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Our guest on Giant Squid Open Mike was Alex Crabtree aka Drifter 0658, who recently created Factor Y on Squidoo, a new group of male lensmasters. Rocket Moms, a woman's Squidoo group, has been wildly successful for Squidoo and for all of us who participate there.
Factor Y is modeled after the Rocket Mom concept, but keeping in mind the difference between how men and woman utilize the Internet. Factor Y will support men using Squidoo for success or for freedom of expression, or as a creative outlet, whatever a person needs at the time of lens creation. Men are the gender minority on the Internet, Alex explained to us. Men are not multi-taskers, like women are, yet they spend much of their time surfing. And men buy more products on the Internet than women do.
Women often like to hangout and chat, thus the rise in Social Media use, whereas men are more and more turning to the Internet as a alternative to punching a timeclock in unsupportive environments. Women have had more of an opportunity to be "stay at home Moms."
Now men would like to have a similar experience, as the World economy is changing how people are doing business.
Alex said Factor Y officially opens 8/31/09. The focus will be--Focus! How to use the Internet, how to build quality lenses, and class work to help members achieve their objectives for Internet success, whatever that means to each individual.
The group will also use the "Ning" format to communicate class achievements and goals. Alex is in the process of formating the Ning now for easy navigation. of his lenses gets the best traffic at this time? He said the "Tail Of The Dragon" currently is ranking the highest. The lens is written about an eleven mile stretch of road with 318 curves in Tennessee, very popular amongst the biker community. Since this is the season for this activity, Alex attributes the recent rise in lens traffic to the parallel biker traffic on that famous stretch of road.
I was impressed by the great variety of graphic art which is represented on Alex's work. I asked him if he was a cartoonist, because of a series of cartoons I saw on his Lensography. He said he manipulated some of his pictures in his photo album to create a comic book effect.
He said that most recently, he is into sidebar graphic designs. The graphic runs the entire length of the text, he said, and I saw an example of this as I was looking over his lenses.
He said the biggest thing about HTML in your lens? is not to go over board with it. Content is the most important part of any lens.
A comment from the Blog Talk Radio chat room brought on a lively discussion, having to do with encouraging the men on Factor Y to speak from their heart. Every person has a male, female component to their psyche. Sometimes the way a person expresses herself is not balanced, as in the example of the recent outcry against healthcare reform at the August town hall meetings.
This is not a good example since these outcries are orchestrated by Health Insurance Companies, which in turn are churning hysteria at meetings across the country. But don't take my word for it. Ask Wendell Potter, Cigna Executive Whistle Blower, who recently told Bill Moyers this on PBS.
Carl Jung, American Psychologist, wrote extensively about the anima/animus or male/female component we all have within our deepest soul. The male/female exists within all of us, often in need of balance. The core issue is learning to appreciate each other's energy, instead of manipulating one another.
We discussed the Right and Left Brain in relationship to all of this. Alex said his next lens will be about the Whole Brain, and how to operate from a whole brain perspective. The right brain is more predominant in terms of creativity. He used the example of a "white paper" and how generally boring they are to read. However, if a person places a hint of humor or an editorial remark, this makes the piece so much more interesting, in contrast.
Story telling is a right brain addition to any lens or blog post.
At this point, we discussed Natalie Goldberg's book entitled "Writing Down The Bones," and the sequel, "Wild Mind."
Her advice is to write without censuring and write the truth. Do not edit out details that help to paint a picture of reality. Use powerful words.
Avoid "I think", or "I believe."
Be sure about what you write.
But don't beat people up with your words.
I think Alex will teach his fellow Factor Y men well--very well.
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