This post is not categorized, not labeled, 'cuz it's for old Squidfriends: I'm asking a favor.

Your mission, should you choose to accept:

1. Go to your last month's payments.
2. Click "Export as TSV" (tiny link at upper right) or copy the chart into Excel or your favorite spreadsheet.
3. Set up formulas to add up the columns.
4. Do your subtotals meet the dashboard's reported subtotals?
5. Try the same experiment for a few different months.

Repeat question #4. Results, please? I've always seen very small discrepancies-- a few pennies to tens of pennies depending on total haul. I suspect it's simply an artifact of numbers being rounded somewhere, but it looks odd.

Now and then I like to review what I actually do to make a successful Squidoo lens, since this has changed as I've learned more.

Note that this is the Lazy Lensmaster's guide to making successful Squidoo lenses. I want to spend most of my time making content, not promoting and linkbuilding, so I craft self-sustaining, quality lenses that pull in traffic without my having to build tons of links. Combine my techniques with a lens promoter's techniques, and you'll blow both of us out of the water.

1. Have a great idea that hasn't been done to death.

I ask myself, "Would I want to read a webpage on X?" Too many people go right to traffic tools and SEO without stopping to think whether anyone would really want to read a page like the one they intend to make.

2. Brainstorm keywords, phrases that people might search for to find my page.

I use Wordtracker and Google Adwords to figure out what related words and phrases generate a lot of traffic. At the same time, in another web browser tab...

(more...)

It's here! The Squidoo Modules List is finally (re)done!

In March '08, I made a lens showcasing all existing Squidoo modules. Many were busted, many were strange little widgets that most of us have never used, but they all fit on one (long) lens.

Squidoo has grown. Some widgets have been retired. Others have busted. Many more have been added. The module browser has been completely revamped. It was going to be a ton of work to redo my Module Index. But at last, I have reviewed, tested, and showcased every single blinking module, at least until five minutes from now when the SquidTeam changes something.

The Squidoo Module List:

• Summary list of all modules, including an Excel and Ready-to-Print version
• Demonstrations of each and every module
• Suggestions about the best settings for some of them
• Info on character limits, image size limts
• Which modules are NoFollow, which ones aren't indexed by search engines
• and more.

I don't usually ask y'all to rate it, but by gods... that was a LOT of work. Please stop by!

Now all I have to do is edit/trim my bug report for Gil and the gang.