Comments on: Why Squidoo Ratings Swaps don’t work

By: Alison (EverythingMouse)

Alison (EverythingMouse) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:13:04 +0000

Couldn’t agree more Captain. Whilst such ratings swaps are annoying they really don’t achieve anything in the long term. As you say $1 for many hours work. Not really worth it is it?

By: Who cares about Lensrank, anyway? | Captain Squid

Who cares about Lensrank, anyway? | Captain Squid — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 12:49:56 +0000

[...] Arr… This Be The Captain! Thanks for Stopping by to check out my piratey bag of Squidoo Tricks! If you are new here, you might want to get free updates and squidoo tricks delivered straight to you via RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!I’ve spent a lot of time in the past talking about how Lensrank, while a potentially nice boost, shouldn’t be a cornerstone of your money making plan. [...]

By: Mr

Mr — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 15:27:23 +0000

[...] Here’s an interesting article I read on why Buying or Swapping ratings doesn’t work. Click Here for the [...]

By: Sandy

Sandy — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 07:34:23 +0000

This has nothing to do with ratings swap, but what do you do when you have a string of 5 stars and then someone slams you with one star and brings it down to 4 1/2? It will take forever for it to get to the 5 star make again, since my lenses have yet to find the traffic.

By: Mugshot

Mugshot — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 10:38:41 +0000

Its a funny ol world eh Cap’ain.

I used to follow a marketing forum and stopped going for this very reason, it seemed they all just wanted to help each other spam other sites for their own gains!

I do have a question Mr. Captain Squid…I know of one Squid who has over 1000 lenses and they are all full of ezine articles without even an active link to the author…to me this is also spam…what should I do?

By: spook

spook — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:31:27 +0000

Iagree with jeffwend. Encouragement is a fine thing.

By: The economics of Lensrank | Captain Squid

The economics of Lensrank | Captain Squid — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 01:11:24 +0000

[...] Why Squidoo Ratings Swaps don’t work [...]

By: xtnshun

xtnshun — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:47:10 +0000

Excellent post Cap’n.

Just a supporting point.

Lensrank is based on what has happened in the recent past, so getting lots of ratings may give a boost now, but is not sustainable in the long term – things like link-building, better content is.

My observation is that lensrank is calculated on ranges. So, you may get a boost for one rating, a higher boost for 2-5, a bigger one for 6-10 etc. That means if you have 7 ratings, the next one might not actually make any difference.

By: CCGAL

CCGAL — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 04:57:38 +0000

I never thought about it until this post, but the weight of a 5* rank from somebody who KNOWS about good lens making being “worth more” than a 5* from a non-squidoo-er who hasn’t got a clue seems to me to be logical. I know that praise from a Big Squid with snappy lenses FEELS more valuable than kind words from my non-computer-saavy buddies who are just amazed that I can do any of this.

One thing lens rank and ratings DOES do, at least for me, is generate feelings of success which in turn lead to more desire to improve my lenses in the absence of any financial gain from said activity. If ratings and lens rank served no other purpose than to provide some sort of gratification and encouragement during those lean beginning months, they would be valuable parts of the squidoo experience.

By: Jeffwend

Jeffwend — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 04:24:07 +0000

You are absolutely right Captain. I made a somewhat similar comment in the squidu forums. People obsess about LR and people cheating with stars, or they try to cheat with stars. In the end, trying to cheat the system really does not work.