Grabbing on tighter because the world is spinning

By now, you probably know that I'm heading to New York for the next six months to study with Seth Godin. Going to the Buddha, if you will. Still in shock, still freaking out about how I'm going to do this, overwhelmed with good wishes and people who actually want me to do a webcast. (Seriously?) And trying to wrap my head around the fact that I'm one of the people Seth is talking about when he says this group is full of astonishing people. Gaah. Not to be too fanboy or anything, but Seth Godin - !!!! - is talking about me. I've been reading for years about all kinds of great people Seth uses as examples and now, he's talking about me. Apparently the first thing I need to learn is that I'm far more amazing than I give myself credit for. Which is a tough lesson I've been trying to figure out for something like, um, 38 years now.

I had a lot more time to prepare mentally and logistically when I went to grad school for real. You have to to get through all the hoops required for that. This feels like we're doing the 40-yard dash version. Which means things are kind of just blurring past me in the mad rush. I keep thinking about weird things - like if I'll have the budget for haircuts or if this is a good time to start growing my hair again to donate - and there are much more practical things to worry about.

It would be just my luck for the Amazing Race people to call me in a few weeks to see if I could come to film season 14 in April. But ya know, I'm thinking that the impossible is a lot more possible now.

Off to NY!!!

All my bags are packed
I'm ready to go
....
cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane
But tomorrow, I'll be back again
Oh man, I'm ready to go*

What has to be one of the craziest week and half is finally drawing to a close. Five performances with the Women's Chorus of Dallas, not to mention all the attendant practices, and now, I'm off to New York to meet Seth Godin! Yes, I was one of the lucky ones to get the golden ticket, er, um, invitation to the information session. (There were some people wondering if Seth had oompaloompas in his office, though.) I'm leaving this afternoon, spending my wedding anniversary with Seth and a bunch of new friends, then coming straight back to Dallas so I can at least see my hubby a little that day.

Can't even begin to express just how excited I am - about getting to meet Seth, about these people I'll get to hang out with, about opening a new chapter for my life. I finally cracked open Tribes (figured it would be rude to show up without having read it) and the little wheels in my head are already turning. So much of what he says fits with some of the online lessons I've been learning in the last few months. But I'm taking a little time to think about it now, process it, see where it not just fits, but fits for me. Already making plans for what I need to do with that information.

But for right now - I get to go to NY. I'm still reeling that I was chosen. (I both think too much and too little of myself.) Having seen some of the crowd that will be up there with me, I'm awed to be a part of the group and stoked to get to make connections with some awesome people.

So wish me luck, pray I don't completely spaz out during my interview, send sweet dreams my way for tonight and keep your fingers crossed tomorrow morning.

*With all apologies to poor John Denver

Kung Fu Panda is still rocking

Given the great success I had with my Kung Fu Panda lens over at Squidoo, I'm embarrassed to admit I just saw the movie for the first time this weekend. I picked up the widescreen edition during a Black Friday sale since I knew we'd want to have it and watch it multiple times. My biggest disappointment was how little screen time and voice time everyone but Po (Jack Black) had, particularly Monkey, voiced by Jackie Chan. Seriously. He didn't have enough lines for you to figure out it was him. My hubby never even noticed.

Anyway, I'm still getting lots of traffic and making a few sales as people are shopping for Christmas gifts (back in the top 100 lenses). I'll be waiting until after the holidays to give this lens a complete make-over. Still trying to figure out what that would look like, anyway. There's going to be a sequel (in 2010), but I might just start over with a new lens at that point. So any brilliant thoughts out there as to what continues to be valuable on a lens of a movie that's soon to be a has-been?

Among the things I have continued to add though are more shirts (finally available at Amazon) and bedding and watches over at eBay. Not entirely sure why you can get these things on eBay when you can't find them in "normal" stores. Hmmm.

Opportunity of a lifetime

Image via WikipediaOoo, ooo, ooo!!! You totally have to pay attention for this one!

Seth Godin is offering the most incredible opportunity to come study/work with him for six months in an alternative MBA-style program. That's right! Six months with the marketing guru himself. (Can't tell you how that makes my heart flutter just thinking about it. If it doesn't make you giddy at the possibilities, forget reading the rest of this post. It ain't for you.)

So check out the blog post above - it has all the details about why Seth is doing this. Then follow the link to his lens that explains all the details as to what you need to do to apply. Please let me know if you actually do so I can add a link to your lens to my application. (UPDATED: My completed application.)

Here's to a great group participating in this opportunity!!

Seven habits of highly effective lensmasters

Just got through reading a post on seven habits of highly effective lensmasters over on Glen's lensroll blog. He asked seven megamasters what they do with each and every lens they publish. It's interesting to see how much overlap there is in the processes of each lensmaster and yet how much is different. So I started pondering my own steps and here they are, for your edification and amusement.

1. Keyword research - This involves figuring out what people are looking for. Sometimes I do the research after I have the idea, sometimes the other way around. What I'm looking for is the right phrases to use in the URL, header and intro copy to improve the odds it will get found by searchers.
   
2. Gather info/products - Second stage research to see what else has already been written as well as what I could/should put on the lens in terms of items to sell. (Sometimes this is step one as I have a product first that I want to promote.)
   
3. Figure out the visuals (pictures, colors, sizes, etc.) - In this step, I'm looking for anything that's going to help break up the text to make it more visually appealing. If I have a lot of videos, I might not feel the need for many pictures. Sometimes I break up the text by using drop caps or colors. It's rare that I can't find a picture to use. I have been known to create my own art as well to get a good intro image.
   
4. Write the intro - This is sometimes the only piece of copy I really have on a lens, particularly if it's a one-stop-shop-type of lens. I focus on ensuring I get my main keywords in there, checking for typos and a lack of clarity. My style tends to be quite conversational so sometimes it's a challenge to get those keyword phrases in there naturally!
   
5. Modules, modules, modules - I start going through the modules and just throw on a bunch. I'm never entirely sure sometimes just how I'll use them or what I want. I try to always have a poll, video and a guestbook. Sometimes the countdown is appropriate, sometimes the prediction. I usually end up taking more than I can figure out a good way to use to start with. (Note: Link List and Poll both show up on your lens even if you haven't put anything in there. Most other modules you can add to the lens and leave them empty without them showing up in the published version.)
   
6. Add content - At this point, I fill in modules (changing out headers, but rarely adding a subhead. I'm a bad girl.) and reorder them in a logical fashion. I rarely know just what order things should be in until I actually get the content in there. I'd love to think I could follow the exact same formula every time, but it just doesn't work out that way. Even my local lenses and bedding shops have variation based on what content I find.
   
7. Promote, promote, promote - I am working through adding every lens I have to lensroll.com, as well as my "usual places" - delicious, Backflip, Furl, Spurl and Squiddit. With ones I really want to get out there (and quickly), I'll stumble them, add to Propeller and look at a few other services. I'm also working on making sure I have blog posts on all my major areas and then that gets recycled out to several other places. I also put links to new lenses in my Squidoo diary blog. My main motivation for this work is to garner backlinks from several different sources to my lenses, but they occasionally do generate a little traffic as well.

So that's my list of seven. Whew. It's amazing I've managed to get to 178 published lenses! So what's on your list of habits?