Squidblog

A few weeks ago, we repositioned the AdSense Google ads on Squidoo. It was an experiment, like a lot of things Squidoo, and I thought I’d share with you what we discovered.

Google’s right. Moving the ads from the right column to the top has a dramatic impact. In fact, it tripled the clickthrough rate on the Google ads.

“Great,” you might say, “but why demote the hand-built content just to earn a few bucks on the ads?”

That was my thought, and the reason the test was just a test. (Aside: We want to celebrate the content, and at the same time make it easier for the co-op as a whole to earn more money for you and for charity).

But the surprising result of the AdSense move is this: content-based clicks went UP, not down. I think I understand why, and it goes to my third point, which is a hunch, not based on data:

Having competitive products in your AdSense ads actually helps you, not hurts you.

When people get to a website, a whole bunch of things have to happen before they take out their wallets and buy something. A lot of those things have to do with trust and meaning and understanding and confidence. The vernacular of your site, the story it tells, the way it makes me feel (insecure? safe? confident? panicked? stupid? engaged?) is probably the single most important element in turning a stranger into a friend before they have a chance of becoming a customer.

So, Google AdSense ads across the top increase confidence. They’re recognizable and safe for the surfer. They make it clear that there are alternatives. They demonstrate confidence on the part of the site builder. Analogy: All car dealers do better when they’re on the same street.

Think about that. It’s a wicked expensive purchase. You only do it every once in a while. Shouldn’t dealers strive to be far from each other? Shouldn’t they try very hard to hide the fact that Nissans and BMWs even exist?

Of course not. You’re not stupid. You already know that the other cars exist. Having the dealership as one in a long row of dealers makes you more confident in your purchase, not less.

I got a note from someone who was surprised to see a competitive product at the top of his Squidoo lens. He was miffed, actually, not surprised. What surprised him is that his sales went UP after the ad appeared.

So, no promises about what happens next to our ads, other than that we’ll keep trying new things and letting you know about them and listening to your feedback. But for now I wanted to share the thinking with you.

Yikes! Oh no!

Jeff Brooks already won the 30,000 pennies.

But don’t despair. We’re adding a range of uber-cool runners-up prizes, so keep looking.

Mystery Squid

The World Cup,
How to Make Fondue (Cheese AND Chocolate),
Devil Duckies,
The Space Elevator,
Oh my!

Squidoo just hit 30,000 lenses.

Since we launched a few months ago, more than 30,000 hand-built lenses have rocked our world.

To celebrate, a few of us here hacked together The Thirty Thousand Project.

www.thirtythousandlenses.com

It’s a puzzle*. A tribute. An exploration. An invitation to discover. And most importantly a thanks to our amazing lensmasters for getting everyone to this point.

*Puzzle? Yes! We’ve hidden a simple clue (with directions and an email address) on ONE of the lenses in those lists. First person to find it wins 30,000 pennies. Or a check. ‘Cause that’s a lot of pennies.

Check it out. Have fun. Here’s to discovering something you didn’t know.

Room to Read 1

Originally uploaded by caseyjmeg.

Last week we sent out the 2nd round of royalty statements to our lensmasters. (For the April 1-30 period, for those of you keeping track).

And we’re beyond thrilled to report that more than half of our lensmasters are choosing to send their lens earnings to charity.

That’s thousands of dollars every month to places like The American Heart Association, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and Room to Read–with real world results. So while your lenses probably aren’t cash cows yet, and while you’re probably not much closer to buying that red Porsche, your earnings can make a big difference when pooled together for a good cause.

But don’t take my word for it. Take John Wood’s.

“This is John Wood, founder of Room to Read. Seth and Megan at Squidoo said I could introduce your monthly payment report with a bit of great news. Thanks to contributed royalties from thousands of lensmasters, Room to Read has built a library for children in Cambodia. We hope to help these kids break the cycle of poverty through the lifelong gift of education. You can see our pictures of the library here: . Congratulations on a job well done, and thank you for your help.”
–John Wood, www.roomtoread.org

In Squidoo lenses, people share their knowledge and passion, as well as their favorite web sites, books, and other tools and resources. In the past, readers and other lensmasters could contact lensmasters via the Contact form to give them a vote of confidence, but there wasn’t an easy way to make a contribution to a lens if you had something to share as a reader.

Now it’s a whole lot easier. Today, the Squidoo team introduced a new module: the Guestbook.

Lensmasters can now explicitly seek feedback and input from readers — and Squidoo members and other lensmasters can post their testimonials and thumbs ups in response to a lens. Guestbook blurbs point to the contributor’s profile, so you can learn more about them and check out their lenses, too!

Got something to say? Speak out for your favorite lensmasters in the new Guestbook module.

The power of recommendation matters more than ever! We recently adjusted the formula we use to calculate Lensrank in order to reward lensmasters based on the use of some new features.

In the past, we calculated Lensrank based on a number of factors, including whether a lens had been added to someone’s favorites, whether a reader emailed a lens to a friend, whether a blogger posted a trackback reference, and so on.

Now, if readers add your lenses to the social bookmarking services Digg and Delicious using the links in the Squidoo toolbar — thereby recommending your lenses to other people — it’ll give a boost to your Lensrank. Similarly, we’ve improved the star rating system so Lensrank considers how many people have rated a lens as well as what the average rating is.

We think that these refinements will help improve Lensrank — and help make more of the best lenses more visible.

If someone recommends your lens, you get points. If lots of people recommend your lens, you win!