Summer Fun on Squidoo - With Prizes!

Have you seen SquidWoot on Squidoo?  The lensmaking challenge starts today and there will be a new one each Monday through July. With prizes!

First prize this week is an iPad so if you've always wanted one, hey, today could be your lucky day!

Visit the official SquidWoot announcement at SquidooHQ for information and rules. 

Ready, set . . . hey, where did everyone go?

Join the SquidBoo October 2010 Challenge

Quickly!

Between October 4th and October 28th, publish five new lenses on Squidoo using the SquidBoo template and you could become King of SquidBoo!

Halloween is really, really hot this year, so you'd might as well take advantage of the fact to get more visitors to your lenses. Choose a Halloween topic - scary, creepy, or cute - proceed immediately to SquidBoo HQ and start a lens. You have over three weeks to complete five lenses, so take your time and make them great, awesome, noteworthy lenses. That'll pay off later when Squidoo HQ chooses a cauldron of their favorite qualifying lenses to be in the running for one of 13 special, limited edition "King of SquidBoo" trophies. (Not sure how many lenses a cauldron holds, so don't hold back a thing when it comes to quality.)

You'll find all the rules on Megan's SquidBoo October 2010 Challenge lens. Remember to make your lenses using the official SquidBoo HQ front door or they won't qualify.

Remember five new SquidBoo lenses published October 4 to October 28 will earn you an entry into the contest and (I almost forgot) 500 points and a special trophy. Oh, and a hug from Frankenstein. Will you be one of the first-ever SquidBoo Kings? Ready, set, boo! Get started here!

Summer Sunshine - We Have a Winner!

Many thanks to those who nominated my "Summer Reading Fun: Great Books for Boys" lens for a Squidoo Summer Sunshine charity award, which the lens received this week! The charity "First Book" will be receiving an extra-special donation and I'm so pleased I had a small part in that.

It's not too late for you to make and enter a lens in the contest. Maybe you and your charity will win a cash award this summer, too. Jump on down to this post for more information.

P.S. Remember reading Encylopedia Brown books when you were a kid? It's one of our favorite series books for boys.

Who's the Latest Purple Star Queen?

A few days ago, I blogged about the Purple Star contest going on over Memorial Day weekend at Squidoo. I was excited because during the contest non-Giant Squids were eligible to receive purple stars for their lenses. We have so many talented almost-Giants and this would be a great opportunity for them.

I also mentioned that one purple star recipient's name would be drawn from a hat and that person would become Purple Star Queen (or King) for the week. Royal duties would include choosing the week's 20 purple star lenses.

Well, guess whose name was drawn.

It was mine! Can you believe it? I just found out and I can't stop smiling!

For the next week I will wear an imaginary crown (unless there's another perk I don't know about - I'll be watching for a package) and search for 20 of the best lenses in the Squidoo kingdom. Ooh, what fun! Oh, what work! In fact, how will I choose?

It won't be easy narrowing the best down to 20, but I'll manage. I can't wait to get started.

Let the royal festivities begin!

A Purple Star-Studded Opportunity

What are you doing this long Memorial Day weekend? I hope you have something fun planned, but I also hope you can fit making a new Squidoo lens into your schedule. Here's why.

Full details and rules are on the Squidoo blog but, bottom line, if you make a really great new lens between now and midnight Monday, May 31st, 2010, you can also nominate it for a purple star. Then, if the lens is deemed worthy, not only will it receive a purple star, but your name will be entered into a drawing to become Purple Star Queen or King for the week of June 7th and you will get to choose all 20 purple-star lenses for that week. What fun!

The exciting part is that this challenge is open to all lensmasters. It's a rare occasion that non-Giant lenses are considered for purple stars, so if you're not a Giant yet this is a golden, well actually a purple, opportunity for you to get your new lens noticed.

Not familiar with the purple star program on Squidoo? Read all about it here (but remember that you don't have to be a Giant for this event) then put your very best work into a new lens and maybe, just maybe, your lens will receive some of that magic purple stardust.

Giant Squids can play too, of course, but it's particularly exciting that this challenge is open to everyone.

Remember, read the rules first, then get started on your next, or maybe your very first, purple star-worthy lens!

New Giant Squid Challege Supports Baby Squids

'Way back when I was working to become a member of the second-ever class of giant Squids, the only support we had was an occasional "You can do it!" on the SquidU forum. We supported each other, of course, but there were no small groups and no organization. Wow, has time changed things!

Now, with the help of the Giant Squid Organizers and an ever-growing team of Giant Squid Challenge Group Leaders, baby Squids have so much support! There's a Ning group, countless challenges and competitions, and group chats. Now you can also subscribe to Giant Squid Tips on Twitter to get daily quick tips and assignments that will help you swim your way to Giant Squiddom in no time!

The new Giant Squid Challenge will be starting soon. Learn all about it on this lens and don't be shy about getting involved no matter how many, or how few, lenses you have. I promise, you'll be glad you did.

Squid Grads and More Squid Grads

Lots of goings on at Squidoo this week, as usual. On Monday, the second-session class of RocketMoms celebrated their graduation. Wednesday was graduation for Giant Squid Summer School students.

Each member of the two groups was required to complete one lens assignment per week for eight weeks in order to officially graduate. A total of 140 RocketMoms participated, as did over 70 Summer School Giants. Of the 56 RocketMom grads and 47 Summer School grads, 20 lensmasters were on both lists!

All in all, Squidoo is now richer by about 500 new, first-class lenses as a result of these two projects.

Congratulations to all the grads, and thanks for your hard work from which we all will benefit!

From the Heart of Squidoo

Don't know if you knew it, but Squidoo loves you. As a gift to its lensmasters (and anyone else who's interested) the team at Squidoo HQ has put together an ebook and is offering it to you for free. It's a book of lensmaking tips contributed by the pros, lensmasters who've been there and done that and want to share the love.

Download Squidoo's Valentine's Day ebook here.

Happy Valentine's Day, with love from the entire SquidStaff and from me, too.

A Challenge and a Cheerleader

Back in mid-October I received the following message via email:

"I'm going for the 100 club too (although I am behind you by a few lenses) and I'm going to be keeping my eye on you and your lenses! Susanna"

Thus began the challenge. Susanna was challenging herself, but little did she know how she would challenge me! Susanna had a plan, which included four lenses a week in order to make the 100 Club deadline of the 31st. Wow, four a week. That's a lot of lenses!

Guess what. She did it. And, after giving up on my goal with nine to go, then receiving a kick in the tentacles by (guess who) Susanna herself, so did I. I published my 102nd lens last night at a few minutes before midnight. Susanna is up to at least 110 (Squidoo hasn't updated totals in a couple of days). That's more than four lenses a week and, I might add, hers are good, quality lenses. No junk in her lensography, that I can guarantee! Here's her latest; just check it out to see what I mean.

Susanna Duffy, you're a shining star in the Squidoo sky, or is it sea? Either way, thank you for being my cheerleader. You're going to make a wonderful member of the Giant 100 Club!

Announcing the 2008 Giant Squid Awards

It's official. Today was announcement day. The 2008 Giant Squid best of the best lenses by category, along with the Giant Squid of the Year, have been announced.

Choosing which lenses to vote for was actually quite a challenge. Every lens nominated was a good one, and every one is a winner by virtue of being nominated. Congratulations to every lensmaster represented among the nominees!

Then there was Giant Squid of the Year. Talk about difficult. It's just very tough to narrow down the best of the best. The winner was lensmaster JaguarJulie, first runner-up was thefluffanutta, with ChefKeem following closely behind. Congratulations to these three, as well as the other deserving lensmasters who were nominated.

Thanks to all who voted for my Kindle lens which, I am happy to say, did capture the prize for Tech Lens of the Year. What an honor!

If you're looking for Squidoo lenses and lensmasters to study and learn from, the 2008 Giant Squids Award Ceremony lens is the perfect place to start. Be prepared to be inspired!

Hurry! Squidoo is Giving Away Money!

Squidoo is at it again. This time they're giving $30,000 to charity and they want you to help.

To choose which charity you would like the money to go to, visit this lens and follow the directions. You need to have a Twitter account to designate a dollar donation to one of 21 charities that Squidoo has named as recipients of this round of donations. There are links to click on within the lens, links which will auto-tweet your vote. It takes just a second to click and register your vote for the charity of your choice.

Once the 30,000 votes are tweeted, each representing a dollar to a specific charity, the voting ends and the donations will be made. If you want to be sure a dollar goes to your favorite of the 21 charities, go vote now before the 30,000 votes are used up. Really, it won't take long, so don't put it off.

You can watch the progress of the voting on Twitter Search. If you don't have a Twitter account, it's simple enough to set one up (and why, oh why, haven't you done that already?) at twitter.com. If my explanation doesn't make sense, read Megan's explanation on the official Squidoo Holiday Twitterdrive for Charity lens.

Hurry!

Non-Geek Gets Best Tech Lens Nomination

What an honor! My Kindle lens has been nominated for the 2008 Giant Squid "Best Tech Lens" award. Very cool!

It's kind of ironic, though. I'm not exactly known for my technical prowess and I'm rarely mistaken for a geek. In fact, I'm rather technologically challenged. Actually, that's what has made my Kindle lens a pretty good lens; I designed it from a "Why would a non-techie type person like me want a Kindle wireless reader?" perspective. Happily, that approach has worked rather well.

The prize for the winner is basically bragging rights on Squidoo, which is a great reward. I'd be thrilled if you'd consider voting for my lens. The link to the voting module is on the Kindle lens, which I'd love for you to visit to make sure it's award-worthy, or you can go directly to the tech lens module on the 2008 Giant Squid Awards lens here. Be sure to take a look at all the lenses nominated in each of the different categories - all 21 - and vote for Giant Squid of the year while you're at it. (Good luck with narrowing that one down.) Voting deadline is December 21, but go ahead and vote now while it's fresh on your mind, and thank you very much for your support!