I’ve admittedly been less interested in Squidoo recently. Life gets in the way sometimes. As press, news, rumors and on-set videos began flying around for the new Indiana Jones 4 flick - I knew Squidoo was a perfect means by which to organize and aggregate all the data I was sifting through. Once you have an idea for a lens, you then have to find a way to marry the modules with the subject matter. That’s not always an easy task. Since I spent so much time on my Indy lens, and used such a wide array of module types, I thought that a dissection and explanation might prove useful to the uninitiated. And with no further ado…

Title and Intro
Open up the Indy 4 lens and follow along. For the title I used two iterations of the movie name (Indiana Jones 4 and Indy 4) and coupled them with popular terms like “news” and “rumors”. Use any popular search volume tool to find out how exactly netizens are searching for your subject matter. You may be surprised, and you’ll definitely learn a few iterations that you hadn’t thought of. Then I mentioned the release date and gave a brief synopsis of recent events to let visitors know that they’re looking at a lens that is current and most likely frequently updated. It is important to engage the visitor quickly, lest you lose them. The first few sections of your lens are the first and last chance you’re going to get to make an impression.

Text Module - Rumors
We might as well keep going down the lens in order. The first text module I used is for Indy 4 rumors. I populate this module manually, as opposed to a news feed, because I find the tidbits in so many different places. I could use more HTML code than I do here but I’m keeping it to simple hyphens as opposed to fancier formatting because again I’m adding to it frequently and ad hoc. The image in the top right is one that I downloaded onto my laptop and then uploaded using the browse button all the text modules have.

Text Module - Large Photo
If you add an HTML image tag set to a text module and make the source a photo which already exists online, it will usually be pulled in quite easily. See here for image tag information. ( usually does the trick in a Squidoo text module). Here I link to a full-size version of the cast photo you can see as a thumbnail above in the rumors section. Linking to a photo from another website in this fashion is generally frowned upon. But then again, so is re-purposing any copyrighted image on a Squidoo lens, technically. One alternative would be to upload the photo to your own server, or a free image hosting site - but then there’s still the issue of copyright. If someone really wants me to take the image down badly enough my email is easy to find. It has never happened in nearly 2 years of Squidoo usage, so let’s not obsess over legalities and keep on trucking.

Amazon Module - Indiana Jones DVD Box Sets
I’ve taken the wide and full screen versions of the Indy trilogy box sets and plan on writing custom descriptions for them for a more convincing pitch. Keep your money-making modules to a bare minimum to preserve the legitimacy of your lens. If visitors perceive your lens as little more than a smattering of information saturated in a ton of ads, they will treat it accordingly. If people see your lens as an objective resource, however, they will tell their friends and even link to you. Since I figure it is far more likely for someone to buy all three DVDs in a set, I haven’t bothered to list the DVDs individually. This preserves real estate and would probably be a waste of time.

Text Module - Welcome Back, Indiana Jones
I use this module to inject more original thought and writing into the lens, so that it doesn’t just come across of a Frankenstein-like cut and paste effort. This module is original content that you can’t read anywhere else - and that goes a long way towards instilling faith in your lens as a whole.

RRS Module - Movie Chronicle
When I decided to build this lens, one of the first things I did was look for movie sites and blogs that offered RSS feeds on individual movies. This was the first one I found, and it’s frequent updates cover nothing but the latest Indy 4 related happenings. This way, the subject matter is super-relative to your topic, and updated so frequently that visitors are far more likely to add you to their favorites and check back regularly.

Text Module - Large Photo
See my previous notes on using a text module to pull in a large photo.

Poll Module - Indy 4 Titles
Poll modules give you a chance for originality and creativity. Several days before I made this lens, it was announced that Lucasfilm registered 6 potential titles for Indy 4. So, my poll was a no-brainer. Polls are interactive and will engage your visitors. Think about a facet of your subject matter that could be utilized in a similar way (types of cheese, breeds of dog, names for a boat), and even change up your polls from month to month to keep the content fresh and record a result archive using a text module. The possibilities are many.

YouTube Module - First Day of Shooting
There are lots of Indy 4 related videos on YouTube, from official releases to footage shot by fans who were standing near the set one day. Place them sparingly throughout your blog, and make sure you watch them all first to make sure they work and are the most interesting and relevant available. Give your visitors a break from reading and turn your lens into a true multimedia experience at the same time.

This post is dragging on, and I’m sure you all get the point by now. Also used on the Indy 4 lens are video plaxo, related lens, eBay and blogger modules. The point is - any module can be put towards any subject matter if you are creative enough. Best of luck to everyone in their next Squidoo endeavor, and please leave your best examples of “outside the box” module usage in the comments.

All the Squidoo-related talk today is revolving around the fact that the network recently lost Google PageRank on it’s main domain. Many speculate that this was largely due to the efforts of one man. Jason Calacanis of Mahalo has been waging a personal war against Squidoo for several months now, pointing out (accurately) that its become a haven for spammers and SEOs. What I don’t understand, is how this guy has so much time to vehemently devote to this crusade when, judging from his blog, he’s so very busy. I have to assume that Seth Godin picked on him in high school or something.

Many folks really enjoy using Squidoo, including myself, and some are even making some money off of it. Seth gets a lot of flack because he made a lot of lofty predictions for the network when it launched to the public way back when - but it’s got a large following and a huge number of informative, lovingly tended to lenses. Spammers are like ticks, locusts or barnacles, infesting everything in sight. If Google’s apparent scorn of Squidoo is indeed deserved, then more power to them. But if Seth and company are scrambling to alleviate the problem to the extent they seem to be, make sure said penalization is a very short one, Mr. Cutts. I’m not a huge fan of the quality-control department’s new encouragement of ‘reporting’, and this may be the first tangible and large scale example. For a detailed play-by-play of the exchange so far, there is no better source than Danny Sullivan. Of course, that can be said for a lot of topics.

One of the reasons this site has fallen into a bit of disrepair is that - honestly - I lost a bit of interest. One of the reasons for this is the troubling lack of statistics Squidoo had to offer during it’s first year and a half of existence. Last month, all of that changes and dashboards now feature referral, affiliate and traffic stats that rival some of the best web analytics programs out there. Well done to Seth, Heath and the crew, and there’s no better way to describe the update than straight from the sea creature’s mouth. Reprinted with permission:

“Change can be hard, but once you get used to it, you often wonder what you did without the new updates. Our new lens stats reporting system is the same way. It looks a little intimidating, but in the end it offers more flexibility and options than ever. First things first - how does this thing work anyway?

Login to your account to visit your Dashboard and view the new stats system. You’ll see that everything is still there, just in a slightly different spot. On the left you see the titles of your lenses, followed by four links for viewing, editing, deleting, and getting the statistics on your lenses. Next are the columns for your LensRank, Star Rank, visit count, pending commissions, and the date your lens was last edited. For each of these columns, plus your lens titles, if you click on the header at the top you can toggle back and forth between A to Z and Z to A ordered lists. Read more on how to use this below!

Some links that used to run across the bottom of your screen are now on the right side. In the section labeled Tools, you can still access the “transfer a lens” and “bugs & feedback” links.

The “stats” tab at the top of your dashboard zips you over to the new and improved stats page where you can see which lensmasters and members are new to Squidoo because of your influence! If you’re seeing new members who haven’t yet created lenses, why not send them a personal note? It’s the quickest way to get five bucks and they’ll appreciate the extra help. You can also see the statistics for any of your lenses by selecting it from the drop-down menu at the top of this page.

On the individual stats page for each lens, you can now get a lot more goodness about how busy (or slow) your lens has been. The Summary tab gives you vital info about traffic and Lens Rank. The Traffic tab shows you where people are coming from, and where they’re going after leaving your page. Here you can also view traffic for just one day (today or yesterday), for a seven-day window, or for the last month. BIG TIP: See how the keywords have a little + sign behind them? We’ll come back to that later! The Royalties tab is the best new part. Here you can view a chart of how much money your lens has made, when each royalty has paid how, what people have purchased from Amazon.com after leaving your lens, and (coming soon!) eBay sales!

Whew! Spend some time getting to know your stats. They can do a lot more than just tell you what happened in the past. They can help you learn how to do better in the future.”

What exactly is online brand reputation management (BRM)? Basically, negative or malicious press in SERPS (search engine results pages) can be combated by creating positive content or and knowing where to post or submit it. If the positive content is deemed by the search engines to appear on more integral websites, the negative rankings will be pushed farther and farther down the SERPs until that post by a disgruntled blogger is on page three and your good name has been restored.

Brand reputation management and search marketing were once very separate entities – but with the emergence of blogs, forums, directories, social media and other user-driven content sites, they now must be performed in tandem. You don’t have to be a skilled programmer, or even know how to build a website, to get your opinions online anymore - This can be a very scary prospect for any company. If you’re not scared, you should be. Boo.

How do you combat a high-ranking negative reference to your name or company? Luckily, it is far easier to attain good rankings for a business or domain name because there is far less competition for these words than for the goods or services they provide. It is also reasonable to push down negative rankings for individual people’s names. But not always, obviously. If your client’s name is Gavin Wunderschnitzen, you’re laughing. If your BRM services have just been retained by John Smith, just give him his money back now.

The same blogs, forums and social media sites which can be used to negate or slur a brand, can be used to defend it. Build a Squidoo lens with an individual or company’s name in the URL, and populate it with good, relevant content. Link to the new lens from some of your existing sites or lenses using the aforementioned name in a text link. Google will find it quickly and just as speedily begin to associate your new lens with related searches. It’s effective, it’s free and it is a testament to how fond of Squidoo Google and other search engines have become.

The Squidoo Flickr module was once one of my very favorites, and among the first I’d utilize upon registering a new lens. All one had to do was enter in a keyword or phrase, select the number of photos to be syndicated from the photo annals and presto! You had a little gallery which was usually fairly in accordance with your keyword search. Around a month ago, however, that all changed.

Now when you edit a Flickr module in your Squidoo lens, you are no longer able to select the auto-select option. You’ll have to navigate to the Flickr site, search for your subject matter and select photos for your Squidoo gallery one URL at a time. What once took a few seconds now takes fifteen minutes or so for a gallery of 6-10 photos. A message pops up which tells you that due to a “Request from our friends at Flickr, all photos must be selected manually”. I am paraphrasing a little bit, but one this is obvious - the decision was not made by Squidoo.

I imagine this boils down to simple bandwidth issues. And that’s perfectly understandable, but I’d be interested to know how it has affected the popularity of the Flickr module. I know I don’t use it as much as I used to. It’s still a nice addition, but I reminisce fondly of the early days when it was as easy as whacking in a del.icio.us or Technorati module. Let’s hope they’re not next!

The SIY team has assembled the best contents from blog posts, emails and plain old conversations and wrapped them up for you in a free ebook. You can download it here or from the the SquidBlog. Megan, Editor in Chief at Squidoo tells us it will also be featured on the SquidUReview and Lens of the Day newsletters soon. Hope it helps you make the most of your Squidoo lenses!

Download this 100% free eBook entitled Squidoo-it-yourself Guide right now!

Flash video has spawned a wealth of popular new user-generated content sites, with YouTube and Google Video being at the forefront. Squidoo launched the new YouTube modules about three weeks ago, and they have to be the most exciting new plugin I have seen to date. They can’t make you money directly but add a wonderful sense of fun and potential from a content standpoint - and lenses with great content stand the best chance of pulling in revenue.

To show you how easy it is to add a YouTube video to a blog site, I’ve plugged in a Squidoo eyetracking usability study below. Adding such a watchable interface to a Squidoo lens is even easier! Just press play:

You can go to the YouTube site yourself and manually select URLs to then paste into Squidoo, or you can search through the module which is much quicker. The videos will play right on the live version of your lens, with no reloading of pages or pop-ups. As many of my lenses are pop culture related, I have found tons of appropriate videos to embed. Depending on your subject matter, you may not find anything all that relevant. But fear not - You can easily upload your own clips and then display them on your lens via the module. Get creative and see what you can come up with.

For a few ideas and practical examples, have a look at these lenses: Beta Band, Blade Runner, John Belushi, Dave Chappelle and Blazing Saddles. Music videos, TV and film clips, commercials, home movies, instructional videos - they’re all fair game. Please feel free to comment and tell us how you’ve used this awesome new module!

Lenses can get real big - real fast. People tend to consider web pages that scroll down forwever as being sub-par. It’s been ingrained into negative perception right along with frames and anchor tags. So if you find the size of your Squidoo lens spiraling out of control, you may want to consider the possibility you’ve bitten off too much content for a single lens.

So why not divide your subject or topic into more than one lens? It’s easy enough to link them to eachother, and the relationships will assist in drawing visitors, getting the lenses indexed and eventually even Google page rank or link profilferation. You can build a lens on the three Stooges - but there’s more than enough information available out there to warrant a lens on Curly Moe and Larry separately. A lens on your favorite author is a great idea, but you could also consider making separate ones which branch off for each of her books. It’s OK if you can’t fit all of your ideas into one Squidoo lens when there’s no limit to the amount you can make and share!