Lens Author

Have you heard the buzz on Google Wave yet? I’ve been reading everything I can, trying to wrap my brain around exactly what Google Wave will do for my online business.

Google Wave will bring a new way to communicate with your clients, followers, coworkers, customers, and anyone else you come in contact with on a regular basis.

If you check out the video below you’ll learn what Google Wave will do for communication. It will be a new way to IM, blog, email, share ideas and documentation, and waayyyy more!

Check out a demonstration from the developers on how Google Wave will work:

I’m still trying to wrap my brain around Google Wave, but here are some of the applications I think will be useful (I’m sure there are a ton more).

1. I love the idea that it will be open source. That means there will be tons of applications developed to interact with Google Wave. Oh, and it’s free!
2. Which leads me to the possibility of extensions and applications built by others to improve Google Wave’s function, and custom tailor it to your business needs
3. The communication possibilities are huge. The conversation can be edited by anyone involved, and everything happens in real time. No more waiting while someone is typing. You can see what they’re typing while they’re typing it.
4. Drag and drop file uploads makes content sharing easier.

What I can’t wait to check out is how developers will use this platform to develop even bigger and better applications. I think it’s going to be a huge boost to online communications.

What do you think of Google Wave?

For the first time EVER and for a LIMITED TIME only, Kyle & Carson at Wealthy Affiliates are offering a full seven day trial of WA for just $1.

It starts tomorrow, 1st June at 12 noon (EST) and runs until 8th June (12 noon EST). You’ll get a full seven day access to everything at Wealthy Affiliate for $1.

That’s seven days access to the forums, which are a wealth of information, to their website builders (Site Rubix), to 1 Niche Q which gives you all the information you need to dominate a niche (with several niches to choose from), the first lesson in Wealthy Affiliate University, a great tool to help you get your online business up and running, and way more!

I’ve been a Wealthy Affiliate member for about 9 months now, and I think it’s totally worth the monthly membership fee. I enjoy the forums, and there’s a wealth of information, and systems in there to help set up your affiliate marketing business.

Did I mention the forums? The Wealthy Affiliate members are wonderful for giving advice and answering questions.

If you’re interested in giving Wealthy Affiliate a try now is the perfect time. If you’re not impressed, simply cancel your membership within the 7 days, and you’re only out $1.

Check out Wealthy Affiliate here to see what you get with your $1 trial.

I was hopping around on Youtube today and I found this interview with Seth Godin talking about his book The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick). I enjoyed the video, so I thought I’d share it here.

It’s definitely something you can apply to your online business. I think back to when I first started, and wonder what would have happened if I would have quit during those first few months when I made zero dollars online. Where would I be now?

Definitely not where I am today! The first three or four months I tried to make money online were a ton of work but no return. Then I made my first sale. I think I made less than $1 on that sale, but it was enough to get me pumped up about this internet marketing thing.

So I read more, studied what others were doing, and kept on plugging. Pretty soon I was making regular sales, and a regular income. I’ll still always remember that first sale, and wonder what would have happened if I would have quit before then.

If you make a brand new TwttrList Squidoo lens and you could win a Kindle reading system.

Squidoo is giving away 1 new Kindle reading system for every 1000 TwttrList lenses created. All you have to do is create a (quality) Twttrlist to be in the running.

Visit Make a TwttrList. Win a Kindle for all the details!

Are you hard at work on those summer lenses and blog posts yet? If not you should be, or even getting a head start on those fall ideas.

If you’re stumped for ideas here are 20 lens ideas to get you started. You could write about…

1. 4th of July games and activities
2. Your favorite pool games and activities
3. Your favorite local amusement park
4. Your local county fair (fair food yum!)
5. Summer shoe styles
6. Summer swimwear for toddlers
7. The best summer vacation spot
8. Your favorite childhood summer memory
9. Your favorite summer foods
10. Strawberry recipes
11. Your favorite watermelon recipes
12. What’s growing in your garden?
13. The best places in your neighborhood to visit during summer break.
14. Outdoor summer activity ideas for children
15. Anything baseball
16. Your favorite summer blockbuster movie
17. Your favorite herbs to grow
18. How to stay cool when it’s hot outside
19. Your favorite flower
20. Your turn… you tell me what number 20 should be.

There are tons of great stock images out there for low or no cost, but creating your own image gives your work a personal touch. I love to use my own images whenever possible.

You don’t have to spend a fortune on a camera, or equipment to get great images. I have a Canon PowerShot Digital Camera and it takes fabulous photos.

I have an SLR camera with fancy lenses, but my point and shoot fits in my purse or pocket and is ready to go in seconds. It’s the camera I use to get most of my images, including all of the images I’ve posted below.

I take photos of my garden and flowers.

Capture food images…

Crafts…

And anything else I feel like capturing in pictures.

Sometimes the image itself can inspire an entire blog post or Squidoo lens. I take pictures of everything! Even if I’m not sure at the time what I’ll use the image for.

Many times I’ll write a post, and remember that I have the perfect image for it in my collection… then comes the fun part… finding it.

You don’t have to spend a ton of money on photo editing software either. A couple of my favorite photo editors are free downloads. Number one on my list is Photoscape, and I also use Gimp from time to time for putting together banners and headers.

I’ll be back with a few more tips on capturing great food images.

I’m excited that Squidoo is taking the effort to change their groups and make them better. Here’s Kimberly’s original post with the new group guidelines: Making Groups Great Do You Have What It Takes?

I posted this in the Squidoo Forums, but I wanted to reprint it here:

I’ll be glad to answer any questions I can (from anyone), and any questions I can’t I’ll direct to Kimberly. I don’t think Squidoo HQ is interested in closing down everyone’s group, I think they just want to clean up the spammy groups that don’t really serve a purpose except to spam their own spammy links out there in one more way (groups with only their own lenses on the group page, groups that don’t even have a group page set up, groups that are set to let everyone in and never update their group page, abandoned groups) .

I would say most lensmasters who are visiting here care enough about their groups, and take care of them enough that they don’t need to worry about their groups disappearing.

Making the cut for the top 100 and the extra prize may take a little extra effort…but I love a challenge, and I think most lensmasters here do too:-) I need to work on my own groups to get them up to snuff.

I’m working on a new lens to help lensmasters work on their group. It’s not done yet (I don’t even think it’s ranked yet, but you’re more than welcome to stop by and let me know if it helps, and give me some feedback on anything else you’d like to see there:-)

Taking Squidoo Groups From Good to Great

If you have questions, feel free to leave a comment here, contact me through the contact form at Squidoo, or leave a comment on one of my groups mentor lenses. I’ll get back to you with an answer, and if I can’t answer I’ll direct you to Kimberly.

I got a new toy yesterday. An HP Pavilion DV5-1160US Laptop , and I am loving it. I said in a previous post that I had money set aside for this from my online business. Well, I finally found the laptop I wanted.

I’ve been busy “mucking it up” as my son says with all the Internet tools and programs that make my life easier. Most are free downloads, so I’ll be back on another day to let you in on some of my favorite tools to help make working online a little easier.

It’s a totally sleek machine with Windows Vista Premium, 4GB RAM, and a 320 GB hard drive. And I’m now in the new century with a wide screen. Woot! Way faster than my old laptop!

Now I have both laptops (old and new) connected to the router, and I’m switching from one to the other. Yeah I’m addicted.

For now I have to get back to playing working. I just had to tell someone about my new toy.

According to Trendwatching.com’s February trend briefing, we’re heading toward Generation G. That’s G for generosity… not for greed.

According to the report, here are some of the trends pointing us in the direction of Generation G:

1. Consumers are fed up with overspending, and are disgusted with big business.
2. They’re looking for businesses and institutions that care about their customers.
3. Sharing is the new giving. More people than ever are sharing their photos, videos, thoughts, etc. via Youtube, Flickr, Wikipedia, millions of blogs, Twitter and of course Squidoo.

So what is Generation G? According to Trendwatching, Generation G is about:

“passionate, empowered individuals (if not entire generations) being more willing and able to give, to share, to collaborate; to be more ‘generous’ in many ways.”

I agree with the article, I think we’re going to see a big change in the way big business conducts itself in the upcoming years.

Check out the full article at Trendwatching.com.

Image via Stock.xchng

I’m playing with Squidoo’s cool new Twitter application TWTTRSTRM (TwitterStorm).

My first attempt? So, what’s your favorite party planning tip, or idea? Please feel free to share. I’m still working on the lens, I ran out of play time tonight, so I’ll have to work on it a little more tomorrow.

Here’s the scoop:

TWTTRSTRM is a very cool new Squidoo application that lets you ask a question, or make a statement.

From Squidoo:

This is a tool that helps you to “Ask a question of your Twitter followers and easily gather all their answers in one spot.”

Here’s how it works:

1. Simply ask a question
2. Enter your Twitter ID
3. Create a tracker keyword
4. Pick a category, and a tag
5. Build your TWTTRSTRM, which is a Squidoo lens that hosts the conversation.

Very cool! Have you made your own TWTTRSTRM yet? If you have feel free to add a link in the comment section.