bored of education

Lensmaster Ratings and Squidoo Lensrank

I just noticed some of my Squidoo lenses have been rated by other lensmasters and it makes a big difference on the lensrank.

Someone gave While Waiting for Harry Potter 7 a five star rating and its lensrank jumped from #8,458 to #2,282. Although that is not spectacular I believe the only change was the five star rating since I have done nothing else to promote it. Although occasional updates probably helped.

(By the way While Waiting for Harry Potter 7 is the lens I've spent the most time on. Feel free to check it out and give me any feedback.)

Meanwhile, A Teacher's Guide to Procrastination which has very little content, also received a five star rating. (I think someone thought my comment was funny.) Its ranking has gone from #3,010 to #2,862. It didn't change as much, probably due to a complete lack of updates.

The most interesting result is that Jo Rowling's Favorite Charities, which has absolutely no content, received a one star rating. At first I was annoyed that someone was rude enough to give a one star rating to a lens which is clearly under construction. Then I noticed that the LensRank went from #11,069 to #7,272. I guess any rating is better than no rating at all.

It has also, surprisingly, received a lot of traffic. (The stats page even claims it has raised 2 cents for charity!) I guess I should finish it and make it public. . . Although I am a little curious how good a ranking I can get without having any actual content. (I am planning on publishing it on or around July 1.)

(The math teacher in me feels compelled to figure out the formula(s) they use. The procrastinator in me realizes that it's probably complicated and not really worth the effort. Maybe I'll give my data to students and have them figure it out.)

Repost: The Latest New Thing

I had to delete this post because it offended the AdSense Terms of Service.  I removed, I believe, the sarcastic comment which was interpreted literally.

To make matters worse.  Typepad was not letting me edit the post.  It didn't work on Safari or Firefox.  I tried cutting and pasting and ended up with a double post.

So I deleted the entire thing, edited it, and am reposting it here.  The original post was made on or around April 20, 2006.

Personally I believe Google should worry more about real click-fraud and less about sarcastic teachers who aren't making any money anyway.

The Latest New Thing

I've just discovered Squidoo. It's a user created resource (like wikipedia) which is intended to earn money (like about.com). The big difference is that it is set up as a co-op. The people who contribute (the lensmasters) by building pages (called lenses) have the potential to earn money with affiliate links and Google advertising.

You may think that is already available. It is. I have both affiliate links and ads on my website.  (Deleted sarcastic comment was here and the reader can probably figure out what it was about.) But I'm not very good at following up with Amazon or Google to make sure I get paid. (Evidence that the previously mentioned sarcastic comment was in fact sarcastic.) It has been months since I've logged on to either account. (Of course it's also been months since I've made a proper blog entry...)

Not only does Squidoo handle all of those details, they are also very public about how much money is being made. During their Beta testing they raised over $2,000 for charity. After they pay their overhead they pay 5% to charity, then divide the rest among their investors and the lensmasters. Right now that may not seem like much... but...

I think it is going to grow very fast. They have made it very easy to build lenses and they are getting a lot of press. (The greed factor will also motivate its growth.)

I'm finally getting involved in something near its beginning. When I started blogging there were already about 50 gazillion blogs being written. Right now there are about 25000 lenses at Squidoo. Its exciting to be involved in something that may eventually reach 50 gazillion. If nothing else the site's growth would make an interesting math problem...

(Links to my lenses removed since I'm re-doing them.  And I'm too lazy to retype the hyperlinks. . . They didn't copy over.)

Update:  I decided to mention one of my Squidoo lenses.  It's called The Giant Squid.  Right now it is in draft form but I plan on publishing it this weekend.

Something's Rotten in Denmark

Or at least the Netherlands, or at least at MSN search in the Netherlands! I was checking my blog stats and saw incoming traffic from Nederland Search so I decided to check it out.

Someone had searched for "The leaky Caudron." One of my blog posts came up as the number one choice! One reason is that the searcher misspelled cauldron in the same way I did. (I have fixed it.) But that doesn't explain why my blog came in ahead of a page at the Quick Quotes Quill with a similar misspelling. They have been around forever and I'm surprised at the search result.

But then again, it is microsoft. . .

New Blog at WordPress

I've started a new blog at WordPress.com.

This summer I will be attending the Blog Traffic School and the teacher has advised that students use WordPress.  I have wanted to reorganize and refocus this blog for awhile, but it might be just as easy to start over. 

Although I will be maintaining both blogs, most of my new posts will be at boredofeducation.wordpress.com.  I will also be transferring some old posts from here.

I suspect that the focus and tone of each blog will evolve over time.  I discuss the focus of my new blog here.  The focus of this blog will probably deteriorate and become gossip central for my school. 

(Yeah right.  I'm always the last person to find out anything.)

Damon, Mugglenet Reporter

Wow!!!

I was the first to refer a news item to mugglenet.com. It can be read here. It involved something about a survey in Australia. . .

Anyway, I've always wondered if it was possible to beat the thousands of mugglenet readers to a news item. Well, it is! Although I think I got lucky. It was a news item from Australia and I was up late. And the mugglenet staff probably had to go to bed early to go to school in the morning. . .

Although I should have used my nickname. Everyone will think it was Damon, the mugglenet staffer, not me.

Oh well, maybe next time.

Squidoo's Bad Reviews

Today I read three posts on different blogs about Squidoo. (I ended up only writing about one of them.)

The first, by Michael Arrington, is at Squidoo: Seth Godin's Purple Albatross. His main thesis is that if Squidoo is not successful, Seth Godin will lose "credibility as an expert in product marketing." Michael then points out two main reasons why he believes Squidoo will not succeed. First of all, Squidoo lacks the authority of sites such as the wikipedia, which is created and edited as a community. Second, the income levels at Squidoo are not enough to bring in experts to create lenses.

I disagree on both points. Although individual lenses are not created by a community, the overall Squid-space is. The lenses are then ranked by factors which include the number of links, the amount of incoming traffic, etc. The better and more reliable lenses will float to the top and become the ones on which people rely. So there is a mechanism for fact checking, etc. In some ways it is just more competitive rather than collaborative. This is the same mechanism which makes some blogs stand out more than others. I think some established bloggers have forgotten that.

It is true that very little money has been made so far. I received a paypal transfer of 34 cents this month. But people forget that Squidoo is less than a month out of beta-testing. During the beta test they raised $1537 for charity.

Michael's second point is also supported by this graph of Squidoo's "Daily Reach" found at Alexaholic:

(Image deleted. It turns out fuzzy now matter what I try. I'm definitely not an html expert. The link works.)

Although he says the graph is flat I see a different picture. There was obviously a lot of interest when Squidoo was first launched because of the big jump in December. I suspect that this big jump was primarily because of Seth Godin's reputation. Everyone wanted to see his latest venture. In the following months the interest decreased. This was probably the period when new modules were being developed, bugs were being worked out, etc. People may have been disappointed given their initial high expectations. I think the more important trend is between mid-April and now. Between the low point in April and now, the reach has approximately doubled. (The graph I have exaggerates the increase a little due to the smoothing done to the data. For an un-smoothed graph go here.) Mid-April is important because that is when Squidoo came out of beta testing. If it continues to double every month Squidoo will be HUGE. (And I don't shout over very many things.)

I think Squidoo will continue to grow because from now on people will be drawn to Squidoo because of the idea, not Seth Godin's reputation. I hope Seth isn't offended but I had never heard of him before I learned about Squidoo. I am not in marketing or full-time blogging. But I am an expert in a few things and I think Squidoo is a great way to communicate my expertise.

Other blogs which have similar comments as Michaels can be found at:
9rules vs. Squidoo

The Seth Godin bubble is about to burst

The Squidoo Undo

Summer Blog Goals

Every spring I have more ideas for blogging projects than I have time or energy. Last year my blog lost focus and died, or at least went into a coma. This year I still have several ideas for projects but I've decided to focus on two or three.

1) I have a number of thoughts about the Harry Potter books and cultural phenomenon. I want to get these written and posted before Lumos 2006 and definitely before Book 7 comes out. My thoughts involve predictions about Book 7 as well as ideas about the overall theme of the stories. If any of these are correct I need to get them "out there" before the book comes out or nobody will really believe that I knew that was going to happen.

For example: I predicted the Prophecy and had considered the possibility of one Horcrux before either was revealed. (See... you don't believe me because I didn't post my thoughts anywhere.) I don't want to make the same mistake this time. My goal is to finish my essays and get at least one of them posted at mugglenet.com and/or the Harry Potter Lexicon.

2) I'm totally obsessed with Squidoo. I want to focus (haha) on building a network of lenses discussing various aspects of the Harry Potter phenomenon. (Right now I am working on Jo Rowling's Favorite Charities.) One thing I like about Squidoo lenses is once they are built they don't need to be updated often. That way I can work on one topic while I'm motivated and move on to another when the first one bores me. My goal is to have at least one lens in the Top 100 by the end of the summer. I also want to be in the Top 100 Lensmaster list.

3) I want to learn everything I can about blog (and Squidoo lens) promotion. Although I will be discussing what I learn here. My intention is not to promote this blog, yet. Most of my promotional experiments will be with my Squidoo lenses in support of Goal #2. I am also thinking about taking the online Blog Traffic School. I'm already trying to decide what I would pay for it.

4) I want to work on the look, etc. on this blog. If and when I do decide to promote it I want it to look a little better than it does now.

I guess that's four goals. (I can't count...Why do math teachers need to know how to count?)

dh

Monthly Squid Earnings

I just received my official email reporting my Squidoo earnings. My total earnings were $0.46! Appartently 34 cents has already been transfered to my paypal account. (I donated 12 cents to the charity Room to Read. What was I thinking!)

Some of that is my share of the adsense revenue and some is from a purchase someone made via Harry Potter Gifts. When it seems less hectic at Squid HQ I might try and find out how much comes from what source.

Right now they are dealing with some bugs, calculating and distributing revenues while simultaneously trying to expand the features and grow the business. I'm sure all of these things will eventually be automated but I think right now a lot of it is being doing "by hand" while they develop the software.

According to the Squid Blog some people have earned as much as $40 while others have pooled their money to contribute thousands to charity.

I still think this is just a drop in the bucket.

dh

Squidoo Report

Today my Squidoo Lens, My Brief Bio is one week old and its ranking has improved from #6411 to #294. Not bad for a beginner!

Right now it is also at #19 on the most blogged list. (Probably because I keep talking about it. I won't be pinging it today. . . I don't want anyone at Squidoo to get mad at me.) For a while it was also on the top rated list since someone gave it a five star rating. (Since then someone has given it a one star rating. Grrrrr.)

I was also surprised to see Harry Potter Gifts at #20 on the most profitable. Which means there are 24,597 lenses making less than 63 cents. . .

I thought they might distribute AdSense money today. But this is their first month so it will probably take a little longer than it normally would.

dh