My Idea of a Top-Notch Commerce Lens!

Daoine is a favorite lensmaster of mine. Her commerce lenses are interesting, full of content and fun, and make great use of pictures.

In particular, Elsa won Lens of the Day with her Pirate Costumes for Halloween, and no wonder!

She checked on when the next pirate movie would be released (none coming yet, darn!)

She gives us a little history about Pirates (which explains why we like the rogues so much, doesn't it?)

She gives us details of a full and interesting costume for anyone, man, woman or child. She even gives us instructions on how to make the proper hat!

As a commerce resource, she includes a way to get everything, or nearly everything, we could need to have a GREAT pirate costume.

Yes, it is a seasonal lens, but it is one that is worth hanging on to and keeping fresh year by year. A little promotion at the right time and this lens will be a long-term asset for Elsa.

Very well done!

1001 Members! Very, Very Busy!

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a few days. As you can see, I've been very busy. We have 1001 members in the Mall group, and I'm working on some new projects to promote you all.

You will begin seeing some real differences between all the ecommerce groups as Squidoo grows, and I hope the Mall will stand out more than most of the others, in its own unique way.

We're all hoping to make a living with our internet merchandizing, and my projects are just for that purpose.

If you have any suggestions, please email them to me. We will all need to stand out more and more as time goes on.

Congratulations to all of you for a successful group so far. The proof will be in our incomes as we move forward.

I admire and enjoy all of you!

953 Lenses in the Mall Group Today

Yes, I'm VERY behind! Today there are 953 lenses in the Mall group, and I expect it to be 1000 by next week. Since I look at every lens that applies to the Mall, this huge number of new lensmasters is keeping me very busy.

This month I'm a Citizen Squid, doing what I can to help out in the lounge, and various small projects that headquarters would like to help with.

I also inherited a project that I would like you to help with:
NAME THE SQUID!

I got this project by purchasing a large number of lenses from the former Citizen Squid, Angela Harms. This lens was started in January as an effort to name our mascot, but it didn't get far.

The entire lens benefits Chimp Haven and so I have enlisted the help of chimps to encourage visitors to vote.

Help us name the Squid that is our mascot and trademark! Go to the lens and vote on the names and even suggest some yourself.

If you would like extra links to your page, this is the arrangement. Anyone who lensrolls the Name the Squid page can put any links they want to on the page plexo. One lensroll, one link.

For any Mall on Squidoo member, I will also provide a link here to your website or squidoo page.

816 Shops in the Mall as of Today!

As I mentioned before, the Mall on Squidoo is growing very fast! Today there are 816 shops, all of which want to be featured, highlighted, and get visitors to them! There will be more by the end of the day.

There are some really wonderful shops that are begging for traffic and repeat visitors, not to mention sales!

I look forward to the announcement from Megan about the decision that she will make about the stumble, because it will have an enormous effect on how I organize and manage the Mall group.

In any case, I plan to aggressively promote the Mall on Squidoo, and we may just have to accomodate the stumble as best we can.

I have plans that excite me, but I am actively seeking, and welcoming any suggestions you may have that would benefit all of us at the Mall group.

Pressing Right Along...

The anger that the information provided by magicality provoked, at least with the forum moderator, is quite a surprise to me. The positive reactions to that information from all but one lensmaster seems to me that nearly everyone is interested in the statistics.

Fortunately Gil has promised stats 2.0 which will probably clear up everything.

So, I think I'll bow out of the discussions around lensrank for the long term, just press right along with my pages and groups, my website and my business, and let headquarters do whatever it is going to do without comment from me. I can't seem to get on the right side of those discussions no matter what.

I have no interest in 'doing battle' with people I like and admire so much, or with the concept of Squidoo altogether, with which there can be no reasonable dispute.

The new phase of the mall is coming up, and the form of it will depend on the headquarter's final decision on the stumble and how it will work.

What we will do next, here at the Mall blog, is take a look at some performing lenses and see what is so good about them.

This will be FUN!

Group Mastering - 2

TO DO A GOOD JOB

Groupmastering so many wonderful commerce merchants, and with so many legitimate but similar lenses, I have decided that as part of my Mall re-development, that I would create companion oppportunities.

You may have noticed additional Mall groups that I have begun on Squidoo. These provide, like chain malls, more opportunities to feature lensmasters without directly competing with one another.

As they grow, each will take on its own distinctive character and shopping experience for visitors and, I hope, develop its own 'fan base' and return visitors.

Do not expect to be featured in all Mall groups, since I want to give everyone a great chance to be found by our growing shopping traffic and to be specially featured.

The categories of Mall are ones that the membership of the current Mall group is showing to me, and there may be more to come.

I hope your 'contact me' function is enabled, because if it isn't, you may find your lenses booted and not understand why or which Mall I want you to apply to.

I welcome your suggestions and comments. These are for all of us.

Caution for Affiliates

Affiliate sales are an important part of revenue generation for many Squidoo Mall members. I have had a recent experience that concerns me very much for you.

An affiliate module of my own on a page, using an iframe, recently had its account number changed somehow. The auction went from showing Amish quilts at auction to showing Brittney Spears memorabilia. At first I thought the auction house had changed, but I checked my identical iframes on other pages and those were fine.

It appears to me that someone knows how to go into iframes and change account numbers to take sales commissions, and if it happens to you, you may never know it unless you check them every single day.

A few months back when Squidoo was flooded with a wave of spammers, following their own links revealed a strategy of changing the adsense codes in people's blogs and websites, and without the page owner knowing it, the adsense revenues would be paid to the scammers. I'm not making this up, someone called the scammbuster found the info, took screenshots, and made this proof known to lensmasters, Google, the authorities and to Squidoo headquarters. I saw their posts myself.

Untended lenses with your own affiliate modules are ripe to be plucked in this way.

It is clearly important for you to 'make your rounds' frequently to check the payout account codes in your affiliate modules to ensure they haven't been changed by someone else.

Since I'm not interested in supporting such thieves, as I manage the Mall Group I will be watching which lenses are old and stale and which are maintained and reasonably fresh. I will not permit the Mall on Squidoo to become a magnet for such thieves, and neglected lenses are all too easy a target.

I will be adding a 'what's fresh' module to the group page as a means for me to monitor who's lenses have been freshened recently, and which ones are being neglected.

For the protection of every lensmaster in the group, I will be culling old and neglected lenses, whether they have independent affiliate modules or not. I can't count on my being able to tell the difference.

Groupmastering & The Mall Group #1

Remodeling

I have been remodeling the Mall Group, as I have announced here. It is a VERY BIG PROJECT for me.

Growing Fast!

The Mall group is growing faster than I can get the remodeling done. We now have over 500 members and getting close to 50 applications per week for membership.

Gaps

There are clearly some gaps in our 'shopping coverage' which I am interested in suggestions about how to fill.

Duplicates

There are also an enormous number of duplicate lenses applying. This should be of great concern to every lensmaster in the Mall, and yet the participation and interaction between Mall members is almost non-existent.

Serious Business People

Having FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE as a small business owner, with the ENORMOUS DIFFERENCE Squidoo can make with the success of a business or a project, it seems to me that it is only the serious business people who should be supported by the joint efforts of an active and vibrant Mall group.

I will discuss these things in ensuing posts. I am very concerned that much of your hard work is being duplicated and plagiarized. I believe that serious people who want to make the most of Squidoo, and the groups they belong to, will be able to brainstorm ways of dealing with this problem and still succeed.

I expect and anticipate your suggestions and comments.

Participating in Squidoo- Google's 0.02% Rule

Hype is one way that Google determines whether a website is worthy of a high page ranking. We have been told that Google algorithms consider any superlatives of over 0.02% to be overly hyped, and such websites drop and will continue to drop in the Google page rankings.

Our new Mall ranks quite high in Google rankings, and my intention is to make this a brand new internet shopping experience for people who have never tried Squidoo. So, when Google makes it generally known that their algorithms now account for hype, then this must also be a concern to me to keep our page rankings high and increase our traffic.

Furthermore, a 'hype factor' higher than Google algos allows puts Squidoo at risk overall. Right now we are highly favored by Google and as we have seen, that favor could/can/has changed overnight for many a website!

As I remodel the Mall on Squidoo I am observing the amount of hype and superlatives in each page. If there is going to be highly complimentary descriptions, I would like them to be in the context of the Mall group!

Just one overhyped lens means there can be no superlatives of any kind for the next 98 lenses!

Take a new look at your lenses, your titles, your descriptions and your tags and minimize the hype and superlatives that you use. This way your lens won't be an overall drag on the page rankings the entire Mall can receive from Google, and all the efforts I make to improve our Google presence won't be hampered.

Participating In Squidoo- You Affect Others

The groups you belong to can be an excellent source of support.

You can visit other lenses, even competing lenses, and learn a lot about what makes a good and profitable lens or what could improve your business.

Group masters, on occasion, create project and activities to benefit everyone in the group, or at least responsive lensmasters. Those things increase your visibility, give you a chance to see what kind of a difference some things can make, and get you better known among Squidoo lensmasters.

If your groupmaster asks your participation, give it!

They have LOTS to keep track of so they don't leave anyone behind. Make the necessary list-keeping to a minimum and try to be there for your fellow lensmasters.

It will create a great reputation for you!

Lensranking has been ADJUSTED

Now that the lensranking has been adjusted, I'll be posting about how to get your rankings up according to the wisdom bestowed from the 'best of places' that seem to influence the decisions.

Consequently, the plans I have had for the Mall have had to be changed somewhat.

I will discuss these things in future posts. Hang on to your hats!!!!!

Tutorial: Three Stars- Good Solid Lens

Three stars mean that you have convinced me that you are a good, solid business person.

I am willing to email your lens to someone who I know who happens to be looking for your product, or who I am sure would like it very much.

Does it need to be perfect? No, not at all.

It means this:

I can CONTACT YOU. If I have a question, I at least have a way to get hold of you.

You have a good introduction. That means a relevant picture, some sort of introduction that helps me be oriented to the focus of your lens.

Starting from today, NO COMMERCE LENS MISSING A CONTACT ME FUNCTION WILL RECEIVE MORE THAN TWO STARS FROM ME.

No exceptions.