I am learning a lot more lessons from making my lens: http://www.squidoo.com/30minuteslens than I expected.
- In terms of what people are interested in, I have had 3 times the visitors to this lens than my first two lenses.
- In terms of what it takes to make a great lens, I learned that quality is related to time.
- I learned that a lot of people feel the same way I did, wondering why they couldn’t make a lens in such a short time.
- I learned that posting in Critique me at SquidU has had a huge number of views vs. my first two critique me postings.
- I learned that getting people to try the experiment is harder than it seems.
- I learned that getting people to leave a comment, especially in answer to the questions I posed is even harder.
So how can I take the lessons I learned to make better lenses and more popular lenses?
My new question is this: Do you make lenses for the purpose of informing or do you make a lens because you know it will be popular? Or, have you found a happy medium?
August 8th, 2008 at 11:38 am
I do both, but mostly to try and create lenses that are going to be popular. Popular - Traffic = Money (hopefully).
August 8th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
I don’t shoot for Squidoo popularity (which I have been very successful at doing if I may say so!) but I often shoot for informative which is popular with Google and Yahoo! searchers. (as evidenced by Google and Word Tracker research as well as visits to forums) I use Squidoo to support an already existing business and blog and most often stick to those topics. So, people with different goals might go with popularity alone and be very successful indeed.
August 9th, 2008 at 1:05 am
There is definitely a learning curve here! I am working toward getting a couple of websites up as well as a couple of shops for some artistic ventures. I know instinctively that I can make it all work together if I can get through all the vocabulary! Word Tracker, Adsense…. I really thought I was Internet Savvy until I decided to try my hand at Squidoo!
Does anyone know what percentage of lenses are geared specifically to money making vs. informative lenses?
August 9th, 2008 at 6:01 am
The type of popularity you’ve achieved with this lens is VERY short lived. It’s an interesting experiment - so people came to take a look. Doesn’t mean they’d come back to that lens, or bookmark it, or recommend it to anyone - nor is there any way a search engine would (or should) turn this lens up for searches.
So enjoy your five minutes of fame
As for lenses: I make both. Making a squidoo help lens is an almost surefire way of making a popular lens. I do that a lot. Then I make lenses I think are interesting - which are often less interesting to others, though there are exceptions which turn out to get a following even if I hadn’t expected it.
August 9th, 2008 at 11:25 am
I never made the lens with the intent or hope that it would be popular, rather as a true experiment for myself.I was feeling frustrated that I was doing something wrong by NOT being able to make a lens as quickly as the “advertising” made it appear it should. I published it for others to see that it isn’t as easy or as fast to make a lens as claimed. I think Newbies need to see what a 30 minute lens looks like in comparison to a lens that took days. Since I published it, I have added to the lens everyday and I am collecting advice/reactions from others based on the experiment.
I am far new at Squidoo to have any ulterior motives. The question about informative vs.money making lenses is simple curiosity. I have not even stepped into the money making idea as I am still wading in the shallow end!
I would much prefer people going to my first two lenses. Of course they are near and dear to my heart since I am still in the process of shopping for the dorm!
And thanks to all of you for your input. I really do appreciate it!