Squidoo's Rocket Moms

Session 3 of Squidoo’s Rocket Moms ended yesterday and, as far as I know, everybody managed to do the eight lenses to graduate and earn their Rocket Moms graduation badge.

The session lasted for eight weeks and the requirement for graduation was to make eight lenses that fitted the weekly assignment. The assignment was only disclosed on Sunday of each week so that gave us seven days to complete it. Of course, Squidoo is a part time activity for most people and things happen in their lives which sometimes mean they don’t have the time to finish a lens in a week but a member can still graduate as long as she has completed eight lenses by the end of the session.

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September 30th saw the final deadline to make Squidoo Giant or a Giant 100 Clubber. The Wiwon Team did well and I think many of its members will qualify with either 50 or 100 lenses. They’ll know later this week. In the meantime, I know from experience, it’s quite worrying wondering if your lenses are good enough even though you hit the target number.

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Sylvestermouse's Avatar on Squidoo

No, I’m not suggesting you shake the tentacle of a denizen of the deep blue sea but rather learn about one of the great people who write on Squidoo. The first in this series is Sylvestermouse, AKA Cynthia.

I became aware of her when she posted a critique request for her first lens (web page) in Squidoo’s forum – Sewing in the House of Sylvestermouse.  I took a look at it and, although there were things that needed to be done, it was obvious to me that Cynthia could write in a good and interesting way. I made some suggestions, as did other people, and she actually implemented them – not something that always happens. After that, I’ve taken an interest in her progress and she has done very well, having made many interesting lenses. I now think of her as my ‘baby Squid’ who is growing up fast.

Read what she has to say about why she joined Squidoo and her thoughts on different aspects of the network.

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For this week’s Squidoo Rocket Moms lens we have to write about a place we’ve visited.

This is so hard. My thoughts are whirling. Should I write about St Maartens, a Caribbean island I visited briefly but loved?

Maybe I should write something about Paris, France, a city I’ve often visited and one of my favourite places. I could write about the small French fishing town of Honfleur in Normandy, another place I’ve visited several times because it’s a favourite.

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I’ve been putting suggestions in the Stazjia’s Stars forum for ideas to make into new lenses. My latest suggestions have been inspired by the weekly Senior Squids Challenge. Last week, the subject was ‘The Moon’ so I wrote about Moonflowers – Night Blooming Plants, this week it’s about ‘Time’ so I’ve done one on Local Time and Railway Time.

The point is to take an idea that is very wide ranging and think of your own slant on it. There is no way that anybody could write a comprehensive lens or web page about the moon or time. Both subjects are too big.

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My Coaching Lens for Stazjia's Stars

Because I made the Giant 100 Club last time, Wiwon, the group I joined to help me, has made me one of the coaches for people hoping to make Giant or the Giant 100 Club next time, deadline September 30, 2009.

Stazjia’s Stars is one of the small coaching groups. I have six members, which is about average for each group. In SS we are still getting to know each other but have started reviewing each other’s lenses and that seems to be going well.

I think giving critiques on lenses helps the owner of the lens and the people doing the critique. Obviously, the owner gets suggestions for improvements but how does it help the other people?

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If you’ve read this blog before, you will know that I am addicted to writing on Squidoo and for the past couple of months I’ve been trying to get my total of lenses (web pages) there over the 100 mark.

I did it. I finished up with 108 lenses and I was notified on Thursday that I had made it into the Giant 100 Club.

I really didn’t expect to qualify. I wasn’t convinced that I’d really got 100 high quality lenses. I wanted to do at least another five or six to give myself a better chance. I always do my best when I write but we aren’t always the best judges of our own work.

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It’s felt like a feverish 6 or 7 weeks ever since I decided to try for the Giant 100 Club halfway through May with the deadline June 30. Since then I’ve made about 30 new lenses. When I still needed to do at least 12 more to get to the 100, it felt like an impossible task but somehow I made the 100 and then more to reach 107 lenses in all.

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The Moment of Zen Theme on Squidoo

Squidoo has updated its default template with a nicer shade of blue and better overall design. Not only that, lensmasters now have a choice of another seven themes with different colours.

The lenses look much better. I really like the new designs. The choice of themes means we can reflect the character of the subject of the lens now. For example, I wrote a lens called Should Art and Antiques be Restored or Not? I feel that it’s what is sometimes called a ‘think piece’ so I’ ve used the theme Moment of Zen which gives it the appearance of a newspaper article. I think it works with this kind of lens – of course, you might totally disagree.

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Blackcurrants - A Superfood?

Yesterday I published my 100th Squidoo lens – Blackcurrants – A Superfood? I can hardly believe that I have produced so many lenses in just a couple of months.

When I committed myself to bringing my total number of  lenses up to 100 by June 30th back at the end of April, I never really thought I could do it. I had to produce 23 lenses in just two months. That sounded daunting, to put it mildly.

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