New Squidoo City Guide Members

I just admitted another great new group of SCG members.


There's several great lenses on US cities, including more about Pendleton SC from OhMe on up to the spinning restaurant in the sky in Niagra Falls, Ontario, Canada and over Bristol in the UK.
I'm using Zoho notebook now to showcase our new members as I admit them. (Google stopped supporting their Notebook app.) So be sure to bookmark the notebook to keep up with all the great new cities joining the Squidoo City Guide. As always Squidoo City Guide lenses are bookmarked at tagfoot. You can easily find any city, state country that you're looking for. The old Google Notebooks of new members are there too. Thanks for supporting these authors and their city lenses and the Squidoo City Guide.

BigJim
Squidoo City Guide
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SCG Welcomes Rocket Mom's!

Rocket Moms is fairly new project over at Squidoo.com. It's "an invite-only gathering of the smartest women on the web..." Lensmaster bdkz is the leader of the project and designated 'Travel' as one of the topics for the participants to construct lenses on. I ran across bdkz's "Showing Off The Rocket mom's Travel Lenses", and fell into a gold mine of great new city lenses.

Here's a list of the new Rocket Moms SCG members:
San Juan del Bispo, Guatemala
Anaheim, California - Disneyland Adventure
Smalltown America - Lebo, Kansas
Jonesboro, Georgia
Paris - The Latin Quarter
London, England - Thames River Ride
Topeka, Kansas
Seaside, Oregon
Best Surfing Beaches In San Diego, California
Savannah, Georgia
Malacca, Malaysia For Kids
Forks, Washington
Egg Harbor, Wisconsin
Marblehead, Ohio
Stornoway, Scotland
San Antonia, Texas
Knoxville, Tennessee

So be sure to take a look at these and help me welcome Rocket Moms to the Squidoo City Guide. best of luck with your project and I'm looking forward to many more of your great city lenses.


Be sure to take a look at our Google Notebook for all of the latest additions to the Squidoo City Guide.

Follow me on Twitter. Retweets are appreciated.

BigJim
Squidoo City Guide
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New SCG Members

I just admitted a great new batch of lenses to the Squidoo City Guide. As usual, all new members are published in a Google Notebook and you can browse through them here. There's four of them now just chocked full of great cities from around the world. Be sure to check out SCG Notebooks #1, #2 and #3.

They are also all bookmarked, tagged and organized over at tagfoot. It's another easy way to browse through our members.

Featured City: London - St. Paul's Cathedral

I really like lenses that feature a specific aspect of a city. We have lots of them in SCG. And I really like cathedrals.


Lensmaster Stazjia takes us on a tour and through the history of St. Paul's Cathedral in London, England. And what a history it is. Apparently, the current structure is the fourth, and one of the earlier ones took over 200 years to build! The existing cathedral was nearly destroyed in the blitz of WWII.

Videos, lots of pictures and links help you really get a feel for this magnificent structure. Please take a look and be sure to give Stazjia's lens a little love while your there.

Update: I'm getting more of our members lenses bookmarked over at tagfoot. (over 350 so far.) This is the best way to find lenses about the city or area you're interested in. Use the tag box at the right side to find exactly what you're looking for. Not familiar with tagfoot? It's a new no-nonsense bookmarking site. Check it out.

BigJim
Squidoo City Guide
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Poddys' USA State Lenses

Periodically I run across things that I want to share here that aren't city lenses or directly related. I want to take this chance to let you know about Lensmaster Poddy's USA States series of lenses. That's right, he's doing a lens on every state in the USA. These are all great lenses, of course, Poddys is a very well respected Squidoo lensmaster. But they are also great places to add links to your city lenses! He's included plexos in each one for people with lenses related to the respective state.

He has six of them done as of this writing: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas and California. (What? No state with a 'B'? Who knew?) You can keep up with them from his bookmarks on tagfoot, or you can subscribe to Poddy's blog to get updates. You'll get a lot of other cool posts too. So check out Poddys' state lenses and add links to your city lenses. Give him some stars, comments and all the goodies while your there too!

If you're not familiar with them, check out Squidoo and tagfoot.

BigJim
Squidoo City Guide
Read The Fair Tax Book

Freedom Fest In Pendleton, SC

I think Pendleton, South Carolina in the most Squidooed city on Squidoo. At least per capita if not in simple numbers alone. Do a search for Pendleton SC on Squidoo and it returns 27 lenses! Most all of these are from lensmasters Joan4 and the author of our Feature City Lens, OhMe. (They're sisters.)

"Freedom Fest... is an old fashioned Patriotic community celebration that is fun for the whole family." And believe me, OhMe's lens lets you know all about it: The festivals organizers and sponsors, related activities, rules for visitors, food at the festival (Mmmmmm. Gimme a big ol' slice of watermelon!), where the proceeds go, and lots more. There's even a music widget filled with patriotic music. (It starts off with the Star Spangled Banner, so I had to view part of this lens standing up!)

Proceeds from this lens go to Pendleton's Veterans Park. (Yup, there's a lens about that too.) You can purchase some Freedom Fest merchandise right from OhMe's lens. So grab a T-shirt or hat to help support them even if you can't go to the festival.

Thanks for sharing your town with us in so many ways. And thanks for being a part of the Squidoo City Guide. Here's the Pendleton lenses in SCG bookmarked at tagfoot.

Fargo and the Red River

I wanted to feature this lens because of it's timely subject. I'm sure most of us in the United States have been aware of the flooding of the Red River in Fargo, North Dakota and the surrounding area. Lensmaster Tipi just submitted her lens 2009 Fargo And The Red River.

It's an inside look at Fargo, the devastating weather and the spirit and resiliency of the residents. Tipi also has a couple more Fargo lenses, which are in the SCG as well. I have them bookmarked at tagfoot. All of the newest members are listed in the SCG Google Notebook. Please take a look at them too.

Thanks for the great lenses Tipi and welcome to the Squidoo City Guide.

BigJim
Squidoo City Guide
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Featured Lens: Empire State Building

Ottoblotto's Empire State Building is one of the latest batch of new lenses that I've just admitted. I'm featuring it because it's a really good lens. Lots of great pictures, short but informative sections that hold your interest and help it flow along well.

The other reason is that it's a good example of focusing on a certain aspect of a city. City lenses can have such a variety of topics. There are nearly endless aspects of a city or town that can be the the subject and focus of a Squidoo lens.

Another thing I really liked is that ottoblotto has an ongoing series of these New York City attraction lenses. What a great way to tie things together and have an effective network of lenses. Be sure to check out the Chrysler Building and the Brooklyn Bridge too.

BigJim
Squidoo City Guide
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SCG's 500th Lens!

Squidoo City Guide just admitted our 500th lens! Lensmaster Evelyn_Saenz has this distinct designation with her lens Wardsboro, Vermont's Small Town Fair.

Evelyn always makes comprehensive lenses filled with lots of information, history, pictures, relevant details and links plus lots more. And this extensive look at Wardsboro, Vermont is no exception. You'll want to jump in and walk right along with the July 4th Street Fair. And be prepared to get hungry. Mmmmm, fair food!

We want to thank all of our great member lensmasters and their fantastic lenses on cities towns and villages from around the world.

We've begun to bookmark all of our member lenses at tagfoot. Browse through them if you can. tagfoot is a great new site with lots of useful features and a very good community feeling. They're still in private beta but you can join here. Check it out, you'll love it. Be sure to send me a friend request.

BigJim
Squidoo City Guide
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Two members get LOTD!

We've been very proud to see that in the last few days two of our members have had their city lenses chosen as Lens Of The Day. As most of you know, Squidoo.com has a "Lens Of The Day" feature and it is a very coveted distinction. (As of this writing these lenses had jumped to #1 & 4 in the Travel category, and #21 and 147 in overall lensrank respectively.)

A couple days ago, SCG member Gordon_H had his The Last Drop lens chosen. It's a vary cool look at a traditional Irish pub in Edinburgh. Makes me want a pint every time I look at it.

On August 24th, marasco2001 was chosen LOTD with Visit My San Francisco. It's a picture-filled tour of the City by the Bay with some great local info and links as well.

Megan Casey, writer of the LOTD blog, mentioned that she was moving to San Francisco and wanted to what Squidoo lensmasters had to say about it. Squidoo City Guide is quickly becoming a great place to find out info on cities, towns and villages from around the world. We hope your move went well, Megan. And best of luck out there on the left coast.

You should have a city lens in the Squidoo City Guide too.

BigJim
Squidoo City Guide
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New Lenses Added And Member Interviewed

I just added a batch of great new lenses. Please take a look at them when you can in our SCG Notebook.

We love our members and a lot of them are influential and popular people across many aspects of the internet and online world. Chef Keem has been a Squidoo lensmaster for just a few months and has achieved quite a high profile. He was just featured for an interview on the "So You Want To Be A Giant Squid" blog.

Congratulations Chef Keem and we're glad to have your Berlin Wall lens in the SCG.

BigJim
Squidoo City Guide
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SCG Blog is now "Do-Follow"

The Squidoo City Guide Blog is now a "do-follow" blog. This means that we encourage people to add relevant comments to our posts and your links will be indexed, or "followed", by search engines.

SCG is all about finding ways for our members to promote and improve their Squidoo city lenses. We want membership in our community to be beneficial. Now you can add relevant comments and include a link to your Squidoo city lens, and get a little link love. You don't have to member of the Squidoo City Guide (although you should be).

Comments that are related to our topics and contain useful and valuable content will be allowed. Any spam, marketing or inappropriate links will be deleted. Please don't waste our time or yours.

I've been interested in this for awhile and got the info I needed from Do Follow Blogs which, of course, was created by a Squidoo lensmaster. I was directed from there to a helpful blog post that showed me how to remove the "no-follow" tags. "Do Follow Blogs" also has a "Plexo" where you can add the URL to your own "do-follow" blog.

We have also submitted this blog to the "Do Follow" Blog Directory. I hope this helps gets our members some beneficial backlinks. So comment away people. Let us know what you think about SCG and help us get the word out about all of our great cities, towns and villages.

BigJim
Squidoo City Guide
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SCG Member In The News!

Squidoo City Guide member Joan4 has made the news! Joan and her lens about Pendleton, SC were mentioned in the Anderson-Independent.

Joan has been a Squidoo City Guide member since June 6, 2008 and her lens is shooting up the lensranks. As of today it was #10 in the Travel category and ranked #413 overall. A lot of hes lenses traffic is coming from townspeople themselves. Friends and residents are leaving posts in her guestbook and it's starting to read like a community bulletin board.

This will be fun to watch and will present some new opportunities to use a Squidoo lens to support, inform and unify an entire community.

So take a look at her lens and see what all the fuss is about. Great job, Joan. We're proud to have you as a member.
Pendleton, SC

BigJim
Squidoo City Guide
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On The Road

Hello from Ottawa, Canada. I'm up here for a couple days playing at the Ottawa Blues Festival with the Sauce Boss. And, you guessed it, we've got some great lenses in SCG about Ottawa. Use the SCG Search Engine to find member lenses and lots more relevant information. You can use it straight from here in the side-bar. Type in the city you'd like to find out more about.

After coming back in the states on Monday, we'll be playing in Rochester, Syracuse and Orchard Park, NY. As well as over in Lorain, OH. If we're going to be near you, please check out itinerary at the Sauce Boss website and come out to a show.

I just admitted a couple batches of great new city lenses. Please go to our SCG Notebook and take a look at our newest members.

BigJim
Squidoo City Guide
Read The Fair Tax Book

Featured Lens: "City Of Eternal Spring"

Our featured lens this time takes us to The Canary Islands and the old colonial town of Puerto de la Cruz. This is an excellent lens and makes you feel as if you're right their on the beaches and different areas of this town.

Lensmaster Piksychick has filled this one with facts about the town, the attractions, inside traveling tips. There's helpful info to help you go to either end of the spectrum on hotels and accomodations and what to expect from different types of transportation in the area. There's links to free maps and other informative websites, a table with exchange rates and even a recomendation for a physician if you need one while there. Plus video and lots of great pictures.

Puerto de la Cruz, Canary Islands

One thing I like about this lens is that it is very specific about where this town is. I've noticed a lot of lenses that have me searching and wondering where in the world this place really is. (I'll have a post about that and other tips for improving city lenses soon.) You definitely know where this part of paradise is.

BigJim
Squidoo City Guide
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