Squidblog

And remind yourself:

People online are real people.

If you send a nasty email, there’s a real human being on the other end who gets it.
If you flame in a forum, you’re wasting real people’s time.
If you spam someone, you’re really only making yourself look bad.
If you write IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS it sounds like shouting.
If you want something to happen your way, try asking instead of demanding.
If you give, you’ll probably wind up getting, too.
If you blog just to pick fights, don’t be surprised when people don’t trust you.
If you collaborate, say thanks.
If you’re independent, say no thanks.
If you like someone, tell them.
If you don’t, walk away from the computer.
If you’re giving feedback, lead with just one good thing.
If you’re getting feedback, realize that the person must care a lot to have sent it.
If you goof, apologize.
If you apologize, mean it.
If you smile, mean that too.
If you don’t like something, don’t do it.
If you do like something, spread it.

But far far more important:

Give people a break.
The break you probably deserve yourself.
People are out to do good, 99% of the time.
You probably are too.
Say thanks out loud and a lot.
Try making someone’s day.
Chances are they’ll make yours in return.

The Dow may have pancaked yesterday, but that’s not stopping us!

Squidoo is giving away up to $80,000 to charity.

Since our inception, we’ve been focused on helping people spread the word about and raise money for causes they believe in. To date, our community has earned enough money to support several animal shelters, to build a school in Cambodia, to invest in an entrepreneur in Tanzania and to pay for cutting edge research into the causes and cure of Juvenile Diabetes. Among many, many other wonderful stories and successful donations. All thanks to our lensmasters.

Along the way, Squidoo has also been saving up 5% of our total income (a very big number for a company our size) and now we’re asking for your help in giving some of it away!

Here’s how it works: Go vote. Get your friends, coworkers, fellow volunteers and lensmasters to vote. One vote per person. Each vote = $2 to the charity you like best.

Simple as that.

And the best part? Every charity that gets a vote, wins. That’s a donation they didn’t have yesterday. So no matter who gets the most votes, everyone wins a little.

But hurry. Who knows how fast this could go.

http://www.squidoo.com/squidoo-charity-giveaway

Tuesday, Sept 30th at 11:59 EST pm is the deadline for our Q3 round of Giant Squids applications.

If you’re a Giant hopeful (and a fellow procrastinator, perhaps?), now’s the time to brew a pot of coffee and take stock of your 50+ lenses. Ask yourself of each one: Is this something I’m proud of? Would I show this to my mom, to my boss, to my best friend? Is it useful to new readers? Does it stand out from the crowd?

And then nominate yourself at giants @ squidoo.com.

And then (this part’s important) pat yourself on the back for even getting this far.

We’ll look at all the applications this week and will let you know before Monday if you’re one of our newest Giants. Excited to see who’s in the new group!

Later today we’re releasing some new lensbuilders. New ways to make lenses.

One is called the Magicbuilder, and it’s intended for new lensmasters, or for people who enjoy a little more interaction as they build, or just like to experiment with new things.

The other is called the Quickbuilder, and it’s a really simple but powerful singe page builder, with custom lens templates, that will be available to our Giant Squids.

And then there’s always our traditional lens wizard, the one you’ve been using all along, if you’d rather stay tried and true.

For there you have it. 3 ways to make lenses, depending on your experience in the site.

The whole point, of course, is not in the process or the tech… but in the inspiration behind what you build. The whole point is the content you cook up. These builders are just stepping stones to get you there. The rest is up to you.

Two new modules, hot off the press, from Dipity and Backtype. Live now. Check ‘em out.

But now it’s back.

Thanks for your patience.

Just a quick note about some important Squidoo housekeeping we’re doing today, specifically involving our registered nonprofits.

Over the last 2 years, Squidoo has grown the list of nonprofits in our system to almost 90 organizations. Many have flourished as partners. I can think immediately of some really neat stories, like the ASPCA “Make your pet famous” contest, some quite large lensmaster donations to Donors Choose, Acumen Fund, JDRF, and numerous and greatly varied microdonations via our recent Superheroes challenge. I’m sure our new donations module will only increase the numbers that nonprofits see coming in as a result of your lenses.

Recently, as a result of our new Activists group, and individual lensmasters who are increasingly reaching out to their favorite orgs, and efforts like this talk Seth did yesterday for Network for Good, we’re seeing a huge wave of nonprofits applying to work with us. What that really means is: they believe that your lenses can make a difference. So we’re looking at a lot of positive collaboration between new nonprofits and Squidoo on the horizon.

As we ramp up and move forward, we’re also looking backward and doing a little housekeeping on the list of previously registered organization. There are a few, alas, that have changed their internal advocates who were working with us, and for which we’ve wound up with outdated data and information. Would we love to keep working with them, and will we continue making it easier for you to choose what charity you want to support? Of course.

In the meantime, though, we’re updating our nonprofit program to feature the organizations that are active, and we’re removing a small handful of the charities on our list that have disappeared into the ether. IMPORTANT: If one of these is a nonprofit you have earmarked your lenses for, you’ll be seeing those payment settings default to the Squidoo Charity Fund. I encourage you all to take a look at your payment settings, explore some new charities on the list over time and see what catches your eye. It’s easy to make quick, global changes to your payment settings here.

A side note: At the same time, if you’re a cash-earning lensmaster, please take a second to make sure your PayPal information is on file in your Squidoo account.

Thanks! And here’s looking forward to some great social movement for some really good causes.

Squidoo makes it easy for people to raise and donate money to important charities. It also gives you a headstart on spreading the word about issues that matter to you.

Okay, you knew that part.

The part that’s not so easy, of course, is organizing people. Sure, one lens that donates to JDRF is nice. Sure, one voice is important. But too many nonprofits stop there. They’re not sure how to involve their volunteers in making lenses, too. They frequently say: “Okay, I’m on Squidoo — now what?”

Christopher Scott from A Day of Hope knows the answer. Yesterday he posted this note to our Activists Group, a group of lensmasters especially interested in making lenses for and about charity. Without waiting on anyone (what for?) or asking permission (to do good?), Christopher is planning a community charity challenge for November, Day of Hope month! Here’s his idea:

“A Day of Hope is a program that I run which delivers baskets of food and turkeys to needy families for Thanksgiving. It is also listed as one of Squidoo’s partner charities.

I wanted to challenge everyone to build lenses on all the good stuff that comes along with Thanksgiving… food! Maybe we could have everyone build lenses on their favorite Thanksgiving meals like mashed potatoes, turkey, stuffing, gravy…

Royalties from the lens could be donated to A Day of Hope, or (of course) any other Squidoo partner charity.”

If Christopher gets just 100 of his fellow volunteers and friends in on something like this, not only do they wind up sharing great content and recipes and a spirit of thanks on the web, but they also make an impact that grows, month by month, lens by lens.

Does it cost anything? Sure: a little bit of attention, a little bit of time.

Try it. Try making a lens for a Day of Hope. Or for another charity you like. Better yet, if you’re a nonprofit, come up with your own holiday program and tell your best supporters about it.

I predict a good week ahead.

Why?

The new Prediction module, that’s why.

Check this out.

We’re releasing a small change tonight that will pay your Squidoo lensmaster referral bounties sooner.

The standing deal is: Refer a friend, and when she gets $15, you get a $5 bonus. (Not your friend, just you. The double whammy was a promo left over from our beta days and will be phased out after next pay period). We recently realized, however, that we’ve only been counting directly attributable revenue (Amazon and eBay sales) toward your friend’s first $15, and not the Google or Glam ads. That means it took longer for her account to trigger the referral kickback to you. And that’s just silly.

So we’ve added Google and Glam to the referral pot, retroactively for any lensmaster you’ve referred whose account hasn’t hit $15 yet. That means many of you will be seeing $5 referral bonuses paid out next month. And going forward, they’ll be a lot faster for you to achieve!