Squidblog

If you’ve been paying attention, you know that we care an awful lot about creating and celebrating great content.

Top 100 lists. The Giant Squids program. Special online workshops. The Angels volunteer camp. The Squidoo Greeters project. Ongoing conversations on blogs and newsletters and forums. I’m constantly trying new ways to make it fun and rewarding for our lensmasters to build great pages… and maybe even reach out of their comfort zones and surprise themselves with what they produce.

The latest installation is the Purple Star program, run by your hardworking Giant Squid Organizers.

Purple stars are scarce and special. You can think of a purple star as an official pat on the back, a stamp that says to your visitors: “This is worth reading. This is representative of what you can do on Squidoo if you put a little elbow grease and creativity into it. This is what a great lens looks like.”

Or you can just think of a purple star as pretty flair for your lens.

Or you can think of it as an elitist editorial award, subjective to the opinions of a few real live lensmasters, leaders who spend every day sifting through lenses and learning what makes them great.

You’d be right on all counts.

I believe very much that well-told, innovative, approachable and useful content is one of Squidoo’s biggest contributions to the rest of the web. It’s worth showcasing and promoting.

I also know how hard it is to sit down at the computer, a cup of tea your only company, and put yourself out there. It’s scary to create authentic content and then click Publish and share it with the world. It’s easy to feel isolated, or like no one is paying attention. It’s tempting to give up and go away.

So purple stars are one way, out of many, to give you an ultimate goal to reach for. A reason to stick and keep going and create a body of work you’re proud of.

Not for me. Or for your readers. But for yourself.