With the last slices of honeybaked ham out of the way I would like to direct your attention to a few happenings here at SquidLog.

The Squidoo Lens Directory Project

Squidoo Lens Directory

That’s right, another opportunity to submit your lenses and brag all you want about them. The Squidoo Lens Directory is still somewhat a work in progress as you will quickly see, but if you’re eager to grab a few backlinks it is now open to all self-respecting lensmasters. It is called a project because I was hoping to drum up some support from the SquidLog community for setting up a deep category structure, and also to review lens submissions for minimum standard compliance and then approve the goodies. So far the response has been, um, underwhelming, but okay, it was a busy time of year.

We all know what happens if anyone can submit anything to a link directory, so yes, every submission needs to be briefly reviewed and manually approved. Otherwise it won’t be of any value for any of us. If there are no takers for the position of co-editor it may take me as long as dmoz to actually publish those links to the directory.

Find A Link – Share A Link

Links Widget

We’re trying out a new way to share your groovy web finds with the rest of the SquidLog community through the new Link feature in your member profile. You can link to web pages, documents and even embed videos. Your shares will appear in the activity stream and will remain accessible through your profile, but there’s a lot more cool stuff to those links-on-steroids. For example…

• You can add an image and a description to each link.
• You decide who gets to see it: everybody, just your friends, or only you.
• We can all vote on that sucker (shared links only). If it gets too many thumbs down we might just vote it off the stage altogether.
• The link gets its own profile page where we can comment on it, send it fan mail, whatever. You get to keep the admin key for that link profile page.
• Links can be categorized and sorted by all kinds of criteria on the common link page. (No, this is different from the Squidoo Lens Directory mentioned above. This one is part of the main SquidLog site.)

The latest additions also get featured in a widget on the front page. Please do take that split second to give them a quick thumbs up or down. Won’t be much fun otherwise. If y’all like it we might move the link stream onto the main column on the left.

I thought that’s all pretty neat, at least in theory. We’ll see how it goes…

More Perks For Authors

In an effort to give more recognition to the awesome authors who continue to contribute to the main SquidLog blog we are trying out a simple revenue sharing model. Advertisements which we display on the individual post page will include the author’s affiliate ID 80% of the time, should the author choose to participate. We also now display an info box (again) about the author on every one of their posts. If you are an author, you can customize your bio in the dashboard of the main blog, under Users > Your Profile.

If you are not yet a member of the elite “SquidLog Authors Guild” but would like to be one then please come forward. Good authors are hard to come by these days, what with all the blogs and lenses we have to write and other business ventures we need to pursue. Fame and Fortune await those who care and dare to share! (results not typical – your mileage may vary)

Assisted Hosting Services

Last, and very least, I am pleased to announce that yours truly is now offering Assisted Blog Hosting to those who have been on the fence about getting their own website. If one of your New Year’s resolutions include “get my own domain and host my own blog” but are not quite sure how to go about it, help is near. For about the same cost of a hosting plan from “the big guys” you will also get my personal attention and assistance in setting everything up and ready for action. Contact me if you’d like to discuss this, or learn more at SEO Praxis. </shameless plug>

We know you have *many* choices for engaging in online distractions, and we thank your for investing some of your precious time so wisely here.

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© Anne Corci for Squidlog.net, 2010. | Permalink | 4 comments

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