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One of our most generous lensmasters, Elizabeth Jean Allen, submitted this guest post with tips and instructions on the many fabulous things we can do with the Blackbox module. Thank you, Liz!
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I’ve been on Squidoo for a year and a half now and have read and rated a lot of lenses. Some were good, others awesome, and some are not worth mentioning. I have a few lenses in need of a major overhaul, but most of my lenses lagging in the ranks just need a little pizzazz to bring them back to life.

Over the last few months I’ve started experimenting with the Blackbox. I wanted a little module that could add some punch without having to tear the lens apart and starting over. Unfortunately, dressed in black and white the Blackbox took the punch, and fell flat. And changing the background color didn’t do much to revive it.

Unwilling to give up, I started experimenting with changing the text color (the brighter the better,) adding graphics, and animations. I loved the results. It grabbed the reader’s attention for a moment, but didn’t detract from the meat of the lens.

Blackbox Module

I use the Blackbox to add quotes, restate a major point, add humor, or to direct the reader’s attention in another direction. In Top Ten Reasons to Add Walking to Your Daily Routine, I used the Blackbox to highlight important facts.

I’ve come to think of the Blackbox as the underdog in a boxing match. Dressed for the ring, it’s a scrappy little fighter. Small in comparison to the rest of the modules, it has little chance of winning the day, but I always root for the underdogs – they are the ones I remember.

Utilizing the Blackbox Module offers a short, but sweet tutorial on creative uses for the Blackbox. Take a look. It just might be what you were looking for.

Lizzy

[ratings]

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A new Squidoo module debuted today which enables lensmasters to put up to 10 photographs into a gallery, directly from their computer to the lens workshop. No need to upload pictures to a third party storage service. The new module can be found in the alphabetical module list under “P” for Photo Gallery.

Some feature highlights include the time-based rotation of a large image display, and the ability to write captions for each picture. The general file size limitation of 1MB per image seems to apply here as well, although not explicitly mentioned.

Lensmasters have been requesting this type of module for a very long time and today it looks that their calls have been answered.
The new photo module was discovered by lensmaster Susan52 even before an official statement by Squidoo HQ was issued. It is currently being discussed at the SquidU forums.

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On your lens, that is!

I see it over and over – lensmasters jump right in with their topics and treat the intro like a first text module. Long articles, several pictures, links… all stuff that is out of place in the intro module.

Start a lens with a couple or more paragraphs about your content. Use your main keywords within a few sentences to describe what the visitor is going to find on the page – who, what, when, where, why. And, what you are going to sell, if that applies.

Begin your story in the first text module. Elaborate and illustrate freely. Don’t forget to replace the generic module titles AND subtitles with your own text, including your best keywords as often as it makes sense in your story design. Search robots look here for relevance, just as they check on your url and primary tag. Your whole page should be optimized for search bots – content, module titles, and all.

Our resident SEO expert, Spirituality, has made a fabulous lens with tips and tutorials on this subject: “The Introduction Module on Squidoo”.

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