This Be The Captain! Thanks for Stopping by to check out my piratey bag of Squidoo Tricks! If you are new here, you might want to get free updates and squidoo tricks delivered straight to you via RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Yesterday, Gil announced the release of a new Table of Contents Module.
Gil’s Example:
Fluffanutta’s example after applying some of his CSS Tricks:
How it Works
The module automatically creates links to all of your modules with Titles. If your module doesn’t have a title, it doesn’t show up on the list, that simple.
Lot’s of exciting stuff going on at Squidoo this week and it’s only Tuesday!
I’ve been trying to pound out some lenses today and have been struggling (as usual) with the unwieldy size of my dashboard. Having 300 lenses listed in one place is great for my ego, but not for getting anything productive done. Opening multiple accounts doesn’t really solve much but forcing me to remember more logins and passwords (as if I don’t have enough of those already!).
That being said, here’s how I would fix the dashboard:
- Once you hit a certain number of lenses (50,100?) the dashboard would automatically change to a new format. HQ could afford to make the new dash more feature intensive because many fewer people would be using it, allowing the Squid Servers to keep up.
- This Dash would allow me to one-click publish my lenses. ( a pipe dream but it had to be said).
- Ability to edit keywords, title tags and republish without leaving the Dashboard.
- Sort by primary tag. Why? Lots of reasons.� Read The Importance of the Primary Tag by Fluffanutta for an overview.
- One Screen lens creation. I absolutely hate having to load 4 screens to create a lens. After doing it over 300 times I pretty much have those little sayings memorized. Creating lenses from the dashboard functionality would add extra bonus points.
- Ability to define groups and folders for lenses. Easily view groups and folders of lenses. The Dashboard Extender by Magicality currently does this, but the load times are so horrific for a large group of lenses that it’s not worth turning on.
- Advanced sorting and search functionality. I want to be able to view all of my lenses that have less than X visitors and fall between X,XXX and XX,XXX Lensrank. This is huge for maintaining a large group of lenses and difficult to do currently.
- Access to the Lens RSS feed as a link from the Dashboard. Why don’t we already have this?
- Lens specific earnings reports by day. I want to see which lenses made sales yesterday and through which affiliates.
- Aggregated click through reporting. How many clicks did I send to ebay and amazon yesterday? What lenses did they come from?
- Ability to create Module Templates. I almost always select ‘I want to do my own thing’ and then load in the exact same modules, especially when I’m doing a group of similar lenses. The ability to roll my own pre-set module groupings would be amazing.
- Back up all lenses as a ZIP file.
- Have a ‘Saved Plexo’ list. Goes back to creating similar lenses. Keeping another window open for the sole purpose of grabbing the same plexo over and over is easy to fix.
- Easier Co-Brand creation. Instead of going to each co-brand home page to create a lens, how about a drop down on the dashboard (or new one-page lens making screen) that lets you select your co-brand?
Perhaps I’m not using squidoo as intended, but I am more concerned about overall performance and performance of clusters/themes of lenses than I am with the performance of any one lens. Before I go and build 20 lenses to flesh out an idea, I like to have enough data to tell if that idea is going to make money and scales well. Up to now, doing that is kind of painful just for the number of screens I have to load and the amount of manual calculation I have to do.
What would you add? what’s on your Squidoo Dashboard Wishlist?
The Captain has been slaving over a hot computer monitor all weekend getting a new treat ready for you all. There is now a separate part of the Captain Squid site where I’ve compiled resources, tools, and other nifty stuff to help you guys make more money as quickly as possible. The ‘Tools’ section and the ‘Training’ section have been combined into the brand new ‘Squidoo Training Center‘.
The New Training Center has all the videos and the Free Lens Publishing checklist as always, but I’ve been working on some new goodies that are also included.
Commission Junction Training is Here!
I have Completed my Commission Junction Training Video Series. The 5-part Series walks you from a basic overview of the CJ interface all the way through finding, applying for, and inserting advertisers into your Squidoo Lenses (or anywhere else you want to!) . From there I offer in depth discussion about how to set up your reporting, which is probably one of the most useful and under-utilized aspects in all of CJ.
Power Squidoo Workbooks and Guides�
In Addition, I’ve compiled 3 separate workbooks and guides to help you through building, tracking and marketing your Lenses.
- Pro Lensmaster Workbook -� Walks you step-by-step through the lens research and design process, teaching you how to think about each lens as you attack it. A fantastic practical resource that I use myself.
- Lens Tune-Up Guide - Squidoo Lenses perform best when they are well maintained. This nifty guide will not only walk you through some recommended maintenance items, but will also help you to keep track of what lenses you have performed maintenance on.
- Special Report: Article Marketing on Squidoo - This Special Report was put together with the assistance of Remarkable Communication and is absolutely fantastic. It covers the ins and outs of writing articles aimed at building links and driving traffic onto your lens like an avalanche. A can’t miss read.
Squidoo Power User Super-Tools�
CJ-eBay Affiliate RSS Feed Generator - This tools is huge. I almost kept it to myself instead of including it into the training center. It’s that good. What are the two major beefs against creating your very own RSS feeds of eBay items and using them in your lenses instead of the eBay module?
- �It’s difficult and time consuming to create the feeds. - Every time I try to use Ebay to create an RSS feed with my affiliate link embedded in the listings, it seems to take FOREVER. I was sick of it.
- You can’t track individual feeds. - No tool for eBay affiliates allows you to embed specific tracking codes into each feed. So, you don’t know where your sales are coming from if you have multiple feeds across your lenses and other sites as well.
Those Problems are no longer an issue. I’ve developed a new tool that lets you make eBay Affiliate RSS feeds in seconds, not minutes or hours. I was able to retro-fit over 50 of my lenses with these new feeds in a little over an hour! It’s just that fast. In addition, you can add tracking code so you know exactly where your converting traffic is coming from. This is huge for determining which lenses to focus on sending traffic to (especially when you get up near the 300 lens mark and there are only so many hours in the day..)
Along with all this new stuff, I’ve got two packages that combine many or all of these super sweet tools and guides:
Commission Junction Gold Training
Commission Junction Platinum Training
Each week, I’m planning on adding at least one new feature, guide, or tool for all of you to use.� There is going to be a mix between super useful and informative free stuff as well as some products that are so powerful I just can’t give them away.
Of course, I put my full reputation behind the training, education, and tools on the site because I feel that it really is that good. If you don’t like it or find it useful, I’ll even give you a refund in the first 30 days. The only thing I ask is for a little feedback on why you didn’t like the item or couldn’t use it (This way I can learn as well!)
Take a look at the new Training Center and let me know what you think!
