Pages

Monday, November 30, 2009

The Power of Squidoo - Check THIS Traffic

If you Squidoo, you are very familiar with lensrank and people talking about all the traffic to their Squidoo lenses. But, do you really know who the top traffic lensmasters are? Or which lenses actually GET the MOST traffic? Yes, there is the Top 100, but that is really not a list of the top traffic lenses. The Top 100 is a topic for another discussion or two.

Today I want to take a moment to recognize that we have just passed the Thanksgiving holiday and survived Black Friday ... only to be hit with Cyber Monday. I had a fellow lensmaster share with me an article about the myth of Cyber Monday. It is a myth to me because I am not the typical shopper. Yes I shop like crazy online and have been doing so for some ten years. But, I don't save my shopping for Black Friday or Cyber Monday -- I shop every day of the year if I want or need something.

So, thinking of Cyber Monday, I decided to check a particular lens on Squidaholic.com. Wow, I am blown away by the huge traffic that fellow lensmaster flowski is getting for a 7-day period on his lens, Top 10 Best Christmas Gift Ideas 2009. I thought that traffic was pretty huge the other day when it was showing over 92,000 unique visitors for a 7-day period. But, today, it is sporting over 117,800 unique visitors. Now folks, that is traffic!!! Congratulations to Brandon on this wonderful success with the huge traffic. "Brandon "flowski" has been a member since August 18 2006, has rated 2,586 lenses, favorited 443, and has created 120 lenses from scratch."

Top 10 Best Christmas Gift Ideas 2009
I have a similar lens Best Christmas Presents for Gifting that was created on November 29, 2007 -- a two year old lens. But, I would wager a guess that my lens has probably NOT had 117,800 unique visitors in its two-year life span!

You know, when you have had a number 1 lens on Squidoo, it is a blessed experience. I've been there just once with Stuffed Cabbage -- this is the ONE lens out of my more than 593 lenses which means the world to me. In it I celebrate my grandmother Julia Nagy and the fond memories of Holidays with Grandma. So, having had a number 1 lens, I get lots and lots of emails which have questions about getting to that number 1 spot. A recent question from a lensmaster asked if 10,000 was a lot of traffic or normal for that number 1 spot. My answer was something like, "well a number 1 lens should surely have that amount of traffic." What about Brandon's lens? Oh, it is ONLY at number 14. Gosh, doesn't quite seem right does it? I would think traffic over 117,800 would guarantee that number 1 lensrank!

Doing my research for this blog post about traffic, I check many lenses in the Top 100. I could find no other lens approaching flowski's high traffic lens. In fact, I found many a lens well under 1,000 in 7-day unique visitors. There was a lens that passed 50,000 in 7-day unique visitors for traffic, yet that lens appeared to get no higher than maybe 40 or so in lensrank! I've seen another lens with over 15,000 traffic in one-day, and that lens was near the bottom of the Top 100. Yet, there are two additional lenses that come to mind with high one-day traffic on topicable topics -- the Presidential Vote Poll and Kevin Skinner -- those lensmasters achieved a Number 1 lensrank for their lenses.

So, how do lenses with high traffic get to the top spot? How do we as regular lensmasters even know when theses lenses have such wonderful successes with the traffic and the Google love? Recently, thefluffanutta got my attention with a Twitter tweet about the top lensmasters list that he provides us through SquidUtils.com. That made me ask, what about a list of the top traffic lenses? Wouldn't that be an interesting list to see? I know I'd love to see it.

Happy Cyber Monday to all my loyal readers, friends, buddies, chums! Have a great day.

About Me:
JaguarJulie has been a member since March 21 2006, has rated 6,298 lenses, favorited 488, and has created 593 lenses from scratch.

9 comments:

Jaguar Julie said...

Me again! Oh, I forgot to mention that I was particularly watching a lens of mine that did VERY well with traffic for a recent 7-day period. In fact that traffic was looking like it was going to hit 6,000 for a 7-day period. It is a lens that I created quite a while ago and it is one of my favorites too.

However, with traffic approaching some 6,000 unique visitors, this lens did NOT even break the Top 100 in lensrank. Somehow, this just doesn't sound right! I do think I've seen a few lenses in that Top 100 with under 200 visitors in a 7-day period. I'm wondering if the system is broken or something?

Tony Payne said...

Wow Julie, that is truly an amazing volume of traffic for a single lens. Do I detect a touch of jealousy over the volume? If not from you, I just went a deep shade of GREEN!

My lenses put together don't attract as much traffic in a month as this one has done in a single day! It just goes to show what having a good theme / search term does for you, and no doubt some good SEO fine tuning.

At only 0.11% clickthrough on any sales links, this lens on it's own has to be generating a significant amount of income.

Jaguar Julie said...

HI Tony! Ah, I am green and red -- two favorite colors for the Holiday Season. ;) Well, isn't this just remarkable? Yes you raise a good point. That kind of traffic for any lensmaster to experience as a sum of all their lenses would be amazing.

This just goes to show, I think, about the amazing Power of Squidoo and of course pair that with the Google Love. It can happen!

Thanks for dropping by today -- nice to see you. Waving to Deb!

thefluffanutta said...

I've been watching this lens for a few weeks now - very envious of that traffic. Well done Flowski!

Squidoo used to have lists of the top lenses by traffic and revenue, but they had to be removed due to abuse. Some data is simply too sensitive to keep in the public eye.

Jaguar Julie said...

Hi Tim! Say, that is some kind of traffic isn't it! Yes, flowski has produced a winner.

You know, although I've been a lensmaster since March 21, 2006, I MISSED out on seeing those lists you mention about the high traffic and high revenue lenses. Never saw any of that information as I was taking a bit of a hiatus until Megan and Kimberly challenged me in the Summer of 2007 to become a Giant Squid.

So, you saw that huge traffic too? Amazing I say!!!

Jeff Wendland said...

Very impressive indeed, well done. Squidoo is pretty amazing for giving us a medium to reach so many people.

Jaguar Julie said...

Hey Jeff! Yes indeed. The Power of Squidoo can truly be amazing. I was just reading Seth Godin's blog post today about people writing headlines to draw in others -- and how important it is to be honest about titles. To tie-in with building credibility and gaining your readers trust.

Amanda Sage said...

Wow... that's a freaking lot of traffic. I'm just a non-giant, ordinary little squid with my best lens getting around a hundred visits a week. But given its relatively small amount of traffic, it kicks butt in Amazon sales... if I do say so myself. ;)

Jaguar Julie said...

Amanda, yes that is pretty amazing traffic for WHATEVER site one might have on the internet -- competing for visitors and viewers. Thinking that 10,000 hits per page a month would be amazing -- on a CONSISTENT basis, and not just a one-hit wonder. It needs to be reproducible and sustainable. "We're #2 and trying harder to be #1." Wasn't that a rental car company slogan/mission statement? Thanks for dropping by.