Can a Squidoo Blessing Help Your Lens?

On the 27th January 2011 this lens received it's first blessing courtesy of hayleylou, thanks Hayleylou!

This effected lensrank (including the visits I had totaling 10) boosting me from an overall rank of 36,370 to 20,847. At present the lens has also had two clickout's although these may have happened on the previous day. If this lens get's anymore Angel blessings, we'll be sure to let you know!

5th February 2011 Update: This lens has also been blessed by the following amazing lensmasters: Jack2205 & Gloriousconfusion. After receiving numerous Squidlike's a comments the overall lensrank has now moved from 20,847 to 10,312 overall and #134th in the Squidoo Community category. I'd like to thank everyone who's visited so far and all those that will visit in the future.

If you've never read anything about Angels or blessings then you're probably very confused right now, so lets talk about what happens when your lens is blessed by a Squid Angel.

Extra Squidoo Points
If you've toiled hard and made the best lens you could possibly make then there's every chance that you could get blessed by a Squid Angel and then what. Well for a start you get some points towards leveling up in Squidoo. This can potentially unlock new Squidoo features on your dashboard depending on your current level.

Lensrank Boost
Next is the small lensrank boost that your lens will receive in the next update. Should that lens get more then one blessing you could see quite a large boost in lensrank. I've seen just one blessing boost a lens from around the 100,000 mark overall, to within the 30,000 overall rank so more blessings are better for sure!

Making It Public
If your lens has gotten a blessing you might want to make that blessing public to your visitors, depending on the lens, so create a new text module, or use the intro module, and let everybody know! This in turn could lead to more Angel Blessings and visitors to your lens.

Are there really any cons to somebody coming along and blessing your lens? Well you'd think getting a lensrank boost and some points is a pretty good deal for all your hard work, but are there some consequences to these actions?

Artificial Lensrank
If your lens is blessed your lensrank boost is only temporary. Should you get no other traffic and/or visitors for that lens then a temporary lensrank boost almost seems like a waste of time, both for the lensmaster who made the lens and the one that blessed it. Maybe you receive 4 or 5 blessings in a week that pushes your lensrank from over 100,000 to within tier 2, which is currently below 10,000 overall which is a pretty massive jump, and you then believe that you will get some money for being in that tier. However unless your lens stayed almost constantly within tier 2 for the duration of the month you'll drop back to tier 3 or even further. Basically what we mean by this is that your lens is artificially increased in turn raising your hopes only to have them dashed as the lens falls even quicker then it was risen.

Blessing Lenses in Top Tiers
Of course this isn't a con as such, at least not for the person getting the blessing, however when a top tier lens gets a blessing is that really a fair use of the blessing in the first place? Although there is no proof to say otherwise, it's possible for returning Angels to bless their fellow lensmaster 'friends' instead of a lens that might deserve it more. This flies in the face of the previous con, but should blessing lenses in tier one be stopped to allow newer lensmasters the chance to 'break in' to that tier? Just some food for thought!

So that's three for pros and two for cons. You might think that these 'cons' are paper thin and/or don't really exist, but I can personally vouch for the top 'con' and the second one doesn't seem that far fetched to me, but it's really whatever you want to believe at the end of the day!

Having not been an Angel myself it's hard to say if the system, in it's current form, can be abused, but from an outsiders point of view I can hypothesize possible scenarios that could occur.

Boosting a Friend
As I mentioned in the cons section lensmasters who are close friends can 'boost' each other to keep each other's lenses in the top tier. Although we don't know how much weight a blessing actually gives in relation to lensrank it seems pretty obvious, from my own experience, that a blessing counts for a fair percentage of that rank.

Dinging a Lens
Unless it has changed since the last update to the Angels program it is possible to ding or push down a lens that a Squid Angel feels is not up to scratch. Could this feature be abused by a Squid Angel to push down potential competition against their own lenses and hence gain an unfair advantage?

Level 30 Squids Only
Previously you had to be a Giant Squid in order to apply to be a Squid Angel however the rules have now changed and you only have to be at level 30 or more to apply. Obviously this give us normal lensmasters a chance to become a Squid Angel without having to be a Giant Squid, but it could also give someone with less noble intentions a chance to damage the blessing system even if they have fairly good lenses themselves.

It depends on what your Squidoo goals are right now. If you're pretty new to Squidoo you're probably not at level 30 yet, so continue to make great lenses and maybe, if you really want to, you can apply for your angel wings.

If your at the threshold and your thinking about being an Squid Angel then you're probably wondering if it's worth it. Well let me break it down for you a little. You've (hopefully) read the pro's and cons so you know a bit about being on the receiving end, but on the other side of the angel fence it's a slightly different story.

Time
Finding the time to be a Squid Angel is no easy task. If you work at home and are at this business full time thing's shouldn't be too hard for you to to free up some time in your schedule. If you're a part time Squidoo'er then things could be difficult and your own lenses could suffer. I can't recall the number of time's I've read a Squidoo Angel blog or diary or seen a message on the forum that said how busy it was being a Squid Angel. Not only that but you feel, as a duly appointed representative of Squidoo, that it is your duty to find those lenses that really need blessing or a small nudge in the right direction, and this takes time. So if you're full time then start filling out your application, if your semi full time then think real hard about how it will effect your lens building/updating/researching activities, and if this is just something you do in your 'spare time' you might want to leave that application to someone who can give it their full attention.

How Long?
Your required to be a Squid Angel for one month or 30 days, whichever is longer. If this doesn't seem like long then you also have to remember that you need to bless between 5 and 100 lenses per day, which is a big burden when your trying to find that many great and wonderful lenses for a month!

Privacy
Squid Angel blessings are no longer anonymous so if you're not big into the fame game and like the quiet life then you might want to steer clear of the angel program as your blessings will show up in the lensmasters points feed (along with a link to your bio page). However if you don't mind the attention then this is another feather in the cap of registration.

Blessing Your Own Lenses
It used to be allowed (and would have been added to the con's if still applicable) but Angels are no longer allowed to bless their own lenses. This is probably a good thing and other Angels can still bless your lenses even when your an Angel, however if you were under the impression that you could push that Tier 2 lens into tier 1 now that you're an Angel you're sadly mistaken!

Still want to sign up for the Squid Angel program? Add your name to the list and get in line to be considered for Angel wings!

You can also see who the latest SquidAngels are by checking out theFluffanutta's list here.