I’ve Been Blessed!
But do I want to be a giant squid?
Okay, so a couple of my lenses were blessed recently and because of that (or so I’m assuming. Who knows maybe it’s because “I’m special”) I was invited to join in the Become A Giant Squid group which kinda mentors and helps writers along in reaching their goal of 50 lenses.
Perhaps I should explain the whole concept a little more clearly.
Squidoo is a place where you can write small webpages which they call lenses. Unlike many places the focus is providing quality information but also offering the writers to partake in earning money. This is done in a couple of ways.
1. Monetizing. This means including Amazon and other affiliate links. People click through you get paid. People buy you get paid more.
2. Squidoo Rankings. Squidoo pays out money depending where your lens ranks.
There are 3 payout level.
Tier three: Your lens needs to rank under 85,000
Tier Two: Under 10,000
Tier One: Under 2,000
Two of mine are Tier Two but close to Tier One and 15 are Tier Three. Two completely out of the money.
Currently there is like a million lenses (not kidding there) and so a person writes a lens and then waits for it to rise in the rankings so it can start earning it’s keep
In order for a lens to get ranked higher there are numerous ways.
1.Other squidoo members Star rank your lens.
2 Comments left by either members or non members
3.Clickouts. How often someone clicks through to affiliates
4. traffic. How many people visit your lens.
5. Becoming a Giant Squid Which is having at least 50 quality lenses.
6. Creating Over 100 lenses
7.Squid Angel Blessings. (which is the reason I wrote this post) Squidoo has a group of volunteers who go around looking for lenses that are well executed but may not be ranking highly. When they bless them which helps them temporarily raise in the rankings and so hopefully get more attention from the ranking systems and thus elevate the lens.
In theory you can get a high ranking lens with just any one of these ranking tools but it usually requires all of them working together to make it happen.
Okay so anyway back to the point of this post. Do I want to be a giant squid? Yes . . . someday. Frankly I thought shooting for 20 lenses this year was pushing it for me but I have already surpassed that (a couple are still in the building stage) and it’s only Feb. Can I really do 50 before the next deadline? Doubtful but possible.
We shall see.
Tags: squidoo
Mona, thank you for explaining this. I went to Squidoo from your site (I had never heard of it before, and I am sure my boss is thrilled I found another way to spend time surfing the net!) and I didn’t really understand what it was or how you were making money from it. Now that I get it, I will have to go back and “Star Rank” all of your lenses! (wow, even learning new vocabulary today!) How fun and I am sure that whatever you set your sites on, you will be successful!
P.S.Love White Buffalo too!
Wow, Mona — what an accomplishment. I have not looked at all of your lenses yet, will do so. It is really something that you are close to your twenty and I am certainly glad you were blessed. GOOD FOR YOU!
Thanks Lorie, Since I’m my own boss I play all day on the internet and then have to berate myself for it later.
Thanks to you to Angela, Hard to say whether I’ll make 50 but I may surprise myself.