TypePad Hacks Now Has A Squidoo Lens

Squidoo is one company I was excited to see offering a TypePad Widget. It came as no surprise to find that their landing page for TypePad bloggers was among the clearest of Widget offerings, because essentially, that's what Squidoo does… it allows you to create single web pages providing an overview of a particular topic. As they put it, Squidoo pages (known as lenses) are "a place to start, not finish."

If you're looking for an easy way to introduce readers to a topic, creating a lens is a great way to do it. The interface for adding content modules to your page encourages you to think in an organized way that almost guarantees you'll create a clear overview of your chosen subject. I could easily see using Squidoo to create outlines for more in-depth projects—it's not a bad way to organize your thoughts as well as your data.

Although my advanced templates rule out using Widgets on this blog, I spent the day putting together a TypePad Hacks Squidoo lens that I feel complements the blog nicely. I've used it to collect links, resources and news items that would be of interest to TypePad bloggers. Although it would've been easy enough to post all this material on the blog, I think the structured environment at Squidoo offers a good way to declutter the sidebar and navigation while collecting basic items in one eay place.

Check it out and let me know what you think. If you know of any resources I should have pointed to but didn't, let me know and I'll update the lens to include them.

Here are a few reasons to build your own lens, cribbed verbatim from the Squidoo FAQ:

• Share the knowledge: When you know a lot about something, it feels good to share. Help other people discover what you found out the hard way.
• Increase your profile: A popular lens gives credibility to the Lensmaster. A popular lens reinforces your role as an "everyday expert." And a popular lens makes you the go-to authority for those looking for help.
• Increase your traffic: Your lens points (if you want it to) to your blog and to your website. Lenses have huge credibility with search engines, so your lens can help your other sites rise to the top of Google searches.
• Earn a royalty for you, your organization, or your favorite charity. Think of the royalty as a bonus--and don't quit your dayjob yet! A single lens might not earn a lot, but if you imagine hundreds of lenses working to your favor, or fundraising for a charity, it can really start to add up.

Tags: squidoo, lens, typepad, hacks, typepadhacks, advanced templates, design, typelist, blog, blogs, blogging, weblogs