Archive for March, 2008

Okay, so the Monkeybrain challenge begins tomorrow so after midnight tonight, create your lens! (1 per person please).

I am STILL debating what I want to debate in my lens!
Might be a topic I am testing the niche for…

Tiff

Okay, I haven’t had any cause to use it yet, but many of you will want to.

On your dashboard, you’ll see a link for the Cast.

Click that link and you’ll be able to type your title and message.
Think bulletin on MySpace - same thing. You’re sending out a message to all of your “fans” or people who have subscribed to your profile as a loyal follower.

But it’s not just people who’ve clicked the “fan” button. Anyone who’s subscribed to your RSS feed get the casting.
Anyone who’s marked it as a favorite gets it, too.

You’ll use this feature NOT to spam them, but to let them know when something’s new on your lens.

Tiff

Every once in awhile I host a Squidoo Challenge – for fun, for prizes (eBooks), and for a custom-built lens made by Lewis Smile and I.

They have a new section of the site I haven’t tried out yet, so I thought it’d be a fun way to host the next challenge. It’s called MonkeyBrain. The headquarters is located here: http://www.squidoo.com/monkeybrain/hq

All of the MonkeyBrain lenses are debate lenses – so you can use this to your marketing advantage. Let’s say you’re in the dog training niche. You could do a debate lens about crate training – good or bad?

Smoking cessation niche - public smoking bans (good or bad)
Green niche – recyclable grocery bag bans (pro or con)

Etc etc etc.

Here’s how the contest works:

You won’t be able to create the lens until March 16th. The contest will run until the last day of the month (March 31st). Lowest overall LensRank number wins (it’s the only common element we can gauge a winner by). Just giving you about a week to think of an idea, but don’t register your URL yet.

This is a great way to learn Squidoo because the contestants usually share tips, strategies, and help each other out by visiting each other’s lenses, etc.

There’s nothing to sign up for – you’ll just need to email me your lens URL or post it in the comments section here once you create it and it HAS to be created ON or AFTER March 16th. No earlybirds just to keep it fair.

Then each day I’ll post the update of LensRank everyone has on my blog so we can see who’s in the lead. But only the last day matters!

Are you brave enough to compete?

Tiff

LOTS of discussion, panic, and frustration from people who are focusing too much on LensRank. I used to, too - so I know what you’re feeling. But - over time, as I’ve increased my knowledge about Squidoo, I’ve learned LensRank is - well, nothing to concern yourself with.

All it does is give an internal way to organize the lenses, really. It might make a difference in your inner Squidoo traffic (which is minimal in most cases), but it won’t put a dent into your Google and other search engine traffic.

However, it’s FUN to watch your LensRank go lower and lower. The best I’ve ever achieved is #3 overall! I was happy So if achieving a better LensRank makes you feel better - go for it! But don’t be surprised when it doesn’t result in increased traffic or conversions of your lens.

It’s just not meant for that purpose

Better to spend your time monitoring the Google SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) and see you reach page 1 in the top 10 results - now THAT’S when you can pee your pants and go bragging to everyone that you DID it!

Just my opinion.

Gotta run - there’s a squirrel in my attic and it’s WAR!
tiff

Hmmm… not so sure I like it, really. I’ve actually become accustomed to the unmaxed layout for awhile now. The reason? More room for my content to stretch.

With the maxed version (now more than ever), all of my content is scrunched together with large, looming ads all around. I DO like the blue color scheme better than the plain orange, though.

Plus, I think it’s kind of odd that each type of visitors sees a slightly different page.

So am I 100% onboard yet? Nope. Maybe it’ll grow on me.
tiff