Squidblog

Hi charities! Time to dust off those bios and avatars of yours and see where you could use an update.

Your avatar and biography are important components of your lens, especially as a charity. The face you present needs to be polished, and a missing image or bio can be devastating to your reputation!

Does your bio look like this? Ick. Chances are slim a reader will donate. Time for an update. The best part is it will only take 5 minutes!

Once you’ve logged into your account, you’ll find all the info you need to update your bio on the My Profile tab of your dashboard. In that top Personal Info section you’ll see Default Photo and Default Bio. Let’s update the bio first. This will update your global biography, meaning it will show on all your lenses. You can also edit the biography on each lens individually, in the workshop.

Writing a biography.
Your biography doesn’t need to be long or extensive. In fact, you probably have the perfect elevator speech for your organization on your own website, or neatly tucked in a mission statement. Here are some of my favorite short biographies from our partner charities:

Paws Animal Kingdom is a Non profit charity dedicated to helping animals all over the world. We are dedicated to building a NO KILL animal sanctuary on 100+ acres of land in the Maryland area. You can help by visiting http://www.pawsanimalkingdom.org and clicking the donate button!
~Paws Animal Kingdom
 

Wildlife Forever is a 22 year old multi-species conservation organization. Our mission is to conserve America’s wildlife heritage through conservation education, preservation of habitat, and management of fish and wildlife. Become a member and support wildlife in America.
~Wildlife Forever
 

The Freeplay Foundation has helped more than 8 million poor and vulnerable people improve the quality of their daily lives through the distribution of sustainable, self-powered and environmentally friendly technologies. We strive to provide the poorest of the poor with access to education, information and energy.
~Freeplay Foundation
 

See how easy it is? From these bios, it’s easy to tell what each charity does and how they do it. If you’re having a hard time writing your bio, ask yourself, “What problem do we solve?” Keep it simple, so anyone can easily understand it.

Go ahead and enter yours, and be sure to click “save.”

Next, upload a photo.
The easiest way to add an image quickly and build brand recognition is to use your logo. The best logos are simple, have few colors, and aren’t intricate. If your logo is a combination of text and graphics, for instance, consider removing the text and using just the graphic. If you don’t have access to a good graphic designer, ask for help on our peer-driven forum. We bet a tech savvy lensmaster would be happy to lend a hand.

Remember to use a small image (2″x2″ on your monitor is good), and .gif or .jpg files are best.

That’s it! Now your bio is beautiful.

Bonus: after you’ve updated your bio, send an email to kimberly at squidoo.com with a link to your official charity Squidoo lens. You’ll get credit for updating your lens!

Welcome to these four new charity partners! Starting immediately, you can create lenses and send your royalties to these hard-working organizations. Soon, you can add the Donations Module to your lens and encourage readers to give even more.

New Identity Magazine
New Identity Magazine is a publication created to help people find their new identity in Christ by presenting interesting topics, issues and ideas from multiple Christian perspectives and showcasing the cultural and world aspects of life and following God.
 

Freeplay Foundation
The Freeplay Foundation has helped more than 8 million poor and vulnerable people improve the quality of their daily lives through the distribution of sustainable, self-powered and environmentally friendly technologies.
 

Global Sports Alliance USA
Global Sports Alliance USA is a nonprofit organization focused on making sporting events more sustainable and encouraging people to adopt a green lifestyle. We promote sustainable living to sports players and fans of any age from all sports backgrounds.
 

Cecil County Pregnancy Center
The Cecil County Pregnancy Center is a Christian, prolife organization which provides emotional support and practical assistance to pregnant women and to families with young children.
 

Visit these and our other partner charities listed at Charity Central.

Congratulations, and welcome!
~Kimberly Dawn Wells
YOUR Charity Organizer on Squidoo

PS - not yet a partner charity? Learn about our criteria and apply here.

A lens, as you know, is a signpost. A page. A scrapbook. A magazine spread. A flyer online. An organized page full of information on a single topic. It can have videos and links and photos and text, as well as social participation from your readers in polls and Duels and TwitterLists and Guestbooks and Caption Contests and the like.

In an effort to help you organize the participation happening on your lens, to help your readers easily access the whole conversation in each module, and to help them in turn spread your lens onward and outward to more people, today we’re releasing a feature we call “Module Pages.”

Module Pages are standalone pages dedicated to only a handful of our most social modules. Each module page spotlights a single module, on its very own page, right “next to” your lens. Think of them like subpages to your lenses. Kind of how you can see a single blog post on a blog, on its own, and then navigate back to the main blog. Back and forth.

In execution, it’s as simple as us adding a “more” link to your active social modules. That more link takes the reader to your standalone module page. So, if you have 409 comments in your Guestbook, but don’t want to show them all on your lens (massively long webpages can take longer to load, and 400 comments can take up some serious real estate!), you can set your Guestbook to show only a few and then your reader will see a link: “See all 409 Comments.” That link takes her to your Module Page for that Guestbook. The reader can then easily scan all the comments at once, as well as tweet or Facebook or email or subscribe to that module. I guess you could call it micro-following.

On social modules where a “more” link doesn’t apply, we’ll run a “Share this module” button that prompts a reader to do the same outward spreading for that module… tweeting, emailing, stumbling, and so on.

Another example: Let’s say you’re using a Links Plexo as a Top 10 List. Now that Top 10 list can live on your lens, like it always has, as well as spotlighted on its very own Module Page. So if a reader loved the list and wanted to share it on Twitter, he can tweet it directly. Which in turn gets people back to your Module Page and your lens.

Last example: If your reader posted a comment in your Star Wars vs. Star Trek duel, he should be able to send that module on to his Facebook friends, instead of making them hunt for it in the middle of your 40 other modules on the lens. If someone clicks through and visits your Duel’s “Module Page” she’ll be able to quickly understand what is happening in that conversation, and can then browse the rest of your lens.

As you can see, the emphasis with this new feature is on spreading modules as souvenirs of your reader’s experience on your lens.

Extra considerations (and bonuses):

• Module Pages will have very clear navigation to take the reader back to the lens, and even better, to help them dig in to other parts of your lens.
• Module Pages will be wrapped in lots of good social triggers, so your readers will be prompted to share your module with other people (which brings new people back to your Module Page and to your lens).
• We’re running ads on Module Pages, which increases the ad pool, and increases your revenue.
• We have built in SEO considerations for this, so Google won’t hang up on duplicate content.
• Soon we’ll be working to widgetize your Module Pages, so that you (and your readers if you want) will be able to “grab” the module and post a widget for it on your blog or site or email.

We currently have an awesome selection of partner charities who are working hard to share their stories and raise funds through Squidoo. Some of these charities met us through passionate lensmasters, and some ran into us in a search engine. We’re curious, “how did you find us?”

If you’d like to get a little extra special promo, or just want to cure our curiosity, send a short note to charity -at- squidoo.com and tell us how you first learned about Squidoo.

While you’re at it, why not send a short note to your volunteers? If they create a lens or two, you could end up earning mega donations.

Congratulations to the graduates of our first ever Giant Squid Summer School!

They worked their tails off for 8 weeks, each making 1 new lens a week in answer to creative writing challenges we threw out. More important, our Giants were able to meet each other in their own private forum, swap ideas, cheer each other on–and teach us a few things along the way, too!

We had a lot of fun seeing the clever stuff they produced. See who our 47 graduates are, and check out a few of their Summer School lenses!

P.S. Your Giant Squid Organizers will be running a neat Back to School project starting September 4th. It promises to be easy enough to participate in with just an hour a week, and challenging enough to make it worth your while! Stay tuned, Giants.

And thanks.

As you probably know, Twitter has been experiencing major site outages, which affects everyone who connects to or uses the service. This means you might not be able to add your Twitter account information to your social settings, or tweet notifications from newly published lenses.

The good news is you haven’t done anything wrong, your account is likely fine, and it isn’t broken! As soon as Twitter is back up and running, everything should work smoothly again.

You can keep track of Twitter’s updates on their blog: Status.Twitter.com

In the meantime, share the love by promoting another lensmaster’s lens.

Hello generous lensmasters,

Things sure have changed for charities on Squidoo over the past three years! Squidoo is as dedicated to helping our non-profits as ever - 5% off the top of everything we make goes to charity, right away, without fail. Of course, the best charities know that the real power is in making lenses and being active partners.

The good news is we’ve gotten more organized and are attracting charities that are super enthusiastic about getting out there and making Squidoo work for them. New charities have a list of criteria they must meet and maintain in order to be registered with us. (The IRS says so.) Plus we have a few of our own requirements that helps us attract organizations that are working hard to earn donations, rather than sitting back and not joining in. After all, it’s easier to support an organization that’s working hard to help itself, right?

As we continue to expand our list and efforts, we’re also taking a look at existing charities. 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, or are unable to contact at all. 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 membership list and removing a small handful of charities 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. It’s easy to see which charities these are, and make quick, global changes to your payment settings here.

Here are the charities that will be leaving us:
AIDS Research Alliance
All Golf’s Kids
American Can! Academy
American Institute of Architects
American Refugee Committee
Andean Aid
Brookings Area Habitat for Humanity
Caring Hands
Children’s Defense Fund
College Media Scholars
Community Supervision
Covenant House California
Destination Cure
First Nations Outreach
Fund for Peace
Gaston Youth Football Organization
Genocide Intervention Network
Global Action Foundation
Grand Street Settlement Beacon
Hadassah: The Women’s Zionist Organization of America
Heifer International
Lance Armstrong Foundation
Midway Cub Scouts
MyTwoFrontTeeth.org
National Latino Children’s Institute
Oxfam America
PA Breast Cancer Coalition
People for the American Way
Preeclampsia Foundation
Rabbit Rescue
Rotary Club
Sobriety High Digital Media
Society for Orphaned Children in Canada
Stroke Network
Talking Science
The Andrews Alumnae Association
The Liberty Kids
The Love of God Ministies
Tides Foundation
UJA Federation of New York
Veterans for America
Violence Policy Center
Volunteer Match

Of course, you can always send donations to these organizations directly, and if you’re super passionate about one of these charities, encourage them to reapply! It’s quick and easy, and you can learn all about it here.

Why not make a new lens for a charity partner? You can meet them at Charity Central.

Have fun!

File under “coolest find of the day.”

Not long ago, lensmasters David Burton and Marta Nowicka noticed something special. They noticed that there are thousands and thousands of Squidoo lenses dedicated to sharing family-favorite recipes, and that many of them had been created from scratch by talented lensmasters.

So they set out to put together In the Kitchen with Squidoo — in free ebook form as well as paperback print form. “Created by Squidoo lensmasters for Squidoo lensmasters and everyone who loves good food!”

Yum.

What I love even more is this: that they took the initiative, collaborated with dozens of other leading lensmasters in an open and generous way, and published.

Sometimes publishing online means more than pressing a button. Sometimes it means making things happen.

Squidoo enthusiast Bonnie (BDKZ) has been running The RocketMoms project for the last few months. It’s a small, connected, motivated, invite-only program for moms on Squidoo.

I’m really proud of what they’ve accomplished together. Bonnie says: “This past session the RocketsMoms created over 600 stellar lenses that pushed the envelope on creativity and quaility. They also got to participate in roundtable discussions about building better lenses, getting more traffic, and time management. So if you or someone you know would benefit from a super fun, smart and motivated group of moms this is the place for you… or them.”

Typically, only existing Rocketmoms can nominate new Rocketmoms to join the program. ‘Friend bring a friend’ is a great way to keep the community focused, relevant and engaged.

We’re also opening just 10 extra ‘tickets’ to Session 3 of Rocketmoms for any moms who would like to apply. Even if you don’t know anyone currently in Rocketmoms. Even if you only have 1 or 2 lenses, but would like to learn how to do more and look forward to working with fellow moms. Even if you’re already a Squidoo pro and want to meet others of your caliber.

Session 3 starts on August 17th with some new faces, new tips and lessons, and a brand new set of challenges for Rocketmoms. If you’d like to snag one of the 10 extra spots, email rocketmoms@squidoo.com. Don’t tarry, spots fill up fast!

Hear from some happy Rocketmoms:

“I absolutely LOVE Rocket Moms.” — squidoo.com/lensmasters/Heather426

“RocketMoms has helped me to venture out of my comfort zone and broaden my horizons.” — squidoo.com/lensmasters/NaturalMommys

“I was very flattered to be invited to participate in RocketMoms. It has turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve made.” — squidoo.com/lensmasters/Wysiwigs

“One of the biggest benefits to being a part of RocketMoms is the chance to work things out a lot quicker with help, support and tips from fellow lensmasters who have already worked out how to do something.” — squidoo.com/lensmasters/aj2008

“RocketMoms is a blast!” — squidoo.com/lensmasters/GrowWear

“I have gained so much from this experience! The assignments are always so intriguing and usually on something I would not have thought to try on my own.” — squidoo.com/lensmasters/BevsPaper

Starting very soon, the eBay Partner Network (EPN) will no longer support individual affiliate links or campaign IDs posted on Squidoo. This means using your own eBay affiliate links manually coded into your lenses. If eBay finds these links and reports them to us, your lens could get locked. eBay also says that in such cases, your membership and payouts in the eBay Partner Network will be discontinued. EBay tells us this new policy will be applicable to many big community sites like Squidoo (and lots of other places on the web, too, like HubPages and Typepad).

Good news, though: If you use the Squidoo-sponsored eBay module, you have nothing to fear. eBay likes the way our systems work, and the official module will remain fully accessible and revenue-bearing, as always. So you’ll still be able to feature your favorite items on eBay, right on your lenses, easily and quickly–and earn a royalty from them for you or charity. We expect the eBay module to remain a solid source of revenue for the lensmasters who use it.