Making a good lens that gets high traffic

Welcome to the Topicability blog. Today's blog post features one of my recent emails received from Squidoo. Here is a snippet of the email asking for tips:

I am new to Squidoo and I've noticed that your lenses are very popular and well-liked by others! I think you did a great job in making such fantastic lenses! Do you have any tips for me in making a good lens that gets high traffic? Is it possible to share some of your secrets? ... Here are my lenses ... Please do take a look if you're able to.

Today's question is two-fold, "how do I make a good lens?" and "how do I get high traffic?" Ah, now is that not a question that all of us lensmasters have gotten more than a couple of times? There is no quick route to the top and if there were, would it be legal? Or, more importantly, would I want to be following those tips? I think not.  And, I don't.

What is really great about Squidoo is that there are SO many free resources available to those lensmasters who want to work at being successful. There is so much to discover about Squidoo, at Squidoo, that it can be quite daunting. Each person has their own learning curve and really should take it at their own pace.

First of all, you need to become acquainted with "the place" I say ... and a lot of lensmasters would say that too!  I wrote an instructional Squidoo lens, How to Squidoo -- A Step-by-Step Primer which is a good starting point. First of all, you need to sign up to be a Squidoo lensmaster if you haven't already done so! Hey, follow me.

Looking around Squidoo, you will find such helpful resources as:

• The Answer Deck
• SquidU Forum
• The Squidoo Blog
• The SquidU Review
• Top 100

Making a good lens ... what the heck IS a "good" lens?  What defines a "good" lens? Is it a lens that has great content?  Is it a lens that shows you how-to do something?  Is it a lens that "meets your needs" at the moment?  Is it a lens that gets a lot of traffic?  Is it a lens that gets a high lensrank?  Is it a lens that is on the first page of Google searches?  Is it a lens with a high Google PR?  Is it a lens that sells a lot of stuff?

What the heck is a "good" lens?  Well, it's kind of like great sex ... how would YOU define great sex?  Do you know it when you see, hear, touch, feel it? Pardon me for getting a bit tongue-in-cheek.  You see, I've had great sex and I believe I've created many a lens that I would even call "great" but sometimes the objective factors that come into play don't necessarily translate that goodness on paper to appear to be a "good" or "great" lens.

My answer is perhaps a bit conceptual. See that picture with the cat lady? If you begin by writing about that which you know the most, that would be a good start. "Be the best that YOU can be!  Be authentic original and unique."  Be YOU.  Explore yourself and your interests.  What can you share of yourself with others?  Tell it in your own words.

I think too often some of us might get sidetracked in that we want to shoot to the top without learning the ropes.  Call me old-fashioned if you will. I am a bit of an old-timer from the old school.  What's great is that all you have to do is take that first step ... look around ... help is all around you ... you have millions of lenses to browse.  I've authored over 850 lenses; browse JaguarJulie lenses and other lensmasters' lenses to get a feel for a variety of topics.  You have an Answer Deck of free resources.  You have a forum of helpful and friendly lensmasters.

Can you write effectively for an online experience? Perhaps you need a guide book?