One Best Tip

Someone asked me today for one tip for building a successful lens.

I gave him this one:  Own your topic.

Then I gave him a bonus tip:  Proofread! Then do it again.

Success may be subjective, but objective misspellings and silly errors stand out and can make us look very unprofessional. Owning our topic allows room for forgiveness for some of those silly errors that all of us make from time to time. 

Squidoo Conference Call

A number of lensmasters (20 or so) were invited to participate in a conference call today to ask questions about current events on Squidoo.  Bonnie and Seth hosted and the group had the treat of putting voices with names of more than a dozen lensmasters over the 40-minute call as questions were asked and answered.

Here's a recording of the call so you can listen in.

The questions were great and the answers were candid and complete.  One quote that I took away from the 40-minute session was from Seth as he discussed the value of adding a personal story to a lens: "Value is created when someone is persuaded."  (You'll find that at 35:15 on the recording.)

Thanks to everyone who participated and especially to Seth and Bonnie for taking time out of their day to host the call.  If you weren't there but wish you would have been, 40 minutes spent listening to the recording will be time well spent.

Now Is the Time To Build (Lenses)

I really liked this post that Bonnie wrote for SquidooHQ a couple of days ago.  She makes an important point about the fact that things change.  They do!

And if there's anything in this world we can count on for change, it's all things internet-related.

I've been hanging onto old Squidoo lenses, or maybe I should say lenses with old topics.  I "archive" them, explaining that this page was created during the 2008 election process (for instance) and is here for historical reference.  That, I've come to decide, is so bogus!  There's nothing on most of these old lenses that anyone wants to read or wouldn't find elsewhere if they did want some historical information.  There are other lenses, too, that I just don't care about anymore.  (There, I said it.)  They're baggage, dragging me down when I notice them there on my dashboard whispering, pleading, "Let me go!"

It's time to delete some of those oldies-that-were-formerly-goodies, cut the cord, say "sayonara" and move on.

Yes, it's a bit like "empty nest syndrome" - my lens-kids leaving home makes me sad - but the good news is that I can keep making new lens-babies on current topics that people actually care about.  And "people," in this case, includes me.  No more maintenance, no regrets.  Those babies are going bye-bye!

New, updated, useful, original content.  That's the part of the internet equation that stays the same.  Time to build it!

Image property Susan52

Putting Myself On The Line

Is this a perfect Squidoo lens?

What do you think?  Visit the link and chime in.

I can take it.