How to Get a Lens to Tier 1 on Squidoo

I finally have enough lenses at Squidoo that I have a pretty good idea of what it takes to get a lens to tier 1. There are several factors that play into lens rank, but the most important two factors seem to be views and click through rate, or CTR.

A lens with 200 views a week, will generally rank in the top tier. If it's got that many views and it's not making it to tier 1, look at your CTR. You can find the CTR on the Stats page under traffic. If it isn't there, you will need to visit SquidUtils.com and download the add on. Once you have the add on installed, you'll be able to see your CTR on your traffic screen. The CTR I shoot for is 30%. If it is lower than that, it may drag your lens down in rank.

How do you get your CTR up? That's easy, add more links. If you don't want to spam up your lens, by adding obvious links and ads, you can always add text links with html. Link to other lenses, products, or articles by creating a link within the text. Adding featured lenses on the same topic is also efficient for boosting CTR. This has the added benefit of boosting views to other lenses.

A mistake I often see new lensmasters making is failing to link to their other lenses in the related lenses tab. This is in the first module you create under the related lenses tab. (It's right by the tab to turn on the table of contents.) Linking to your own lenses helps generate a lot of traffic at Squidoo.

Only 1/2 to 1/3 of my traffic comes from Google. The other 1/2 to 2/3 comes from backlinks or from within Squidoo.

Do You Zazzle?

Many of my friends who write at Squidoo also make Zazzle products and promote them in their online articles. I have tried Zazzle a few times and sold a few products, but I have never spent a lot of time on it. I read an article at Squidoo recently that made me think I was wrong to have overlooked Zazzle. SmallHandsDesigns published her experience with Zazzle in this lens: "How to Pay Your Rent with Zazzle."

She explains how she creates and promotes Zazzle products consistently. Little by little, she built up her Zazzle earnings until she was earning as much as $3000 a month. It took a few years time, but it had me motivated to take a second look. I created the products below and placed them in my store. Zazzle is a lot of fun! So what if you don't become the next big Zazzle seller, it's more fun than playing computer games in your spare time and can earn some extra cash!

Do you Zazzle?

Giant Squid 100 Clubber on Squidoo

Today, I made the Giant squid 100 club at Squidoo.com. Squidoo is a website where freelance writers can write "lenses" about things they enjoy.. and get paid! It's a lot of fun to create articles there, or lenses. You have to apply to become a giant squid once you have 50 "stellar" lenses. (Their words not mine) If you are chosen, the next step is Giant squid 100. With each of these awards come bells and whistles. Here are the bells and whistles I was offered today as a new giant 100 squid:

-- A special 100 Club Badge for all of your lenses.
It will appear automatically on your lenses and on your bio, a few hours after you’re hooked up as a 100 Club Giant.
-- A 20% lensrank boost for any (single) lens you choose.
-- 100Clubbers get the ability to nominate Purple Star lenses...
and you get +50 points for every lens you nominated that does go on to win a purple star.
-- Don't forget about the Giant Squid Concierge! If you have a bug report just email it straight to SquidooHQ to get priority attention for it.

There currently isn't any status beyond Giant squid 100, but I suspect that will change in the future.