Small words, big meaning. People get caught up a lot in ‘Squidoo is going to make me rich’ or ‘my blogs are going to make me rich’ or ‘my favorite GPT site / survey / ebook is going to make me rich’.

So far I’ve only found one thing that really set me firmly on the road to succeeding with anything in life.

Myself.

I think Squidoo is an equalizer and a differentiator at the same time. There are some lensmasters that build hundreds and hundreds of lenses with nothing but default settings and no unique content or insight of any kind and expect Squidoo to do all the work for them. There are others that spend all of their time on one or two lenses and expect to make wild fame, fortune, and riches off of 2 pieces of content that they constantly tweak.

Learn to build good lenses. This is done by building lenses. A lot of them. However, if you keep repeating the same thing over and over and over you aren’t learning anything. You have to try different techniques, topics, angles, etc. to find what works. I have probably 100+ lenses that get no traffic at all. none. zip. Were those lenses a waste of my time? Not at all. In fact, those are probably some of the most valuable lenses I have built because each one of them taught me something new. Without all those stubbed toes, I wouldn’t be getting ever closer to finding the right module combinations, topics, promotion methods, and little tricks and tweaks that work best for me.

Work. This is the difference between mindless repetition of anything you do and truly putting forth an effort worth talking about. Work is often associated with a negative connotation but that’s probably a result of people associating what they do every day when they go to ‘work’. Work is not a place, it is an action. A good action because it means you are putting forth effort. Effort + Knowledge = results. Every Time.

Scale. Perhaps another good name for this would be Focus. If you find something that works, figure out ways to duplicate that success. This can be the most challenging part of succeeding at anything (Squidoo or not) but I think it’s almost the most rewarding. You don’t achieve Scale when you can achieve excellence on demand. You achieve scale when you can help others achieve excellence on demand in ways that help everyone succeed.

Repeat. Once you conquer one mountain, it becomes a mole hill. One lens is a triumphant accomplishment when you have only one. Your first penny earned. Your first comment. Your first rating. Your first visit from google. Then it becomes the first 50 lenses, the first 100 visitors, the first $10 or $100 you make. It doesn’t ‘end’, it just changes.

I meet lensmasters all the time that say ‘i cant <insert thing here usually relating to traffic or ranking>’. I ask them how many lenses they have built and what is working on the others. Virtually every time, the answers are not very many and nothing is working because they are all the same. I’ll then tell them to go try and build a lens a day for a week, even give them ideas and module templates and affiliate program recommendations. Sometimes they do it and come back for more but usually i never hear from them again.

The ones that do return have usually learned something incredibly important. They’ve learned that challenging yourself to learn new things isn’t as bad as you remembered it in school and in fact it’s pretty rewarding.

I’ll admit it’s an imperfect world and it’s never the right time to start. But until you put your imperfect butt into imperfect gear and get the party rolling, it’s going to be hard to effect change for yourself or your cause.

oh, and I have a secret tip that if you just repeat it over and over and don’t even think about changing anything it will make you $47,000 a second. While I’m at it I’ve got some houses that you can buy for zero money down and never make a payment ever and you will be able to flip for millions in days. Check out my new site on all these great deals.

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!

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 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?

1. �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.
2. 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!

Courtesy of WayBackMachine

If you click through, you can browse around the squidoo of early ‘06 a bit. Sometimes it’s good to look back on where things were in order to see how far you have come. More lenses have been built in the last 2 weeks than Squidoo had built in all of their first year. (granted, they were in Beta for pretty much all of it) . Looking back at the site, virtually all of the changes are for the better.

One constant about squidoo is change, which is a good thing. Do you have some lenses that just wallow on the bottom of your dashboard and don’t get any traffic? I know I have my fair share. As much as it pains you, crack those back open (even if it’s just one a day) and take a look. I bet you will be surprised at how much better you have gotten at making lenses since you made those old, dusty lenses. A few quick tweaks and you could easily be back on your way.

Another thing that changed? Looking at the Squidoo Top 100 lenses from Jan 2007, there were definitely some familiar names on the list. There were also a lot of people that kind of vanished into Squid History without a peep. The Lensmasters that are still here are doing pretty well for themselves and getting better every day..

Are you still going to be on Squidoo in Jan 2008? or will you be Squid History?

However, there are some common lensbuilding and squidoo techniques that many people use that are just plain wrong. So, I thought that I’d debunk a few of those for you piratey squids this morning.

1. Squidoo RSS Feeds show google new information everytime someone visits - False -� the RSS feed is run on Javascript (AJAX), not php. Technospeak aside, this means that google can see your module title, description, and subtitle of RSS feeds. However, there are some Squidoo modules that will show different content to google every visit.
2. Excessive keyword tagging can hurt – Sometimes - I always recommend starting a lens with 8-15 keywords and then adding long tail terms as they are discovered. This is more about relevancy than number. I’ve got a lens with the full 40 keywords being used that is getting over 1k hits a week. I’ve got others where I’ve gone back and found I did a terrible job tagging them and only have a few tags that could be more relevant. worry about good relevant tags, not about having ‘too many good tags’.
3. You can’t make any money with Squidoo - If you believe this one you probably shouldn’t be reading this blog.. and whatever you do, don’t look here.
4. Google has Slapped Squidoo – Ahh the infamous ‘Google Slap’. Yes, a penalty was applied to Squidoo pages last July. Squidoo and Seth immediately set about beating up on some spam that had snuck into the system. They addressed the problem and traffic has been on the rise ever since August. Google is constantly changing its algorithm to rank on many different factors. I have some lenses that do great with google and some that don’t. Google is going to show what they think the most relevant search results are at the top of the pages. So, provide relevant content to your topic and Google will find your lens.
5. Gil’s Pony is the Secret to Lensrank - Actually, This one may be true…

-The Captain

I’ve finally found a way to convert my training videos to a format that would upload on YouTube. If anyone is interested in seeing them again, or putting them on your lenses (hint, hint )� They can be found under Captain Squidoo.

The Next series of videos will be on using CJ to maximize your Squidoo Earnings. From the feedback I’ve gotten, this seems to be a subject area that many people wish to know more about.

The Newsletter Subscribers will get the first crack at the first video ‘Commission Junction Orientation’ , so make sure you’ve signed up. (psst.. the form is at the top of the left sidebar)

-The Captain

Excited about the people I’ve met.

Excited about the potential of Squidoo.

Excited about helping others learn about it.

I’ve set a new Squidoo goal for myself in the 2008 year.

I want to have 1,000 Published lenses on my Dashboard by my wedding date – Friday, June 27, 2008.

Currently, I’m sitting at 223. That means The Captain will need to get busy. 778 lenses in 180 days is about 4 1/3 lenses a day or 30 a week.

Not only do I want to have 1,000 Published lenses by June 27, I also want to have the lenses hold up the standards of quality I outline in my Lens Publishing Checklist. If anyone out there feels my work beginning to slip, please feel free to contact me or drop a line right here.

I challenge all of you to also come up with a definite goal that is Squidoo related for the coming year. It could be a traffic goal, number of lenses built, amount of $$$ made, whatever you like.

Post your goals up here and I will create a Page on Captain Squid just so we can track them all and see how we do. (I won’t add your goal to the page if you don’t want me to)

Am I Crazy to make this a goal? or just mostly nuts?

-The Captain

I’m proud to present the first Captain Squid E-Book : The Lens Publishing Checklist !

What is it?

The Lens Publishing Checklist is a 12 Step ( with a bonus 13th step for some lenses) program. Don’t need a 12 step program you say? You need this one!

The theory behind this checklist is to help you Squidooers turn out the highest quality lenses that are fully optimized and that are recognized lightning fast by the search engines. In about 15 minutes, you can optimize your lens to get picked up by the Big 3 (Google, Yahoo, MSN) within a few days.

I’ve been testing it out over the last month or so and have seen some pretty excellent results.

Alright you Pirate you, how much does it cost?

Nothing. Zero. Zip. Nada. I’m offering it to you guys 100% free. Simply enter your e-mail address into the form to receive your Super Secret Link to the Lens Publishing Checklist.

About the e-mail thing

I’m planning on offering some even sneakier tricks and training through an e-mail newsletter to those interested. As per the pirate code, The Captain does not abuse your e-mail address in any way. In fact, if you want to un-subscribe at any time, feel free! If a Pirate’s life is not for you, I understand.

Wow, Captain This E-book is awesome! Can I resell/repackage it?

Nope, sorry. The Captain retains the copyright on the Lens Publishing Checklist. It is meant to be and I intend for it to always be a free resource for Lensmasters. Feel free to give it to all of your friends, point others to this page to get their own copy, or delete it. If myself or any others of my Roving Band find you trying to sell the Lens Publishing Checklist unpleasant piratey things could happen to you.

Get the Lens Publishing Checklist:

Feel free to leave your comments/critiques/criticisms below:

-The Captain

Lensbuilding 101 is a 7-part series that walks you through setting up a lens from start to finish. Most of the information is pretty basic, but there are a few little tidbits in there that I think most Squidoo users will be able to use.

The 7 videos combined are approximately an hour of free training on Squidoo. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

The best part? It’s completely free.� No Sign-ups, payment, subscriptions, etc. The basic Squidoo Lensbuilding 101 series is 100% free.

To Check it out in all of it’s glory, head over to the Training page.

Let me know what you think and what you would like the next video to be on!

-The Captain