Your Squidoo Lens and The Long Tail

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How you can use the Long Tail concept and apply it to your lenses

A Long Tail keyword is something that, instead of being a keyword like 'myspace', is a keyword like 'is myspace free to use in china'.

In short, Long Tail concept means that the majority of your lens visitors likely come from people typing in things that very few people type in compared to the search terms that lots of people type in.

('The Long Tail' is the title of a book written by Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine)

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Example Visitor Numbers 

An example day might be this: 150 people who search google for 'myspace friends' visit my lens (amazingly, as of this moment, my lens comes up 5th!).

On the same day 200 people might find my lens via different Long Tail keywords, and each one of them might search for a long tail keyword like 'adding myspace friends faster', 'how can i get more myspace friends', 'finding a good myspace friend adder' etc.

The number of visitors arriving at my page via different long tail keywords, it is said, out-number those arriving there by a non-long tail keywords.

Edit: I predicted this, and as soon as the new viewable stats pages were available for our lenses were introduced I logged in straight away and checked the stats of the lens I'm talking about here. And it was EXACTLY as I had predicted! The only difference was about 6 visitors. Woohoo!

Example Sales Numbers 

Basically, the yellow part of the graph is larger than the green part.

An employee of Amazon explained it in a simple (yet at first mind-bending) way:

"We sold more books today that didn't sell at all yesterday than we sold today of all the books that did sell yesterday."

[Go on - read that bit again!]

To explain the "long tail" again using Amazon as the example:

The bestselling books on Amazon make up a very modest amount of their total book sales. The rest of the sales come from niche books that are able to be found by everyone, all round the country/world. It allows the people with less popular interests to find what they want (unlike a high street bookstore), and so the long tail comes into play. The books they sell on NON-popular topics outnumbers the books that are their mega-bestsellers.

The internet makes everything on the "long tail" easier to find.

So how can all this help you get more visitors? 

Don't try too hard to target a word like broadband or myspace or computer. Or even cheap broadband or myspace friends or best computer.

Just make a high quality lens that will help people.

And be genuine about it. And if you're writing about a specific topic, you should get the visitors you want.

People will find your lens if it is on-topic, truthful, genuine, and worth reading.

If it is, don't worry for a single second about trying to get your lens to rank high for certain keywords.

It's all in the Long Tail!

Any Advice To Share? Comments? 

Would you like to add anything to what I've written?

This here is your space!

Go wild:

queenofthedreamers wrote...

Wow! Once again your experience is making my learning go so much faster. Thank you!

ReplyPosted February 02, 2009

Gail47 wrote...

Lewis, Thanks for the great information. Very helpful for those of us who are still new to these terms. So many terms floating around on the web - unless someone understands what is being said, they lose the point of the article or quote.

I have read several of your lens and really appreciate your honesty and ability to clearly explain what you are talking about. So many others want to hold back information. It's really a wonderful thing that you do as you share what you have learned. I think, in the long run, sharing detailed information helps all of us.

ReplyPosted February 02, 2009

MiaBellezza wrote...

Great advice Lewis - 5* and lensrolled!

ReplyPosted January 15, 2009

LaraineRose wrote...

Thank you. I'm going to go to my lenses and try your suggestions, right away. You ARE the bestest!

ReplyPosted November 14, 2008

ProAffiliateOnline wrote...

Great lens, thanks for making this computer information easy to understand.

ReplyPosted October 27, 2008

Armanproactive wrote...

Great lens Lewis,you explained very well the concept of Long Tail & how to apply it accurately to squidoo lenses.

ReplyPosted October 16, 2008

Armanproactive wrote...

Great lens Lewis,you explained very well the concept of Long Tail & how to apply it accurately to squidoo lenses.

ReplyPosted October 16, 2008

IM-Mom wrote...

Hi Lewis - another great lens you crafted here. :) Long tail keywords are SOOOO important, and your info is quite helpful. Thanks!

ReplyPosted August 07, 2008

RenegadeAussie wrote...

So it is not just Kangaroos that are making use of their Long Tail. Thanks for yet another informative lens.

ReplyPosted July 21, 2008

RentMyGarden wrote...

Great longtail explaination. *****5 Stars! Thanks to Squidoo Stats information I find most of my lens visitors are finding me using longtail keywords.

ReplyPosted July 07, 2008

poddys wrote...

Great lens. I find some long tail strings generating traffic to my lenses as well. I will be adapting my tags likewise. 5***** for all the tips.

ReplyPosted June 09, 2008

pre2master wrote...

Thank to your Idea I will find more time to read this longtails books. You gave me a brilliant information

ReplyPosted June 08, 2008

GoddessMari wrote...

Awesome lens. Thanks for sharing your knowledge in a way we can all understand.

ReplyPosted May 27, 2008

Gregory-and-Shelina wrote...

This is certainly something worth trying. I've been chasing my tail as they say to learn tagging. Hopefully I won't be doing that for long.. Thank you.. Shelina

ReplyPosted May 09, 2008

Dogs-B-Fit wrote...

Thank you ,great help-John

ReplyPosted April 29, 2008

steve40004 wrote...

Wow, this is a superbly useful Lens. I'll be around a lot.

ReplyPosted April 28, 2008

Candice_Lee wrote...

Thanks for sharing and helping me to understand how important the "long tail keywords" really are. This all makes great sense and I'm going to start applying it today!

ReplyPosted April 18, 2008

AbundantlyEntitled wrote...

This is extremely helpful. Thanks so much!

ReplyPosted April 12, 2008

spirituality wrote...

True.

ReplyPosted April 08, 2008

Trioman wrote...

Great explanation! I will now put it to the test. Keep up the good work!

ReplyPosted April 02, 2008

richiewest wrote...

Good clear explanation of long tail keywords, but that Amazon stats stuff sent me cross-eyed! I now need a lie down.

ReplyPosted April 02, 2008

gemjane wrote...

Very helpful to a really new Newbie! Thanks, Lewis, for taking the time to share your expertise.

ReplyPosted March 29, 2008

mulberry wrote...

Excellent and helpful page as always.

ReplyPosted March 23, 2008

jorgemv wrote...

Thanks for not only defining a hard concept to grasp, but also for illustrating it so well. It all begins to sink in now.

ReplyPosted March 22, 2008

Norbert_Sczepanski wrote...

hi, ok finally I understood this concept.
Thanks to YOU :-)

Norbert Sczepanski

ReplyPosted October 24, 2007

Christopher_Scott wrote...

Lewis,
Another great lens on how to kick butt at squidoo! Keep up the hard work! Come over to A DAY OF HOPE

ReplyPosted October 12, 2007

Lensmaster

Another great lens with useful info. Keep them coming!

ReplyPosted October 06, 2007

JoanMarie wrote...

Thanks. That was a clear explanation. Cleared it up for me.

ReplyPosted September 21, 2007

fefe wrote...

Lensrolled you and thanks for always sharing your knowledge with everyone!

ReplyPosted September 11, 2007

webseitler wrote...

I love the new stats pages and that amazing little plus sign button for adding tags. But I do hesitate to add too many tags that I think are too individual. Like you said, I'm not going to get hung up on it. ;) Great lens!

ReplyPosted August 21, 2007

rentablogger wrote...

The long tail is here to stay (as if it just came in) ;)

Just write in your natural language, squeeze in some synonyms and word variations and you can get found on more terms that you thought was possible. Amazing quote from the Amazon executive.

ReplyPosted August 10, 2007

WhitePineLane wrote...

Great lens, MrLewisSmile! Helpful explanation of a concept I didn't know much about! I'm off to long-tail some of my lenses!

ReplyPosted July 31, 2007

LindaJM wrote...

I got a few good ideas... thanks for the inspirations.

ReplyPosted July 31, 2007

brettkun wrote...

I'm still stuck on backlinking, long tail keywords, I got one at least 13 words faithfully producing 1 visitor per month
but I was hoping for the traffic http://squidoo.com/essentialjapanesevocabulary/

ReplyPosted July 20, 2007

MrLewisSmile wrote...

Thanks for the comments so far, you cool people!

And Jack, how does it look on your lenses?

ReplyPosted July 20, 2007

ViqiFrench wrote...

Great explanation. Been wondering for months exactly what this 'long tail' business was all about!

ReplyPosted July 17, 2007

jackclee wrote...

Do you think the current Squidoo lens of close to 200,000
behave the way you described? That is the total visitors to the bottom 90% ranked lens is greater than the total visitors to the top 10%? I would be very surprised.

ReplyPosted July 14, 2007

kalanui wrote...

Excellent lens, as usual, Lewis. 5 stars for you. I added you to my favs and lensroll too.
Aloha,
June

ReplyPosted July 06, 2007

flaminglacer wrote...

An excellent explanation of a subject that baffles alot of folks.....

A Squid Angel has passed your way...

~?~

ReplyPosted July 02, 2007

Margaret_Schaut wrote...

Good lens, Lewis, and a very clean explanation of the long and short of it!

ReplyPosted July 01, 2007

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