Most of us know this, but it’s such a succinct answer to such a common question (“why isn’t my page getting traffic/ratings/sales?”) that I want to preserve it here so I can remember it later.
Quoth Notpop in SquidU:
If your lens doesn’t do anything they couldn’t have accomplished themselves with the same number of clicks then why would they “pay” you for the help? Find them something worth bidding for and they’ll click through. But if you’re not earning the commission then don’t be surprised when you don’t get it.
Or, as I think Seth Godin put it (not on sales, but on visitors): “You don’t deserve traffic.” He wasn’t trying to be mean; he was just pointing out that our webpages aren’t entitled to a single visit: the web is infinite, and we need to give people a reason to spend time on our piece of it.
Here’s an interview where he talks about “deserving traffic.”
Earning money with Squidoo lenses follows the same wisdom: you have to earn those sales.
Of course, the people who don’t understand this are probably not the people reading this blog post.
