One of the things you have to learn to understand Squidoo is the language. "Lensrank" (or lens rank) is a term that you'll hear a lot and it's important to understand what it means.
Simply put, lensrank is where your lens ranks compared to all the 1.8 million (and climbing) lenses on Squidoo. The lower the number, the better. In other words, a lensrank of 1 is the very best and the rank that everyone strives for but few achieve.
So, how is lensrank calculated? Good question! The answer is a closely guarded Squidoo secret, but we do know some of the factors that affect lensrank. Traffic, or the number of visits to a lens, is a big factor. Fresh content, or how recently the lens has been updated, is clearly a huge factor. Record the lensrank on one of your lenses then give it a quick update by replacing dead links with good ones, adding a poll or a picture, or even simply rewording a paragraph. Then check lensrank for that lens the next day and see how it has improved. You might be very surprised at the result.
Another important factor in lensrank is the number of clickouts a lens gets. Make sure that when a visitor to your lens is finished reading that they have someplace to go next. Yes, they can click on an ad or on one of the related lenses that Squidoo provides for them on the right sidebar, but wouldn't it be better if they went to, say, one of your own related lenses that you've featured in the body of the lens? Or, better yet, to an Amazon or eBay link that you've provided where they can buy something? The back button doesn't count as a clickout, so make it a practice to provide links for your readers to use to move forward as they read your lens.
If a visitor to your lens does click on one of those product links that you've provided and makes a purchase, that counts as a sale for your lens. Sales, too, are part of the lensrank calculation. So are "likes" or "thumbs up" ratings that the lens receives. When you visit a lens, be courteous and rate it with a thumbs up (assuming you like it). That helps the lensmaster who, in turn, may just visit your lens and help you.
Some of the factors in lensrank must be earned along your Squidoo journey. That includes purple stars (which used to be awarded to Giants only, but now anyone can earn a purple star for an outstanding lens), Squidangel blessings (Squidangels patrol Squidoo looking for great lenses to "bless" with a special boost), and boosts that all Giant Squids automatically receive for their lenses. To earn Giant Squid status, you must make 50 great lenses and then apply for the Giants program. Your lenses will be evaluated and, if they are deemed truly great, you will be awarded Giant Squid status and all of your lenses will benefit from it.
There are other factors involved in calculating lensrank, including the social activity on Squidoo that we talked about yesterday. Since part of your earning potential on Squidoo is based on the rank of your lenses, keep all of these things in mind when planning and writing your lenses. Make time to update lenses on a regular basis, and reevaluate your lenses periodically with improving lensrank in mind to see what you might add, delete, or change that could help move your pages on Squidoo up the lensrank ladder.
For more information on lensrank, check out this lens, and this one. To see the top 100 lenses on Squidoo by lensrank, look here.
How about you? What do you do to help improve your lensrank? Tips are always appreciated!
Great post. What I don't understand is tiers and how you check those.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Angel. One of the lenses I reference in the post has a little chart about tiers. Easiest thing to remember is tier 1 is from 1-2000, tier 2 is 2001-10,000, and tier 3 is from 10,001 to about 85,000. Due to averages those numbers aren't set in stone, but they're good target numbers to remember. Hope that helps!
ReplyDeleteThanks Susan,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the reminders. There is so much to remember that I forget too easily. I guess I should work on updating at least 10 per day.
Thank you,
Carmel Aaron
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Hi Carmel. Updating 10 lenses per day is a great goal. Let me share some strategy that someone shared with me. If you can only update a couple of lenses, try to choose ones that are close to the next higher tier. In other words, if you have a lens that's ranked 3000, update that one and try to raise (well, actually lower) that number to 2000 or less. If you work at it, it really does work. (Note the two uses of "work" in that sentence. Unfortunately, work is what it takes to move lenses up, but it's worth it come payday!)
ReplyDeleteExcellent information for me as I try to integrate Squidoo into my overal biz plan - thanks, Susan!
ReplyDeleteI appreciate "relearning" this stuff! SO many times I get going and forget the "little things" that you need to do to keep things going and profitable.
ReplyDeleteThanks for referencing one of my squidoo help lenses :)
ReplyDeletePersonally I worry more about making new lenses and getting them traffic than I do about updating every single lens once a month (or whatever schedule).
Thanks, Katinka. I agree that traffic is more important than lensrank. Likely I'll reference some of your lenses when we talk about traffic, too!
ReplyDeleteHave you actually tested all these factors? I've seen lensrank go up after a lens is squidliked, but it's not clear to me whether the calculation is more a function of total squidlikes or only recent squidlikes (currently one of my lenses with 10 squidlikes is ranked much lower than one with only 3 likes, as the likes on that one are more recent).
ReplyDeleteI'm a little concerned that squidoo isn't worth the effort, and that the algorithm is hidden because if people knew how it was calculated, they might not want to participate. I've extensively tested the performance of lenses published on squidoo in comparison to articles published on other sites like EzineArticles, Buzzle, or Suite101, and I've noticed that, in my case, squidoo just fails to perform. If I'm not constantly bending over backwards to drive traffic to my lenses and continuously update them, they don't draw traffic. On the other sites, I can spend several hours writing a good article and then it generates continuous views month after month, and any promotion or sharing I do of the article is a bonus, but is not necessary.
Hi Alex. Thanks for your thoughtful comment. One thing I didn't address in this post is the question, "Does lensrank matter?" It is definitely clear that lensrank matters within Squidoo. The 2000 lenses with the best average lensrank each month make lots more money FROM SQUIDOO than do the rest of the lenses. However, you can get outside traffic - and sales - from lenses from any lens, no matter what its rank. If a good lens draws traffic from keywords the way a good article does, then that's a good thing, especially if traffic equates to sales. Many of us have lenses that are not in tier one on Squidoo that make far more money from affiliate sales than they do from Squidoo tier payouts - and many of us are very happy about that!
ReplyDeleteThe lesson in this is that only 2000 lenses can be in tier one every month, but any lens, despite its lensrank, can still get traffic and lots of sales, thereby earning more money, if the content draws traffic. It's almost an apple and orange comparison or, at least, two different topics.
Squidoo doesn't reveal its lensrank algorithm for the same reasons that google doesn't reveal theirs. That would be a dumb thing to do!
Thanks again for reading my post and taking time to comment!
Great information on Squidoo lensrank. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteAn interesting discussion. I also find that my Squidoo lenses receive an initial, but often temporary lensrank boost after receiving a like or a comment.
ReplyDelete