Home > News > The return of the SquidU, plus more cool stuff!

Hello! This is Kimberly Dawn Wells, Citizen Squid and lensmaster speaking, er, writing, and I have some big news for you. Starting this week, the SquidU Review returns from hiatus and is now going to be lensmaster driven! That’s right. Every week you’ll get insider scoop on the latest and greatest that’s happening at Squidoo, straight from people in the trenches with you.

Let’s see what we have in store for you this week:

1. What is Plexo, really?
2. How to manage Group membership
3. Tagging Tricks
4. Fun stats of the week
5. Lensmaster Interview

Keep up the great work on your lenses! I’m looking forward to some fun times with the Review.a

~Kimberly Dawn Wells, Editor of the SquidU Review

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1. What is Plexo, really?
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What the heck is Plexo? You’ve seen it on lenses, you’ve noticed “Plexo” modules hanging out in your Add Modules function. Well…. according to Seth, “Plexo is social bookmarking meets Digg meets the long tail.” A Plexo module is an interactive voting module that allows you to do things with your lens, and for your readers, that the regular modules don’t.

For example, with a regular module, you can make your very own Top 10 list of great movies or music, or the ugliest cat pictures, or whatever. That’s great. Those are your recommendations. BUT, others can’t tell you what THEY think. By offering favorite movies in a Plexo module, registered Squidoo users can vote on your picks, and even add their own if you decide to let them.

Why would you want to use Plexo on your lens?

1. People LOVE lists. They love to take polls and surveys too. This gives them the opportunity to make their opinions matter. Focusing on your readers is just plain smart.
2. If you vote in an especially interesting poll, chances are you’ll come back later to see who’s winning. No? Sure you would. A-ha! Repeat traffic to your lens. Plexo introduces a new watercooler effect to Squidoo.
3. If you let people “grab” your Plexo, they can take that list and stick in on their blog or site, or even clone it onto their lens. This points more people your way, multiplies the votes on your lens, and positions you as the expert running the poll.

Hint: If you just want to list your own stuff, favorite links, best videos, etc, keep using the standard modules. Plexo is for recommendations that you want to leave open to popular opinion.

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2. How to manage Group membership
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I’ve heard many versions of this question about group membership: “Why was I denied membership (or why was my lens booted) from a group?”

The purpose of groups on Squidoo is to provide a place for like lenses to congregate, and to get your lenses even more exposure. Each group is run by a Groupmaster. Each Groupmaster decides what the group will be about, what the goals are, what participation means, and what type of lenses will be accepted. Some groupmasters are lenient about what type of lenses will be allowed, and lenses with loosely related content will be approved for membership. Other groupmasters create groups with a very specific purpose in mind, and limit membership to lenses that are designed based on their rules.

When you are designing your lenses, keep in mind that lenses should focus on one topic. That isn’t to say you can’t talk about books, gardening, and football all in one lens. If your lens is about your hobbies, these three topics could be totally appropriate. (There’s even a group just for “about me” lenses. http://www.squidoo.com/groups/iam). However, you generally won’t see a lens that jumps between topics with no common connection.

Likewise, the groups each of your lenses belongs to will be on related topics. If your lens is on books about gardening, you might belong to book groups and gardening groups. However your lens on why Brett Favre should or should not return to the Packers for the 2007-2008 season doesn’t belong in the scrapbooking group.

And, Groupmasters: a Group is only as good as the person who runs it. Stage contests, post updates, feature great lenses, create your own permission-based email list of the people in your Group. Boot the baddies, celebrate the winners, and you’ll be on your way to making an oasis of activity around your topic.

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3. Tagging Tricks
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Tags are important to getting found on search engines such as Google, and mastering them can be tricky. Savvy lensmasters to the rescue! A few smarties are testing how individual words and phrases are affecting their search results.

Read the whole conversation here: http://www.squidu.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1699

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4. Fun Stats of the Week
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My inside sources tell me that Squidoo now has over 75,000 lenses! This totally amazes me. When I first joined Squidoo there were fewer than 30,000. The word is definitely spreading about the functionality and power of Squidoo. Probably thanks to you!

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5. Lensmaster Profile
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This week lensmaster extraordinaire Angela Harms interviews fellow lensmaster Thomas Clifford. Thomas is an international award-winning documentary filmmaker & storyteller, specializing in creating ‘moving visions’ for organizations; Fortune 500 to local non-profits.

His thoughts on making great lenses? “We all have passions in life and I think that’s what Squidoo provided me… a platform and a context to express my passions in life in a simple, friendly and quick manner. Once you start, it’s hard to stop.”

Don’t miss the full interview here:
http://www.squidu.com/Profiles/director-tom