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.

Celebrating the Return of Traffic Oh My

Some of you have been following the Topicability blog for over two years. Today, we want to THANK YOU readers! You know, writing a blog can be a very fulfilling experience. I wanted to have that experience, that fulfilling experience daily ... but something else interfered, well sort of.

You see, I have been engaged full throttle over at Squidoo, along with quite a few other Squidoo lensmasters. It's like a cult or something. It's like a huge social experiment or something. It's like something has gotten a hold of us. Our friends and families are signing up for a visit by the exorcist or something! Yeah yeah yeah.

Well, since Squidoo has become a significant part of so many lensmasters' days, some get their panties in a wad [an attempt at some humor to lighten the tension some are feeling] when the stats don't update .. you know, when the actual, true and accurate traffic stats do not post timely to the dashboards. You can usually find MANY a lensmaster behind those dashboards ... beep beep, be sure to signal you all when stopping and changing lanes. No backseat drivers, please!  Oh me oh my, my turn to drive, please!!

SO ... So, many of us will take time to submit bug reports. I love doing those because I was an ISO Internal Auditor in a previous life and I am one with bug reports and documentation ... but I don't want that to ever become like my job, you know?

The lastest on the Topicability Index is the fact that the traffic stats bug has been captured; the autopsy is complete! AND, folks traffic ... a drumroll for the fact that the true and actual traffic has returned to our dashboards. Curious I was ... so I took a peek.

Yes indeed! I can plainly see that traffic has returned to our dashboards ... take a look at the returning traffic to those top eight overall Squidoo lenses.  Here is a view of those top eight lensmasters' lenses courtesy of Squidaholic.  You can plainly see an uptick in traffic ... to some, it appears it is two times more traffic, or maybe more?  The mosaic image on the left showcases lenses #1, 2, 3 and 4 overall on Squidoo.  The mosaic image on the right showcases lenses #5, 6, 7 and 8 overall on Squidoo!

By the way, I've profiled the top Squidoo lens, for more than a year on a special Squidoo lens, Squidoo du Jour -- The Top Lens, in case you are curious what's been on top overall. Or, maybe you are wanting to participate in my Hey Monkeybrain debate about Squidoo Stats -- Public or Private?

The top eight Squidoo earners

Isn't the internet wonderful?  Well, I think the internet is wonderful.  Where else can you Google something to find an answer to something that might really interest you?  I remember back when I first found Wikipedia.  Oh, I absolutely love Wikipedia in what it represents.  A free encyclopedia of information ... no more hunting that Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia ... that was the reference books which we owned when I was a young one!  I see from the Wikipedia reference that "the last printing of Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia was in 1997!"

I also absolutely love Squidoo!  Squidoo has given me the greatest pleasure I have ever known when it comes to the free opportunity to write about my interests, hobbies, passions, and expertise.  I've been a member of Squidoo for what seems like an eternity in internet time ... over 4 years.  Prior to Squidoo, I maintained the top personal home page on ThirdAge for several years.  I created my first web page way way back on the CompuServe OurWorld platform.  I've not embraced any other writing site like I have embraced that of Squidoo.

When I received an email invitation from BzzAgent to join Squidoo on March 21, 2006, I really had no idea what was in store for me at Squidoo.  Squidoo has come a long way in the past 4+ years; I'm glad I was along for the ride!  You know, I wasn't motivated to write because of the opportunity to earn royalties and an income; I wrote because that's what I do ... I write; I express ideas; I like to stimulate conversation and thinking.  It is then, I sincerely think, an added blessing, that there have been royalties too!  It is like icing on my cake.

Today's Topicability blog post is a follow-up to a previous blog post of June 2, 2010 entitled, "The rock and roll of lensrank." Be sure to check out that post for a data chart of the top 12 Squidoo earners which we spotlighted as captured on May 31st ... namely Dagsmith, Pastiche, craftyville, MiaBellezza, rms, GonnaFly, Mulberry, Jimmie, spirituality, kab, noadi, and kiwisoutback.

On June 17, 2010, I did a bit of research that looked at more than 300 lensmasters to compile information for this article.  I looked at the stats which are public information.  This list does not include the added royalties from sales each of the lensmasters have made from their lenses.  That is information private to Squidoo and each of the lensmasters.  Those sales royalties are like gravy on your meatloaf or my award-winning meatloaf!

It was mentioned on the SquidU Forum that three lensmasters earned over $1,000 in the recent monthly payout and that a good number exceeded $500 in monthly royalties.  That's fabulous to think you can earn more than a little change for doing something that you absolutely love to do!  I'm personally looking for a $5,000 monthly payout.  That would make hubby happy, I think!

So ... say hello to the top eight Squidoo earners in the spotlight today ... the top row would be our top earners! Across the top, left to right in descending order of earned royalties: Dagsmith, craftyville, and Pastiche.  Second row, left to right in descending order:  MiaBellezza, Mulberry, and rms.  Last row, left to right in descending order: GonnaFly and spirituality.

So take two ... did you wonder who was number 9 on that list. Hmmmm?? Yes, that's right ... you guessed it!

Here is some of the captured data that put these lensmasters in the spotlight:

The chart details the number of lenses in the Top 100 overall on Squidoo, along with a breakout of how many lenses each lensmaster has in the top tier and tier #2.  The top tier is the cream of the crop of Squidoo; the top 2,000 quality lenses by lensrank.  The second tier encompasses lenses with lensranks from 2,001 to 10,000.  When you think about the over one million lenses on the Squidoo platform, tiers one and two positioning equates to a "holy purple cow" and a "wow" respectively!  Oh yeah!

An interesting stat on the chart is the percentage of the total number of lenses which are in the two top tiers.  To have one-half to three-fourths of all the lenses a lensmaster has authored occupying one of those two tiers is pretty amazing!  I think it is also interesting to see just how many lenses an author has authored; the more lenses authored = the more lenses in the top tiers!  And, it is also interesting to see just how many other people's lenses these lensmasters have rated.  It is good to see community spirit and participation too!

Well, thanks for dropping by today.  We hope you enjoyed the show!  And, I hope I didn't put anyone to sleep.  Oh ... by the way ... Here is my Squidoo lensmaster referral if you care to join and see if you can get your lenses into those top two tiers! Tell 'em JaguarJulie sent ya.

UPDATE: Alas! Squidoo is no more and the allure of being a top-earning Squidoo lensmaster has shifted. Now everybody is over at HubPages. Some of the fun and games have transferred over as well. But, it will be a short time before shenanigans are routed out and dealt with appropriately by HQ. Oh, I was there at HubPages for a minute and then POOF! I was gone. Retired from the rat race.

That is just plain wrong I say

What the heck is that I am wondering? You see, I've talked about the sidebar that I love so much. It is some really prime real estate that aligns itself to the right column, i.e. sidebar of our Squidoo lenses. OH, and there is also sidebar on our blogs too you know?

Well, here I was minding my own business today ... and I dropped by another lensmaster's lens. I don't know why I didn't notice THAT earlier, I guess I wasn't looking for it. There in that right sidebar column was this series of 3 Chitika Premium Sponsored Ads er Results. Well I surely beg YOUR pardon, but get it right will you!

This is shameful. We lensmasters pride ourselves on our quality content lenses which occasionally will merit the awarding ... drumroll ... of that purple star. Yes, once in a blue er purple moon it might happen.  And, we pride ourselves in getting Google traffic from being placed high in Google's search results.  What can TOP that high placement?  Why ADS!  Sponsored ads ... ads that are paid for i.e. paying for clicks on top traffic topics.  Stuffed Cabbage, my friends seems to have arrived in the mainstream ... and this is actually kind of funny!  You know?

So, why am I sounding a bit peeved? I'll come back later and share the other blog post about why all those ads for stuffed cabbage as that's just what I am asking once again. Who moved my cheese? Who STOLE my traffic? Why WOULD someone want to steal my traffic for Stuffed Cabbage of ALL things?

This is actually kind of funny ... you know ... and probably you are thinking IT IS FUNNY, well funny until it happens to you and your topics.  Ciao!

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."


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.