The Squidoo Challenge

Quantcast shows Squidoo has had a decline in traffic, and the tier payouts support that. There was a point when Tier 1 lenses made over $50 and Tier 2 lenses made over $10. Now, a Tier 1 lens makes barely over $10 while the other tiers have had similar declines. Some people who rely on Squidoo for their incomes are now on a risky path. Squidoo's traffic numbers will continue to plummet, and the tier payments will get lower and lower, but that can be fixed if we work together.

As the saying goes, united we stand, divided we fall. Ever since Squidoo rolled out the new changes, less people have been active on Squidoo. Some well-known lensmasters have deleted their accounts due to the changes or for other reasons. I was one of the many people who decided to stop creating lenses after Squidoo came out with its new changes. Everything changed when I got an email from Bonnie about the Giant Squid program. Giant Squid lensmasters were required to create 3 quality lenses using the new format and do a few other things in order to keep Giant Squid status. I read that email with a week to go. If I did not create three quality lenses in 1 week, I would have lost the biggest honor that Squidoo could give. Although I had not been active on Squidoo for a long time, I decided to create the three quality lenses because being a Giant Squid meant a lot to me (and it still does mean a lot).

I ended up creating three lenses about blogging and social media, I submitted them, and my application was approved. I could have a big sigh of relief because my Giant Squid status was not going to be taken away. Because I had been active on Squidoo, I started to look at the forums and the Quantcast statistics. At its peak, Squidoo was getting over 1 million visitors every day. That was around the time when the Tier 1 payout almost broke $70. However, a decline in visitors brought Squidoo down to just over 250,000 visitors every day. This drop in visitors resulted in the big drop in tier payouts.

It is important to note that 250,000 daily visitors is a lot of people, even if the payouts are not what we were hoping for. If Squidoo consistently gets 250,000 daily visitors, that can eventually go up to 500,000 daily visitors, and then eventually go back to 1 million daily visitors--where Squidoo was at its peak. That is where, you, me, and this challenge comes in. This Squidoo challenge is designed to increase interaction on Squidoo so Google starts to love Squidoo once again. If we all follow this challenge, Squidoo will be able to see a big rise in traffic, and as a result, the tier payouts will dramatically increase.

This challenge will bring forth a dramatic change. If enough people follow this challenge, Squidoo could see a rise in traffic and eventually end up with 1 million daily visitors. Imagine what would be different if the tier payouts went back to where they were. There would be less stress among lensmasters, we would be able to buy more things, or we may just end up with more money in the bank. Regardless of how you would use your earnings from higher payouts, this challenge will allow those earnings to rise in the long run. Without any further adieu, here is the challenge.

1. Write 2 Squidoo lenses every week: There are challenges that say write 1 lens every day. However, Google respects quality content more than it respects the quantity of content. By writing 2 Squidoo lenses every week, you will be able to focus more of your time on those lenses. This will result in more quality content on Squidoo.
2. Promote your Squidoo lenses on your social networks: Whether you have 100 followers or 100,000 followers, promoting your Squidoo lenses on your social networks is very important. In order to build your following, be sure to follow people who are interested in what you are already talking about. As you build your following on your social networks, you will get more traffic to your lenses.
3. Add quality content to 3 of your older lenses every week: Whether you add 1 module to an older lens or 10 modules to your older lenses, updating your lenses will get them to rank higher on Google. This will result in your lens gaining traffic for itself and Squidoo as a whole.
4. Ping your lenses: Pinging lenses is still an easy and beneficial way to get more traffic. You can ping any of your recently updated lenses using SquidUtils. Pinging your lenses will tell search engines that your lenses have recently been updated with new content. Updated content ranks higher on Google than content that does not get updated.
5. Comment on 5 lenses every week: Commenting will give your account on Squidoo a backlink. This will result in more traffic going to your lenses and more traffic going to Squidoo as a whole. However, do not comment just for the sake of getting a backlink. Be sure to post a comment of a few sentences about a lens that you liked.
6. Share 3 other people's lenses every week: When we share other people's lenses, those people will see a big and surprising increase in traffic. Not only will the extra traffic give the person a confidence boost, but it will also help Squidoo get back to 1 million daily visitors. In addition, more social media traffic leads to more search engine traffic.
7. Squid like 10 lenses every week: By squid liking other people's lenses, you will appear in other people's activity feed. When you appear in other people's activity feed, some people will decide to return you the favor and Squid like one of your lenses.
8. NEW: Favorite and retweet TWO of @Squidoo's tweets. Social media now plays a big role towards SEO and getting traffic. As my blog gained more traffic from social networks, the traffic my blog gained from the search engines also increased. We want to make @Squidoo, and in order to do that, we need to get @Squidoo up to 10,000 followers before the end of the summer. That means Squidoo would only have to gain 16 followers every day from April 5th to August 30th.
9. NEW: Tell one person every week about Squidoo and have them create an account. Then, tell them about the Squidoo Challenge!

This challenge has been designed to be easy to follow. Although there are 7 parts to this challenge, all of the steps are relatively easy to implement. If we all follow this challenge, we will be able to get more traffic on our old lenses, new lenses, and for other people's lenses. This will result in a noticeable increase in traffic on Quantcast.

This will not consume a lot of time. However, the change in traffic can be incredible.

If all of the 400,000 featured Squidoo lenses out there got 3 visitors every day, we would have nothing to complain about. Squidoo would be getting 1.2 million daily visitors. In addition, the lenses that get 10 visitors every day or more could possible result in Squidoo getting 2 million daily visitors.

Relying on 1 Squidoo lens to bring in 1 million daily visitors is an impossibility. Many of the best bloggers in the world are not able to bring in 1 million daily visitors. However, it is much more likely that 400,000 lenses bring in 3 daily visitors each. It is also reasonable for 200,000 lenses to get 5 daily visitors. Squidoo has quantity on its side (and quality for the most part). All we need to do is turn the quantity of Squidoo lenses into 1 million daily visitors. The best way to do that is by creating quality Squidoo lenses. You do not need to create 5 lenses every day to get Squidoo back to where it was because Squidoo already has 400,000 featured lenses. That's why working on 5 older lenses every week is more important than creating 5 new lenses every week.

It is much easier than it sounds to bring Squidoo back to where it was. If we all chip in, it can easily work.

It is important for as many lensmasters as possible to pursue this challenge. In order to see a big increase in Squidoo's traffic, we need as many lensmasters as possible to take a part in this challenge. The days of sitting and watching are over. In order to see the change in payouts that we want to see, we need to make the change happen. There is not going to be a single lens that gets 1 million daily visitors for Squidoo. Only by working together will we be able to get Squidoo back to its peak which was over 1 million daily visitors. By getting Squidoo back to its peak, we will also be able to dramatically increase the tier payouts we receive. This plan will only work if a lot of people get involved. If 100 people take the challenge, 200 lenses get created every week, and that could result in a potential 1,000 extra daily visitors every week. If 200 people take the challenge, it will yield better results. It is easy to see the possibilities of following this challenge, but the only way to make this successful is by standing together.

It has been brought to my attention by several lensmasters participating in the Squidoo Challenge that time is an issue. Although I am not asking for participants to write 10 lenses every week, there are going to be some days when you will not be able to write or update a new lens. That is completely understandable, and I have those days as well.

Sometimes, lenses do not get created or updated because of bad time management. While there are a plethora of ways to get better time management, I am going to highlight the ones that work. I feel that it would be better for me to provide you with these tips instead of you searching on Google and deciding which of the many tips actually work.

• Keep score. This is the best tip I could give. I have a score card right next to me with a list of the things I have to accomplish in a given week. I grade myself based on whether I was able to accomplish a goal or not. A score card gives you defined standards (such as the ones in the Squidoo Challenge). Although there are some score cards where I score a 75%, my productivity has gone up dramatically. You should only be concerned about your score card and productivity if you score under 70%. Use tallies to keep score and draw a big check mark next to the goals that you accomplish.
• Identify what you need to do this week. The Squidoo Challenge makes that easy, but when outside of Squidoo, you need to identify all of the things that you need to do this week.
• Follow the 90/20 rule. For every 90 minutes that you work, take a 20 minute break. The Buffer Blog reported that this is the best way to be productive without losing quality or focus.
• Do not sleep too long. The ideal amount of time we should be sleeping every day is 6.5-7.5 hours (multiple studies have confirmed this). If you are sleeping 12 hours a day, deciding to sleep for only 7.5 hours today would give you an extra 4.5 hours. In addition, sleeping 6.5-7.5 hours every day makes you live longer (also proven by multiple studies).
• Exercise. I thought that high school would be a time where my productivity would go down. I didn't even factor joining the track team into the equation. However, I have been able to increase my productivity by running every day. You need to get the fresh air, get stronger, and finish the workout. Not only will exercising every day make you stronger, but it will also make you feel GOOD! That good feeling will make you want to get more accomplished.
• Dedicate 10 minutes every day to the Squidoo Challenge. I have a feeling that the reason most people do not have the time to accomplish the Squidoo Challenge is because they try to do everything in one day. I recommend dedicating 10 minutes every day to the Squidoo Challenge so you get the best out of it while having fun. You do not want to overwhelm yourself with too much work towards the deadline. In one of his speeches, Seth Godin, the founder of Squidoo, told people they should thrash (start) in the beginning instead of thrashing (starting) as the deadline approaches.

The earnings for Squidoo lenses had a rocky start in the New Year. The earnings from January 2014 (paid out in March) indicated a further decline. Tier 1 lenses made $9.79, Tier 2 lenses made $1.63, and Tier 3 lenses only made $0.08. With several months of decline, it has been easy for many people to give up hope.

However, for the first time in several months, the earnings for each Tier went up! The earnings from February 2014 (to be paid out in April) was the first increase in earnings that Squidoo has seen in several months. Tier 1 lenses made $12.01, Tier 2 lenses made $2.04, and Tier 3 lenses made $0.10. February's earnings show more than a 20% increase in revenue than January's earnings. If Squidoo continues to see 20% increases every month, June's earnings (paid in August) could be $24.89 for Tier 1 lenses, $4.24 for Tier 2 lenses, and $0.18 for Tier 3 lenses. At this rate, by the end of the year, Squidoo would be back to $50 for Tier 1 lenses, $10 for Tier 2 lenses, and $0.50 for Tier 3 lenses.

This increase in Squidoo earnings shows that there is a glimmering light in the darkness. If we all come together, we can bring Squidoo back to where it was. The earnings have gone up, and they will continue to rise if we create lenses, get more traffic, and stay active on Squidoo.