Indiana Jones and the Squidoo Lens of Doom
By: DaveI’ve admittedly been less interested in Squidoo recently. Life gets in the way sometimes. As press, news, rumors and on-set videos began flying around for the new Indiana Jones 4 flick - I knew Squidoo was a perfect means by which to organize and aggregate all the data I was sifting through. Once you have an idea for a lens, you then have to find a way to marry the modules with the subject matter. That’s not always an easy task. Since I spent so much time on my Indy lens, and used such a wide array of module types, I thought that a dissection and explanation might prove useful to the uninitiated. And with no further ado…
Title and Intro
Open up the Indy 4 lens and follow along. For the title I used two iterations of the movie name (Indiana Jones 4 and Indy 4) and coupled them with popular terms like “news” and “rumors”. Use any popular search volume tool to find out how exactly netizens are searching for your subject matter. You may be surprised, and you’ll definitely learn a few iterations that you hadn’t thought of. Then I mentioned the release date and gave a brief synopsis of recent events to let visitors know that they’re looking at a lens that is current and most likely frequently updated. It is important to engage the visitor quickly, lest you lose them. The first few sections of your lens are the first and last chance you’re going to get to make an impression.
Text Module - Rumors
We might as well keep going down the lens in order. The first text module I used is for Indy 4 rumors. I populate this module manually, as opposed to a news feed, because I find the tidbits in so many different places. I could use more HTML code than I do here but I’m keeping it to simple hyphens as opposed to fancier formatting because again I’m adding to it frequently and ad hoc. The image in the top right is one that I downloaded onto my laptop and then uploaded using the browse button all the text modules have.
Text Module - Large Photo
If you add an HTML image tag set to a text module and make the source a photo which already exists online, it will usually be pulled in quite easily. See here for image tag information. ( usually does the trick in a Squidoo text module). Here I link to a full-size version of the cast photo you can see as a thumbnail above in the rumors section. Linking to a photo from another website in this fashion is generally frowned upon. But then again, so is re-purposing any copyrighted image on a Squidoo lens, technically. One alternative would be to upload the photo to your own server, or a free image hosting site - but then there’s still the issue of copyright. If someone really wants me to take the image down badly enough my email is easy to find. It has never happened in nearly 2 years of Squidoo usage, so let’s not obsess over legalities and keep on trucking.
Amazon Module - Indiana Jones DVD Box Sets
I’ve taken the wide and full screen versions of the Indy trilogy box sets and plan on writing custom descriptions for them for a more convincing pitch. Keep your money-making modules to a bare minimum to preserve the legitimacy of your lens. If visitors perceive your lens as little more than a smattering of information saturated in a ton of ads, they will treat it accordingly. If people see your lens as an objective resource, however, they will tell their friends and even link to you. Since I figure it is far more likely for someone to buy all three DVDs in a set, I haven’t bothered to list the DVDs individually. This preserves real estate and would probably be a waste of time.
Text Module - Welcome Back, Indiana Jones
I use this module to inject more original thought and writing into the lens, so that it doesn’t just come across of a Frankenstein-like cut and paste effort. This module is original content that you can’t read anywhere else - and that goes a long way towards instilling faith in your lens as a whole.
RRS Module - Movie Chronicle
When I decided to build this lens, one of the first things I did was look for movie sites and blogs that offered RSS feeds on individual movies. This was the first one I found, and it’s frequent updates cover nothing but the latest Indy 4 related happenings. This way, the subject matter is super-relative to your topic, and updated so frequently that visitors are far more likely to add you to their favorites and check back regularly.
Text Module - Large Photo
See my previous notes on using a text module to pull in a large photo.
Poll Module - Indy 4 Titles
Poll modules give you a chance for originality and creativity. Several days before I made this lens, it was announced that Lucasfilm registered 6 potential titles for Indy 4. So, my poll was a no-brainer. Polls are interactive and will engage your visitors. Think about a facet of your subject matter that could be utilized in a similar way (types of cheese, breeds of dog, names for a boat), and even change up your polls from month to month to keep the content fresh and record a result archive using a text module. The possibilities are many.
YouTube Module - First Day of Shooting
There are lots of Indy 4 related videos on YouTube, from official releases to footage shot by fans who were standing near the set one day. Place them sparingly throughout your blog, and make sure you watch them all first to make sure they work and are the most interesting and relevant available. Give your visitors a break from reading and turn your lens into a true multimedia experience at the same time.
This post is dragging on, and I’m sure you all get the point by now. Also used on the Indy 4 lens are video plaxo, related lens, eBay and blogger modules. The point is - any module can be put towards any subject matter if you are creative enough. Best of luck to everyone in their next Squidoo endeavor, and please leave your best examples of “outside the box” module usage in the comments.
