My Tail of the Dragon lens now joins Drifter’s Tales and Atlantic Beach N.C. Restaurants ~ Crab’s Claw as lenses with Purple Stars. Not only that, the seasonal lens had been bouncing between 250 and 450 on the site until today’s update. WOW! It ranked 90 overall, and I was e-mailed that it was given the Purple Star.

I have been working a lot of hours with my fingers in all kinds of projects that seem to be making progress. Hardly looking up to even tweet on Twitter.   This was certainly a pleasant surprise.

Honestly, I really do owe my fun at Squidoo to a whole host of people in the community. Far too many to name, soI want to dedicate my 3rd purple star to all of my Squidoo friends who have made me who I am.

Thanks!

Life’s a good beach if you can find it. Roll over to see lensmaster kimmanleyort at her state of the art travel hub Senior Squids Favorite Places.

Travel the world.  See the sights.  Stay in your slippers.

What does it really mean to give back?

In these hectic days after becoming a Squidoo Giant, I have realized something. I realized that I gave the same pat answer to the same question that all potential Giants are asked. What are you going to do after becoming a Giant? I’m going to give back to the community!

Great answer! But, what does that actually mean? Typically, I believe it means to make a greater footprint on the site. Maybe critique a few more lenses by new lensmasters, you know…give them a leg up. Maybe even promote the site.

Isn’t that what all good Squidizens should do?

I believe there is even greater work to be done by employing the responsibilities and weight earned while making Giant status. One of my “givebacks” comes directly from chefkeem in his SquidLog post about Seth Godin’s birthday present. I have set the royalties of this lens, The Old West In Pictures,   to 100% contribution for my chosen charity , and am going to be doing this for one of ten lenses I create in the future.

Another way to “giveback” is to take time out to acknowledge those who have supported you in the community because you have impressed them. More times than not, many of those truly enjoy your friendship with them, and you’ll find them on your fan page. That page is loaded with names that inspired you to be great. They have cheered you on. They have stiffened to help you. Acknowledge those who give their heart to you.

Creating tribute lenses is a great way to acknowledge that, but there is a way I enjoy even more; a simple “Hello! How are you? How’s the children? Get your car fixed? How was your trip to the coast? Oh, by the way….Thank you for all you’ve done. I really appreciate your kind friendship.”

How long would that feeling last for YOU,  if you received one of those notes?

I didn’t get to be Giant on my good looks. It was the better looking lensmasters, and better lensmaster in general, around me that helped me gain success.

Thanks to my friends.

Mosey on over to the Double S ranch and take a gander what us old cowhands have been cooking up. The Double S is operated by the superb lensmaster Stazjia and is the watering hole for some of the greats such as Red Cloud, Bill Miner, the Women Of The Old West, and others.

There’s not a better bunch off cowpunchers at Squidoo to learn a few roping tricks from.

The 2nd Quarter Squidoo Giant Challenge is all over but the shouting.  All that’s left is to see who made Giant and who is left to try for the next go around.

It was a long strange trip.

I think lensrank crashed a couple of times and on more than one occaision, I personally had a problem with publishing. The themes option being added caused quite a stir as the CSS wasn’t functioning right at first. As if the work wasn’t frantic enough during the final stages, there was a SquidCrash. Talk about a bunch of freaking out for about half an hour!

All the problems were quickly ironed out and we were off and running smooth. A salute to the HQ bunch for putting up with our grumbling and bitching during those times.

Either way, it should be noted that everyone who participated put up a major effort. Pushing the publish on nearly 1700 (at my last count) lenses, 128 lensmasters drove right up to the end. I know I published two in the final two days, and I heard that someone published at least two on the final day.

Awesome!

When it is all said and done, I gotta believe that all those involved (potential Giants and Greeters) helped make this the most upbeat and spirited Giant Challenge at Squidoo to date.

It should be illegal to have as much fun as I had  with all the friendly bantering between the teams. I created a cheerleading lens on day one of the challenge and a tribute lens on the last day of the challenge. That’s how much fun I had.

I hope you had half as much fun as I did.

Hat’s off to the Giant organizers and all of the Giant Greeters for running a splendid campaign.

And to the all the lensmasters who worked so hard, your are Giants in my book. Legends who will not soon be forgotten.

YOU GUYS ROCK!

Are your grandparents comfortable?

“I hope you’re all doing something that makes your grandparents uncomfortable.” Squidoo creator and marketing god  Seth Godin  made this statement about marketing during his recent appearance on Jelly Talks. Obviously he is saying that if we don’t veer from the norm, we are going to get lost in the shuffle. Be creative, do something different.

Is he saying buck his wildly popular permission marketing or drop Blair Warren’s gentle persuasion methods? Yes and no. What he is saying is to be different. And to be different sometimes means to do something as as simple as altering and adapting current trends. Sometimes, being different is just bouncing off the wall in a totally opposite direction.

Tom Now lays out what we are likely going to see in marketing trends this year in his post, 20 Internet Marketing Trends For 2009. How many have you noticed this year? I’ve seen almost every one of them in action and can see a possibility to combine a few that will make a marketing campaign stand out.

Are your grandparents going to wince, or are you going to be a sheep?

For a wonderful assesment of Seth’s interview on Jelly talks, visit lensmaster luvmyludwig’s lens Best of Seth Godin On Jelly Talks.

I don’t know the mechanics of the Squidoo spam filter, but I’m sure it does a better than fair job. Maybe the review process needs a little reworking. According to everything I’ve read and heard, the process that culminates in a decsion about the lens in question could take as long as a month. That would kill me.

I know, I know. Why not build another lens while you wait? I agree, but that really has nothing to do with the lens hung up in the bait trap. Most lensmasters have niches and depend on the linking and building of those niches. As little of a setback as it seems, one month could be tantamount in a person’s effort to gain momentum. It’s not like you build a lens and BOOM, all your SEO is done. The magic does take a while.

There are 32 SquidAngels at work for Squidoo who are very much part of the anti-spam efforts. With the number of lenses being around the one million mark, the number of Angels seems a bit light to me. A simple solution could be to recruit a few more Angels, and ask some of them to help with the alleged spam lens review. Maybe that’s already being done?

At any rate, with the naturegirl7’s reputation and attention to quality, which can be seen in the lens Natural Butterfly Gardening, it seems to me that the personal review of her lens on Southern Sages could be done and over with in a matter of a few days rather than one month.

What do you think?

Mosey on over and see what the dynamic Senior Squids have up their garden sleeves.

In the short amount of time I’ve been a member at Squidoo, I have noticed some really cool things about the community, and all of them have to do with quality. Content is king, and the admin at Squidoo strives very hard to polish his crown. It’s not an easy task to define what is quality content and/or spam. I still have to use my mind’s eye as the judge and jury, but the powers that be at Squidoo are making great strides towards putting a definition in black and white.

Defining spam is one thing; sifting it is another process all together. Once again, the community is stellar in their efforts in booting spam. Not only do the Angles do a wonderful job, but the response form admin to any concerns about spam is prompt and fair. With nearly a million lenses on the platform, it is up to all of us to be stalwarts in the arena of quality.

Attacking spam is a draconian task when one considers the numbers, yet Squidoo ain’t stopping there. As a testament to the fluidity of the site, they have now enabled us (lensmasters) to utilize various template designs to “doll” up our lenses. Way too cool.

Yeah, I’d have to say that Squidoo is all that AND a bag of chips.

Lensmaster inkserotica has dished up a healthy slice of bravery pie with her “About Me” assignment for the wonderful RocketMoms. I know I would never believe half the lies about her.