I was actually going to title this SquidWho but Squidoo now has a feature titled exactly that, so I didn't use it. There have been many posts on AR about Squidoo but we all know that posts get stale and sometimes you need a new reminder about different things.

In fact, going through the list of Squidoo posts here I found two I really liked:

• Created by Kay Frenzer - I Squidoo - Do You?
  
• Created by Maureen McCabe - ActiveRain vs. Squid Zipper - local expert

Kay's post offers some nuts and bolts basic information on Squidoo lenses. Maureen's post is about Squidoo's local expert offering.

My first Squidoo lens was created about the active, popular southwest Chicago suburb called Tinley Park. Since I'm a Squidoo newbie it's pretty basic and I'm trying to learn how to customize my squid lens. I've spent hours searching to try to find tips and I'm giving up for today.

When I first heard about Squidoo lenses I really didn't understand them. I consider myself to be somewhat Internet, website, seo and marketing savvy but I just couldn't find the time to build a lens. I was trying to keep my multiple sites and blogs fresh and updated.

But being part of a team in the Greatest Real Estate Agent in the World contest, I decided to join my team members in creating a Squid lens. It's another new world for me and I'm not sure how many of these new worlds I can handle. There are successful Squid lens creators that have linked their multiple lens pages into one website. I thought that was interesting but I still don't understand how they did it.

I have seen some lenses that don't look like Squidoo lenses at all. Seems like there are some who purposely keep the original appearance of their lens and others that want to customize it to look more like a website (what some Myspace members also do).

A Little Squidoo History

When I was first introduced to Squidoo I wished there were more than 24 hours in a day because I just didn't have the time. But for those that did, they were getting good PR, good backlinks to their main sites and good search engine placement.

Then the ceiling came down...

So many were jumping on the Squidoo bandwagon that it became a spam haven. People creating lenses just for the link juice and putting little content on them. Google devalued everything from Squidoo - stripping PR and even deindexing many of them.

It was rumored that it was a flash-in-the-pan idea (created by Seth Godin) that rose quickly and fell even quicker. People thought that would be the end of Squidoo. But it seems like the phoenix rose out of the ashes and Squidoo is now policing itself better and members are still creating lenses. Even Squidoo newbies like me.

Creating a Lens is Only Half the Story

Making a lens is the same as creating a website and/or blog. Once you've made one you want it to be found. You want your effort to produce more than a cute little info page that no one will ever read. So now you have to start promoting it through print material, your blogs, social bookmarking, other Squid members, etc.

Tinley Park is only one of over 40 towns I work in. In fact, I created a non-real estate related lens that I think I'll put some effort into as it might get a bit more attention than such a local lens about one town in the U.S.  Read my follow-up story on my Squidoo lens.

Judy Orr Classic Realty Group 15545 S. 71st Ct. Orland Park, IL, 60462 US	Work: 708-536-8200 Fax: 708-249-0074 Chicago Suburbs Real Estate