The rock and roll of lensrank

For most lensmasters on Squidoo, you learn to roll with the punches, ride the waves, and understand that there will always be a bit of rock and roll to lensrank. Sometimes there will be a dip; other times there will be somewhat of a climb.  Some lensmasters track lensrank almost daily, whilst others will take a gander at their monthly numbers to get a feel for how well they are doing.

Lensrank can be quite musical and also quite mysterious. It is intentionally kept a mystery as to what specifically comprises the algorithm(s) that drives lensmasters' lensranks. The other day, I blogged about algorithms and long tails on Jaguar Julie Blog On. You know there is quite a bit of an analytical nature to algorithms. I'm pretty sure I will never understand all there is to understand about algorithms.  And, last weekend over at Squidoo, there was a lot of mystery attributed to algorithms and whatever else was driving the rock and roll of lensrank.  I'm thinking it was the flashback algorithm 2.0 in operation over the weekend.

When everything seemed to settle back to "normal" and lensranks "settled" back to where they might have been before the weekend, I decided to do a little research on Monday, May 31, 2010.  I looked at a few hundred different lensmasters, tabulated their top tier lenses, and came up with a pretty impressive list of the Top 12 Squidoo Lensmasters according to top tier placements.

Ladies and gentlemen, that list of 12 include, in descending order:  Dagsmith, Pastiche, craftyville, MiaBellezza, rms, GonnaFly, Mulberry, Jimmie, spirituality, kab, noadi, and kiwisoutback.

Here is a bit of that data that determined the list.  The chart gives you total lenses in Top 100, Tier 1, and Tier 2 along with the total number of lenses in those two tiers, and the percentage of total lenses that reside in the two top tiers.  Dagsmith shows 45 Tier 1 and 29 Tier 2 lenses which equates to 61.2% of all lenses in one of two top tiers.  That's pretty good I would say.

These Top 12 lensmasters have 27%, or about 1/4, of the Top 100 lens placements as well.  There lenses in aggregate account for 14.2% of the 2,000 Top Tier placements.

Consistency is an important factor in a lensmaster's performance with lensrank to guarantee consistent monthly royalties that you can take to the bank. Checking back to my SquidU Forum posts for four of the Top 12 reveals this consistency with lensrank placements:

"Wow! Congratulations to dagsmith on reaching a "new" milestone! That has got to be a new record ... 39 lenses in the Top Tier! Bravo." --April 27, 2010

"Oh, and yes, congratulations to Lee aka Pastiche on her equally marvelous milestone accomplishments. I see 36 -- that's thirty-six -- lenses in the Top Tier!" --April 27, 2010

"Congratulations to Craftyville! I see that I am a fan of this lensmaster ... and dropped by to visit their lenses today. It is a WOW! 33 lenses in the top tier. 1,024 lenses created -- that is huge." --May 12, 2010

"Congratulations to rms on her milestone accomplishments! You hold the record for the most Top 100 lenses at one time -- was it 7? [Update: I think it was 9.] And, bravo ... 26 lenses in Top Tier is an awesome feat too." --April 27, 2010

P.S. I'll tell you it sure was a mystery last weekend over at the Squidoo lensrank dashboards! I had to blink a couple of times, because it was a flashback of sorts for me, a deja vu of the past. For two days, I too was experiencing the thrill of the climb. My lenses were ranking like they did say maybe two years ago. I had 2 lenses in the Top 100, 25 lenses ranking in Tier 1, and 111 lenses ranking in Tier 2. I'm telling you, that was the flashback algorithm 2.0 in operation over the weekend. I hope you enjoyed it and it gave you a bit of a thrill for the moment. Thanks everyone who made that thrill possible! Ah, the power of Squidoo.

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?