I'm celebrating - I'm now a Giant Squid!

I'm committed to drawing and sketching AND writing AND sharing information about art. I'm passionate about providing information as a resource for both artists and art lovers - and, as of this week when the graduating class of June 2008 was announced - my passion has produced tentacles!

I've just become one of the latest set of Giant Squids on Squidoo! :D

"Giant" badge: Giant Squids are distinguished by their exceptional skill for making top-notch lenses, and lots of them. Whenever you land on a Giant Squid's lens, you know the person behind it is passionate about the topic and is hard at work making the lens worthy of your time and attention. Giant Squids have 50 or more really great lenses, and they get quite a few perks for all their hard work. This is just one. Learn more about what it takes to be a Giant.
Squidoo - squidbadges

From now on whenever any of you land on one of my information sites you'll see one of the Squidoo icons for a Giant squid. They're a little bit more discreet than this new and absolutely huge one on the left!

Becoming a Giant Squid means I've also been awarded a gold star for all my lenses..

Gold stars: This shows that a particular page is a certified gold star lens, which means it's the best of its kind on Squidoo (or shows some serious potential for getting there.) When your lens gets a gold star, it also automatically gets a little LensRank boost. Not bad. For now, only Giant Squids can get gold stars on their lenses. But turn that frown upside down: All lensmasters are welcome to join the Giant Squid challenge and earn their way in!
Squidoo - squidbadges

Pre Giant Squid status, my top 25 were all in the top 10,000 lenses and I had a small but consistent number in the overall top 1,000. To give that some context, there are now nearly 600,000 lenses on Squidoo featuring all manner of topics across a large number of topic categories.

Some artists are using the Arts & Literature category on Squidoo to help them market their work. I know I've found that squidoo sites can generate quite a bit of traffic for my blogs and websites - for example, these lenses are all particularly popular. I'm sure they have also contributed to people realising that there's a bit more to me than whatever it was that they first happened upon. I know I get some very nice comments in the feedback section of some of my sites.

As many of you know, my sites are very much oriented towards information, advice, tips and techniques for artists from a wide range of sources - either about art media/subjects (resources for artists) or famous artists (resources for art lovers) from the past or the present. I produce my sites because I love to create ways in which people can access information in an organised way that helps them to learn and develop either as an artist and/or as an art lover.

The positive comments I get are really rewarding..........but it still gives me a really great feeling when somebody gives one of my sites a 5* rating too!

I'd especially like to thank all the people who made such positive comments very early on - which kept me pushing forward after the first few lenses. Apparently, not only had I found a new way of organising my bookmarks - I'd apparently founded a new reference library for lots of other people too! :)

You can see all of my information sites - and groups of lenses - on either:

• Who is Making A Mark? - my lensography which sets out my information sites in themes which link back to my main websites and blogs
  
• Making a Mark on Squidoo - a listing of all my "Resources for Artists" and "Resources for Art Lovers" sites - plus the ones about the cats!
  

If you want to be a Giant squid too!

Below - for those people who are already making sites on Squidoo - are some links to sites which can help you if you want to become a Giant squid too.

• The Giant squids and how you can become one
• So you want to be a Giant squid?
• Giant Squid FAQs - Learning to swim with Giants
  
• How to create a quality lens
  

Here are a few of my tips a few tips for people wanting to produce good quality lenses:

• Create sites about what you know
  
• Create sites about topics that really interest you
  
• Stay very focused and 'on topic'
• If you've got a lot of information for one lens try splitting it in two (my Colour - resources for artists site spawned two more sites last month! Others are about to have babies!)
  
• Organise your information so it's really easy for people to see what's there - using the contents module and informative module headings really helps
  
• Make sure you have a feedback section - visitors and fans of a topic are always suggesting new sites to add in!
• Be persistent: Creating sites in a slow and steady way gets you there in the end and stops you from becoming frazzled or distracted from other things that also need doing.

If you want to join my group

I have a group "Resources for Artists" (see below) which hosts sites of relevance to visual artists who are interested in drawing and painting. If you've got a squidoo site which meets the criteria for entry to the group do let me know and I'll add it in.

Resources for Artists Headquarters

This group is about visual art - specifically drawing and painting only - and the business of being a fine artist in these particular fields. This group only features those lens which mainly provide links to advice, information and products for artists involved with drawing and painting and specific media

If you'd like to create a link on your blog or website to one or more of my information sites which is particularly relevant to you please do so! :)

and finally......

......to all my American readers who are also celebrating today - I hope the fireworks are great and the food is good! Have a great 4th July!