FAQs about My Lenses, My Traffic and My Secrets to Success

Laptop Bag: the Emily Laptop Tote from Rainebrooke Designs
Full Laptop Bag Index

Laptop Sleeve: the Breathable Laptop Sleeve from BBP Bags
Full Laptop Sleeve Index

Netbook Sleeve: Netbook Messenger Bag from Skooba Design
Full Netbook Sleeve Index

Laptop Backpack: the Express Laptop Backpack from Mobile Edge
Full Laptop Backpack Index

Laptop Bag for Men: the Expand-It Messenger from BBP
Full Men's Bag Index

Knitting Bag: the Lady B Tote from Lexie Barnes
Full Knitting Bag Index

Bags in the picture (from the top): Melissa Beth Pretty Printed Netbook Sleeves, Gnana Laptop Tote, Rainebrooke Black Candy Laptop Tote, Laurex Messenger and Abbi New York Carrie Print Laptop Tote.

No. :)

I do have favourite bags for specific occasions. See next question.

Yes and no. If I am reviewing a bag, I give it a real-life stress test by using it on my daily outings, e.g. to the office, to a client visit, on a business trip. I try to use it for a week, but if the bag is driving me crazy or simply doesn't fit my work habits, I will only try it for 2 days.

That being said, if I don't have a bag to review in my review queue, I tend to operate in one of three laptop bag modes:

1. Casual Use: I am in love (in LOVE) with the Smart Alec from Tom Bihn. I have it along with a Brain Cell (the internal laptop shell) and I adore it! Roomy yet well organized. Lightweight. LOVE this bag.


2. Client Meetings: I typically carry a nicer, more professional bag to client meetings. I am currently using the the Black Candy by Rainebrooke Designs. It is comfortable, stylish, holds any papers I need for a meeting as well as my laptop and totally keeps me organized.


3. Quick Meeting: Sometimes, I just want a sleeve if I'm going to a quick meeting or over to a friend's place. I am currently switching between a iSkin SOHO Laptop Sleeve and the Archetype from Tom Bihn. I've also used a sleeve from Pinder Bags before which I liked, but gave away.

I have to admit, I am quite spoiled for choice. I could get away with not having the sleeve - but I do like having a client-facing bag and then a bum-around bag.

Photo Credit: Mini by eliazar

No. I tend to give away my review copies to friends, colleagues and family. I am considering holding a couple of contests on my laptop bag lens to give away review bags to readers, but I haven't worked that out yet.

Photo Credit: Untitled by :Damien

It's thanks to you designers that we all look a little cooler lugging our technology around. I want to feature as many laptop bags, totes and sleeves as I can.

There are progressively more complicated steps you can take to get a review. They are as follows:

1. Email me! Use the link at the top of this lens. Super-easy - we've made contact and I put you into my queue. Warning: this queue is very long. It helps if you can write something snappy about your bag or sleeve.


2. Once we've made contact, it helps if you pull together and email a media kit about the sleeve or bag you'd like to have featured. That saves me a LOT of time in trying to find all the specs and capture the product shots. Great photography is important. Inside and outside shots, if possible. The more detail you can provide, the easier it is for me to write the review.


3. Send a review copy of the bag or sleeve. I put it to the test and then I write a review. (Note: I don't return review bags or sleeves (unless its like an "art piece" or something :)). Please note, it generally takes 3 to 4 weeks from the time I receive the bag to the time a review appears. This allows me time to try out the bag, plus accommodates my work and travel schedule. I love testing and trying bags, but it is not yet my day job :)

My review policy: I will give preference in my review queue to a designer who sends a laptop bag or sleeve. I feel that's fair. Why? Well, it's a bigger commitment on the part of the designer and to me that's a reflection of their customer service which, to me, is just as important as the bag. And also, it's easier to review something you can touch. That being said, if you don't want to send a sleeve, it's totally fine. The specs and photos in Step 2 are paramount, then.

Transparency for My Readers: I will always state if I have received a review copy of a laptop bag or sleeve.

If you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them!

Kimberly's lens is the best ever lens on what to do next! She is the smartest, most engaged lensmaster I know and generously shares everything she learns. Visit her lens!

Plus, Randy has written a great lens on what he looks for in a lens before he "blesses" it. Randy is one of the SquidAngels who makes sure that great lenses rise to the top.

Note: the image is from Kimberly's lens

I get a lot of people asking me how to add content to their lens. You add content to a Squidoo lens via a "Module". There are several dozen different types of modules.

To get started, check out this great Squid-cast from boredofeducation on How to Add Modules!

Plus, you should also check out Margaret's "How to make your first Squidoo lens" lens. Great stuff!!

Finally, check out N376's excellent lens on many different Squidoo modules. N376 highlights a number of the more popular modules and when you might want to use them in your lens.

Thank you! I would love to help, but I would spend all day doing that and that would make my clients very unhappy. Fortunately, there are a number of smart, friendly, helpful and funny people in SquidU. Have you been there? If not, go now!

And make sure you check out the "Critique Me" section in the forum. You can post your lens there and people will post feedback specifically for your lens. It's a great community!

There is also a great article in SquidU entitled How to Get and Give Help. Check it out!

Yes. Between all my lenses (I have 17), I make between $70 to $300 a month, depending on the month (those just after the holidays tend to net me a bit more; during the summer it has settled to about $120 a month). I donate 25% of my proceeds to "Room to Read".

Another question is often "Which modules make you the most money?". I'm not 100% sure because of the way the stats are done. But, you can read the Squidoo FAQ (#12) to get some more info. I tend to use mainly Amazon modules for moneymakers - but part of my income comes indirectly from "Tier" income. For more details on making money with Squidoo, check out the Payment Settings FAQ and the Lensmaster Payment FAQ (this is the one that has the description of the tiers).

Of interest, the individual lens that is making me the most money is not my laptop bag lens, but my Daily Show Book Lens.

Finally, make sure you visit Eurayle's Lens on Squid Theory! She has some fantastic insights on making money using Squidoo, how to tell which modules are making you money, and just being all around super-smart about the economics of Squidoo. Seriously - go there. Now!

Photo Credit: Nrbelex

Again, it depends on the week. I receive between 6000 and 9000 visits in any given 7-day period.

Update: after the holidays, this has settled in usually around 8500 or so. I'll be interested to see how the new layout impacts both search engine traffic and cross-linked traffic.

Update 2 (May 08): my traffic has fallen certainly since the holidays and the beginning of the year. I'm back to just over 6,000 a week which I do find a little surprising. My rank in Google remains solid, so not sure if this is seasonal fluctuation or a trend.

Update 3 (Aug 08): I'm hanging pretty steady at about 6800 a week unless there happens to be a direct link from a high profile site.

Update 4 (late Aug 08): For the last 2 weeks my traffic has crashed to about 3,000 visitors a week. My lens was dropped in search engine rank by Google and that really hurt. Consequently, I'm starting to see my lensrank drop as well. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Update 5 (mid Nov 08): My traffic still has not recovered from its early year highs of 6K-9K a week. Now, I never break 3K - and it's all due to not being listed in Google under the search term "laptop bag" anymore.

Update 6 (July 09): My traffic still never really recovered. For my laptop bag lens, I still never break 3K visits a week. After 6 months, my lensrank has finally recovered and I made it back into the top 10. I get OK Google keyword rankings, but not on the generic keyword "laptop bag" anymore. I'm also starting to see some traffic from Bing - that will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Update 7 (Nov 09): Shhh ... fingers crossed but my traffic is slowly starting to recover. I'm back over 4K visits a week, very close to 5K. It's close to the holidays, so that is probably helping. But I don't want to talk about it too much and jinx it.

Update 8 (June 2010): This has improved quite a bit over the last few months. I seem to be at about 6K a week these days - well after all the holiday traffic. So that is encouraging. It did hit 7500 in a week recently, but I think that might have been a "gifts for graduates" spike.

Update 9 (March 2011): After a pretty significant traffic bump for the holiday season, I've settled back around to about 6,000 - 6,500 per week. I'm waiting to see how the big Google algorithm change impacts me. So far, so good - no HUGE drop. Fingers crossed!

Update 10 (March 2012): Traffic was about 6K a month through the end of 2011, except for December which saw it at about 7.5K. In 2012 it has been dropping since January. Down to about 5K. But I haven't updated as often this year, so that may be part of the issue.

Photo Credit: Hamed Saber

There are three :)

1. Focus on content. People really want a unique point of view, from people like them about topics they care about. So, find something you're passionate about and have some expertise in and write about that. I don't do a lot of crazy SEO. I don't try to game the system. I just write good content that people like. I mix up content that doesn't make me any money (i.e. the text modules) with some Money Makers (amazon, ebags, etc). But it all comes down to writing something interesting. Seth actually published an e-book on this recently (I like to think I provided a bit of inspiration). Definitely with a read!


2. Personally, I don't think you can *focus* on making money (though I do think you can make money). There are a number of "money maker" lenses and I know that people just create a lot of links in those modules and wonder why their lenses don't do well. I believe that readers see through that and reward good content with the click through.


3. Link out .. Even if the links don't "make money". Some people won't link unless it's an affiliate link. I think this is a disservice to your readers. Your readers don't care about lensmasters making money - they just want to find what they are looking for.

I've expanded on a couple of these in SquidU:

Does the Title of Your Lens Matter?

How did you choose what to write about?

Also important to note, it took between 4 to 6 months from when I first started writing the lens to achieving good search engine, traffic and income results. You must be patient!

Photo Credit: A Touch of Glass

I really *try* to do an update every two weeks. But that doesn't always happen - realistically, it's probably more like once a month. I pay attention to the more popular lenses a bit more. The Knitting Bag lens suffers a bit.

Thanks to vallain for this great question!

No.

Why not?

1. It contravenes the terms of service of Squidoo. Read http://www.squidu.com/Lensmastery/starratings for more info on the problem of star-rating swaps.

2. I think it does both my readers and yours a disservice. People read Squidoo looking for good info. If we're rating as "high quality" things that are mediocre, why should readers continue to come here.

3. It hurts the entire Squidoo community. Squidoo *is* a community of experts - people who are sharing a little something of themselves. By unnaturally inflating poor quality lenses, it devalues the entire community which is bad for all of us.

If your lens is high quality, it will get rated highly. Also, stop stressing out about star ratings. :) I've been doing this for 2 years now. My lens only has a 4-star rating and it has been in the #1 slot for a while. So 5 stars isn't the ultimate goal. Fostering a community of readers who value the expertise you share, to me, is the ultimate goal.

Photo Credit: visualpanic