Finding lenses that really hit the mark are few and far between. It's like getting a Grand Slam or landing a Triple Axel, there's a lot of skill involved but the conditions have to be perfect for it to really happen. It's rare, but when it does happen it's magic and people take notice.
One lens that has gained some serious momentum is the Hey MonkeyBrain debate Guyliner - Love It OR Hate It?! from Lensmaster enslavedbyfaeries.
Now my guess is that enslavedbyfaeries wasn't necessarily trying to create a #1 Lens, in fact she herself says,
"When I decided to pick a fight on MonkeyBrain I wanted it to be a little bit quirky and lots of fun... I know you've got an opinion about guys who wear eyeliner so add your 2 cents to the debate! Is it hot or not?"
That's exactly what I thought. I build these lenses all the time. The're fun, creative and they make people smile. Some are fairly popular, some fall in lens rank like a lead balloon. However, on rare occasions they find some magic and turn out to be Pop Culture phenomenons.
Guyliner - Love It OR Hate It?! is one of those lens. As of today it's at Lens Rank #1526 and has over 5 pages of comments, mostly from people who are not on Squidoo AND there's been quite a buzz in the forums about this lens. Apparently the public, including myself are really hot for famous guys who wear eyeliner (check out my favorite guyliner group, Duran Duran). Interestingly, no one wants to see their actual husbands sporting racoon eyes, guess it would ruin the fantasy!
All I can say is, "Who knew!" And, that's exactly my point. I betcha dollars to donuts that enslavedbyfaeries had no idea that when she created a lens about Jared Leto wearing eyeliner that it would have been such a huge success. She created the lens because it was fun and she wanted to pay tribute to a fine actor who just happens to wear eyeliner. By adding a quirky twist she hit the creative jackpot, she found her Mojo, Squidoo Style.
Sometimes you have to let your guard down and have some fun to create greatness. Use your fabulous lens making skills and try something new. Build a lens that you're not sure will ever be a #1, experiment a little with topics that are wacky, wonderful or totally off the wall, come up with new ideas to inspire, motivate, enlighten and make people stand up and say WOW!
Then if you're really lucky and you might find some of that Squidoo Mojo exactly where you least expected to find it.
