Unless it is resolved here’s what an Indian Lensmaster is likely to get when Squidoo payment is made soon:

“Your payment of xxx has been sent back to the sender of the payment. We reversed this payment because we have stopped allowing personal payments to be sent to or from India.

If this was a payment for a purchase of goods or services, and not a personal payment, then you may contact the buyer and have him or her resend the payment as follows: (a) click the Send Money tab, (b) select “Goods,” and (c) provide a shipping address.

If this payment was a personal payment such as a gift, then we have requested that the sender find another payment method until we restore personal payments to and from India. We are trying to resolve this issue as quickly as possible and we’re sorry for any inconvenience.”

Apparently it might only be a temporary problem because the Bank of India haven’t furnished specific documents that Paypal have asked for.

Hopefully it will be sorted out soon.

See more details here: Paypal India Outage – No Payments to or from India

This post via the Lensroll Social Blog where you can get the latest news and information on writing good content.

Indian Lensmasters about to get a big (unpleasant) surprise

Similar Lensroll news:

1. Google Knol Follow?
2. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Lensmasters
3. The Beginners Guide To Squidoo

My top 10 squidoo tips

as you’ve probably noticed, i’m in love with squidoo. i think it’s such a great way to earn extra cash and to get traffic, too. so here are a few tips to make sure your lenses are the best they can be, in order to increase both traffic …

Squidoo Tips and Thoughts

skip to main | skip to sidebar. Squidoo Tips and Thoughts … SquidBuilders.com. http://www.squidbuilders.com. Squidoo Lens building service! Get a keyword rich Squidoo lens built for your business! …

Squidoo Bio Backlinks Boost SEO

SquidU’s Lensmaster Lounge: Help for New Squids; Squidoo SEO: Help Search Engines Send Traffic to You; Squidoo Tips: Building Web Traffic; Convert Your Prius to a Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV); Make a Fancy Table of Contents …

3 Easy Squidoo Tips

Regardless of whether it is to-ma-to or tom-a-to, I thought I’d give you 3 quick and easy tips to get your Squidoo lenses on the roll. Keyword links rule the interweb – If you don’t know what a keyword link is, here is the simple …

Ten Tips for Building Your Business Squidoo Lens

Using a popular Web 2.0 site, Squidoo, I cover some basic tips when creating a Squidoo lens to drive traffic and help your search engine rankings.

5 SEO Tips From Squidoo Lensmasters

You can create your own free websites, earn money for you and for charities, and connect with other Squidoo users, called lensmasters on the Squidu forum. For today’s post I was lucky enough to get five SEO tips from three of Squidoo’s …

Do you know of other blogs that post great tips?

Speak out…

This post via the Lensroll Social Blog where you can get the latest news and information on writing good content.

Squidoo Lens Tips From The Sphere

Similar Lensroll news:

1. Celebrating Useless Keyword Victories
2. Through Versus To
3. The Squidoo Greetbox
4. Squidoo Lensmaster Interview with Oniyagi
5. Interview with TheFluffaNutta

It’s one of my pet peeves, seeing default titles (eg: New Guestbook, New…) in a published lens.

Now I speak about myself when I say this, not just pointing the finger at every else.

Ostracize and exorcise the default module title!

Customize your titles. Personalize it.

Now mistakes are one thing, but lack of experience is another.

I think it’s one of the quickest ways a Squid Newbie can go from looking like a novice to presenting themselves as a professional.

It’s not hard to look good at Squidoo. The slick page layout and design is already there. All we have to do is input the content. It’s easy to get into a habit of renaming the default module titles.

This post via the Lensroll Social Blog where you can get the latest news and information on writing good content.

Unsightly Default Titles

Similar Lensroll news:

1. The Bare Essentials
2. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Lensmasters
3. Tagfoot and Squidoo: a match made in Heaven
4. Recommended Link Titles
5. Lens Of The Day?

This post via the Lensroll Social Blog where you can get the latest news and information on writing good content.

What is Adsense?

Similar Lensroll news:

1. Visitor Courtesy
2. Searchme: Visual Search
3. Lens Of The Day Rewards
4. Parenting the new battlefield for magazines
5. Twitter: Oh So Expert Social Network

I couldn’t believe what I read. If I understood it correctly, it gave me a sick feeling in my stomach.

So I forwarded the link to my wife, without any commentary on my part, to see her reaction.

Her first response was “I don’t know what you want me to say about this, but I think it’s idiotic”.

Maybe she was thinking that I was thinking that I wanted her to think that it was a fantastic idea. But we don’t sugar coat anything for each other. We call it as we see it.

Now I’m not going to use this blog post to discuss the finer points of what has been described by some as brandjacking. You can read articles and reader comments about that on TechCrunch, Blogstorm and Outspoken Media.

You may or may not agree with either Seth, blogger responses or reader feedback. Maybe you’re confused. Or you’ve decided to sit on the fence. But what I want to talk about is this:

“The first 100 brands that sign up will benefit from a share of the $500,000 in house ads Squidoo will run across the site promoting the service and the first partnering brands.”

What does this mean? What are they planning on doing? And how does this effect Lensmasters?

Allow me to make a few assumptions:

1) Squidoo Inc figures that x amount of ads over x amount of time or x amount of impressions throughout squidoo.com is worth half a million dollars.

2) To promote the brandsinpublic Squidoo will use ad space on lenses, our lenses, to promote this new service.

3) Glam ads suck, no doubt about it. But we get a cut of those profits. It has been said that they don’t perform as well as Squidoo would like, which isn’t surprising because they’re so inappropriate (and at times offensive).

Now allow me to ask a few questions:

1) Do the Glam ads get tossed and replaced by this half a million dollar ad campaign?

2) Does half the revenue from the projected $400 a month from each Brands In Public lens go into the Lensmaster Co-op and get paid to lensmasters?

3) Or is this honeypot solely for Squidoo HQ’s enjoyment?

If the answers to those questions yes, no and yes, how does that make us feel?

I certainly hope that’s not the case.

This post via the Lensroll Social Blog where you can get the latest news and information on writing good content.

Brandjacking, Shark Jumping and Squidploitation?

Similar Lensroll news:

1. Actor Kutcher followed by one million twits
2. Visitor Courtesy
3. The Squidoo Greetbox
4. Squid Sauce Source Part I
5. Four play…

There had been attempts before to do the same. I don’t have screenshots of them, so you’ll just have to take my word on it: A box inside the Intro Module was one attempt. The “Stumble’ arrow was another. A scrolling side tab that begged to be clicked. There may have been others, but these three stick in my mind the most.

On one hand, there are Lensmasters, who have fought hard to get back links and a Search Engine indexing.

On the other, Squidoo HQ seems to be more interested in pageviews. If they can get your visitor to visit a lot of pages (and they don’t have to be yours) then they’ve doubled or tripled (or more) their stats, which makes them look great. To potential advertisers and also sites like Alexa, who measure traffic and rank sites according to popularity (squidoo.com has an Alexa Traffic Rank of 379… that means they’re the 379th most popular website on the entire world wide web).

Can the two co-exist?

I think it can. But not at the immediate expense of the Lensmaster. Not by using methods which are a deliberate attempt to hijack the traffic.

Squidoo HQ has rolled out a new lensmaster traffic leak, a Greetbox.

As you can see in the graphic, they’ve thrown in a few short sentences explaining to the visitor how it works:

“You’re in a hurry. We know. If the page below isn’t quite what you’re looking for, try clicking the arrow to see lots more on your topic.”

Here’s what I believe they’re really saying:

“You’re in a hurry. We know. So we can understand if you didn’t use the right words to do a Google Search and it would appear that we don’t trust Google to get the results right even though they’re a multi-billion dollar company that has built its empire on the back of their search engine. So here we are trying to steal the traffic of this hard working lensmaster who managed to rank high enough in the search results for you to click on their link, so what if you’re their visitor, we’d prefer to get half a dozen page views out of you then you get to read the entirety of the lensmasters Squidoo page. So click here now!”

Do I sound bitter? Do I sound disgruntled? Do people prefer to hear me dole out Squidoo Rants instead of Squidoo Tips? Then leave some feedback and let me know what you think and how you feel!

This post via the Lensroll Social Blog where you can get the latest news and information on writing good content.

The Squidoo Greetbox

Similar Lensroll news:

1. Searchme: Visual Search
2. Squoogle: Article Directory
3. What is Adsense?
4. Recommended Link Titles
5. Squidoo’s 9 Link Limit

Write about it. Use your own words.

This is creating original content. The search engines will love you for it. They gobble it up. Being indexed by search engines is free QUALITY traffic.

This post via the Lensroll Social Blog where you can get the latest news and information on writing good content.

The Beginners Guide To Squidoo

Similar Lensroll news:

1. Recommended Link Titles
2. Squidoo Lens Tips From The Sphere
3. Gaining Backlinks With Blog Comments
4. The Bare Essentials
5. Four play…

You have a chance to tell people these things, and more, in your Lenmasters bio.

Do you have enough information about yourself? Or do you have too much?

Your lensmaster bio is important. It’s communicating the person that you want others to see. And by that I don’t mean to be dishonest in describing yourself, but rather what and how much you’re going to tell people.

You don’t want to tell them everything. They don’t need your whole life story. Just give them the bits that you think that they need to know.

The short story is your profile bio MUST be filled in. Don’t leave it as the default.

Also, upload an image. You really need something other than the anonymous.

Make it relevant. It doesn’t have to be a headshot. It could be an extreme close up. It could be an illustration or caricature of yourself. But make it something personal, meaningful and… that word again: relevant.

People will start to associate the image in your profile with the level of quality in your lens. If that level is high, whether entertaining, educational or informative, then when they see that profile avatar it’ll mean more and score more than any Giant Squid badge, gold or purple star.

This post via the Lensroll Social Blog where you can get the latest news and information on writing good content.

Build a Brand Part II

Similar Lensroll news:

1. 100 Hubs in 30 Days: Strategy
2. Visitor Courtesy
3. Squid Pro Quo No More
4. Second appointment as Guest Judge and second last day of the competition
5. An Interview with… Cinetech

Probably sooner than anticipated, due to the sudden flurry of activity involving the upcoming HubChallenge. And as such there are a few teething problems. But not that the average visitor will notice, just some backend configuration conflicts. Greg’s back in the engine room right now as I type this, banging all the suspicious looking parts with a hammer.

I’ve been posting more frequently on the Lensroll Blog on a variety of topics. We felt that the blog should get back to being just about Squidoo related ideas and tips, as the domain name doesn’t lend itself to expanding into other territories. If a non-Squidoo webmaster finds us because of an article on keywords we’ll waste precious time and the chance of losing him/her because they’re going “what the world is a ‘lensroll’?”

We’ve got a lot of information and contacts that has to do with starting a business, or having a business already but starting online with the promotion. Or having an existing business online and making a new start. Hence the name: startpoint.biz. This can be your startpoint for your new business start-up or your business growth.

There will still be a strong focus on writing great content, but we’ll also cover promotion, SEO, marketing and other important areas. From a unique viewpoint.

In short, we’ll be blogging away at both sites. About different things. Occasionally related. But no duplicates.

Bookmark both sites, and if you feel inclined, join in the conversation. Feel free to ask questions, acknowledge my brilliance, or disagree with me. I’ll be posting at least once a week here, and twice a week over there. More if there’s plenty of visitors and a few interesting questions.

Head on over there now, just click on this link: startpoint.biz

This post via the Lensroll Social Blog where you can get the latest news and information on writing good content.

Startpoint.Biz Unveiled

Similar Lensroll news:

1. Where is my Instant Success???
2. Searchme: Visual Search
3. Gaining Backlinks With Blog Comments
4. The Death of the Pareto Principle
5. Lensmaster Interview with Janet21

I give you the man… the legend… the Fluffa Nutta!

Glen: How did you discover Squidoo?

thefluffanutta: I joined Squidoo back in September of 2006 after reading about it on someone’s blog. Initialy I used it to promote my own websites, but I soon realised the far greater potential of Squidoo, and started expanding my lenses to cover other topics. My early lenses are not my best, as I learnt so much more about lens-crafting during my time as a Lensmaster.

Glen: Where do your lens ideas come from?

thefluffanutta: Most of my lenses are about things I’m passionate about, like Wii Games, or are to answer specific Lensmaster questions. When I’m building a new commercial lens, I look at the products I am interested in, and then at how best to promote them. I sometimes do some keyword research, and rule out the topics that have simply too much competition already.

The Squidoo-related lenses tend to write themselves, and I don’t add any moneymaker modules to them or do keyword research. Most of the traffic is internal to Squidoo as Lensmasters search for answers, or from the SquidU forum.

Glen: What’s your favorite television show of all time?

thefluffanutta: I’m enjoying Doctor Who at the moment, the 4th new series of which is currently broadcasting on UK TV. Yes, I do have a lens: Doctor Who Returns

Glen: What’s the topic of the next lens you’re working on?

thefluffanutta: Writing content is actually something I really struggle with, so I tend to concentrate on the presentation of the lens, and rely on other sources for the content. While this is not ideal, it just about works for me.

Glen: What is your own favorite lens and why?

thefluffanutta: I’m not sure I pick any one of my lenses as a ‘favorite’. My most successful lens is probably Harry Potter Book 7; I built it in advance of its release last year, and I promoted it as much as I could in the US and the UK. Since the creation of the lens in May 2007 to the end of the year, it sold a total of 225 copies. The lens also got a mention on the LOTD blog just after the book’s release.

Using the lessons I learnt from that lens, I went on to create a couple more lenses in time for the Christmas shopping season, and those proved to be equally successful.

Glen: Do you have a favorite html trick?

thefluffanutta: My favorite ‘trick’ is a simple one: I increase the font-size to 14px in my Introduction module, and a few of the other important modules. By making the font that tiny bit larger, I feel the Lens is easier to read.

I have some other simple tricks I like to use, such as using the Squidoo colors for links and titles. I documented some of my favorites on my lens, CSS tricks.

Glen: How often are you updating your lenses?

thefluffanutta: Sporadically. Whenever I happen to be visiting or referring one of my own lenses, I take the time to check it over. Some of my lenses are related to each other, so if I’m updating one of them I’ll also check the others too.

Glen: How many Lensmaster accounts do you have?

thefluffanutta: Just the one. I used to have a second account dedicated to Movie Reviews, but I found I was struggling to keep up with all the new movies that were coming out. So, I sold the account and all of its lenses to someone who could give it the attention it deserved.

Glen: What success secret can you divulge?

thefluffanutta: I’ve been experimenting with tags quite a bit recently, and I think I’m beginning to gain an understanding on how they work. If you’re the only person to use a particular tag (i.e. long tail), then I don’t believe it has much contribution to your lens. It’s much better to use tags that are popular amongst other related lenses. However, the tags you pick must closely match the content of your lens, or they’ll have no effect at all.

Glen: What common mistake do you see even experienced Lensmasters make?

thefluffanutta: The biggest problem I see on some lenses is a lack of focus. A ‘lens’ is called such for a reason – it is supposed to focus on a particular topic. The better focused a lens is, the better it will do with the search engines. I wrote about it in detail in my blog post titled Relevance is King!

Glen: What is it about Squidoo – be it a person, feature, reason – that has caused you to stick around?

thefluffanutta: Hmm… good question. I think the main reason is the great sense of community on the forums, plus the flexibility of the Squidoo platform itself. I have dipped my toe into one or two other similar sites, but I have always preferred Squidoo.

Glen: Tell us about SquidUtils, why you made it, and how it can help Lensmasters.

thefluffanutta: The first tool I built was for Amazon, about the time when IFrames got disabled on Squidoo. I had just started putting my own product links on to some of my lenses, and I wanted a way to continue to use them. So, I developed my own version of Amazon product links, which were a) compatible with Squidoo, and b) had colors that matched.

I had also started creating RSS feeds from profiles, so that Lensmasters could syndicate their lenses elsewhere. This grew and developed over time, and other tools got created, such as the Advanced Dashboard, ping and backlink tools.

Glen: How did the opportunity for making the Squidaholic site for Squidoo come about?

thefluffanutta: I had been doing some contracting work for HQ for a few months, building some modules for them. Then, just after Christmas, I was asked if I would like to work on something a bit bigger. I said yes. So, I worked on the backend scripting for Squidaholic, while Corey made the front look fab.

Glen: What tools are you working on at the moment?

thefluffanutta: One of my new tools has a working title of “Health Check” (what it will end up being called, I don’t know yet). It works in a similar way to Squidaholic, and it will check your lens for some common mistakes made by Lensmasters. Hopefully, this will be great for showing newbies how they can build great lenses, and make it easier to get traffic from search engines. It is still work in progress…

Glen: If you were given a day in the Squidoo HQ office what would you do?

thefluffanutta: I would spend some time with the fabulous team over there, and find out what they’ve got cooking for Squidoo 2.0.

Thank you Fluffa!

This and the other interviews I’ve published over the past few months are well over a year old, and given time things change. Which in TheFluffa’s case means he’s got even better! As I get more involved with blogging not just here but also at the new site Startpoint.Biz you can expect to find me revisiting some of these prominent Lensmasters and finding out what they’ve been up to. Be sure to bookmark both blogs as I won’t be making duplicate posts!

This post via the Lensroll Social Blog where you can get the latest news and information on writing good content.

Interview with TheFluffaNutta

Similar Lensroll news:

1. Lensmaster Interview with Janet21
2. An Interview with… Cinetech
3. Squidoo Lensmaster Interview with Oniyagi
4. Squidoo Interview with Keries
5. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Lensmasters