Kate Phiz

I am not very active on Squidoo at present for a wide-variety of reasons, but I have tinkered with my 1920s style lens over the past few days and it has crept up into Tier 1.  I always suspected this was a Tier 1 potential lens but this is the first time it has crossed the threashold.  It’s still very marginal and could drop out again at any moment, but I’ve added more material and have started on another round of supporting lenses for it, and probably a hub as well.

For now I have added a video and a new section on chignon hairstyles which should help it rank on a few more terms.  I’ll build out a chignon lens next week.  In fact, I’ll probably build a few chignon lenses as I can see potential there.

For now, at least, my days of creating material about Ancient Egypt on Squidoo are over.  Squidoo doesn’t suit that content.  I could write popular lenses like someting on Cleopatra, but the SEO is just not attractive – far too competitive.  What little I do write on Squidoo is likely to be 1920s and/or style.  I might go back slightly and add some styles which were popular around 1900.  I will probably also continue to add lenses about 1920s film stars, although that will be slow as they take so long as the return on investment is very poor.  They will only get done when I am in a mood for serious writing but don’t have any other project underway.  I think Mary Pickford is the next target as a lens about her would fit well with what I already have got; however, at an estimated 30 hours work, it’s not on the immediate horizon.

I’ll also try adding some 1920s music into the mix.

In other news, I have sold my Twilight lenses.  I have reservations about how long I will remain on Squidoo and it seemed better to cash in some higher value lenses.  I might sell others yet as well.

I’ve just be given a Purple Star for Beautiful Gingerbread Houses.   I’m still struggling to support Twlighlight Birthday Cakes and Parties though.  Hopefully once Christmas is past, it might perk up a bit.

Generally my food and recipe lenses are doing quite well, although I think most of them are winter recipes and will fall off as we move into spring.  After Christmas I think I am going to have to spend some serious time writing some new lenses and promoting them.

I bought another lens from Jessica because it fits in well with the existing lenses – Wilton Christmas Cake Pans.  It’s pnly Tier 3 but the fits is very good as it links lenses like my Twilight New Moon Christmas lens and my cake lenses like my Disney Princess Birthday Cake lens and my Twilight Birthday Cakes lens.

Jessica writes some great food lenses.  Mind you, having bought a few from here has helped me as I am starting to create my own food lenses, like my cake icing series which now has a group – which is what I have linked.  Other people have some great fondant lenses so it makes more sense to feature them than to write new fondat lenses myself.  The icing lenses of course go will with the Christmas Cake pan lens.

I’ve been considering more cake pan lenses anyway so picking on up made sense.  I’m starting to have critical mass in cakes, alhough many of them are linked to the Christmas season.

I’ve bought another 3 lenses from Jessica (and one special one – more on that later).  There are a couple of pumpkin lenses.  I’ve tweaked one and will try to do the other.  Nothing to set the world alight and bought party because I knew Jessica needed to sell.  The should just quietly sit in my portfolio and pay for themselves eventually.   They were cheap so no big deal.

I was really pleased though to pick up her 1920s style lens. It’s an absolutely wonderful lens even though it is sat in Tier 2.  I have plans for this.  I’ve already cross-linked with my Lord Carnarvon lens and I’m working on a lens with 1920s photos of the Valley of the Kings.  That’ll fit really well with the 1920s style lens.  I’ll probably flesh it out and make it into a mini series.  I’m sure there is at least one Tier 1 possibility in there – in fact I haven’t ruled out pushing the 1920s style lens into Tier 1.

Wow it’s been busy.

I worked right through the night yesterday to finish two lenses to support the Twilight lens so my Twilight series now looks like this:

Twilight Birthday Cakes etc

Twlight Temporary Tattoos etc

New Moon Christmas Cards etc

I’d prefer another couple – and have New Moon lens in WIP – but 3 is a lot better.  Google is being pathetic about reindexing to take advantage of my improvements to the Twilight birthday lens.  Hopefully in the next few days it’ll kick in.  Who knows how well the temporary tattoos lens will do. Generally temporary are popular but nobody searches for them in the context of Twilight, I may have to play around with the keywords a bit but mostly I’m hoping for traffic referred within Squidoo.  I’m hoping it could be a gap keyword watchers may have missed.

I’ve brought the Widor Toccata lens up to full production standard at last.  It’ll probably evolve somewhat but it is basically there.

The major problem though is that it has been ranking abysmally in Google.  I’d got the module headings wrong so I’ve changed that.  If Google doesn’t have a mood about that change, then that should help the rank.  To give both the Allegro and the Toccata a boost, I’ve created a Hub which features both of them.  I find Hubpages polcies somewhat stifling and it’s hard to write hubs to promote lenses, but that one has enough original content (a poll on which is the better piece) that it qualifies.

I prefer lenses in series so I needed some support lenses for the two I bought.  So I now have a loosly-related icing mini-series comprising:

How to Make Royal Icing

Black Cake Icing

Beautiful Gingerbread House

Twilight Birthday Cakes (for now)

National Gingerbread House Competition

The new lenses are not intended as Tier 1 lenses, but just as support for the two main lenses.  I’d hope Black Cake Icing might have ranked in Tier 2 but Google doesn’t like it for some reason, so I suspect it won’t.  It doesn’t matter  – their purpose is just to ensure the two main lenses stay in Tier 1.

When I bought the Twilight Birthday Cakes it was only just clinging to Tier 1.  It’s now up to #413.  I don’t think there are any Angel blessings in that, so it should be secure for the next couple of months.  Gingerbread Houses semed safer and with Angel blessings has made it to #81, my first lens in the top 100.  It won’t stay there.  It isn’t ranking that well in Google at present, the blessings will wear off, the traffic is light for Tier 1 and it’s seasonal.  In order to recoup the cost, I need to to cling there throughout January.  It may need some more promotion but no need to panic yet.

Now they are both secured until Christmas (I hope), the bigger project of making a Twilight series needs to get underway.  That’s more work.

I was looking round for lenses to support my new Twlight Birthday Cakes lens and discovered that there wasn’t an obvious lens on Squidoo about black cake icing.  I was in two minds whether to go for just black icing, but for readers I think black cake icing is more obvious, it’s also less competitive.  Hopefully I’ll rank on both!

So that’s my first ever food lens I have written from scratch and my first Squidboo lens.

Last night I also managed a major overhaul of the Clarence Clemons lens.  It’s low down in Tier 3 but merchandising well so I’m hoping a refresh and more material may perk the traffic up a bit!

I have just bought two Tier 1 lenses:

Gingerbread Houses

Twilight Birthday Cake

Whether I can earn back what I paid for them is now the big question!  I don’t have any food lenses so far so these are a strange addition to the portfolio, apart from the fact that I think there are advantages in having tentacles across Squidoo so that many lensmasters find me.  My first priority to make them mine of course, and add them to my lensography etc.

I’m knee deep this week in Widor and Tutankhamun but when I have cleared that backlog, I want to add some more gingerbread lenses.  I can see a mini series of gingerbread lenses.  That lens was the attraction for me.  I’m at a bit of a loss what to do with the Twilight Birthday Cake lens.  I’ll try to nurse it and see what I can do for it, but it’s a bit of an oddity for me.

I want to see how these lenses do over the next month as I have never bought lenses before, but if they hold up, I may consider buying some more food lenses so I get critical mass.

Update

I stayed up late and overhauled the Gingerbread House lens.  I also created a new lens on the National Gingerbread Competition by way of a backlink.  Not a great lens – just good enough.  I’ll try to add some more feeders.  It has to stay in Tier 1 if I am to recoup my investment!  I’m a bit more worried about the other lens.  We’ll see

It is done, and I’m very happy with it.  It’ll grow out with some extra links as I create linked lenses but essentially it’s a full production version.  Now onto the Widor Toccata which is a much higher volume – and more competitive subject.  I’m hoping the lenses so far will support it and hopefully lift it in Google.