I hope none of you are working on new Valentine’s Day lenses or web pages right now. You’ve almost certainly left it too late to get much profitable traffic this year, if you are.

Easter, though, is nine weeks away. This gives you time to get a lens or two online. You’ll have time to choose a good subject, hopefully one that puts a slightly different spin on the usual Easter eggs and little bunny rabbits. You don’t want to compete head-on with the top Easter pages, do you? Maybe you know about some Easter customs unique to your area, or your family has its own traditions or recipes for the festival.

The good thing is, you have time to look for a different perspective. To try to give you some ideas for thinking laterally, here are three top-ranking Squidoo lenses about Easter:

Easter Music for Your Church Choir – it doesn’t have a lot of original content but it’s a great resource for anybody looking for Easter music.

Simple & Affordable Little Girls’ Easter Dresses For Spring & Summer – I would never have thought of writing about Easter dresses for little girls but it’s a great idea.

Painting Wooden Easter Eggs – the lensmaster tells us about her family custom of painting wooden eggs for Easter and she also tells us how to do it.

Can you think of something about Easter that will rank highly on Squidoo and, better still, get picked up by Google and other search engines?

Called “…And the Ladies of the Club”, the story revolves around the members of the Waynesboro Women’s Club and their families and friends covering a period from 1868 to 1932.

Yesterday I finished a review of this book on a Squidoo lens. Because the book is so long, my copy is almost 1200 pages, I found it very hard to give a good synopsis of the story.  So much happens to the characters during that period, it’s just not possible or even desirable to include specific events in a review.

Even so, the lens has already been well received with good comments, many saying they like the sound of the book and might read it. As I’ve read this book twice with an interval of nearly 30 years between the two readings, I hope people do read it. I think it repays the effort of getting through so many pages. In fact, I was so captivated by the characters and their lives that the book never felt too long.

I picked up many tips just by looking. It’s what I’ve always done to learn to improve my writing and web page building. Look at what the experts do and learn from them.

I am amazed at the number of new lensmasters who ask how to improve their lenses or get more traffic but a quick look at their profiles shows that they have not rated or favourited any other lenses. That always leads me to assume, possibly wrongly, that they haven’t bothered to look at any or many others.

It truly appalls me when a quick look at their lenses indicates they have no idea at all how to make one that is appealing to the casual visitor.

Who would stop and read a lens that is text heavy with no graphics of any kind unless they are desperate for the information and can’t find it anywhere else? Well, not me for a start!

Even worse, if you do begin to read because you are desperate or perhaps kinder than I am, and you find it’s poorly spelled, ungrammatical and full of text-speak, would you persevere? I think most people would give up.

Why does anybody think this is acceptable? Why would anybody assume this is what other people are prepared to read? I have no idea. What I do know is that too many people new to lens or web page building or blogging think this is perfectly acceptable.

Guess who has seen too many bad web pages and lenses recently!

Who would have thought a group for women on Squidoo would be controversial and provoke discussion and argument? That’s what has happened over the last couple of weeks.

Lens of the Day (LOTD) on Squidoo has recently been featuring Rocket Moms lenses for a fixed period (I think it was ten days). Of course, this means people who aren’t RM members stood no chance of making LOTD with any of their lenses.

In one way, I can see their point, particularly as this is the only group on the network that is officially recognised by management.  Maybe we could all say, “fair enough, maybe that isn’t right” but it seems that this was just the tip of an iceberg of resentment against RM. Women with no children argue they can’t join although they are assured they can.

Men obviously can’t join and many argue vociferously that RM provides a platform to present lenses and the RM community are so supportive that visits follow announcements in the forum of new lenses. They are also convinced that members give each other five stars, so helping to improve lens rank, regardless of quality.

All I can say about the last point is that I’ve never given a fellow Rocket Mom five stars if the lens didn’t deserve it. I’ve never given any lens an undeserved number of stars and I use the full range from one to five stars on lenses depending on their quality. I also don’t give any stars at all to some lenses including those made by RMs.

There are plenty of opportunities for Squids to join groups even if these aren’t officially recognised by Squidoo. Many of them are supportive, though, and provide a place to put links to new lenses. Many members of these groups also visit the lenses and give stars and leave comments, if they deserve them.

Megan Casey of Squidoo has announced that Rocket Moms was set up as an experiment and its great success means they intend to start more official groups. When that happens, we shall have to see if the people who shouted the loudest are prepared to join them and play active roles in the groups.

Jack Vettriano - the Book: My New Squidoo Lens

My new lens, Jack Vettriano – The Book, is the first I’ve made for over two months. I just couldn’t get on with any. I started several, decided they bored me so I deleted them.

I’m so glad I remembered how much I liked this book about the artist Jack Vettriano because it gave me the opportunity to write about something that really interested me even after I began to lens.

I’ve never seen an original painting by Vettriano, only prints or other reproductions so I can’t make any judgment on his talent as an artist on a technical level. What I do know is that many of his paintings are fascinating because they hint at a story behind them. They look like a glimpse into someone else’s love life or other drama.

When I lose the urge to write, I need a subject that just flows from my fingertips. I usually love research but when I’m in a non-writing phase, I don’t have the patience or the inclination. Now I’ve got ideas for new lenses and I want to get on with them, I’m pleased to say.

Santa Squid from Squid Art Too by Tagsforkids

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!

I’m finishing this year feeling I’ve accomplished some things that I really wanted to do. There have been some disappointments and sad times too – just like many years, in fact.

At the beginning of the year, I was making very few new lenses on Squidoo. I’d become a Giant in October 2008 by making 50+ lenses. After that I just lost inspiration for writing. I’d start a new lens, think about it, then delete it because I couldn’t think of more to write or I was bored by the subject. Worse still, I sometimes finished a lens, read it the next day, decided it was rubbish and so deleted it. Although I made a few lenses, they were a struggle.

Early 2009 two things pulled me out of this Slough of Despond. I joined Senior Squids and started to take part in their weekly lens Challenge. The second was I received an invitation from Michelle (a_willow) to join the Wiwon Team to become a Giant 100 Clubber. That was in April and the deadline to have 100+ lenses was June 30th 2009.

Joining in the Senior Squids weekly lens Challenge helped me start lens building again. Only having a week to make a lens concentrated my mind – I didn’t have time to dither and decide I didn’t like what I was doing. I made lenses on so many different subjects, it was this that started me off doing gardening lenses like I Love Lilies, Moonflower – Night Blooming Plants and Best of Garden Flowers on Twitter.

Salute to Giants from Squid Art Too by Tagsforkids

Not only did these count towards my 100+ lens target, they also started me writing again. I made the Giant 100 Club having met the required number of quality lenses by June 30th.

Then Michelle asked me to be a tutor on Wiwon for people wanting to make Giant or the 100 Club. She would decide she wanted a lens on some aspect of writing for Squidoo and that I was the one to write it. Sometimes I only had a couple of days before she wanted it. Funnily enough, it really helped me too.

Now I’m a Squid Angel and I love doing this. It gives me the opportunity to help new Squids particularly. Sometimes I see newcomers with great potential and all they need is a little guidance on the best way to use Squidoo. It’s also lovely when I get an email or message on my Angel’s lens telling me I’ve made somebody’s day by blessing their lens.

That’s the really great thing about Squidoo – for many of us, it’s all about community and giving back as well as taking.

Both pictures came from Squid Art Too by Tagsforkids.

Seriously, I’m not joking. You should not only be thinking about Squidoo lenses or web pages for Valentine’s Day on February 14th 2010 now, you should also be thinking about Easter next year too.

I wouldn’t consider publishing a lens for Christmas now. The time for that, in my opinion, is at the end of August or in September. I might even publish one as late as October but that’s about my limit. Why? I want to have time to get it indexed by search engines. Although Google and other search engines can pick up a lens or web page within 24 hours, sometime they take longer than that.

My other reason for doing ’special occasion’ lenses early is because many people start thinking about Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter two or three months before the event and this is when many of them start browsing the web for information. I want my Squidoo lens there, ready and waiting for them. I don’t want to miss the boat and not even get the opportunity for many people to see my work.

Squidoo's Purple Star

When I was a little girl in primary and junior school, getting a tick and a gold star for my work was a real thrill and encouraged me to try harder. I’ve always been a sucker for praise.

It looks like 50 years later I haven’t moved on much emotionally. Since Squidoo introduced Purple Stars for exceptionally good lenses made by Giants, I’ve been just as thrilled as I was when I was seven years old each time one of my lenses has got one.

Last week, one of my earliest lenses, The Historic City of York, England, was awarded a Purple Star and, this week, a lens I made a few months ago, Art Nouveau – A Beginner’s Guide.

I think that one of the big addictive factors of Squidoo is the praise that lensmasters can receive for good lenses. This comes mostly from other lensmasters leaving comments in the Guestbook although we can set the Guestbooks so non-Squidoo visitors can leave comments too.

If you want to get good comments, 5 star ratings and being recommended for Lens of the Day or Purple Stars, you really must take an active part in the Squidoo community. That way people know who you are and will visit your lenses.

Being active in the community means visiting the Lensmaster Lounge (Squidoo’s forum), looking at other people’s lenses and giving them a star rating and leaving a comment. Of course, you should only give the star rating the lens deserves and that includes not rating it at all.

Squidoo’s community is one of the best I’ve ever joined on the web and I would recommend anybody who likes making web pages and being part of an active, supportive community to come and join Squidoo.

My Purple Star Lenses

• Crazy Quilts With a Difference
• Make Do and Mend from the 1940s
• Meccano – One of My Favourite Toys
• Make a Reader Friendly Lens
• I Had a Mini-Stroke and What Happened After
• Historic City of York, England
• Art Nouveau – A Beginner’s Guide

Default logo and text on Squidoo Lens

I see many lenses by newcomers to Squidoo that are spoilt because they haven’t bothered to fill in their biography or put in a picture to represent themselves.

On the right you can see the orange blob and “Hello world. This is my bio. I can edit it later.”

This is what you get when you haven’t bothered to provide a picture of yourself or an avatar to represent you and don’t put in a little basic information. It doesn’t look good, does it? I’ve blotted out the lensmaster’s name to avoid embarrassment.

It looks lazy at best or as if you have something to hide at worst. On Squidoo, most people are either imparting information or trying to sell something, sometimes both. How can you expect anybody to trust what you tell them if you hide your identity behind an orange blob? If you can’t be bothered to edit your bio and apparently are happy to tell everybody this, how can anybody trust you to make sure that what you write is accurate?

I believe that all newcomers to Squidoo should add a picture and some information before they make their first lens. It doesn’t take long. If you don’t want to use a picture of yourself, you can use a cartoon or some other picture as long as you aren’t infringing somebody else’s copyright. Use a picture of your dog, cat, hamster, or goldfish. Some people use pictures of themselves as babies or a back view. Use a picture of some scenery.

Almost anything will do as long as you use it on all your lenses so people can quickly recognise it. Your lensmaster picture is like your logo.

An FYI About Everything Must Go!Adding new items as we get photos so come back often to see if there is something you Correen, Everything Must Go, Nov 2009