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.

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