Talk to Others!
Find Help with your Online Writing
One of the
best places to hone your skills in online writing used to be a great forum site
run by the website Squidoo called SquidU, the Lensmaster Lounge.
This site was
especially loved by freelance writers who utilized Squidoo because the people commenting
on the forum were not only helpful, but direct, honest, and spoke their
minds. You would really feel plugged in
when you participated at SquidU.
But in
August 2012, Squidoo Headquarters closed that great SquidU site, and moved what
they could of the knowledge onto another site they administer.
You can access the
current site here:
While not
as open and free spirited as the earlier site, you’ll still find the Squidoo HQ
site quite useful. You’ll see when you
visit that it has a lot of different options for tracking down information
pertinent to writing on Squidoo.
Just click
on the drop down arrow box at the top center of the page to choose between
subjects like their Learning Center, Squidoo News, Squidoo Tips, or visit their
current Forum. The latest HQ site offers
a good amount of information. There are
many people reaching out and participating on the forum who are willing to help
you. Make sure you check it out.
If you’ll
be using the forum, it’s important to remember that this site is administered by
the staff at Squidoo and HQ is monitoring what is going on.
A
Word of Caution
The Squidoo
HQ site is not the forum site to voice any frustration you might be having with
Squidoo. The HQ staff does not have much of a sense of
humor when it comes to dissention among the ranks. Writers report having comments, being blocked
from forums, and even having their Squidoo account closed for posting even vaguely
negative comments. So keep this in mind
and use the official Squidoo Headquarters forum for questions you have, or to
voice upbeat comments only.
Airing
Your Grievances
So where do
you go when you just have to vent or when you need to talk to others to commiserate?
Check out
the Squidoo writers-moderated forum on Yuku.com. The
forum is called Squid∩ (or Squid Upside-Down) - and you
will find it at:
This informal
message board type forum is a community of experienced Squidoo writers—many who
are the old guard of regular forum commenters.
They are ready to talk about web writing issues, whether on Squidoo or
any of the other online writing websites.
These folks have the credentials and they walk the walk.
It’s important to note that this
forum was started by writers and is unaffiliated with Squidoo, LLC or its
staff.
So
what will you find on Squid∩?
Squid Upside-down
is a very flexible forum where you can do things such as share your writing successes,
voice your concerns, or even ask for a critique of your work.
There are
free tutorials available from web writing veterans.
You can buy
or sell articles on the site’s Marketplace thread.
There are
also forum threads that help answer questions about writing on sites other than
Squidoo such as Hubpages, Zujava, and Wizzley.
There’s a
forum thread for those interested in talking about self-publishing whether that
be blogs, websites, or e-books.
There’s a
forum thread devoted to e-commerce shops and pages such as Zazzle, Cafepress,
Etsy, and Amazon.
To join
this unofficial group, just set up a Yuku.com profile, log in, and introduce
yourself.
You’ll find that they’re a
pretty friendly bunch.
