The Best Lenses on Squidoo that Never Made It

Ranked #4,636 in Squidoo Community, #312,496 overall

Lenses that Deserve More Attention on Squidoo

You've put in the time, you have the knowledge, there's pictures, there's videos, there's fun stuff that you're selling, it's easy to read, it's helpful, and it's keywords are all in check. You've poured your heart into this lens. You're lens is published! You wait anxiously for the lens rank to improve and for Google visitors to find your lens...but that day never comes! Sometimes a lens just won't receive the attention you think it should. Here, you can showcase those works of art that you've worked hard at!

Submit your lens to this lens by leaving a Guestbook entry along with a link to the lens, as long as it isn't performing well and is a masterpiece lens!

Why Did the Lens do so Poorly?

Reasons why your Squidoo lens might be suffering...

Now that you've created a lens, you've promoted it, you've waited, and revised it, why hasn't it been performing they way you had hoped? Before you get discouraged, you may want to take a look at some other high-ranked lenses for some inspiration. Are they using lots of cool polaroid modules? Do they put in useful links? Do they have lots of good lenses? Are the lenses short or long? Do they sell products through the Amazon, eBay or CafePress modules? Are they giving personal recommendations about products they sell on the lens?

squidooIf it's beyond the shadow of a doubt that your lens is just being plain old avoided, maybe your subject matter is boring...or maybe you have way too much competition! It could be that your lens is just one page of thousands on the web on the same subject. Or, you could've dug yourself too deep into a niche. Niches are great, but is anyone looking for it?

keywords


Lastly, maybe your keywords are affecting your lens. What is your lens about? You should try to find as many words that are relevant to what your lens is about, and include those words. People search in a number of different ways...and just because your tags say what your lens is about, that doesn't mean the search engines necessarily believe it...they want to see it in the lens as well!

Keywords & Tagging

Your lens might just need some good keywords and tags to increase its search engine friendliness. MrLewisSmile has written the perfect tutorial lens on tagging & traffic here.

Hawaii Tips

The perfect travel guide for Hawaii!

Excellent pictures and a great example of an excellent Squidoo lens.
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Tourmaline

A lens on this unique stone!

A great reference guide for Tourmaline. Well done!
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We Love Labyrinth

A fantasy tale...

Remember this?
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Ten Things you can do to Improve your Lens Right Now...

Improve your lens, its Google traffic, and get it noticed!

  1. Edit your lens and make sure all of the module titles and subtitles have been correctly filled out. No generic default titles. Take advantage of the subtitles, and be sure keywords are used in your titles.

  2. Add a new introduction picture with a file name that is appropriate to the lens theme. Separate words with an underscore. Make the picture interesting!
  3. Edit your lens tags and make sure they aren't too specific. A tag like "purple pillow couch accessories" is much too specific. A better tag would be "couches," or "couch," "pillow," "living room," or "sofa." Squidoo is big, but not big like Google. These tags help users search within Squidoo, so the chances of someone looking for purple pillow couch accessories is just about zero, so keep it broad!
  4. Ask for critique in the critique me forum on SquidU. This helps enormously, and other lensmasters are always there to lend some help.
  5. Link your lens to your other lenses. Does your lens fall into a theme that other fits in with other lenses? You should be linking them all together! The featured lenses module is my personal favorite.
  6. Submit your lens to Digg. If your lens isn't being found by Google, Digg is a great place to be found. Even if it doesn't make the first page, Google will most likely find it here.
  7. Let your lens be social! There are infinite social networks to share your lens. Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, StumbleUpon...there are hundreds of these sites that can bring traffic to your lens. Don't be spammy, be social, and tell people about your lenses on occasion and you'll be rewarded back with traffic.
  8. Keep adding content. Google loves new and fresh content. If you've recently updated your lens and still aren't getting traffic, update it again, and SquidCast it. Add new information and modules every time, and eventually, Google will most likely notice.
  9. Get backlinks to your lens. Backlinks will not only provide traffic, but bump you up in Google searches. Nothing brings in traffic like a good Google search, so get out there and blog your lens, leave (worthwhile) comments on dofollow blogs with your lens URL, join some Squidoo groups, and get some links!
  10. Know when to split it up. Maybe your lens has too much information and it needs to be more focused. You may need to split your lens into a series of lenses. Link them all together and get traffic flowing back and forth. Repeat steps 1-9 for the new lenses!

Have you made the Top 100? 

Are you on the List?

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Funniest TV Show Ever

Reasons why Seinfeld rules

The "Ever" lenses seem tough to rank high here on Squidoo, but there are some really good ones! Like this one...
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Pat Paulsen for President

Unsuccessful attempts to become President...

Not a candidate, but the lens is awesome.
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Complete Kitchen Design

Remodel your kitchen!

Top notch tips, pictures and instructions for kitchen remodeling.
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Green Lodging

Eco tourism, find a green hotel near you!

Everyone should read this!
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Where's Jimmy Howell?

A story of a missing boy from long ago

A sad story, this lens is very well done.
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Route 66

The best lens I've seen on Squidoo for Route 66!

Probably the best lens on Squidoo about Route 66, but it doesn't seem to be doing so well. Maybe some updating and a good gallery picture would help?
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A National Parks Lens that Went Thud

National parks across the nation

For whatever reason, this lens bombed big time.
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Squidoo...anything and everything. 

A Poll About your Lenses...

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Netflix

Is this an underused module on Squidoo?

This module is pre-placed onto our lenses whenever we make a new lens...but are we fully maximizing its potential?
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Poetry in Homeschool

April is National poetry month!

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Hurricanes

What is a hurricane?

Hurricanes are a mighty force causing huge devestation...but what are they?
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Who are you Linking to?

You have links all over your lens, like your lensroll, featured lenses, discovery tool lenses, and who knows what else you stuffed into your lens. Are all of the links (that you control) linking to sites that have something in common with your lens? Search engines love relevancy.

Your Favorite Module?

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Long Island, New York

Learn about New York's famous island!

Right around the corner from NYC, Long Island has plenty to see and do. Lots of famous people have (and still) call Long Island home!
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Top 1966 Songs Showcase

Take a trip back down to 1966...

Great lens, deserves more attention!
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Go Ahead, Admit it!

Not every lens can be a big hit. It happens to everyone! If your lens is truly great, you've loved it, spent time on it, and you think it deserves a little more attention, and its lensrank is under 10,000, tell everyone about it in the guestbook and maybe it might be featured here!

These Always Do Well...

These lenses always rank well. Why? They're practically flawless! Check them out for some inspiration on your next lens.

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Sick Lenses Report Here!

If your lens isn't doing so well, get a health check at SquidUtils!

Support Squidoo!

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Where Did you Go Wrong?

Here are more of Squidoo's best that are always at the top. You might learn a thing or two by reading these spectacular lenses.

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Is your Lens LOST? Read this...

A great lens by Greekgeek about having more people notice your lens.
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Lenses to Help Make a Better Lens...

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Guestbook

Kiwisoutback: Cool, Unique Kiwi Shirts, Gifts and Clothing for Kiwis and Kiwi Lovers!

Have a great lens that should be featured here? Tell us about it!

submit

A Little SEO Might Help!

Looking Back on Two Years of Making Lenses

Some insight on lensmaking after two years on Squidoo

Focus. That's my number one suggestion to anyone starting out on Squidoo. You can make a single lens about one thing, or a dozen lenses about a dozen similar things. Just make sure the content of the lenses are very focused. There are a few other things like SEO to keep in mind, but it all boils down to keeping your lens focused. When your lens starts to get unfocused, that's when it's time to start a new lens on the elements of the lens that are going off track. Link them to your other Squidoo lens, and you'll probably get some traffic flowing to that lens.

I'm a little past the two year mark as of writing this module, so here are some tips that I can give to you to make a successful lens here on Squidoo:

1. With affiliate modules, less is more in terms of modules. Tell us which product is your favorite, and highlight just that one product in detail. You're better off featuring the accessories of the products instead of different models or the competition.

2. Get the title to match the URL, and keep the URL small, 2-5 keywords or so. The closer the match to your title, the better.

3. Adding in a module that automatically updates can often help you keep the content fresh. I'd suggest the Google Blog Search module and the Twitter modules.

4. Link all of your lenses together only in the same niche. When I started out, I used to link all of my lenses together that had no relation. When I dropped irrelevant links, the traffic surprisingly went up. That's where that focus thing comes into play again.

5. Don't worry about updating old lenses again and again and again. If the lens isn't receiving traffic after several edits and months later, move onto the next lens. The lens may never receive good Google traffic (and I'm willing to bet it might be because the lens isn't focused enough).

6. Don't submit every lens of yours to every Squidoo directory, social bookmarking site, and social networking site. All that your lens needs is a link from another popular lens to be found, and a Twitter announcement. Spacing out your promotion can prevent your lens from being sandboxed by Google. Blogging about your lens is also one of the best ways to get your lens found by Google.

7. Fill out all of the module subtitles and titles. Even I find some of my old lenses that aren't filled out completely (and they usually perform poorly!).

8. Ask yourself if your lens is genuinely helping someone. If it guides them in the form of a true recommendation towards a purchase (be honest - have you used that product?), or gives them step by step instructions that will help solve their problem, there's a good chance it will be a popular lens.

And speaking of focus... this module is going off track! It might be time to cut this lens free into its own lens. Stay tuned!

by

kiwisoutback

Have a lens that bombed? Is it truly great? Be sure to submit it here through the guestbook if it has a lensrank under 10,000 and really deserves more... more »

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