How Do I Get My Squidoo Lenses To Earn More Money?

Ah yes, the perennial question for those trying to earn a buck over at Squidoo is: What can I do to make more money at Squidoo?

My reply? I dunno. Or at least, I'm not going to tell you everything I plan to do to get money from my Squidoo webpages, but I will tell you what my goals are as far as gaining a greater share of the wealth and what I'm planning to do to reach those goals.

This is something of a game ~ how can I get more visitors; how can I get more sales. As I've said before, there are two basic ways to earn money at Squidoo:

• Getting more lenses ranked, and ranked higher
• Getting more sales

Basically, I want all my lenses to earn their keep. I've put a lot of work into many different lenses and they haven't generate the return I expected, so I guess it is time to re-assess. I think my goals are on the modest side, and I don't think that publishing the perfect lens will suddenly set me on the road to riches. What each of my webpages need to do is provide some sort of a return. In addition to the fun factor.

Currently, I have 45-50 webpages at Squidoo with a high enough rank to earn something each month ~ the problem is, of course, that unless they are in the higher tiers they just do not generate to spend time worrying about their rank. I am appreciative of anything Squidoo sends my way based on rankings alone (thanks Seth and co!), but what we all should be concentrating on is the sales part of the equation. As far as ranking goes, that should be considered as a bonus for doing good work.

How Do I Increase My Earnings From Squidoo Rankings?

Not that I plan on turning a blind eye to the rankings. One goal I have set for myself is to increase the number of lenses I have in at least the 3rd tier to (drumroll...) 200 lenses. That means, adjusting, rewriting, reviewing, adding and subtracting content, doing more from a marketing angle ~ basically make my webpages the best possible, by attracting more visitors, favorable ratings, and (the make money online grail) more links to my lenses. I'll have to start flexing my marketing muscles and get the word out about Squidoo being a great place to do business (yes it is!), and that my lenses are where people will want to visit to find the information they are searching for.

Yes, that is a lot of work, but I do believe that it can be done. My monthly goal from just the rankings is to earn $50 each and every month which if I have 200 webpages in at least the 3rd tier would be around $20. I do have several in the 2nd tier and I have some that are flirting with the top tier, so one of my resolutions for 2010 is to get some more lenses back into the top tier. Hard to do, and very hard to maintain. Earning $50 a month will be nice, but it will not get me to where I want to be with Squidoo. That's where the second part of the plan kicks in.

How Do I Increase Sales At Squidoo?

As far as sales go, more is my goal. Pretty basic huh? One thing I want to state is that although increasing the volume of sales is one of my stated goals, there is no way I will allow my work to become too spammy. Some may say that they are already kinda spammy after looking at my webpages, but on a personal level I definitely try to shy away from stuff about selling a "system" or "buy my ebook" and all that. I have zero interest in writing about those things that do not spark my interest and hopefully, the interest of my visitors.

What I plan on doing is to increase the number of lenses I have with products and content that people are looking for to purchase and read about. I don't think that having a webpage primarily geared towards sales is neccessarily a bad thing ~ more sales are what is needed at this time to get the economy purring along again, and I'm going to do what I can to keep the gears rolling.

There is an infinite number of topics, niches, and ideas, that I think lend themselves to excellent lenses at Squidoo and I am in the middle of a building boom as far as new pages go. I've had what I believe are several ideas for hot lenses and these ideas just keep popping up.

Checking on Squidoo shows they are not covered by others and if an idea seems to be taken, I usually drop it or it morphs into something else. Basically what I want to do is publish content that visitors will find highly interesting and that gets searched out and lends itself to sales of related products.

What Are Your Goals For The Coming Year?

At the start of 2010 I find myself renewed, reinvigorated and eager to get a fresh start. Maybe that's just due to calendar turning, but for some unknown reason, my motivation to do better at Squidoo (and elsewhere with my online marketing efforts) is increasing by leaps and bounds.

I've had some success at Squidoo and I'm looking forward to doing even better personally and seeing what new efforts other lensmasters bring to the table in this coming year. I hope you catch this same enthusiasm and lets compare notes as we head towards a brighter future.

November Squidoo Payout Coming!

The big, blue box is coming. Payday at Squidoo is just about a week or so away and like everyone, I am looking forward to seeing what I've generated. This payday will be for November 2009 as Squidoo is always a couple of months behind, so you will have to wait until February to find out what you made over Christmas.

What can you expect? Well, as always, Squidoo pay by how well your various lenses ranked over the course of the month, so hopefully you had some in the top tier. If your webpage was ranked under 2,000 for entire month of November, then your lens would be in the top tier. It is all based on how long it spent in the top tier on average. For example, let's say your webpage is ranked 2,001+ all month, but for the last week of November it rises to 1,750 or so in the ranks. Don't get your hopes up that you will get paid the top payout. It all depends on your overall monthly ranking. You will likely receive a Tier 2 payout because it averaged a Tier 2 ranking for the month which is still respectable.

Here's what last month's payout (for October) were:

Tier #1 $13.20 (up $0.17 from the previous month)
Tier #2 $2.13 (up $0.01 from the previous month)
Tier #3 $0.10 (same as the previous month)

So, if the webpage mentioned above ended up being ranked as a Tier 2 lens after all, you would receive $2.13. We didn't receive notification of our October payout until mid-December, so it will be a while before we get the word that November's payout is here.

What Are The Top 10 Squidoo Christmas 2009 Lenses?

Because it is now so close to Christmas, I thought I would take a look at the Top Ten Squidoo search results for the search term "Christmas" to find which lenses would come up and the following webpages with a holiday theme came up on the list:

Top 10 Best Green Gift Ideas 2009 by flowski
Top 10 Best Christmas Gift Ideas 2009 by flowski
Christmas Crafts - Decorations, Gifts, Giftwrap and More by Pastiche
Fuzzy Slippers by GroovyFinds
Beautiful Gingerbread Houses by Kate-Phizackerley
Crazy Cute Christmas Cupcakes by rms
Free Christmas Card Templates by lisadh
Christmas Clip Art by Pastiche
Countdown to Christmas by Christene
Christmas Printables - Coloring Sheets and Activities by WebSpinstress

Taking a quick look, obviously flowski, aka Brandon, is the man this Christmas season as not only does he have the number one overall lens on Squidoo, which is no mean feat in itself, but he holds down the first two spots on this list of Christmas-themed webpages! His Top 10 Best Green Gift Ideas 2009 lens offers visitors a nice assortment of products and ideas for a greener Christmas. His Top 10 Best Christmas Gift Ideas 2009 is visually awesome, with a very Christmasy feel that is nicely laid out.

Pastiche is the only other lensmaster with 2 lenses in the top 10. Most of her lenses have a fun, crafty theme, and her webpage, Christmas Crafts - Decorations, Gifts, Giftwrap and More really catches the eye. Tons of ideas and intriguing projects to make at home - (love the gingerbread men). Her Christmas Clip Art webpage also deservedly makes the list and gives lots of different graphics ideas I want to try. And, these two lenses aren't even her top-rated lens, she has another clip art themed page that's in the top 10 overall at Squidoo.

Fuzzy Slippers by GroovyFinds just has to be included because of the funny slippers that are highlighted. Christmas morning just wouldn't be the same without receiving a pair of comfy slippers under the tree. Really, check out the lens.

Kate-Phizackerley has an very nice webpage showcasing Beautiful Gingerbread Houses. That's a project my grandmother used to involve all her grandkids in doing every year.

One of my favorite lensmasters is on the Top 10 list too, as Robin, also known as rms, has a tasty lens, Crazy Cute Christmas Cupcakes, to help with your baking requirements. She can only be called a PROLIFIC member of Squidoo as her output dwarfs many other lensmasters with the 304 lenses she's made, and taking the time to rate almost 6,000 lenses!

Free Christmas Card Templates is from another longtime Squidoo member, lisadh. She has over 200 webpages on Squidoo too with a number also being Christmas related. Her Christmas Card page will help you make your own cool holiday cards.

Another of my personal favorite Squidoo peeps is Christine, who is ALWAYS on the Squidoo Discussion Forum (how does she get her own work done? She's always leaving helpful comments and suggestions). Christine's Countdown to Christmas is about the use of Advent Calendars at Christmastime.

The final entry on this list is from WebSpinstress with her Christmas Printables - Coloring Sheets and Activities lens - all about coloring and printable pages that will keep the kids busy.

All of these webpages are really well done and deserve kudos. Squidoo Land salutes all of the members of Squidoo who have done such excellent work producing so many great lenses with such holiday flair. If I could, I would list all the Christmas webpages that have grabbed my attention, but I can't, so these are the ones I wanted to highlight. Next year at this time hopefully I will be saluting yours!

Christina Hendricks Now Appearing At Squidoo

One of my lenses at Squidoo that I particularly like is the one I did about Christina Hendricks from the television series Mad Men. Obviously Ms Hendricks is very easy on the eyes, so it was no problem for me to spend time pouring over pictures and articles of the actress trying to put a tribute page together for her. Truth be told, I probably would have spent a lot of time Googling her anyway, because I really like her as Joan Holloway on Mad Men, a show I never seem to find the time to watch as regularly as I would like.

Mad Men, if you don't know, is set in the 1960s at an advertising agency called Stirling Cooper, and Hendricks' role is of the office manager. I'm not someone who really pays much attention to costumes or clothing, but the look and style of the show is something else. Joan seems to have been poured into some of her outfits and usually is just stunningly beautiful. What my lens needs is more pictures of Hendricks decked out in the 1960s-era dresses she wears so well, so I will definitely be trying to add more of those.

One thing I'm happy with about the page is that although I haven't really added too much to it after initially publishing the lens, it has continually had a respectable amount of traffic and ranked somewhere in the 30-40,000 level in the Squidoo rankings. That's obviously not going to make me rich anytime soon as it means an extra $0.08 a month in my PayPal account from our good friends at Squidoo, but I'm happy with that. I've just recently added several pictures and clips to the webpage, and updated a fair portion of the written content, so I'm hoping for a little bump in the ranking of the lens. The traffic it receives is as I said, not bad, receiving about 20-30 visits in a seven-day period, and gets the odd spike in visits every once in a while.

I just checked where it sits in Google and the page is buried way back on the ninth page of results - still not bad, because it does show up - but I think I will try to move it up. Obviously a page one ranking on Google would be great because that would probably drive much more traffic of those looking for Hendricks to my webpage.

Checking the traffic sources stats shows that referrals and directs account for the bulk of my traffic, but the Google and Yahoo search engines provide a nice lift in my numbers along with a smattering of traffic coming from Bing, Discovery, AltaVista and AOL. I've found that many find the webpage through some odd combinations of search terms - that would be the "long tail" marketing kicking in I guess, but still it combines into a fairly respectable level of visitors.

I'm thinking that with a little more attention to detail and timely updates, this simple lens could jump up into the 2nd tier in the Squidoo rankings. My motto should be "Put in the work and you'll see better results."