Squidblog

For those of you in a hurry! Here’s the secret: Take an interesting and timely topic, build a fun and takeable (and talkaboutable) quiz, share with a network of people ready to play with you, add a dash of charity story for dogooding and good measure.

There you go. You can stop reading and go do it. Have fun.

For those of you with 30 more seconds on your hands, here are the 3 steps (and a bonus!) for making your own success with SquidQuiz.

1. Use SquidQuiz to quickbuild your own 10 question multiple choice quiz. Throw in some tricky questions, some funny ones, something to make people enjoy the brainteaser.

2. Keep your Quiz focused on a single topic. Like a quiz about your hometown, be it a small horsetown in California or Edinburgh or even beautiful Brussels. Or make a quick quiz about yourself and see how well your friends know you, or help your Twitter followers learn more about you. Get focused, and then get wildly inventive.

3. Spring your quiz on your friends, coworkers, family, followers, forumdwellers — people who know you or know your topic. Challenge them to post their scores and see how they do. Plenty of ways to get the word out, of course: Twitter, Facebook, email, you know how it goes.

Bonus: Better yet, set your Quiz royalties to support one of your favorite charities. For example, you could say: “Take my quiz about Sarah Palin’s new book Going Rogue and you’re helping raise money for charity, for free.”

(Well, the topic is up to you.)

Just the recipe for beating the lazy brain holidays? I’ll take that bet.

Changes can be scary. This one shouldn’t be. In fact, it’s quite fun and opens a lot of doors.

In a few days we’re releasing a new design for “maxed” lenses. Here’s what a max lens looks like right now. Here’s what that same lens will look like with the new design.

This is a preliminary look that I wanted to share so you could get used to the feel and overall Gestalt of the new style before we switch over. There’s not really a whole lot of “new” on this lens, just elements shuffled around and cleaned up a little.

I’m sure you’ll notice small changes like the new Connect icons at top that will help people login using Facebook, Google or Twitter. You’ll see that we’ve moved the social sharing chiclets up to the top of the page. And there’s a minimized style for the lensmaster sidebar Toolbox (this version shows what a lensmaster sees when looking at his own lens. Surfers won’t see that toolbox, of course) A lot of the module styles have been updated along with this (wait til you see the new Guestbook design!), but most aren’t shown on this example.

The day we release this new max design, we’re also releasing a pretty neat surprise for you. It has to do with the look and feel of your lenses. And giving you more choices…

Last, a heads up. Some day soon, probably a few weeks after we’ve released the new max design, have learned how it tracks and tweaked it based on feedback, we’re going to be bringing our old “Min” design out of the dark ages. It’s a few years old by this point, and for coding and debugging and style reasons, it’s time to update it. “Min” will match the new max for a while. And then max will go back to being the fun experimental choice for lensmasters who like to reap the benefits of new stuff on their lenses. Min will stabilize as the baseline again.

If none of that made sense, the only thing you need to know is: your lens will look a little different in a few days. Nothing will break, and there’s nothing you need to do.

And if that gives you the blues, we’ve got some greens and purples and pinks on the way, too.

This just in from your Giant Squid Organizers…

Do you aspire to be a Giant Squid? Or perhaps you’re angling for a spot (you audacious thing you) in the Giant Squid 100 Club?

Good news. Your Giant Squid Greeters are here to help you along the way.

Greeters are a group of veteran Giants who have volunteered their time and energy to help motivate and mentor lensmasters who care about making top-notch lenses for their applications to the Giant Squids program. In a surge of school spirit, they’ve come up with a tournament of sorts to get you off the sidelines and in the game. It’s a “fun run” to see which team makes the most, best new lenses and turns out the most new Giants by June 30th. So if you’re thinking of applying to be a Giant Squid in the next few months, find a Greeter, pick your team and do your best.

You’ll have your pick of Joan’s Jolly Judicious Jetsetters, JustBon’s Blue Ribbon Squids, Kab’s Fab Squid Squad, Rajays Rocking Squids, and Willow’s Wonder Squids. Orange pom poms not included.

We’ll be waiting for you at the finish line.

Your readers luuuuuuv photos! What easier way to show them photos than with a little cross promo between Squidoo and Flickr?

Squidoo makes it easy to showcase your Flickr photos on your lens. There’s the Flickr module, the Polaroid module, the bonus image in the Text/Write module, the Flickr Plexo…

What kind of stuff can you use images for? Here are a few ideas from our fav lenses:

• What will my hotel look for? What is the scenery like? Don’t take the park’s word for it. Christene has a first-hand account of Walt Disney World’s Value Resorts on her lens for fun family vacations on a budget. http://www.squidoo.com/WDW-on-a-Budget
• How does your garden grow? I can never make mine look like the Burpee photos, but flower expert Deb proves that you can have flowers as beautiful as hers. http://www.squidoo.com/flowergardens
• Oooh, the cupcakes in kids’ party magazines always look so perfect. What are some other great food, treat, and decorating ideas? Janet shares her party experience with photos on her Arts & Crafts Crayon Theme birthday party lens, with photos hosted courtesy of Flickr. http://www.squidoo.com/themedbirthdayparties
• What could be more delicious than a coconut macaroon? How about mouth-watering step-by-step photos? With Chef Keem’s photogenic directions, everyone can end up with a perfect sweet treat. http://www.squidoo.com/best-coconut-macaroons
• What better way to show off your laundry folding skills than with an elephant made out of a washcloth? Lensmaster Leslie created a towel animal showcase with the Flickr module on her Towel Animals and Towel Origami lens: http://www.squidoo.com/EasyTowelAnimals
• As Jeff Foxworthy said, “I’ve never seen a toilet on the beach but I have seen a beach on the toilet.” If you’re an avid seashell collector, check out GypsyPirate’s fun lens on what to do with all those seashells! http://www.squidoo.com/decorating-with-seashells
• Some things just can’t be explained in words. Such as the office prank. Don’t show your coworkers: http://www.squidoo.com/OfficePranks

Using Flickr is easy. Sign up for a free account. Take pictures. Upload them. Share them.

Have fun.