Squidlog.net

Recently reading the Captain’s latest post, I was then directed to this post by mac33.

The discussion in hand is how lensrank decays over time, and how traffic affects lensrank decay. While we all know that there is a mysterious algorithm in place that affects lensrank on Squidoo, we also know what some of the factors affecting lensrank are, and to no surprise, traffic is one of them.

Traffic is an important factor on any site because the more focused or quality traffic you get, the more clicks you get on ads, products or any other income producing item. (See Seth’s newest post Everyone gets paid on commission for more on this.) Empty traffic is worthless because it doesn’t produce income which is why the algorithm doesn’t rely on traffic alone.

I believe it makes sense that a lens needs to dynamically increase in traffic for the traffic to have a continued upwards affect on lensrank, because again, it is the traffic that produces income for the page that is the key factor, not just any traffic.

Mac’s analysis of his particular lens just points that out, and that it pays to update your lens periodically for changes and broken links. For those of you who haven’t found it yet, there is a “Need to be edited” link on the left side of your Squidoo dashboard, that shows you any lens that hasn’t been updated in two months or more.

I think that all of us realize that if we get traffic from people already searching on our focused topic (that is what making a lens is all about) that those people are much more likely to buy now or return and buy items from our page or click links on our page. This is the behavior that will pay you or Squidoo or both.

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One of the newer lensmasters sent me an email wondering about 2 things:

Should I ask other lensmasters for rating and linking my lenses? (Or is this frowned upon in the community?)

Why is the Squidoo lensranking system so unpredictible?

Here’s my opinion – please add your input in the comment box below.

“Aahh – the eternal mystery of the lensrank…lol – I don’t know nothing about it…(I guess the double-negative means I know something…not much, tho…)

1. Only HQ knows the formula, and they keep it secret so it can’t be rigged by the usual a-holes of this world.

2. I would never directly ask people to rate my lens. The nature of Squidoo.com is to write great content and present it to the world for their judgment – “The Power of Recommendation”. It might even have a negative effect to ask for ratings or link/rating exchanges.

Back to the mysterious LR…

3. Visits, ratings, clickouts, regular updates…everything plays a role in the LR determination. I’d venture to say that what benefits Squidoo.com the most – Glam ad and Amazon ad clickouts AND purchases – probably weighs more than visitors and stars.

4. The mysterious high jumps of lenses that hadn’t been updated or visited a lot, or, conversely, the frustrating dropping of regularly updated lenses with tons of visitors and ratings, can be explained (somewhat) by the fact that about 1,700 new lenses are published daily on Squidoo. As we know, new lenses get an initial boost from Squidoo and from Google, so they tend to rise quickly and push existing lenses down.

Let’s say you have a nice lens in the About Me category, freshly updated, ranked in the Top 100, and with a fair amount of visitors and ratings – one day, every newbie and a few existing LM’s decide to publish their personal story for the world to see, like, maybe 200 of ‘em…that creates a lot of “pressure” in the top field of this category – and your work of art drops, for a while.

Once the newness (and the initial boost) wears off (and if your older lens is well-maintained), your ranking shall rise again.

If nobody publishes much new stuff, overall or in “your” category – you might see a rapid rise of your lens.

5. Longevity plays a role, too. I’ve been doing this over a year now, and some of my very first lenses had come “out the wood works” when I expected it the least. And I hadn’t even been updating much.

All in all, my “formula” for financial success through top-ranking lenses is this: Keep making new lenses. Why? See #4 above…”

Another fine image from the Heather Katsoulis Collection, available to all of us through Creative Commons

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So you’ve made your first lens and it shot up the ranks in no time flat. But lately, the lensrank has been on a steady decline and you’re puzzled what could possibly be the cause? What’s even more burning on your mind is the question of how you can counter the negative forces of gravity and lift the lensrank back up to where it rightfully belongs…

Sooner or later the training wheels come off, and then your lens must compete with all other lenses.

In the legendary helpful spirit of Squidoo lensmasters, Greekgeek enlightens inquisitive minds with a brilliant post on the SquidU forums. She explains in depth what affects a new lens’ initial lensrank positioning and what factors might aid in supporting/boosting the lensrank in the long haul.

This post is not just of interest to totally green squids; I believe even more seasoned lensmasters might glean an additional insight on the mysteries of Squidoo lensrank.

If you haven’t yet, be sure to check out Greekgeek’s post here: www.squidu.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=204650#p204650

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