Hot Topics and Purple Stars...don't forget!

Don't forget fellow Giants, the 15 hot topics were posted at the secret Giant Squid blog on Monday, and lenses are being nominated for purple stars tomorrow! So if you're not done yet, get to working on those lenses!

I'm still currently working on my lens...for which topic, I won't say ;) Just reminding all you awesome Giant Squids out there to go go go!

Also, if you're not a Giant Squid yet, and are looking to become one for the June 31st deadline, check out the Giant Squid Challenge June 2009! Join a team and have fun! I think I'm going to try out for the 100 club in September or December as I'm nowhere near 100 lenses, haha.

Good luck with the purple stars! :D

New Lens: Hannah Montana the Movie

I've been working like a busy little bee on my new Hannah Montana lens today! I'm not a big Hannah Montana fan (in fact, that's the first statement I make in the intro, and I'm thinking of changing that, haha), but I did like the movie. So the lens is a nice little review of the movie, showing the good and the bad sides of it! If you want, stop by and tell me what you think--I think I did a pretty good job, if I may say so myself, but I still have a lot more I want to add to it!

So here it is, Hannah Montana: The Movie Lens, for all the world to see. And I know there are tons of Hannah fans out there, so I hope it's good enough for the world. :) Leave a comment if you'd like!

Also, good luck to all of you trying for the 100 Club and for Giant Squid in June! I was reading the threads on SquidU, but was just too lazy to post. ;)

6 Reasons to Create a Lensography

What is a lensography, you might ask? A lensography is the Squidoo form of a biography: a little way for people to get to know you better both online and off! thefluffanutta coined the phrase of "lensography", and ever since, Squidoo lensmasters have been creating lensographies so that the world can get to know them better! So here are 6 reasons to create a lensography on Squidoo...

1. It's a way to collect all your best lenses on one page...in a great display and with a system of organization.
2. When people Google your name, they'll come up with your lensography! (Unless you have a really popular name...haha)
3. Lensography is just a fun word. Say it. Really, it's fun, right?
4. You can make a lensography for different niches!
5. It's a great way to explain why you love making lenses. People will be more interested in what you're doing if they know why you're doing it.
6. It's a good way to get your website even MORE promoted. More links, yay!

So keep those things in mind and go make your lensography! If you already have one, try and integrate these things into it. And if you already have done that too, well then, good job! *high fives*

The New Purple Star!

Giants now have another amazing new perk...purple stars!

The first group of purple star recipients was chosen yesterday, and you can see all the lenses on the SquidU forum topic.

So who earns these purple stars? Only Giant Squids can earn them, and only by being nominated. Every week, Squidoo will pick 15 hot topics and Giants can nominate their lenses or someone elses to earn purple stars! Up to 6 amazing lenses will be chosen...you can either create a new lens for the topic or choose one of your older ones, "classic" ones as Squidoo is calling them now. New lenses will have greater chances of being chosen, however, over older lenses for purple stars.

Purple stars give your lens a HUGE boost in lensrank, so if you haven't thought about going for Giant before, you should give it some thought now with this huge benefit.

If you're looking to learn more about purple stars, check out the Squidoo lens for it! Congrats to all those Giants who got purple stars for their lenses already! :)

Congrats to Greekgeek for LOTD!

Congratulations to GreekGeek for getting her Jackie Robinson: An American Hero lens I wrote about Tuesday, selected for Lens of the Day! Check out the post in the LOTD blog right here.

In other news, I've been extremely busy lately and haven't had time to work on many new lenses at the time, or write for this blog either. My brain is frazzled, I tell ya. I meant to put up a guide for fixing your groups and maybe posting some great new groups a couple of days ago, but time slipped by me very easily. I had some time to update a few lenses, but not much other than that and school work.

But I will try and post a few new lenses and hopefully a Group Guide in the next week, so if I have a lack of posting, I'm sorry!

-Steph

Some great lenses I've found lately...

I've been scouring the lenses on Squidoo lately and these are a few of the awesome lenses I've found!

Crazy Things I've Never Said-Hilarious phrases that people from the South (U.S.) say!

Sugar Cookie Recipes-Some great recipes for making sugar cookies.

Ways for Writers to Make Money Online-Whether it's Helium, Squidoo, Associated Content, there are a ton of places to earn money from, and this lens shows the best of them.

Wordola: Word Game on Twitter-Learn more about the word game on Twitter, Wordola!

Jackie Robinson-Jackie Robinson Day is tomorrow, so learn more about the famous baseball player and all the amazing things he has accomplished! <-btw, you should totally nominate this lens for LOTD, it's great!

Also, I've published a new lens! Double chocolate chip cookie recipes! I made the cookies this weekend for a bake sale so I wanted to publish a lens with the recipes. See the cookies? YUM! :)

Squidoo goes through some changes...

This week has been crazy busy for Squidoo, apparently. New Giants inducted, a whole new front page layout, and the huge change with groups. So, what are these changes so far?

Well, obviously, I have become a Giant! :D I love the feeling of it! I've been making some templates but haven't yet published a lens as a Giant yet...but some of my lenses have definitely increased in Lensrank. And I've gained a few new fans...*does little dance*

Squidoo has also redone their entire front page! There's a pretty big debate about it over at SquidU, but I like the new style. It lacks some graphics, but it's a lot easier to maneuver through, especially for new visitors. It now features the top 5 lenses of every topic, so more lenses get their chances to be clicked upon, and it's a lot more user-friendly.

And last but not least, the big changes that have to do with Groups. I'm going to make a bigger post about it later, but for now, Squidoo has closed off the creation of all new groups and will also be closing down some old groups that just are too spammy or junky. Just FYI. :)

It's also my birthday today, so if you want to give me a pretty pretty present...visit my 9 Reasons to Adopt a Dog (From a Shelter) lens! Hee :D

The new Giant on the block

Guess who's one of the newest Giant Squids? Me-- that's who!

I peered in my inbox today and found a message from the Squidoo Giant Squids with the subject "Congrats Giant Squid!" As you can imagine, I did a little dance around the room and cheered, haha. My Giant Squid badge also just appeared on my lensmaster profile, which makes me happy, but I'm waiting for that little yellow star to appear. :)

Now I'm just reading the Giant Squid tips blog (ooh, secrets) and surfing the net happily. Can't wait til my account is fully activated or whatever as Giant, because I hear they have a special dashboard and etc etc so I can start making some templates and stuff. ;)

-Stephanie
(the GIANT SQUID)

New Squidoo modules and more!

thefluffanutta has created some awesome new widgets for your Squidoo lenses! While it's not currently supported by Squidoo, it's really easy to add and than edit later.

Bookmark This-A module with the bookmark button from Addthis, right on your lens in huge format! It helps users save your lens for later with different options such as Digging it, Stumbling it, sending it to Technorati, and more from all different bookmark networks.

Love this Lens-This module is great for getting ratings, because sometimes Squidooers forget to leave that rating at the top! So place this module at the bottom so they can favorite it and email it and of course, rate it.

Tomorrow is the day they announce the new batch of Giant Squids! *teeth chatter nervously* I'm working on a new lens at the moment, and hopefully that will take my mind off my nervousness, lol. :)