The Single Biggest Tip I Can Give Squidoo Lensmasters
Learn. Work. Scale. Repeat.
Small words, big meaning. People get caught up a lot in ‘Squidoo is going to make me rich’ or ‘my blogs are going to make me rich’ or ‘my favorite GPT site / survey / ebook is going to make me rich’.
So far I’ve only found one thing that really set me firmly on the road to succeeding with anything in life.
Myself.
I think Squidoo is an equalizer and a differentiator at the same time. There are some lensmasters that build hundreds and hundreds of lenses with nothing but default settings and no unique content or insight of any kind and expect Squidoo to do all the work for them. There are others that spend all of their time on one or two lenses and expect to make wild fame, fortune, and riches off of 2 pieces of content that they constantly tweak.
Learn to build good lenses. This is done by building lenses. A lot of them. However, if you keep repeating the same thing over and over and over you aren’t learning anything. You have to try different techniques, topics, angles, etc. to find what works. I have probably 100+ lenses that get no traffic at all. none. zip. Were those lenses a waste of my time? Not at all. In fact, those are probably some of the most valuable lenses I have built because each one of them taught me something new. Without all those stubbed toes, I wouldn’t be getting ever closer to finding the right module combinations, topics, promotion methods, and little tricks and tweaks that work best for me.
Work. This is the difference between mindless repetition of anything you do and truly putting forth an effort worth talking about. Work is often associated with a negative connotation but that’s probably a result of people associating what they do every day when they go to ‘work’. Work is not a place, it is an action. A good action because it means you are putting forth effort. Effort + Knowledge = results. Every Time.
Scale. Perhaps another good name for this would be Focus. If you find something that works, figure out ways to duplicate that success. This can be the most challenging part of succeeding at anything (Squidoo or not) but I think it’s almost the most rewarding. You don’t achieve Scale when you can achieve excellence on demand. You achieve scale when you can help others achieve excellence on demand in ways that help everyone succeed.
Repeat. Once you conquer one mountain, it becomes a mole hill. One lens is a triumphant accomplishment when you have only one. Your first penny earned. Your first comment. Your first rating. Your first visit from google. Then it becomes the first 50 lenses, the first 100 visitors, the first $10 or $100 you make. It doesn’t ‘end’, it just changes.
I meet lensmasters all the time that say ‘i cant <insert thing here usually relating to traffic or ranking>’. I ask them how many lenses they have built and what is working on the others. Virtually every time, the answers are not very many and nothing is working because they are all the same. I’ll then tell them to go try and build a lens a day for a week, even give them ideas and module templates and affiliate program recommendations. Sometimes they do it and come back for more but usually i never hear from them again.
The ones that do return have usually learned something incredibly important. They’ve learned that challenging yourself to learn new things isn’t as bad as you remembered it in school and in fact it’s pretty rewarding.
I’ll admit it’s an imperfect world and it’s never the right time to start. But until you put your imperfect butt into imperfect gear and get the party rolling, it’s going to be hard to effect change for yourself or your cause.
oh, and I have a secret tip that if you just repeat it over and over and don’t even think about changing anything it will make you $47,000 a second. While I’m at it I’ve got some houses that you can buy for zero money down and never make a payment ever and you will be able to flip for millions in days. Check out my new site on all these great deals.
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Comments
If you had just delivered a speech, I’d have to stand up and applaud. Oh, what the heck … [stands up and claps] BRAVO!!!
http://www.squidu.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=155353#p155353 comment #16
Just thought I would stop by and see what JasonE was referring too. He’s right, this article’s a classic. Keep up the good work Joe!
[...] if you haven’t read it yet, this post is a good taste of what I’ve been hearing: The Single Biggest Tip I Can Give Squidoo Lensmasters. It’s also great talking to the other Squids that hang out there, and I’m only there a [...]
Cap’n, Great advise, but do I detect a bit of frustration? Must be those parts about work and creativity - and the folks that don’t come back when they realize success won’t be handed to them.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE this post!!!!!!!!!!
If I was a scraper, this post would be ALLLL over my blog! (uh, that’s a joke, Captain…lol)
“But until you put your imperfect butt into imperfect gear and get the party rolling, it’s going to be hard to effect change for yourself or your cause.”
You da man!!!!!
:::standing ovation::::::
Jennifer
~PotPieGirl
By luck God bring me here.I have read thru all ur squidoo tips.I am a newbie,do not know where to begin n however to create a len and become a squidoo.
Great post, good advice - I So agree with you. Every lens is just a step. Sometimes it’s high and other times only slightly leveled-up from the previous one. And then there are those that lead downstairs. How much money they bring in is one way to judge them. But if they don’t contain some of my essence - I can’t see the reason to bother making them at all…
Thanks for sounding off on the topic Captain. Good advice! I have deleted several lenses that just aren’t doing much. I notice my average ratinges go up on the other lenses that are doing better, when I do delete weaker ones. So, why would you want to keep the ones that aren’t getting traffic? There are somethings I don’t understand!
Peace!
This is a great post, and terrific advice. There is just something to be said for writing more and more lenses. As you write them, you learn how to write them beter and better. Each one is better than the one before.
Very good post again. Really sensible advice. Anything that seems like a get rich quick scheme turns me off immediately.
Thanks, Brad
Thanks for good advice. I was about to quit this stuff, but you have encouraged me to continue. On and upward!
Thank you for the encouraging words. Squidoo is a way to make money but, it has to be treated like a job. At least that’s my opinion.
Wow, that was great.
I have been here for just over 6 months and have 91 featured lenses. I will say that they are all good. They all have insight, interest, etc. I get a lot of great feedback. I have gotten to the point where I have done 3 quality lenses in a day. The money is multiplying, but to the point where I can use it to go to a better restaurant. Still at the day job.
I have varied topics, but I think when you say try different things, that isn’t what you mean. Could you say more on that?
Margo
All I can say is … ser-i-ous-ly! Get ANYTHING quick (but a pain in the butt) is a stupid perspective to start out with. Nothing really, really, really, really good ever came easy. Besides, what’s wrong with elbow grease/hard work? If it was good enough for all that have come before me, then it should be good enough for me, too. And, guess what? It is. The easy/lazy way to success ($$ or not) is dumb. Now that I got THAT off my chest …
Great advice, few people can make a fortune just like that. It takes practice, plenty of work and learning, tweaking and tuning, and with hard work and maybe some lucky breaks you find the right way to go.
Excellent post! It is so true you have to just keep plugging away and see what works. I have had a squidoo account for a couple of years but have only in the last few months really tried to learn to use squidoo. I finally reached a $10 payout which was my first goal. Same month got my first amazon sale thru an amazon module. I have about 30 lenses and I will just keep plugging away. I work 2 jobs for a total of about 15 to 16 hours a day. If I can get this done others can too, without all of the excuses. Someday I can quit one of the two jobs and then maybe even quit both!
So true, and I thought only my lenses didn’t get any visits… 
Learning from mistakes is something only “successful” people do. If we all did it on a regular basis, we would all be more successful.
Thank you for asking me to submit my lens. I get traffic to it, but of course, I never had the intention of making money from this lens. My sole purpose was to help others have more facts for better decisions, and in a larger sense, provoke some action on getting a better standard of truth-in-labeling of food. We have a right to know what we are ingesting…but I digress….
This is a wonderful post and I love the way that you write!
well said!
Captain, I asked on another of your posts tips on how you achive this, I think the above post goes a long way to helping us achieve that.
Thanks!
This is one of best post I have read in a while. The points you have made here are well known to many and have been repeatedly said again and again, but the way you have said it, tailormade to squidoo lensmasters but applicable universally, is excellent.
The points you made in the learn and work department are specially excellent and worth to be read many times over in order to drive the points home. You have given me a new perspective to look at my failed lens by giving the example of your 100+ no-traffic lens.
Thanks for the excellent post.
Thanks for your wonderful tips Captain SQuidoo, i really learn a lot from you the meanings of working ..which is action..
Such great advice, thank you. I only found your site yesterday and already have learnt so much. I only have a few lenses so far but you have totally inspired me. Onwards and upwards! Thanks again.
Thank you Captain. I know that you hold down 2 jobs and still finding time for this challenge. I’m not game to take up the challenge but will keep poking along as I have been able to do in the limited time I have to devote to writing. I am trying to learn from others though, and you have made some very astute comments. Thanks again.
Your advice is refreshing. Usually you need to buy the “secret to success” and then it’s something like a keyword tool or a template you must copy and paste. Never the real truth that it’s YOU that stands between yourself and success..but we all kinda know it already we just need reminding once in a while. Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. When a reporter asked, “How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?” Edison replied, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”
This is an inspiration- thank you for reminding us that there is no such thing as a free lunch- in other words- success is not without effort and learning. It’s also refreshing to know that you have also got lenses that don’t make money but you worked your way into finding what works and never stopped learning new things.
Great information here. It seems everything you have said is spot on. You start first and really just scale up what your are. Keep up the good work Captain.
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Fantastic advice. One lens does not an empire make. I will take it to heart!