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Newbie Shield
Joined: 22 Sep 2007
Posts: 1498
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# Posted: 28 Jan 2008 12:31
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Lensmasters,
How are you all coming along on the development of your lenses. Have you added anything lately? Need any help?
Newbie Shield
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mountainmom5
Joined: 30 Aug 2007
Posts: 1177
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# Posted: 28 Jan 2008 15:05
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aahhhh - I needed that reminder, newbieshield...
I need to get back in there and add some content,eh?
Could use a few tips as I sorta got stuck with mine and then had a lot of family stuff going on and just sorta kinda let it slide, I guess...
Thanks for the kick - I needed it!
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pcwork
Member
Joined: 12 Aug 2006
Posts: 1627
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# Posted: 28 Jan 2008 20:20
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I have a few lenses, but difficult to get traffic as usual
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Newbie Shield
Joined: 22 Sep 2007
Posts: 1498
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# Posted: 29 Jan 2008 13:51
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Please feel free to ask specific questions for seo tips, html squidoo tricks, codes to change font size, font color, font family, background color, add and resize images, create a local module table of contents, at an html table, or what ever you want.
I'll give you one tip that will save you a lot of time and trouble. Do your seo research before you publish your lenses. I made all four of mine before I did seo because I just wanted to put them up and then tweak them.
It proved to be a headache and now it is quite a bit more work to seo after they are finished. I knew better too...shame on me 
Ask away. That's why I created this thread.
Newbie Shield
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mountainmom5
Joined: 30 Aug 2007
Posts: 1177
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# Posted: 29 Jan 2008 17:11
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Okay, lets start with this...
What's the best way to do seo research??
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Newbie Shield
Joined: 22 Sep 2007
Posts: 1498
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# Posted: 30 Jan 2008 13:57
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Well,
SEO research is a very broad term. It involves a lot. First thing to do after you decide what to write about is to put your main ideas in an outline format. Then you do your seo research.
Once you come up with keyword phrases for each item in your outline, you make them your titles. You also look for related phrases and you include those in your paragraphs along with the titles. Each paragraph under each title should relate to the title and be keyword rich.
Then you determine a url if you don't already have one. It would be great if it could match your primary keyword phrase.
Then you create your url title. This should at least contain your primary keyword phrase. If you can naturally slide in a secondary and even a third main keyword phrase then do so.
Same applies to your intro module. But the description can be a bit longer - a three line paragraph or so.
Then come the meta tags. Limit each page to 5 keyword tag phrases at most. Make these tags the main seo search phrases that the page discusses. I know it's been said that you can use up to 40 tags on squidoo, but then you won't be focused enough for one page. I started out that way and it doesn't work well with search engines.
Then do this with the body and so on.
My lenses are too long to be search engine friendly. I did not create them for search engines; only for the Squidoo community and for experimenting. I am now trimming them down slightly for seo purposes, but they will never be search engine friendly. Don't make yours as long as mine, lol.
You might use this link for seo research. It's a rough tool but it is free and it helps:
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
You want something with minimal or zero "Advertiser Competition". You want something with last month data, and this month data. The monthly stuff should be well below the middle on the green graphs or you'll never be seen on the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).
But don't leave it at that! That's the most common mistake. You'll want to have a second tab/window open to actually type the phrases you've found into the Google search engine to see how many results you get. I'd shy away from anything over 3 mil. Depending upon how "nichie" your page is, you might do well with as little as 10k. I usually shoot for between 100k and 3 mil.
Just so you know...being number one for phrases that have no search volume is fun albeit worthless. You want phrases the people type in month after month.
I hope that helps. Ask all the questions you want.
~Newbie Shield~
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Marktech
Member
Joined: 8 Jan 2008
Posts: 210
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# Posted: 2 Apr 2008 16:19
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I am struggling to get 20 clicks a day on my best lenses right now. Summer's coming and web traffic in general is slowing down. I saw something interesting the other day though. I saw a US Free ad on the first page of a google search and clicked on it. I saw the page had had over 5000 visitors. What! I thought, wait a minute, I clicked on a list of his other usfreeads and the guy had ads that were getting 2 to 5 thousand visits, (lifetime). Hey, that's pretty good for usfree ads. Wonder what he's doing. I wish I had bookmarked his pages.
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Newbie Shield
Joined: 22 Sep 2007
Posts: 1498
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# Posted: 3 Apr 2008 08:09
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Hi Marktech,
20 clicks a day is pretty good. High lensrank depends upon several things.
The Squidoo algorithm is complex and changes every so often. It takes into consideration weekly traffic, star ratings, bookmarks, favorites, and various interactivity on the lenses.
So someone with 1,000 visitors a week and zero star ratings, zero bookmarks and zero favorites may not outrank someone who has far less traffic but more of the other types of lens interaction.
Even so, without traffic, you won't get any other interactions and you won't make any sales.
So, you have to at least have some traffic for the lens to work out as a business model.
Lenses are also good for back links, especially if they have a decent PR.
Furthermore, lenses can drive traffic to your other sites via links.
They make excellent labs for testing out your SEO and marketing ideas and for developing skills. Theory is great but you learn quite a bit more with practice.
Just make sure you get the education first before you play around.
Traffic matters quite a bit, but so do the other algorithmic components.
~Newbie Shield~
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Money4Mommy
Member
Joined: 21 Aug 2007
Posts: 90
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# Posted: 9 Apr 2008 23:22
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Squidoo sounds interesting so I made a few lenses for fun. I've just started reading your helpful tips in this forum and would welcome some advice/suggestions. Admittedly, most of your advice about Squidoo has gone way over my head so keep it simple, lol.
Newbie Shield: My lenses are too long to be search engine friendly. I did not create them for search engines; only for the Squidoo community and for experimenting. I am now trimming them down slightly for seo purposes, but they will never be search engine friendly. Don't make yours as long as mine, lol.
One of my lenses is really long too. I thought bigger was better, now I'm confused.
I am going to make a few more lenses for fun, -about things I am interested in and I wouldn't mind making a little extra money.
Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!
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Newbie Shield
Joined: 22 Sep 2007
Posts: 1498
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# Posted: 10 Apr 2008 05:53
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Hi Money4Mommy,
Your bio page looks good.
I checked out your CashCrate lens. It looks good and I like it.
A few minor tips:
I would keep the intro module very brief - 4 lines or so. I would create a new text module and place it right below the intro module. You might drop some of your intro module text into this one.
You might also place a guestbook at the bottom of the lens. This encourages other lensmasters to sign your book, rate your lens, favorite it, and generally interact with other features. It will help lensrank and show that folks are interested in your lens.
That isn't much to change and I think you understand lens creation quite well.
Nice lens.
~Newbie Shield~
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Money4Mommy
Member
Joined: 21 Aug 2007
Posts: 90
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# Posted: 10 Apr 2008 19:26
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Thanks Newbie Shield, I've joined your fan club and rated your Squidoo Tricks lens.
I've become addicted to Squidoo, it's really fun! I made a few new lenses last night and I will be sure to follow your advice and edit my CashCrate lens with your suggestions.
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Newbie Shield
Joined: 22 Sep 2007
Posts: 1498
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# Posted: 11 Apr 2008 07:39
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It really is addictive
I rated and favorited your CashCrate lens and I joined your fan club as well.
Wow, you really did create a lot of new lenses last night. You are really on a roll!
The reason I mentioned the changes to the intro module and adding a text module right below it are that the intro module is for "introducing" the lens topic. The very next module explains it in more detail. Everything flows in logical order from top to bottom. Does that make sense?
People want to know what your lens is at a quick glance to decide if they should spend their time reading it. The first two places they look are the lens title and the intro module. Then they look just below the intro module and then on down.
Hook em with your lens title and start to reel them in with your intro module. Explain why they should continue (without actually saying that) with your second module.
I hate to use a fishing analogy but it's effective.
A perfect example is your Faery lens. The title hooked me and the intro module caused me to continue reading your lens. I found both components very compelling.
Have fun with Squidoo
~Newbie Shield~
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BillChechel
Member
Joined: 8 Jan 2008
Posts: 159
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# Posted: 12 Apr 2008 11:24
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NewbieSheild,
Your lens is great. I am in the process of setting up my first lens and needed some advice on linking a banner or pic to my site. I searched your lens and could not find that info. I am sure it is on there I just missed it. Thanks.
I really appreciate having a resource like your lens to help me out.
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Money4Mommy
Member
Joined: 21 Aug 2007
Posts: 90
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# Posted: 12 Apr 2008 12:33
Reply
Okay, I am officially addicted to Squidoo!
I made a few new lenses, -feel free to check them out. (I'm not sure if it's ok to post the url in this forum so hopefully I'm not breaking any rules? Please advise for future reference.)
This is my "How To" lens about making your own flower seed packet wedding favors.
http://www.squidoo.com/flowerseedpackets
My latest lens may be a bit controversial but I am really proud of it and would appreciate some feedback... Eating Meat VS. Planet Earth
http://www.squidoo.com/meatvsearth
Of course, I welcome any advice and suggestions but no hate mail please, lol.
One more question for Newbie Shield or any fellow Squidoo lensmasters: Would you suggest joining groups and does it boost your rankings at all?
Thanks again for all the helpful tips!!
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Newbie Shield
Joined: 22 Sep 2007
Posts: 1498
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# Posted: 13 Apr 2008 18:39 · Edited by: Newbie Shield
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Bill: The banner and pic linking is indeed covered on my lens. Next time you visit just keep reading and you'll see it. Additionally, almost all of my images are linked from external sources - image servers.
I don't think you'll have any problems after you read the pertinent modules but let me know if you get stuck.
Money: It's fun to be excited about Squidoo, isn't it? Your How To lens is great. How To's are always a big hit. I don't think that your meat verses earth lens is controversial at all.
In fact, I have known this to be true for quite some time and I am very concerned about everything you've mentioned. The meat industry is the most evil force on the planet in my opinion...in a million different ways. The oil industry is near the top of the list as well.
Joining a group or two (only join the best ones) can give you a little traffic, which can in turn boost your Squidoo rank slightly. It also boosts PR if you link to a high PR group.
To see what your PR is, just download and install the Google Tool bar and enable Page Rank.
You won't see a PR rating on new lenses for two or more months. It certainly won't happen until Google updates their PR algo. It may be several months.
I got lucky and got PR on my first three lenses that had only been up for a couple months due to perfect timing. One of my lenses is a PR 4 and two of them are PR 3. I have to wait until the next Google PR update for the remaining lens.
~Newbie Shield~
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gojade
Member
Joined: 5 Nov 2007
Posts: 43
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# Posted: 14 Apr 2008 01:47
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I'm a bit of a newbie to marketing my biz on the internet...but I'm guessing squidoo is a way to do that?
How does it work? Is it very effective? It sounds like you're the person to talk to about it Newbie Shield!
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nancyj
Member
Joined: 27 Feb 2008
Posts: 4
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# Posted: 14 Apr 2008 02:02
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HI,
Sure is a lot of good advice here. I just started with Squidoo today so will have to see how it goes. I'll probably be back asking a lot of questions.
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Money4Mommy
Member
Joined: 21 Aug 2007
Posts: 90
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# Posted: 14 Apr 2008 12:48
Reply
nancyj, I hope you love squidoo as much as I do! I am having a lot of fun with my lenses and I'm happy to say that my Flower Seed Packet lens is ranking #946 overall and #51 in DIY. Honestly, I'm sure if that's really all that great but considering where it started just a few days ago I'm quite pleased.
gojade, Newbie Shield is the one to ask for all your Squidoo questions. He has been a huge help to me with suggestions and advice. From my little experience with Squidoo, I can tell you that it is VERY effective for marketing! (You might just like it so much that you'll make some lenses just for fun too.)
Warning: Squidoo is highly addicting!!
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RayvinAndRob
Member
Joined: 22 Jun 2007
Posts: 195
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# Posted: 22 Apr 2008 23:35
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I owe Newbie Shield a big THANK YOU for the inspiration and guidance I needed to create my very first Squidoo Lense.
(He had no idea I decided to work on one until now.)
I'm glad I clicked on your sig link, Newbie. Otherwise, I'd still be Squidooless!
Rob Nyte
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Source of Influence-- All our philosophy is dry as dust if it is not immediately translated into some act of living service.(Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi)
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BillyPilgrim
Member
Joined: 11 Mar 2008
Posts: 113
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# Posted: 23 Apr 2008 08:14
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As NS knows, I use my lenses primarily as landing pages. My top two are consistently ranked in the top 400. I drive traffic to them, for the most part, through article marketing.
BP
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Money4Mommy
Member
Joined: 21 Aug 2007
Posts: 90
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# Posted: 23 Apr 2008 11:16
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My Flower Seed Wedding Favor lens has slowly moved up to #17 in DIY and ranks 290 overall. I now have 3 lenses that rank in top 1000.
I am still working on building traffic but feel pretty good about how things are going so far. I have lots of ideas for new lenses but it's really hard to find enough time to work on them right now so I've been trying to focus on improving the lenses that I already have published.
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BillyPilgrim
Member
Joined: 11 Mar 2008
Posts: 113
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# Posted: 23 Apr 2008 13:45
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I've never really cared where my lenses rank in Squidoo. Traffic and sales are what I concentrate on. Anyone have high first page natural rankings on the search engines?
BP
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BillyPilgrim
Member
Joined: 11 Mar 2008
Posts: 113
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# Posted: 23 Apr 2008 13:57
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I have the #1 ranking for an article and the #3 ranking for my lens in MSN, #2 for the lens in Yahoo with an article at #4. This is in a massively competitive niche.
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RayvinAndRob
Member
Joined: 22 Jun 2007
Posts: 195
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# Posted: 24 Apr 2008 23:48
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I guess I'm not too clear on the whole RSS Feed thing for Squidoo. I was expecting my blog posts to show up on my lens but that's not happening.
How far off am I with my expectation?
H-E-L-P!
Rob Nyte
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Source of Influence-- All our philosophy is dry as dust if it is not immediately translated into some act of living service.(Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi)
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RayvinAndRob
Member
Joined: 22 Jun 2007
Posts: 195
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# Posted: 25 Apr 2008 00:12
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Woohoo! I figured it out! I had the wrong URL in there, that's all. I put my blog's URL instead of my blog's FEED URL. Sheesh!
Anyway, now the lens will stay fresh with daily blog updates being fed to the lens.
Next task, direct traffic to it by social posting.
Thanks again NS
Rob Nyte
__________________
Source of Influence-- All our philosophy is dry as dust if it is not immediately translated into some act of living service.(Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi)
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Newbie Shield
Joined: 22 Sep 2007
Posts: 1498
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# Posted: 25 Apr 2008 07:44
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Guild,
You're welcome. I'm sure you'll do well with Squidoo as you seem to be quite good at what you do.
Squidoo is both effective and fun. You'll really enjoy it. Let me know if I can help.
~Newbie Shield~
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moneyforgreene
Member
Joined: 18 Oct 2007
Posts: 56
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# Posted: 13 May 2008 17:00 · Edited by: moneyforgreene
Reply
Hi Newbie!
Some time ago when you started talking about Squidoo I put it on my list of things to do. I went away to concentrate on my new website and I'm at a point where I need traffic. So I popped on over to Squidoo to check it out more thoroughly.
I have to say, it's a lot of fun! I thought it was some stuffy marketing type of website. But it's not. It's all about having fun and talking about and promoting whatever you find interesting! I started a lense about my organizing website, but didn't get far yet. Instead I was really eager to write about something else. I thought it was a perfect platform to share and it wasn't a topic covered yet on their website.
I put together a page, sorry "lense" about eosinophilic esophagitis, a serious condition my son has. He's one of the lucky ones at this point because he can actually eat some foods. Other kids can't eat anything at all and rely solely on a yucky formula for all their nutrients and some require feeding tubes. Anyway, you'll have to check out my lense. It's nothing fancy yet. I just wanted to get something put together while I had a little uninterrupted time. I want to go back and add some more and jazz it up. But my main point is to spread the word. What better place!
[Link removed - Admin]
(I hope it's ok to put this link here.)
Thanks!
Tracy
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Newbie Shield
Joined: 22 Sep 2007
Posts: 1498
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# Posted: 14 May 2008 22:57
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Hi Tracy,
It really is fun. It's also very addicting
They have a friendly forum over there. Squidoo is a great platform for pretty much any topic you can think of.
It's perfectly acceptable to refer to a lens as a page. I do it all the time.
You'll probably have to drop your link into your sig on this forum. I'd be happy to check it out.
Have fun with Squidoo
~Newbie Shield~
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simapr
Member
Joined: 23 Mar 2008
Posts: 54
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# Posted: 4 Aug 2008 13:09
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Would anybody care to critique my new lens? It's the first with a video and I was really nervous.
The video quality leaves a lot to be desired, but I'm kind of tech dysfunctional. I'm learning as I go.
Would appreciate any feedback.
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Newbie Shield
Joined: 22 Sep 2007
Posts: 1498
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# Posted: 4 Aug 2008 19:00
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Hi simapr,
Wonderful lens. I know those techniques work because I use similar methods on my own body each day. I need it because I spend over 12 hours a day on my computer.
I also visited a two more lenses of yours. You have a nice lens collection :)
If you'd like a couple tips, I might suggest that you place relevant keyword phrases on your video module titles, guestbooks titles, and on the title of all modules. That will help with SEO and with improving SERPs.
The foot vid quality is the same on YouTube itself. The only way to fix it is to either re-shoot the vid and re-upload it or change something in your video editing and uploading methods.
The massage vid is nicely done. You don't come off as scared. You seemed relaxed and confident.
I'm not sure what caused the slight stuttering sound in the audio but it shouldn't be hard to fix. Your speech is clear. I'm guessing that the culprit is air blowing on the camcorder microphone (microphones are amazingly sensitive these days) but it may be a technical issue.
You might want to put a little more white light in the room if you shoot it over again.
The vid is a good instructional by the way. The massage method is professional and it really does work.
On your duel modules, make sure that there is text for each vote option (for example: yes on one and no on the other option on your stop animal testing lens).
Nice lenses and let me know how your video taping comes along.
~Newbie Shield~
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