46 responses so far ↓

• 1 adamsmom // Nov 18, 2008 at 5:20 pm

  Hi A & J

  So you add your primary tag again as another tag? I was wondering as I did a health check on one of my lens (I did tell you I had ADHD!) and it said something about doing this.

  Thanks again for this fantastic package
  Rach

• 2 Jackie and Andrea // Nov 18, 2008 at 6:11 pm

  Yes, you should always add your primary tag in the regular tag section.

  Jackie

• 3 Edward Stewart // Feb 6, 2009 at 4:15 pm

  On the featured lens module the images do not show up. It only shows an orange squid with a question mark in the middle. Do you know why and how do I fix that?
  Thanks
  Ed

• 4 Edward Stewart // Feb 6, 2009 at 4:17 pm

  An additional note re: lens module images.
  I thought that publishing would possibly fix the problem but it did not. I have only published one lens and will wait to see what to do next.

  Thanks
  Ed

• 5 Jackie and Andrea // Feb 6, 2009 at 4:32 pm

  Hey Ed,
  I’ve had this happen once or twice. I don’t know what the problem is, I’ve just had to pick a different image. Sorry.

  Jackie

• 6 TY EVANS // Feb 14, 2009 at 1:13 pm

  Ok, just to make sure I did this right. I copied and pasted all 5 url’s into each lens.

  In lens 1, copied 2,3,4,5,6, into the featured area.
  In lens 2, copied 1,3,4,5,6, into that featured area.
  and so on.

  Is that correct

• 7 Jackie and Andrea // Feb 14, 2009 at 1:20 pm

  yes

• 8 Sheila Newman // Feb 14, 2009 at 1:50 pm

  Can I see an example of a Squidoo feautured lens. Also on my dashboard, there is no image, but I have loaded an image onto all my modules. They show up when I go to edit my modules.

• 9 Jackie and Andrea // Feb 14, 2009 at 2:20 pm

  Here, I added a featured lens module to the turkey lens.

  http://www.squidoo.com/deep-fry-turkey-instructions

  Sometimes that happens, not sure if it is the format type of the image or where you get it from or what. Sometimes they just don’t work, even though it looks like they should. I’d just change the image.

  jackie

• 10 TY EVANS // Feb 14, 2009 at 3:05 pm

  I have the same problem as the other guy, I have a squidoo with question mark. When you told him to pick a different image, do you mean the picture in my intro, or the picture in my bio, they are different pictures.

  Also, I have all 6 lenses with their 5 features done, and they all have ?????, will I have to redo them all, or if I change one of the pictures they should all correct

• 11 Jackie and Andrea // Feb 14, 2009 at 3:08 pm

  The images that show up in the featured lens module are the images you have in your intro module.

  If for some reason they are not showing up there is an issue with the image in your intro module.

  Jackie

• 12 TY EVANS // Feb 14, 2009 at 3:18 pm

  Is that common that all 6 pictures would have a problem, or is it operator error again

  Thanks

• 13 TY EVANS // Feb 14, 2009 at 3:43 pm

  Ok I give up, whats the trick?

  I downloaded pictures from 3 different web sites, 2 that potpie uses and 1 from ficker, and none of the pictures work. I am saving them as a jpeg, is that right, or do you use something else.

  Can you explain what web sites you use and the steps you use to copy paste. I am doing all mine through paint, maybe thats the problem. I will keep experimenting until I hear back.

  Thanks

• 14 Jackie and Andrea // Feb 14, 2009 at 3:54 pm

  Okay I just ran through the picture adding and featured lens populating. From an image I created in paint.

  I saved the image as a .jpg

  I uploaded it to the intro module

  I published

  I added the featured lens module to that lens and featured itself

  The picture that I put into the intro module appears as a thumbnail in the featured lens module.

  See how that goes?

  Andrea

• 15 Jackie and Andrea // Feb 14, 2009 at 4:10 pm

  You have to publish before you will be able to see the images/urls in the featured lens modules.

  Remember publishing your changes makes it so squidoo (and everyone else) can see them. If you don’t publish your work no one, including squidoo trying to grab your lens will not be able to.

  Jackie

• 16 Sheila Newman // Feb 14, 2009 at 5:02 pm

  On the featured lens section at the bottom of all of my lenses, it shows the introduction to all of my lenses.

  All of the introductions on my lenses are the same - the modules aren’t. So at the bottom of the page the featured lens show the same identical introductions but with different titles. What can I do?

• 17 Jackie and Andrea // Feb 14, 2009 at 5:14 pm

  Hi Sheila -

  Each of your intros should be unique - they can basically ’say’ the same thing if you want, but you’ll want to use different words.

  The first few paragraphs are pretty important for the “what’s this page about” as far as the search engines are concerned - readers too will not appreciate the exact same wording.

  So make sure each intro is a couple of unique paragraphs - the featured lens module will update to reflect your changes.

  Andrea

• 18 phil huntley // Apr 27, 2009 at 5:09 am

  Hi

  I am having trouble with a couple of things on my lens.

  I have created the lens and put all the content etc on it. But under the health tab it is saying that my primary tag needs more work…..? I’ve done some tweaking but no change,I am pulling my hair out.

  The other thing is that I am struggling to re-write my article 5 times with different keywords. I have been thru the lesson about tips etc but it is not helping.

  Do i really need 5 lenses all on the same thing. Please help this is doing my head in as I don’t seem to be getting anywhere.

  Thanks

  Phil

• 19 Jackie and Andrea // Apr 27, 2009 at 5:48 am

  Hi Phil -

  We don’t pay too much attention to the ‘health’ of the lenses - that’s an internal Squidoo thing. As long as you have followed Lesson 19 re. titles and keywords and your keywords are in your tags - you should be fine.

  We’re aiming to talk to Google here, not so much Squidoo.

  Article topics can be tricky till you get the hang of them. Did you see this template guide yet?:
  http://blog.ezinearticles.com/category/article-templates/

  Yes if you are doing a straight OWM campaign - 5 lenses are called for - so you can interlink them and own all the real estate that your traffic might click away to first on Squidoo.

  The other option would be to practice more first with single lenses (aka. test lenses) until you get the hang of the process from start to finish and maybe uncover something you can wrap your head around writing about.

  We do have a few ideas for non-writers - one of them is our keywordnichefinders.com packages. Basically a niche-in-a-box with the keyword research done, pre-written PLR articles and an affiliate product.

  The other involves a tool (monthly cost involved - but so worth it once you get rolling) that basically takes your article and once it’s set up kicks out as many ‘unique’ versions as you want. Perfect for the backlinking that has to happen for traffic to be dependable.

  Sounds like you’re doing great - and should forge ahead to me. You want a nice cross section of topics and lenses “cooking” at any given time - this startup time is for sure the biggest effort.

  And YES lenses do get easier - grin.

  So what’s next? Have you published?

  Andrea

• 20 Jane Kline // Apr 28, 2009 at 2:12 pm

  Jackie/Andrea -
  My 3 lenses were indexed and came up #1 when I searched all three ways: site:, http://www., http://. This is good and I feel good about it.

  But, I have a question about the tags that I see. On the published lens…. the tags that are shown are not the tags I entered, plus the tags that are shown can be clicked on. When they are clicked on it takes the reader to other squidoo sites.

  Did I miss understanding something in one of the Lessons? In this small campaign, I really don’t want to provide the reader with any other option. What to do?

  As usual, thanks.
  Jane.

• 21 Jackie and Andrea // Apr 28, 2009 at 2:25 pm

  well squidoo pulls some tags out to offer up other info. The thing about tags ~ in the olden days ~ you know like a year ago ~ the tag pages on Squidoo were awesome for getting ranked in google.

  They have since changed the way it works so it is no longer of benefit.

  If you find tags that no one else has used you have the whole tag page to yourself ~ if you use tags others have used your lens will show up on the tag page for that term. Now if someone has the same tag and someone clicks off on it looking for more info ~ they may find your lens.

  So it’s a catch 22 ~ you may lose some people, but you may gain people you never had.

  I would add like 5 or 10 very related tags to your lens and then leave it until you start getting traffic to your lens. I then add the kw people find my lens with to the tag section ~ it’s new content so that’s always helpful.

  Jackie

• 22 Jane Kline // Apr 28, 2009 at 2:53 pm

  jackie -
  I’ll add the ‘very related tags’ from my lens. That sounds like a plan. Your insight is great cause it would have taken me, oh, I don’t know, another 5 days to figure this out. Again, thanks much.

  I made a goof…. for the record, my lenses were indexed by site: www: and http:

  Onward and upward.
  Jane.

• 23 Linda Servis // May 20, 2009 at 6:15 pm

  This is an embarrassingly dumb question, but how do we find our lens’ url?

  Also, when linking why do we use the featured links instead of the url spaces in the Discovery Tool. Should we leave those blank?

• 24 Jackie and Andrea // May 20, 2009 at 6:44 pm

  Hi Linda,

  To find your lens url you just need to click “view lens” on the top left hand side of the edit area of your lens. This will give you the actual address in the address bar.

  The discovery tool shows other people’s lenses in addition to a few of your own ~ you open yourself up to losing traffic ~ especially at the top of your lens before they’ve even had time to read it, to other people’s lenses.

  by using the featured lens module you leave yourself one last ditch effort at the bottom of your lens to get them to click on to another one of your pages.

  Jackie

• 25 Carole Rowland // May 24, 2009 at 7:07 am

  1 - In regards to turning on/off the discovery tool, I agree, I don’t want anyone linking on someone else’s page and buying from them. But I noticed on your How to Fry a Turkey, you have it on, just curious why?

  2 - In a previous lesson on adding tags - when we first set up our lens. We were to add tags then - added the actual lens KW and then 2 of our other KW from our other lens. So now, are we going back and all the KW’s to each lens?

• 26 Carole Rowland // May 24, 2009 at 7:15 am

  3 - I have gone to OWM page 28/29 and am still a little unclear as to what PPG means by choosing a single unique tag that no one else uses and then use that on all your lenses. Can you give more detail and maybe an example?

• 27 Jackie and Andrea // May 24, 2009 at 8:07 am

  Hi Carole -

  I just leave it off - but here’s what she means … let’s say you’re doing a lens about frogs. and you find there are people searching for tree frogs. But maybe there are already lenses on ‘tree frogs’ - however you also find there are searches for ‘red-eyed tree frogs’ and zero other lenses (totally made up phrases) …

  If you only used ‘red-eyed tree frogs’ for your tag, that would only have your lenses to pick from for the discovery tool - see?

  Andrea

• 28 Jackie and Andrea // May 24, 2009 at 8:50 am

  Carole,

  re the discovery tool on my fryaturkey lens ~ it was simply oversite. Thanks.

  Jackie

• 29 Judith Turner // May 25, 2009 at 5:24 pm

  The tag thing that Carole mentioned in comment 27 has had me stumped me for months. I think that what is confusing me as well as others is that we are told to pick a unique tag so that people will only find our lenses when they do a search but what about all the other tags we use? Wont that possibly take visitors away from our lenses? So, here are a few thing that I am not clear on:

  Do we make sure that every single one of our tags is unique ?
  or…
  Do we just use one unique tag in addition to our primary tag?
  or…
  Do we use a mix of unique tags and common tags?
  This is of course, assuming that we want to leave the discovery tool on.
  I am also curious if this is what has others confused also or am I just not getting this part :-).

• 30 Jackie and Andrea // May 25, 2009 at 5:34 pm

  That’s a choice you have to make on a niche by niche and lens by lens basis.

  I just leave it turned off.

  If you leave it on, pick a single unique tag for all of them. That will pull only your lenses to it.

  Really it’s not something to worry over - if you don’t ever ‘get’ it, it’s not going to make or break anything.

  Keep on movin
  Andrea

• 31 Judith Turner // May 25, 2009 at 6:35 pm

  Thanks Andrea. Finally I get it! OK one last question about tags then I promise to move on lol. Do you still use the tags with the discovery tool off (I assume you do) and, do the tags we use have to match keyword phrases in the lens itself? For example, I can think of plenty of tags for my lens but didn’t necessarily use those exact keyword phrases in my lense.

• 32 Jackie and Andrea // May 25, 2009 at 6:53 pm

  Yes, you still use tags, ~ you can use the kw you used in the lens, as well as related keywords. Start with a few so you can add keywords people use to find your site

  Jackie

• 33 Kerry Mason // Aug 27, 2009 at 2:19 pm

  Jackie and Andrea

  OK, I have a stupid question.

  What exactly is a “tag” and what format should it have?

  Are we using our URLS as tags or our keywords?

  Where is the featured lens setting?

  I read Pot Pie Girl’s explanation and it only left me more confused.

  Thanks

• 34 Jackie and Andrea // Aug 27, 2009 at 3:17 pm

  Hi Kerry -

  Tags are just keywords that will help people find you within Squidoo.

  Don’t sweat them too much - add the set that you’re using and you can always add in others later as you see what phrases you’re page is getting traffic for.

  Andrea

• 35 Kerry Mason // Aug 28, 2009 at 3:03 pm

  OK,

  Thanks

• 36 Larry Pitts // Dec 22, 2009 at 11:22 am

  Hi Friends, Merry Christmas…Thanks to you -all I have 4 lenses up. indexed, blogged, monetized. I haven’t made a dime yet. But just know that I will by following you and PP/Girl.
  In 2 months I have made so much more progress than I did in the past 2 yrs. THANKS
  Larry

• 37 Larry Pitts // Jan 11, 2010 at 6:01 pm

  Hi Friends, Do I need to re index every time i revise or edit my lenses. What about blogs? Every time I add a comment to a blog do I need to send it off to the indexers? And, hostgator tells me i need to wait 60 days to effect a new domain transfer from go daddy. Any comments? Thanks again
  larryp11@yahoo.com

• 38 Jackie and Andrea // Jan 11, 2010 at 10:22 pm

  Hi Larry -

  Nope - don’t worry about re-indexing or doing anything extra when you comment on blogs.

  You shouldn’t need to transfer a domain anywhere? Either forward it or point the nameservers if you’re wanting to host a blog or something at hostgator.

  Andrea

• 39 George Varghese // Feb 16, 2010 at 4:00 am

  Hi Jackie & Andrea
  I too have a problem with my images in New Featured Lens.All Iam having is orange squidoo with question marks.I had downloaded free images from dreams time. I have to search for new images to get over this problem. Any suggestions to where I can get free images from

• 40 Gary Materra // Mar 4, 2010 at 12:00 am

  I take it you named the Featured Lens module on your lens “TurkeyFryingQueen Recommends.” There’s another section right above on your site called “Related Topics.” Is this something we should create too? What exactly is it? Thanks!

• 41 Jackie and Andrea // Mar 4, 2010 at 8:27 am

  The related topics will be created for you when you create your tags. The turkeyfryingqueen recommends is created by squidoo when you lensroll a lens. The featured lens module is titled “more information about how to fry a turkey” where it links to one other lens.

  The sidebar is all done by Squidoo when you do something.

  Jackie

• 42 Gary Materra // Mar 4, 2010 at 11:45 pm

  Ah I see Which lesson will cover the lensrolling? Thanks!

• 43 Jackie and Andrea // Mar 5, 2010 at 6:19 am

  Hi Gary -

  Lensroll is covered in Lesson 33 - I found it by entering ‘lensroll’ into the search field on the top right of this page

  Andrea

• 44 Jim Denison // Mar 7, 2010 at 1:24 am

  I have an unfinished lens of someone else showing up on my features module! How did that happen? How do I get rid of it and have my own published lens show up. I’ve tried several times. No luck.

• 45 Jackie and Andrea // Mar 7, 2010 at 10:21 am

  well that’s very strange! My only idea would be that you’ve entered the wrong url in the featured lens module. I’d make sure you have the right url for your lens ~ and then go into the featured module area and change it, save, republish.

  If that doesn’t work, I’d report a bug to Squidoo.

  Jackie

• 46 Jim Denison // Mar 7, 2010 at 10:49 am

  Went to next lesson and someone there had the same problem, Pilot error!!! Fixed now!
  Thanks