Squidoo "Lensmasters" Rock the Lens-A-Day Challenge

For those of you who haven't heard about the site, Squidoo allows users (called "lensmasters") to easily create their own unique content pages (called "lenses"). These lenses are similar to websites, but Squidoo takes care of the coding and organization, providing "modules" for users to build their lenses quickly and with ease.

People join Squidoo for many reasons. Some wish to promote their websites and businesses by sharing useful, relevant information. Some use Squidoo itself as a business, raking in online income from associated vendors such as Amazon and iTunes. Others simply wish to get the word out about various ideas, services, and events. Because Squidoo is considered an authority site, it's a great way to promote your content quickly and efficiently.

At Squidoo, the more lenses you make, the richer and more valuable your experience becomes. That's why many lemsmasters decide to participate in the "Get Cracking with Bonnie and Robin" Lens-A-Day Challenge.

The challenge is simple enough: each day, Bonnie and Robin provide a potential lens topic idea for lensmasters on their Facebook page. For example, some of the challenges to date have been "write a lens about something sticky" and "write about a personal first."

People participate in the challenge for different reasons. Some lensmasters, such as Aiden (aidenw), are trying to achieve the special distinction of becoming a "Giant Squid," a title reserved for lensmasters who have created at least fifty high quality lenses. Others, such as Virginia (vallain) simply can't pass up a good challenge.

Still others, such as Brandy (BrandyT), are attempting to complete a total of 100 lenses, another achievement benchmark within the Squidoo community.

The challenge has benefited lensmasters in various ways. Michelle (HorseAndPony) has become a better writer after creating more than ninety-eight lenses from scratch. Sandy (sandyspider) previously spent a lot of time on each lens, and is learning to simplify using the KISS system. Using Squidoo is a good way to develop a web presence without your own domain name, a fact that Carol (purplelady) learned after taking on the Lens-A-Day challenge. And Rhonda (pukeko) isn't having as much feature creep in her lenses as before she attempted to make a lens each day.

Not everyone is attempting to make a lens every single day. Many of the lensmasters on Squidoo work full time, have children, volunteer, etc., and don't have much time to dedicate to lensmaking. Janelle (CCGAL), enjoys selecting her favorite challenge topics when she has a few spare moments. Lynne (ElleDeeEsse) wants to shoot for one or two lenses a week, and is inspired by getting a new topic idea every day.

In the past thirteen days of the challenge, there have been at least 182 lenses generated, with more on the way. That's a lot of traffic for Squidoo, a lot of amazing new content on the web, and a lot of very creatively satisfied people.