Squidoo Fun

We've Moved!

2008-04-05T06:17:00.000-07:00

Squidoo fun has a new home, please come visit us at Thoughts of a Squidoo Lens Author, hope to see you there! I'll be sharing any info I hear about Squidoo, my own lensmastering thoughts, my Squidoo lens creations, and the best lenses I stumble across.

What Can You Make With Duct Tape?

2007-12-22T09:08:00.001-08:00

Here's what some Squidoo lensmasters can do:
Make A Duct Tape Wallet (or at least points you in the right direction)
Or how about some Duct Tape Sandals (great set of instructions)
You can do just about anything with Duct tape, Bdkz has a lens with the many many uses of Duct tape.

Then there's Duct Tape Marketing, but we're not going there.

A New Squidoo Ebook by Seth Godin

2007-12-19T14:14:00.000-08:00

Seth Godin has produced a free eBook for Squidooers, bloggers, or anyone looking to optimize their website for search engine success. The book is called Money For Nothing (and Your Clicks for Free). Check out Seth's Blog for more detailed information about the book. Maybe you could call it an early Christmas present from Squidoo?

I was intrigued to see a couple new platforms listed on the back page we haven't been able to check out yet, Squidlit, and Squidzippers, which sounds like a local info platform. Sounds like fun!

I was so excited to see my Best Cookies Ever listed in the book. So cool!

And...check out Squidknol! the Squid teams been busy creating all kinds of fun things!

Squidoo Halloween Fun= Squidboo

2007-10-13T07:12:00.000-07:00

Have you tried Squidboo yet? Several lensmasters have, and they've created some really cool Halloween lenses. My first attempt at Squidboo is Halloween Tricks or Treats. Which do you prefer for Halloween Tricks or Treats?

Squidboo comes with some pre-fab, pre-populated modules, but it's really simple to make it your own. I just changed the article terms on the Wikipedia modules to "trick or treat" and "Halloween," to better fit my lens, then I added a couple text modules, changed some of the costume modules since the costumes didn't fit my lens theme, and TaaaDaaa! I have a really cool Squidboo lens with the fun Halloween spooky look.

Check out yesterdays lens of the day Pumpkin Carving 101, and today's lens of the day Hairspray Halloween Costumes, both are great examples of Squidboo lenses.

Some other fun Squidboo lenses check out some of these titles:
Disney Villains by BlondeHeroine
What Can You Do With Pumpkin Guts? by Kimberly Dawn Wells
Television Witches Over The Years by Gypsy Pirate
Black Cats Classic Icons of Halloween by Christene

and many, many more.

Once you create your Squidboo lens don't forget to join the Squidboo group.

Squidbids

2007-10-06T09:30:00.000-07:00

Have you seen Squidoo’s latest? They've just launched Squidbids. Similar to Squidwho, there are several modules set up for you when you create the page. Keep them if you want, or get rid of them and add your own.

If you’re an eBay seller Squidoo has created this tool just for you. Check out Seth’s Blog post Thinking Outside the eBay Search Box for the full scoop. Promoting your online auctions just got a whole lot easier, and it’s free! What can be better than that?

Thinking Christmas Already? Squidoo Lensmasters Are

2007-10-01T18:20:00.000-07:00

I was browsing through the new lenses today (part of my Squidtern fun), and a lens caught my eye. Many new lenses only have a couple modules when they're published, so I don't usually expect to see a complete lens.

The lens that caught my eye was called The Twelve Days of Christmas by hmsweaver. She's assembled a really fun lens based on the song by the same name. It's a cute idea. Check out some of her creative gift ideas. It may inspire you to give someone you love gifts based on the Twelve Days of Christmas.

Don't forget to check out Fresh Squid for daily lens topic ideas.

Squidmercial Update

2007-09-26T07:03:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone for there great video submissions for the Squidmercial. We received some really interesting submissions. Now we’re sifting through them, sorting out the best of the best, splicing and dicing so we can bring you the final product. Stay tuned!

Squidoo Blogs

2007-09-23T14:49:00.000-07:00

I always like to mention other blogs I find about Squidoo, many of them (including fellow Squidtern blogs) are in the blogroll to the left, or in previous posts. I was just browsing Euryale's lens The Free Squidoo Guide (which is loaded with great Squidoo info, especially for beginners), she has a few blogs listed I didn't know about in her Squidoo Blogs section.

Check out Euryale's great lensmastering tips (if you haven't already), and what others are saying (blogging) about Squidoo.

Another great blog to check out is Kimberly Dawn Wells blog about her Squidoo journey, How Do YOU Squidoo?

Squidwho?

2007-09-19T12:26:00.001-07:00

Have you created a Squid Who lens yet? If not what are you waiting for! Check out what others are saying about SquidWho:

Squid Who? By B.E.D. at Gather

A VC: Squid Who- When A Product Becomes A Platform

Working Writer's Newsletter- Squidoo.com Launches SquidWho?
PR Leap- Squidoo Introduces SquidWho

Who do you admire, they don't have to be famous, create a Squid Who page about your hero, your mother, your grandmother, your best friend, yourself.

Here are a couple of my favorite SquidWho lenses about everyday people:
Who is Kimberly Dawn Wells?
Who is Randy Smythe?
Who is Rachel Schwarz?
Who is Kathy and Rick?
(Can I get your autographs?)

All of these are excellent examples of how you can make someone famous with SquidWho. Make a lens for someone you love as a gift, put your passion into it, show them how much you care.

What's your favorite Squid Who lens?

My Favorite Squid Who Lens

2007-09-16T06:14:00.000-07:00

OK, I've been checking out what everyone's doing with the new Squid Who lenses, and I've seen some really cute ones. But my favorite so far is The Grinch by Orthia. Even the lens looks "Grinchy." I love the Grinch quotes, the green fonts, and all the great Grinch stuff Orthia included.

It looks like she had a ton of fun creating this lens. I love seeing lenses where it looks like the lensmaster is sharing their passion, this one definitely qualifies.

Squidoo Yum!

2007-09-13T19:23:00.000-07:00

I was just browsing a few lenses while working on my latest Squidtern project and came across this lens by DinoDino, called Daily Recipe Ideas. This lens looks good enough to eat.

If you're in charge of meal planning at your house you have to add this lens to your favorites! DinoDino links to several blogs and other sites to be your one stop online resource for the best recipes.

Just look at the yummy mouthwatering photos! MMMMMMmmmmmmm!

Have You Taken The New Wikipedia Module for a Test Drive?

2007-08-28T16:20:00.000-07:00

Squidoo has a new module, to access it just click on the Add New Module Button, then click the alphabet letter W. You'll see the new Wiki button. It's so easy to use, just type in what you're looking for and let the module do the rest.

I've had a couple come up blank. When that happens I just click through to the Wikipedia website and search for your person, or thing. When it pulls up the article put the last part of the title (should be similar to your search term in the article field of the Wikipedia module on your Squidoo lens. Hope this makes sense;)

Check out my Reese Witherspoon Movies lens, I added a Wiki article in there.

So much Squid fun!

There's Still Time!

2007-08-28T12:25:00.000-07:00

There's still time to get your Squidmercial video in if you've been procrastinating. Check out the Squidmercial lens if you haven't yet to find out all the details on how you can be a Squidstar.

We've got some great entries but we're still waiting on yours. Just because we know your busy with the end of summer/ back to school rush we've extended the deadline to September 14th, so get out there with your video camera or digital camera (most can shoot short video) and make your ten seconds of fame now!

Squidoo Outside News

2007-08-24T05:34:00.001-07:00

What's the scoop on Squidooers outside of Squidoo? Here are some things others have set up to help make your Squidoo life easier.

Have you checked out SquidUtils by the fluffanutta? SquidUtils has some great tools to help lensmasters optimize their lens. You can see the Google pagerank for all your lenses in the advanced lensmaster tools. You can also easily submit your lens to Lensroll, and Addthis (which has a whole list of social networking sites in one spot). You can ping your lens with Pingomatic, and the best tool of all is the ability to generate code for Amazon links. If your like me and you miss being able to add direct Amazon adds since Squidoo took away the iframe this is a great tool for you. Hop on over and check out all the great lensmaster tools fluffanutta has set up for us.

Hotbrain just posted a great article on taking your lens from 25,000 to 206 ranking in 8 days. Check out How To Improve Your Lens Ranking, and other posts at Hotbrain's blog.

Have You Had Your Fresh Squid Today?

2007-08-20T20:03:00.000-07:00

Did you check out the great topics Squidtern Benedict served up with Fresh Squid today?

Rusty Quill gave us a great lens about the Best Family Tents and Other Goodies. Where she reviews tents, stakes, and other camping items. Check it out before your next big camping adventure.

Check out tomorrow's topics to see if you have a lens, or an interest to make a lens for Tuesday's Fresh Squid. Ooohhh, I love Queen of The Girl Geeks, I think it's a sign I'm one of 'em!

What's your favorite lens in the Fresh Squid Plexo for August 21st? Don't forget to vote for it!

Squidoo's Making A Squidmercial

2007-08-16T19:36:00.000-07:00

The Squidmercial will be created by you! Starring, you guessed it... You! Check out the Squidmercial Lens for all the details. Then go grab your video camera and claim your 10 seconds of fame.

Follow the simple steps to make your video Squidderific! Then upload the video to YouTube, or Email the link to Squidoo.

Deadline: August 31, 2007. BUT, if you're one of the first submissions, you'll be given priority consideration for the video. So get out there and create your own 10 second Squidblurb.

Have You Checked Out Fresh Squid Yet?

2007-08-14T11:03:00.001-07:00

Check out today's Fresh Squid ideas, and then check out the Fresh Squid Group for daily ideas through the end of 2007.

According to the Earthday Calendar today is World Lizard Day. Thanks to Gypsypirate for making a lens to commemorate the day, and adding it to the Fresh Squid Plexo for today's Fresh Squid Lens.

Pick a topic from one of the daily topic ideas, and create your own lens. Don't forget to add it to the Plexo (and vote for it)! Do you already have a lens that fits one of the topics? Feel free to add it to the Plexo. We'd love to hear from you!

Squidopoly Anyone?

2007-08-09T12:14:00.000-07:00

Do you like to play Monopoly? I do, it's always been one of my favorite games. We have a couple of the special edition Monopoly games on our shelf, but mookiegifts has some on her Monopoly Games lens I've never heard of. I'm going to have to get the John Deere Tractor Board, we love John Deere at our house. Check it out if you like Monopoly. If you don't care for Monopoly check it out anyway, it's a really cool lens.

Anyone Like to Work With Beads?

2007-08-03T10:31:00.000-07:00

Beading and jewelry making is all the rage these days, and Squidoo has some great lenses on the subject.

If you'd like to learn how to make glass beads check out NicoleB's lens on how to make glass lampwork beads. She explains lampwork, and even includes a glossary of terms if you get lost.

Lisel33's lens on Setting Dichroic Glass is another great read for anyone interested in making their own jewelry.

Looking for patterns to make your own jewelry? KnotGypsy has you covered in her, Original Designs in Hand Crafted Beaded Micro Macrame and Beaded Crochet Jewelry Lens.

Looking for unique stones for your jewelry? How about Interesting Unique and Unusual Gemstones -Tao Gems by Glyphman.

Looking for more? Just do a Squidoo search on jewelry, jewelry patterns, make jewelry or beads, (or any topic you're interested in), and check out some of the wonderful lenses you'll find at Squidoo. And if they don't have a lens on the topic you're looking for? Make your own lens on the topic and share with others.

Squid Love

2007-08-01T08:01:00.000-07:00

I love Squidoo!

Yes, I do!

I love Squidoo!

How 'bout you?

I love you Squidoo, for many reasons, one of my favorite reasons is the quality time I spend with my son. He’s 8 and he loves Squidoo too! He loves to help me create lenses, and he loves to check out the lenses others make. Here are a couple of the lenses he helped me create:
Pokemon Diamond and Pearl Currently his favorite game.

Bee Movie He helped me find the trailers, and photos for the lens.

Top Animated Children’s Movies of 2007 He helped me with the trailers, and gave me his opinion, since we've seen most of these movies.

Top Animated Children’s Movies of 2007 He's a regular viewer, he loves to check out the trailers, and the official websites.

He helps pick out the videos, games, photos and everything else that goes into creating the lenses. We have a great time creating lenses. Thinking about all of this gave me inspiration, if my son loves Squidoo so much why wouldn’t every child? There are so many great children related lenses out there, why not set up a group just for lenses children would love. So I set up the Fun For Kids Group Headquarters.

It’s a brand new group featuring lenses that will inspire children, be fun for children, or interact with children. The internet is a scary place for children, and this group will give them a great place to come check out lenses, without the fear of ending up on a site with adult content.

I’m hoping this group will offer the opportunity for other parents to fall in love with Squidoo with their children.

By the way here are some other lenses my son loves, check them out with your children if you get a chance.

Hobby Robots, Got Yours?
He loves to look at the Lego Robots, and dream over which one he wants next.
The Star Wars Lego Universe He loves the Star Wars lego line, and loves to look at the video.

Transformers 2007 Movie He loved this movie, and he loves all the bright photos and links here.

How (and where)To Sing- This lens has great links to online karaoke sites, and my son love so sing. We marked this in my favorites, so we can find it whenever we want to belt out a song.

There are a million more reasons why I love you Squidoo, but the quality time you give me with my son, is the dearest to my heart.

Thank You Squidoo!

What's Rolling Right Now at Squidoo?

2007-07-29T13:28:00.000-07:00

I really love lensroll. It's a great way to discover new lenses you never knew existed. Just look around in there for a short while and you'll find out all kinds of interesting stuff. But beware! It's almost as addictive as Squidoo itself!

Some great lenses I discovered on lensroll.
I know it's not Halloween yet, but this lens is super cool. Vintage Halloween Postcards

Endangered Horse and Pony Breeds- I've loved horses since I was a little girl, and this lens really makes you think about the fact that our generation discards what's not "trendy," and what affect it has on the world (and animals) around us.

About Plan B makes you think hard about what we're doing to our planet. Business as usual isn't working for planet Earth. We need to start working on plan B. What legacy are we leaving our children?

A Squidoo Contest To Benefit Missing Children

2007-07-28T11:13:00.000-07:00

Lensmaster Writertiff runs Squidoo contests from time to time. She sets a time to start building your lens. You set up your lens, and try to be at the top of the heap at the end of the contest. The contests have had varying themes. The latest contest is for a super cause.

Tiffany asked lensmasters to set up a list on a missing child or children, here is the original post in her Social Marketing 101 Blog. Here are the lensmasters, and lenses in the challenge. Please take a look, you never know when the information may help a child you know, or if you may pass one of these children on the street.

Missing Child in Canada - 1 of 60,000 a
Year
Cherie Mahan
Missing Children In Ohio My lens
Help Find These Missing Children From Tennessee
Help Find 7- Year Old Leanna Susan Marie Warner
Aaron Michell Anderson
Utah Missing Children - Acacia Bishop
Help Children Who Don't Seem to Have a Prayer
What every parent needs to know about keeping your child safe! - My Fave, Sadiepal has put together an excellent resource here.

Leave a comment, or a rating while you’re visiting, and cheer the participants on in this noble cause!

Here are some other great Missing Children Lenses:
Missing Children in South Africa
Help Find 17-Year Old Missing Child Tan
Jing Chen

Robot World

2007-07-26T08:20:00.000-07:00

This is my son's favorite Squidoo lens: Hobby Robots...Got Yours? by lensmaster edmands. He likes to look at the pictures of the Lego robots. He loves Legos and robots, so the two combined mystify him. He wants one of everything on the page.

Working with Legos to build and create is an excellent learning tool, and learning about robotics (even simple robotics) is important in this modern world, so anything with both is high on the great toy list.

My son also thinks The Star Wars Lego Universe, by retrostatic
is really cool.

Do your kids have a favorite Squidoo lens?

Cool Things In Squidworld

2007-07-25T06:48:00.000-07:00

Have you heard of Squidoo Cool? It's a blog set up by fellow lensmaster MrLewisSmile. Lewis has some of the most impressive Squid stats around, and some really cool lenses too. I subscribed to Squid Cool several weeks ago, and have been getting regular updates since. He shares some great tips about Squidooing. Some of his past posts have included information on making your lens look better, boosting your referral $, and the latest post is about another great Squidoo site, Lensroll.com

Lensmaster Glen has started a new site for Squidooers called Lensroll.com,it's a social networking type site, similar to Digg, but exclusively for Squidoo lenses! I've already added a couple lenses. Looks like fun, you can add your favorite lensmasters as friends, and vote on your favorite lenses.

Lensroll is a great place to discover new lenses, check them out by category, most popular, or the most recent posts.

Can't Find The Words?

2007-07-24T11:04:00.001-07:00

If you're short on words, Caseyfern (one of my fave lensmasters) has a lens for you. Words and Phrases that Should Exist but Probably Don't, this is a lens I hadn't seen before today, and it's hilarious.

Some of my favorites are ulquidic, wegglish, and dyslensic. I'm not going to tell you what they mean, you'll have to check out the lens to find out.

Taking a Trip Down Memory Lane With Squidoo

2007-07-24T06:51:00.000-07:00

Do you remember tapping your toes to the theme of Gilligan's Island, The Beverly Hillbillies, or The Flinstones? I do! Timefortravel took me on a trip down memory lane with her lens Classic TV Theme Song Lyrics.

Check it out, and don't forget to click on the videos, play the songs, dance along, or share them with your children.

Just the flashback to some of these shows was fun. Some of them I've only seen in syndication, many when I was a child. They brought back some great memories. Take a trip down memory lane!

Cats Having Fun?

2007-07-23T12:55:00.000-07:00

Another favorite lens of mine is, Cats Just Wanna Have Fun by Frankster. She's loaded this lens with hilarious photos, videos, and stories of cats doing what they do best, being comedians.

On a more serious side Frankster also shares a top ten list of things that are poisonous to cats, some great cat rescue sites, info on caring for your cat, and great cat books and products. Great information for any cat owner.

A Tribute to One of My Favorite Lenses

2007-07-22T18:53:00.001-07:00

Over the next few weeks I will show you some of the best lenses I come across. One of my favorite lenses right now is about sundials.

In her lens: Sundials: how they work, how to make them and some sundial history, lensmaster frances invites you to find out how interesting sundials are.

Frances says, “Think again if you thought that all sundials have to offer in the garden is an olde worlde horizontal piece in a flowery nook evoking a charming English country garden atmosphere.” In her lens she shows you horizontal sundials, vertical sundials, spheres, and obelisks, and that’s just the beginning.

This lens is packed with information on:
-The history of sundials
-How to use sundials in the garden
-How sundials work
-Tips for buying a sundial
-Websites to show you how to make a sundial with your children
And my favorite part, the lens is loaded with beautiful photos of …. Sundials!

Why Would I Want To Be A Sqidtern?

2007-07-21T13:13:00.000-07:00

Why do I want to be a Squidtern? I fell in love with Squidoo when I was first introduced to it about six months ago. I love to write and create, and Squidoo gives me the opportunity to do both.

It broke my heart to hear about the recent spam attacks by a few people, causing a negative reaction from bloggers and others in the online community. A few bad lenses gave Squidoo a bad name, overshadowing the thousands of talented lensmasters making great lenses.

I enjoy checking out others lenses almost as much as I enjoy creating my own ( I learn something from almost every lens I visit). I think there are a lot of lensmasters here, sharing their passion and knowledge with the world. I hate to see that ruined by a few bad apples. I would truly like to help make Squidoo a better place for everyone.

I have learned so much along the way from some of the talented lensmasters here. I am still learning, with every lens I build, I learn more design tricks, now I know enough about design to be dangerous!

Here are a couple of my favorite resource lenses if you would like to learn more about lens design:
Squidoo Modules
Basic HTML for Squidoo
Squidoo Tagging Tricks

Over the next few weeks I’ll share with you the lensmasters and lenses that inspire and challenge me to become a better lensmaster myself. I hope you are inspired too.