King-Maker or King: What Squidoo Can Teach You

I'm SO GLAD I'm NOT a politician!

As groupmaster, it falls to me to be sure that as many of my group members know about important community events as possible.

Why? Because Squidoo is ONLY AS GOOD AS THE COMMUNITY MAKES IT.

As community members, it seems to me to be important to give everyone all the opportunities possible to make it better, more responsive and give greater chances to everyone to succeed, increase traffic, improve sales.

As a community member I've been disappointed in the participation level in the Lens of the Year award. It is an important, VERY IMPORTANT contest that gives the internet pubic something promoted as the BEST of Squidoo.

Those are the things that determine how squidoo looks to outsiders! Those are the things that help determine the quality of traffic that comes into squidoo from elsewhere. Those are the things that determine whether we will have people wanting to shop, visit stores, check out our informational pages, even create lenses of their own and become another member of our community.

So, taking it seriously, I have been emailing many, many members who, it seemed to me, to have a real interest in the outcome of that contest.

The response has been dismal at best. There are many business people who don't even have their 'contact me' function enabled.

So, while Squidoo has itself received an award as a community that has 'Passionate Users,' it surprises me how few within that community are passionate at all, even about their own businesses.

I have discovered, about myself, that I am a campaigner. A King Maker, not a King. If I wanted to have someone be passionate about something, I would want someone like me to get involved.

Now, back to doing what I can to make Squidoo the best it can be....

Trail Blazers- Dino Dino

Trail Blazing!

Yes, Dino, and me, and YOU are trailblazing what is possible for small business with Squidoo. We are right at the beginning of this great adventure, in the place where the 'rubber meets the road', at that spot where the promises that have been made, the potential that is there, meets the reality of hard work, persistence and goal setting.

Yesterday I posted that I have 7 lenses on MP. I have 14 lenses with some amount showing on the dashboard.

DinoDino also has 7 lenses on MP.

His work is TIGHT. His lenses, if you are looking for certain things, are really exacting. You get the information you need, that you want, and not more.

He is an excellent example of what a committed Squidoo business person is, at least in my estimation. He offers clusters of related products, all in his inimitable style. Once a person gets to know him, they know what to expect. Clients LOVE that.

Change just for the sake of change gets tiring to people and they see it all the time anymore. They like to know, if they go to Dino's pages, what to expect. They like to know what to tell their friends and have it be exactly as expected. They can rely on Dino, and they'll send their friends.

That is the best way to a 'passive' income.

Congratulations at the beginning of a very lucrative career, Dino. It is a great pleasure to watch your business grow, lens by lens, MP by MP.

Over 600 Mall Members!

Today I have gone through the huge line up of applicants and, out of the ones approved, have now exceeded a membership of 600 commerce lenses!

I also have the distinction of having 7 lenses on the Most Profitable list, and one lens at #2 lensranking today!

I am receiving about 50 good applications to the Mall per week, or more. Does anyone doubt that by the end of the year we will have several thousand members?

We will! We will also have MANY DUPLICATES and MANY COMPETITORS for the traffic that is getting drawn into squidoo.

There are a LOT of decisions I'll be making over the next few weeks.

We want the Mall to be the best we can make it, and the best draw for traffic we can create.

If you have a lot of competitors in Squidoo, then perhaps you want to take a new look at your lens and make sure it is REMARKABLE. At least, to me.

My goal is to turn as many of you as possible into well known small business people who are making an extremely good living from Squidoo. I'm on my way, are you?

Being Remarkable- Storytelling & Business

Director Tom, a fabulous Squidooer and remarkable storyteller, is having remarkable success with his business, with his fan base, with his blog. His business is making corporate videos. His passion is storytelling.

Why is Squidoo useful to him? Because it is a point of conversation and interaction with people who want their businesses to benefit from remarkable storytelling.

"Being Remarkable" as Seth Godin puts it aren't just pretty words. Not only is it crucial to live an interesting life, but it is crucial to a successful business venture. Read how Tom is being 'remarked on' by All Business.com Blog, Nettie Hartsock.

If you are being remarkable, like Director Tom, then people are remarking on you and your business, and they are likely doing it in an interactive way. Read Tom's terrific interview with Nettie Hartsock.

Squidoo is a CONVERSATION. It may only occur by email, or through interactive blogging, but it is a conversation all the same. Here is Tom's remarkable conversation with the ever remarkable Liz Strauss.

You cannot neglect your conversations in Squidoo if you wish to become, and to stay remarkable. Participate. It is social networking at its finest. Wonderful things can and do happen.

The alternative to being remarkable, something to remark to others about, is to be irrelevant. To be so boring that NO ONE wants to interact with you.

You can learn a LOT about being remarkable, in life and in your business, by reading Director Tom's website, his squidoo pages.

How Do the Rest of Them Do it?

The bark park group had a meeting tonight, where they are asking for my help cleaning up that HUGE PLACE. I've been a little preoccupied with my business and my squidoo lenses, and honestly don't/can't spare the time.

However, there is ONE person at the group who has been a BIG FAN of my David lens since the day I published it. She knows that the lens is up for the Lens of the Year, and she thinks it should be.

She visits it often, has emailed it to her sister and friends and to all her email list, and, while they may or may not build squidoo pages yet, they have commented very positively about it.

She mentioned around that perhaps the group would like to help me!

So they were voting at one table, while the rest of us were at other tables having dinner and talking.

All of a sudden, though, they couldn't sign up anymore.

In a way I'm glad. There's been so much gaming of everything that one can go into despair. On the other hand, I have about 600 lensmasters in my groups that I work hard to help, and I've emailed everyone I know, and barely got 40 something votes!

Well, I have promises. I have those who promise to go home and vote for me from their computers there. Is it enough? I doubt it. If I don't do certain non-urgent (to me) things when they're right in my face, I'm liable to put them aside and forget about it until MUCH later.

If you're not a true gamer, you get stopped. If you are, nobody can stop you!

I still have a list of 600 people that want my help, and will want it in the future. How is it that the last I checked, with over 109,000 lenses, we have probably less than 200 total votes?

The winning lens will be the VERY PUBLIC FACE of Squidoo for an entire year. YOUR reputation as well as mine, and Seth's and everyone's, will be affected by which lens takes the day.

Well, good luck to everyone. Let the best lens win!

Michelangelo's David on Squidoo

It is a difficult race for Lens of the Year, and Michelangelo's David is running tight now between 2nd and 3rd place (for now).

If you are a Mall member, and you haven't seen or commented on this lens, please take a good look, rate it and leave a comment here: Michelangelo's David. Then, once you've seen it, go to the Lens of the Year page and vote for your favorite.

It is the community thing to do!

Lensmastering- Most Profitable List

Yesterday when I went to bed, I had SIX lenses on the Most Profitable (MP) list.

This morning when I woke up, I had SEVEN lenses there, not all of which are commerce lenses, but have related items for sale.

Mornings have become much better when, with my coffee buddy Thor, I can see my work becoming productive.

In total, today I have 14 lenses with some amount showing on my dashboard. The MP lenses represent multiple/repeat sales.

I didn't know I could get so excited by a new $6 or $8 showing up unexpectedly!

What 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- Duplicate Lenses

There is a dramatic surge in duplicate lenses. In a big way, this is because of the increasing number of affiliate programs that are doing 'mega marketing' to get loads and loads of people who are willing to set up websites for free just to get a commmission on their products.

Here is a blog post from Bum Marketing about how to duplicate the higher traffic affiliate lenses, primarily offering click bank products. Recommending the 'Squidoo Tricks' ebook shilled by Tiffany Dow, and 'Squidoo Secrets,' these combine to guarantee that anything you do can and will be taken and 'rewritten' in order to copy and perhaps 'improve on' your performing lenses. This could indeed be done for any lens that doesn't have original and difficult to duplicate content.

This is also what they teach others who are new to Squidoo but coming in based on their 'outreach.' These new people form groups having 'contests' to vote each other's lenses 'up' (and other's down? its happened before, but I haven't seen these folks mention that as a strategy yet), and these contests primarily vote their OWN things up FIRST, others after, and repeated contests, repeated new people desperate to make a living on the internet, all come along happily for the ride they're being taken on.

Along with the spam lenses (splenses) that this approach creates, which groupmasters see, it poses for you the difficulty of creating the types of lenses that aren't easily duplicated.

As I cull the Mall group, I'll be looking for the telltale signs. I also won't be able to serve lensmasters well if there are too many duplicates of the same type of lens.

While these lens duplicators are coming in by the thousands to supplant the work you have done, consider ways that you can make content the king of your lenses and make things difficult to duplicate. It will help you very much.

Lens of the Year Plexo!

Seth has started a Lens of the Year Plexo, and I was happy to discover that my lens Michelangelo's David was on the list and getting votes! Woo Hoo!

So, if any of you are fans of my work, and my favorite lens, get to that Plexo and VOTE on the David you love!

Thanks bunches for your support!

Participating in Squidoo- Squid U Conversation

Here is a comment I posted in response to complaints about spam lenses in the forum:

RK, yes, it is a VERY TOUGH act to balance for Squid Staff. They MUST show an incredible rise in numbers and interest with as few staffers as possible. They must also prove that Squidoo has Google juice which keeps many of my lenses on the first, second and third page! It is an amazing achievement.

On the other hand, if all kinds of 'squid-crap' also gets high Google rankings, it will REALLY damage the real prize Squidoo offers and it will get terrible labels from people outside of squidoo.

Staff has to find a way to both grow at light-speed and to keep the squid-crap from flooding and damaging search engine results on Google, or that 'juice' will dry up FAST.

Lensmasters are the content providers that make Squidoo really good. They can earn money for the content but aren't 'paid providers.' In the same way, certain lensmasters are the advertising providers for Squidoo, earning money for doing it but aren't 'paid providers.'

Squidoo knew what was coming, so they went out of their way to get some 'heavy hitters' in the content arena before the oncoming flood. They got National Geographic, Martha Stewart, Rolling Stone Magazine, Jane Goodall.

So, Squidoo has these as a 'foundation'.

Next thing to do is to get the really committed lensmasters to organize the provided content, which is the future of Squidoo, so they started groups.

The groups use committed people like KCStargazer, Relache, Damon and Me to police and judge content for certain purposes so that all the good content won't be washed away in the endlessly repeating floods. Good lensmasters work hard to get their groups and the content in them to rate high in Google.

It is a masterful strategy and it is working so well. As a result, using lensrank as a purely motivational tool for newbies means that the inbound streams of new lenses will continue at about 1 lens per minute, +-, and the work of sorting it out is done by the groupmasters.

If ever accusations are made that Squidoo is little more than a haven for splenses, it is very easy to show off these great groups- who could then say there is no content here?

As the groups build up with time, as they are, they will rise taller over the flood of crap lenses. The duplicates, the get rich quick stuff, the affiliate only stuff, the intro only lenses will eventually sink to the bottom, and all the congo lines of people who brought their competition in with them will all find their low level.

The good content will stand out through groups.

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!