Hungarian Spaetzle Case Study

Welcome to the analytical and informational Hungarian Spaetzle Case Study where we lensmasters take a closer look at the analytics and statistics behind a lens. This case study profiled on the Topicability blog is a companion analytical analysis to Hungarian Spaetzle - Little Dumplings.

You know, being on Squidoo, we lensmasters GOT to participate in a bit of a social experiment. Oh, I’ve tried my own type of social experiment and sometimes it works and then sometimes it doesn’t work. It’s OK to admit that you made a mistake about something and then pick up your chips and move on. And, the important part of that social experiment is to hope AND sometimes PRAY that the others are professional enough to understand … and let it go!

So, I had an idea, long ago and far away, about doing a Hungarian Spaetzle Case Study lens to track a lens’s performance. In the beginning, I was more proactive with the lens promotion. However, life intervened and I took a backseat to the normal type of promotion. After awhile, one hopes for normalcy and for fairness and for a return to the good old days when things were simpler and articles rose because they were good and got normal traffic that was also good.

I don’t cater to asking every tom dick and harry for a Squid Angel blessing. If YOU think my lens deserves that blessing, well go ahead and bless it! Personally, I think this is a pretty swell lens.

Size matters folks — and it’s NOT just in little dumplings aka Hungarian Spaetzle! Thanks for dropping by … I hope I can fulfill your needs today.

Photo credit of obviously delicious Spaetzle taken by Kobako.

Hungarian Spaetzle Squidoo Lens Published

This lens was published at 9am EST on 8/31/09. Ranked #2,073 in Food, #46,019 overall.

I am using this lens on Hungarian Spaetzle as a “case study” lens to document how this lens is promoted and to chart lens stats. It was my idea to publish a lens to be used as a “case study” as I was writing on the topic of lens promotion for a special project. It made sense to me that a lens be the “case study” to show how lens promotion could impact lens statistics — including traffic and lensrank. So, I made that suggestion that everyone do a “case study” lens to demonstrate their topic of discussion on Squidoo and Squidoo lenses.

Of course, we all know the IMPACT of Squid Angels in that lensrank — so if a group of angels were to bless a lens, that could definitely skew the rankings. At this time, It is not believed that this lens HAS had many of those angel blessings. So the lensrank achieved for this “case study” lens should be truer to the lens promotion that has been used for Hungarian Spaetzle — Little Dumplings. Nowadays, with all the groups supporting group members, it is difficult to get many lensmasters’ ratings for non-group lensmasters. I don’t currently belong in any “groups” aside from Seth Godin’s original Tribes project. So, getting visitors to rate lenses demands more creative lens promotion!

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This lens was originally created on 8/28/09 and worked for for a few days before publishing. This screen capture, taken before Noon on 8/31/09, shows that the lens has a 5-star rating, been rated by 5 people, and is Ranked #2,073 in Food, #46,019 overall.

A bug: This lens was originally created on 8/28/09, but was held until 8/31/09 to publish. It got caught in the bug that showed the lens in red WIP on the dashboard. The bug assigned lensranks of Aug 29: 792,181 and Aug 30: 794,020 with a two day Average Lensrank for Aug of: 793,101. A bug report was issued to ask that this lensrank be adjusted to 0.

Hungarian Spaetzle - Lensrolled
This lens was lensrolled on 8/31/09. These is a rather 'heavy' number of lenses for a typical lensroll.

 
After lensrolling, throughout the day, this lens was added to social media platforms, first through the lens buttons to StumbleUpon, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Digg, Delicious. It was added later in the day to Stumpedia, RedGage, Tagfoot, and ThisNext. A blog post was done on JaguarJulie Blog On and On along with a Posterous blog entry.

Hungarian Spaetzle - Dashboard Stats
As of 9am EST on 9/01/09 - Ranked #175 in Food, #2,880 overall.

Here are the Lensmaster Private Dashboard Stats as showing 24 hours after lens publication.

Traffic Sources:
Referral: 11
Direct: 10

Surfer Stats:
Clickouts: 10 (last 30 days)
Number of times lens has been emailed: 4
Number of times lens has been marked as favorite: 8

Referrers:
twitter.com
squidoomarketing.ning.com
tagfoot.com
facebook.com
stumpedia.com
squidoo.com
delicious.com
stumbleupon.com

Hungarian Spaetzle - Squidoo Directory Submissions - 9/01/09

Squidirectory – A categorized Squidoo directory featuring an interesting variety of different subjects ranging from arts and literature, shopping, and eco friendly tips, to vehicles for sale, travel, and everything in between.

Lensroll: Hungarian Spaetzle — Little Dumplings
The Isle of Squid
Squidom.com
Squidinkpot.com

Hungarian Spaetzle - Lensrank Chronology
Google and Yahoo started referring traffic on 9/02/09!

8/31/09: Ranked #2,073 in Food, #46,019 overall – 5 ratings – 5 stars
9/01/09: Ranked #175 in Food, #2,880 overall – 8 ratings – 5 stars
9/02/09: Ranked #134 in Food, #2,169 overall – 10 ratings – 5 stars
9/03/09: Ranked #134 in Food, #2,169 overall – 13 ratings – 5 stars

Hungarian Spaetzle - Lens Traffic - 90 Day Review
Taking a look back at the lens statistics for 3 months as of 12/20/09.

First of all! This is a very important statistic to note in the “case study” with regards to my previous comment about groups! See the previous module that reported “Lensrank Chronology” of:

9/03/09: Ranked #134 in Food, #2,169 overall – 13 ratings – 5 stars

Compare that bit of information with this lensrank AND ratings:

12/20/09: Ranked #1,200 in Food, #20,821 overall – 16 ratings – 5 stars

Does this NOT speak volumes that this non-group lensmaster’s lens has ONLY been able to garner 3 ratings in a 3.5 month time period? That equates to one vote per month! Heck, I’ve visited brand new Rocketmom’s lenses with some 19-20 votes right out of the gate! And, I’ve visited many of the other private/semi-private groups members lenses to see equally high number of lenses’ ratings — far more than the 16 ratings on a nearly 4-month old lens.

The power of Squidoo = the power of groups!

Hungarian Spaetzle - Thank YOU Google!

Google is responsible for bring the majority of traffic to Hungarian Spaetzle!

I’ve written much in my lensmaking experience about the power of Google and how it equates to the power of Squidoo in lens traffic. The cool pie charts that you can find on your lensmaster dashboard can give you a good idea of the health of your lens promotion.

According to the 90 day review of 12/20/09, Google is responsible for bringing in 59% of the traffic to Hungarian Spaetzle - Little Dumplings. That 59% is not a “little dumpling” in the composite of the “case study” of this lens. The other 41% of traffic is attributed to Referral, Yahoo, Direct, Bing, AOL, MSN, Ask, and Lycos. Discovery accounts for 0%. We all know that it is important to not “put all your eggs in one basket” if you are relying on a steady traffic stream to a performing Squidoo lens.

Are you a Spaetzle Lover?
Hungarian or Otherwise? Do you love LITTLE dumplings i.e. Hungarian Spaetzle? My grandmother made the best “Hungarian” Spaetzle ... little dumplings!

History: Hungarian Spaetzle : Little Dumplings was originally created on Squidoo by JaguarJulie on August 28, 2009. On January 25, 2011 this lens earned the Squidoo Purple Star Award for quality content.

Squidoo and HubPages Big News

August 15, 2014 - the Ides of August! It was a monumental announcement delivered to the lensmasters of Squidoo. Big News! It was the kind of news that surprised the heck out of a lot of lensmasters. Many of us were feeling that the end was near for Squidoo; but those fearing the end never guessed that HubPages, a former competitor, would be acquiring their lens content!

Seth Godin's Announcement - A Snippet

Seth Godin's Announcement - A Snippet:

August 15, 2014

Here’s some good news, big news, news that will open some new possibilities for you…

HubPages is acquiring key content from Squidoo, creating the largest site of its kind in the world.

For nearly a decade, both Squidoo and HubPages have provided a home for content creators online. We’ve made it easy for people to use our platforms to share content that they care about, to tell stories, write articles and link to places that matter to them. Over the years, more than four billion visits have been made to the two sites, which host content from more than five million people.

Today, we’re announcing that as a result of this acquisition, Squidoo is moving the best of its content to HubPages. They’re the industry leader, continually pushing the envelope in terms of their content, its presentation and the traffic and traction they get online. The best way we know to serve our users is to give them an even better place for their content, and when I talked with Paul Edmondson at HubPages, it became clear to both of us that combining these platforms leads to a stronger, more efficient, more generous way to share great stuff online.

Personally, I had felt, for quite some time, that things had to change. In November-December 2012, I made a bold move - a move that many scoffed at in the different forums. I began deleting hundreds and hundreds of my Squidoo lenses. After backing up each and every lens in their entirety, I hit the delete button. By February 2013, I had removed over 600!

"Oh, I would never delete one of my Squidoo lenses." I heard that quite a bit. And, others had already up and quit Squidoo and took their content with them. Others didn't have that kind of control as their lenses were locked and their accounts were deleted for them.

We were given the option of opting in early for the move. And, it was encouraged that we download backups of all our content. Boy were the gears ever cranking over at Squidoo! For me too!

At the time of the "big news" announcement, I had 219 Squidoo lenses in my portfolio. Well over 30 of them were new lenslets and lenses created within the past year. On August 15th, I did the early opt in and then I got busy. I began moving my content off Squidoo prior to the transport; and repurposing that content on my two blogs : JaguarJulie Blog On and Blondes that DIY. I then deleted those lenses and requested that Google deindex those lenses.

After two weeks time, on August 29-30, 2014, the ability to delete lenses was disabled! So, that made my decision easy. I couldn't delete any more lenses prior to the transport. But, I could still capture and repurpose that content in anticipation of the aftermath of the move.

HubPages Transport Engages

For me, my bewitching hour came on September 4th. The HubPages Emeryville, CA transport began at 1:23:13 pm EST and finished at 1:51:45 pm on September 4th, transporting over 100 lenses in approximately 28 minutes and 32 seconds. At the time of writing this blog post, I happened to notice that I got a second reconnect from HubPages Emeryville, CA transport on September 10th at 8:14:06 pm that engaged until 8:36:19 pm, involving 6 lenses. I'm not sure what that was about, but I was reporting the next day that deleted hubs were reappearing in my HubPages portfolio! Six of them. Very curious stuff.

JulieAnnBrady on HubPages

September 11, 2014 - HubPages

By September 11, 2014, I had 47 hubs remaining of my imported 100 lenses. All 53 hubs had been deleted by me and my content moved and repurposed on my two blogs.

I also had 144 followers and was following 137 hubbers.

As a Squidoo lensmaster, I got used to seeing those trophies or badges on my profile. For those lensmasters who loved those, I am happy to report that you have the accolades that prominently posts on your HubPages profile pages, for all to see.

My accolades aren't as impressive as other new Squidoo-Hubbers. And, because I was too quick on the delete of newly-imported hubs, I only got the 50 hubs accolade rather than the 100!

Accolades Legend L to R: published at least 50 hubs; at least 50 simultaneously featured hubs; at least 100 followers on HubPages; Hubs have been read over 10,000 times; and level VI commenter.

Editing Hubs

All new Squidoo-Hubbers were granted a 4-month grace period for editing newly-imported hubs to bring them in compliance and clear posted violations. I worked on my hubs for one week to revise them and remove the red skulls of violation. What I found during that intense period of revision? Working in the workshop mode for each hub was actually a bit of FUN! The building blocks of our pages were now referred to as "capsules." No longer did we call them "modules" as we did on Squidoo.

Some other "fun" bits of the process? Well, to categorize your hub, you got to use a browse and search feature to scan the topics by keyword. I liked that until I got to one of my hubs that just didn't fit neatly into any category! Another cool feature was the ability to position a photo capsule above a text capsule; then, by double-clicking on the photo capsule as it is displayed in the right column under the organizing your capsules in your hub, it would jump to the right and be positioned as a half-column element!

It was also very handy that you could easily insert certain capsules here and there in your content.

All, in all, the editing process was facilitated by a handy workshop. There are lots of other neat features; but I don't want to spill the beans and spoil the discover of fun for the newbies!

UPDATE: October 3, 2014, 6:30pm - Jacksonville, FL: The last remaining hubs in my account were deleted by me after transferring and repurposing my original content on my two blogs. You see, I had been experiencing new traffic highs and lots of reader interaction on Squidoo during the Summer months; especially right before the transport. The afternoon of September 3rd, my 100 remaining lenses were transported to HubPages. Within less than ten days, I earned the 10,000 view accolade for my hubs. Traffic was going great guns until something happened on September 23rd. Like somebody flipped the proverbial internet light switch. I lost 97.1% of my traffic to my evergreen content! Now, my pages weren't salesy product pages. But, articles that had sustained the test of time and built up a readership base. When ten days later, it was still nada in the traffic department, I opted to move the remainder of my hubs.

Have you found me there yet? I'm Julie Ann Brady on HubPages. Don't be shy! Be different. If you can.