Factor Y – The Gentlemen’s Club (No Pun Intended)

Well, it was about time that we had a group on Squidoo which would focus on the Male lensmasters. Kudos to Drifter0658(Alex Crabtree) for conceptualizing Factor Y which will commence operations today and the first batch shall graduate by the end of September.

Laddoo is proud to be a member of the founding batch of Factor Y and is sure that this group is going to help in taking Male Lensmasters to the next level on Squidoo!

Factor Y is yet to begin its journey of a 10000 steps and accolades have already started making their way into Factor Y headquarters. Factor Y HQ lens on Squidoo has been awarded a purple star! More kudos to Alex!There has also been tremendous support from the Giant community and Rocket Moms!

So here we come embarking on this journey of excellence. As our motto says –
Top Notch Men. Top Notch Results!

We hope to rock the Squidoo World in a big way!

Top 5 favourite Squidoo HTML Lenses

Image Courtesy Andrew under a Creative Commons License.

Squidoo is a site where you will need to have multiple skills. You must possess the gift of the gab, the eloquence of the bard, and have a mad streak ala Steve Jobs. Okay, I took this a bit further there. But seriously,I think of the Ipod as a great analogy. Excellent Design coupled with Excellent functionality. That’s what you must strive for in each of your lenses. In this post, I want to concentrate on Excellent Design. I am not sure, whether I can teach you creativity, but I can surely point out where you can find the best building blocks of HTML to make each of your lenses a design superstar.

So here are my Top 5 Favourite Squidoo HTML Lenses

# 1. Basic HTML for Squidoo by Glen. No prizes for guessing this one. This was one of the first HTML lenses I referred to and till date, I keep coming back to this lens to spruce up my basics. Lensmaster Glen is also one of the most helpful lensmasters around. I still remember Glen replying to several of my HTML related queries on SquidU. On one occasion he even wrote a piece of code I was struggling with and asked me to just copy paste it. Yes, he is a wonderful guy.

At the time of this post, this is the #1 lens in Squidoo tips on Squidoo. Of course!

# 2. Advanced HTML for Squidoo by Glen again.
Once you’ve learned the basics, you don’t have to run anywhere. Just hop on to the advanced tutorial from Glen and learn advanced tips and tricks to make your lenses beautiful.

# 3. My Favourite CSS Tricks on Squidoo by thefluffanutta.
One of the highly respected lensmasters on Squidoo, Fluffanutta’s lens is another superb addition to your HTML armoury. This is only one of the facets of this lensmaster. He is also the creator of several fabulous helpful widgets and resources for Squidoo. I shall do a post specifically on these resources by Fluffanutta that I have used in my lensmaking. Yes – there have been plenty. For starters, just visit his site Squidutils and you will get a fair idea of what I am talking about.

As we speak this is the #3 lens in Squidoo tips at the moment.

# 4. HTML Border Backgrounds by Sojourn.
This is a lens by one of my dear friends on Squidoo and a lens which I consider to be the Bible on Borders and backgrounds. This lens is solely responsible for uplifting the look of my lenses to at least 5 notches higher than they were earlier. One of my lenses (The Complete Collection of Sherlock Holmes) which was spruced up using the ideas on this lens also won a badge. So I am very proud of this lens. Do visit this lens and I am sure you aren’t going to regret it.

# 5. Create Stunning CSS Backgrounds with Images by Dr Richard .

This is another stunning lens that I came across some while back. While I haven’t yet come around to using it on one of my lenses, it is surely on my agenda. The use of images to create backgrounds for your modules gives a really stunning effect as Dr Richard shows us on these lenses.

There you go – My Top 5 Squidoo HTML Lenses. These are by no means the only lenses, but my personal favourites.

Do you Squidoo yet? If not, time to start now!

Top 5 qualities to be successful on Squidoo

I have been squidooing for a couple of years now and I have realized that there is a common trait between all the top lensmasters. They seem to possess very similar qualities which drive their success on Squidoo. So I asked myself this question - What are the top 5 qualities that one must have to enjoy Success on Squidoo? This is what I came up with.

Passion
If there's one thing that is the most common attribute I have found is that the top lensmasters are extremely passionate about their cause and this passion shows in their lensmaking. If you are passionate about any topic, you will never struggle to finds words to describe your feeling.

Self-Belief
To be successful on Squidoo you must have a belief in your own abilities. If you believe that you can be the best around here, your belief will manifest into beautiful lenses which will be appreciated by all the others. You need to believe that you have the skills and courage to learn and do what it takes to be an excellent lensmaster. Believe in your self and the world will believe in you.

Curiosity
To be successful on Squidoo, you will need to be curious. You must be curious enough to look at all the modules on Squidoo and see what they offer. You must be curious enough to study the top lenses and lensmasters on Squidoo and see what they are doing right. You must be curious enough to keep learning, keep improving and keep getting better and better and better. The day you stop being curious, you may stagnate. Curiosity may have killed the cat but it would do you a world of good on Squidoo.

Social Skills
It’s hard to imagine that in this world where people spend most of their waking hours in front of their computer screen, people are being more social today than ever before. Squidoo is just the same. It’s not just a site but it’s a community and the more social you are, you will meet many a helpful lensmaster, who would be more than willing to assist you or answer your query. Become a part of the Squidoo community. Be Social. Be Nice and the world will be nicer to you.

Patience
I have saved the best for last. If you really want to be successful on Squidoo, you will need to be really patient. Squidoo is not a get rich quick scheme. In fact there are really no get rich quick schemes in the world. You will have to put in hours of effort and wait for the seeds that you have planted to grow into a full-grown tree. It takes time, but it is worth the effort. That lens which started out with a lensrank of 800,000 , if nurtured well, will soon grow into a Tier 3, Tier 2 and eventually a Tier 1 lens. But this may take a couple of months at least. Heck it may even make it to the top 100. You will have to let Squidoo take its own course. Of course, by all means, do your bit to promote your lens and take it to the top as fast as you can. However, at the same time, be cool, don’t lose your patience. The seeds that you have sown will eventually bear fruit.

So there you have it - My Top 5 qualities to be successful on Squidoo. Actually I should go out and make a lens about this. What say?

Do you Squidoo yet? If not, do it now!

Update - I did create a lens about this  - Top 5 Qualities to be successful on Squidoo

Celebrating Fans and Followers on Squidoo and Twitter

Time to celebrate. Today is the day that I have crossed two seemingly small but for me a very joyous moment.

I have reached a 100 Fans on Squidoo and 200+ followers on Twitter. Its good to know that the work that I have done online is being appreciated. So this is just a thank you post for all the friends and followers who have been supportive. I hope to be of much more service to you during the coming years.

For now its time to say a big Thank you.

The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection

Sherlock Holmes has been a childhood favourite. Ever since I was introduced to this wonderful detective, I have spent many a weekend cuddling up with a Sherlock Holmes Short Story collection and transporting myself back to 19th century England. It was quite a nostalgic trip back to the previous century.

So I decided to put together a lens and compile the complete sherlock holmes collection.


Do check out the lens and leave your feedback on how you liked the lens. I am going to make some more lenses on some of my other favourite detectives as well. So watch out for some more detective lenses.

Wiwon Inter-group Olympics

This was a fun game before the Giant Challenge began. All groups on Wiwon were asked to add ideas for lenses to their team plexo. The team and the individual with the maximum ideas were to receive a wonderful badge.

I had a good time adding ideas to my team lens. That the last day of the challenge was a Saturday and I had nothing better to do at home did help a lot. In fact I added almost 700 ideas on the last day and bumped up my team score from just under 300 to just over a 1000.

Ofcourse, the timezone helped too. By the time, folks in the US got up to have their morning coffee and check the 8 am EST deadline, there was a gap of almost 500 ideas between my group and the group ranking second. Sure enough we won both the badges.

Here's my badge!

My Giant Squid Journey

I have finally decided to take the plunge seriously and go for Giant Status. In this quest I have joined this wonderful group led my one of my Mentor Lensmaster - Michelle Willow.

The name of this group is Willow's Wonder Squids and I am part of a subgroup - Mike's Maniacal Squids with Mike Moore as my Coach.

Its been only a couple of weeks and I have already built 5 new lenses, won two badges and got featured in Squidoo Spotlight.

Its been one hell of a joyride! I am proud to be one of Willow's Wonder Squids and I will surely make it to Giant by September 2009.