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#1 07/09/2009 9:20 am
- stephensmith
- Cuttlefish. Just browsing.
- Registered: 07/02/2006
- Posts: 6
How to Unpublish A Lens?
Surely this has been addressed before, but I can't find anything.
I realized that I published a lens before it was really ready. It is in crude draft form, with many gaps and placeholder text blocks, etc. Is there a way to "unpublish" it? I don't want to delete it, just have it go back to being an unpublished draft for now.
Thanks for any help.
Steve
Stephen Smith, http://www.squidoo.com/sellbooks
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#2 07/09/2009 9:22 am
- Pixelrage
- Wow. Over 1000 posts.
- From: NJ USA
- Registered: 12/31/1969
- Posts: 1037
Re: How to Unpublish A Lens?
Unfortunately there is no way to do it - when I mistakenly published a lens, I just worked really quickly to get a "decent" amount of stuff on it so that it didn't look too horrible before it was truly ready.
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#3 07/09/2009 9:24 am
- stephensmith
- Cuttlefish. Just browsing.
- Registered: 07/02/2006
- Posts: 6
Re: How to Unpublish A Lens?
Thanks for the quick reply. Guess I'll have to break off from the other stuff I'm doing and work on that lens. :-(
Stephen Smith, http://www.squidoo.com/sellbooks
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#4 07/09/2009 9:36 am
- Pixelrage
- Wow. Over 1000 posts.
- From: NJ USA
- Registered: 12/31/1969
- Posts: 1037
Re: How to Unpublish A Lens?
There is good news - since you've published it, it will probably get spidered by search engines more quickly. They'll also give you props for continually adding to the page, which is a huge ranking factor 
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#5 07/09/2009 10:26 am
- SimeyC
- Mesonychoteuthis
- Registered: 12/31/1969
- Posts: 923
Re: How to Unpublish A Lens?
I've done this a couple of times...I usually put an 'under construction' message at the top!
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#6 07/09/2009 10:34 am
- Pastiche
- Positively aquatic
- From: Pennsylvania
- Registered: 08/12/2007
- Posts: 244
Re: How to Unpublish A Lens?
Pixelrage wrote:
There is good news - since you've published it, it will probably get spidered by search engines more quickly. They'll also give you props for continually adding to the page, which is a huge ranking factor
I've done the very same thing with the Publish button. I try to update each of my lenses at least once a month to keep pings fresh and spiders interested. I never use "Under Construction" notifications. I find it can kill interest, and all my lenses are works in progress no matter their length. There's always something new to add or a item that needs a tweak - I guess I'm a closet editor ... 
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#7 07/09/2009 10:40 am
- SimeyC
- Mesonychoteuthis
- Registered: 12/31/1969
- Posts: 923
Re: How to Unpublish A Lens?
Pastiche wrote:
Pixelrage wrote:
There is good news - since you've published it, it will probably get spidered by search engines more quickly. They'll also give you props for continually adding to the page, which is a huge ranking factor
I've done the very same thing with the Publish button. I try to update each of my lenses at least once a month to keep pings fresh and spiders interested. I never use "Under Construction" notifications. I find it can kill interest, and all my lenses are works in progress no matter their length. There's always something new to add or a item that needs a tweak - I guess I'm a closet editor ...
To clarify my point - if the Lens has very little content and is no where near finished then I'd use Under Construction, otherwise I might get a low rating and lose interest straight away - if the content is good, and the Lens is not far from complete, then I wouldn't do anything!
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#8 07/09/2009 1:19 pm
- ajgodinho
- Wow. Over 1000 posts.
- From: Ontario, Canada
- Registered: 12/31/1969
- Posts: 1059
Re: How to Unpublish A Lens?
Hi Steve, I've done that too when I first joined Squidoo!
And no, there is no way to "unpublish" a lens unfortunately, but I wish there was, though there are draw-backs to it (i.e. major one being lensrank and SE ratings).
Yeah, I guess the best thing to do is work on completing that lens. Like your fellow squids have mentioned there are benefits to keeping it live even though "under construction" and as you continue building content, it will get propped up.
One of my lenses I couldn't keep it live because I had to have the content approved by the Company I do business with, so in my case, what I did was I just opened two browsers, one with the published lens and one with a new lens template. Then I just copied the content, pictures, etc. onto a new lens and then saved it as a "draft" lens.
I hope no one has to do the above, but in my case, I didn't want to just delete the lens and lose the content and layout. It took a little work, but it was well worth it because I was able to just copy and paste.
Good luck and welcome to Squidoo!
Cheers,
AJ
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#9 07/09/2009 3:20 pm
- susannaduffy
- Citizen Squid
- From: Australia
- Registered: 09/25/2006
- Posts: 4343
Re: How to Unpublish A Lens?
I have done this many times -
if the lens is halfway OK I will immediately set to work and finish it in the next 20 minutes - or
I copy what I've got into notepad, delete the lens and immediately start another with that url and paste what I have in
I would never put an Under Construction sign on a lens - they are all under construction, being constantly changed . When I see anything with an Under Construction sign I leave instantly.
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