EDIT: Warning: Man I type fast. I had no idea this post got so long.
Again. It's useful though, if you can slog through it.
+++++++++++

The crash and burn is because Squidoo initially gives new lenses an extra boost to get them seen among all the other lenses.
Sooner or later the training wheels come off, and then your lens must compete with all other lenses.

There's a number of factors being measured:
-- How much traffic it gets
-- How many click throughs it gets (people clicking on links instead of leaving with the back button)
-- Purchases on Squidoo merchant modules give a good boost
-- Ratings, Favoriting, and (I suspect)your visitors using the "email" link on the lens play a part

People debate a lot of other factors like whether Squidoo measures length of time people spend on a lens, comments and interaction (I don't think it counts comments, but it may note whether visitors are submitting ANY content to your interactive lenses, donno), backlinks (probably not measured directly, but the number of different backlinks your visitors arrive through may help), and much more. Squidoo has to keep the exact factors secret so people don't try to "game the system" -- although we try to anyway *sheepish grin*.

So what can you do? There's a lot of tips and tricks in the Tricks of the Trade Forum on how to promote your lens. But here's a summary:

1) Make use of Squidoo resources.

You've done step one: links in your signature. Participating in forums can be fun (and time consuming) but also helps people get to know you and want to check out your stuff. Other "Squidoo resources" include adding your lens to related groups. Also, a biggie: Is your Discovery Tool turned on? It can be found in the introduction module under "Discovery". Turn it on. That produces an "Explore Related Lenses..." box near the top of your lens. What good is that, you ask, sending people away from your lens?!!! Good question! The trick is, other lenses that share your tags may feature your lens in THEIR Discovery Tool, and send you traffic! And the corollary is, have a broad primary tag, repeat that tag in your main tags, and make sure your tags describe your lens well AND matches the tags of other good lenses on your topic. Check the lenses that show up in your "Explore Related..." box when you visit your lens. Are those lenses nice ones? Do they look like places people would go? They'll send you traffic. Make sure they're not booger lenses, and if they are, change your tags!

Whoops, went too long on step 1. To recap:

Step 1: Make use of Squidoo resources. Another resource for you is Fresh Squid Headquarters.

Step 2: Social networking/promotion. You need to balance doing this with making lenses and learning how to make GOOD lenses (which takes practice, and we're always learning).  But basically, people use StumbleUpon, Digg, Facebook, Tagfoot, Del.ici.ous, and other social networking/bookmarking communities to say, "hey, lookit this!" and point to their lens. The problem is that many of these communities -- StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit -- frown on self-promotion, or outright ban it and will suspend you if they catch you doing it. That's because their goal is to help people "recommend" genuinely good sites, and self-recommendation is not the same as, "I found this very good article on X."  Sites which are "Social hangout" networks like Facebook and Tagfoot tend to be more forgiving, although even there, you won't get many friends if all you do is drop links to your webpages  (unless they're truly spectacular). It works better if you're active in the community, participating and viewing/rating/commenting on other people's "finds."

But social networking can be time-consuming.

Step 3: Search Engine Optimization, my favorite soap box. There are ways to target traffic. Figure out what key phrase or words people might type in Google to find a webpage like yours. Scope out the competition -- are a there a lot of other webpages "optimized" for that phrase already, with that key phrase in the title and/or URL? If there's not too many, you can get your page to come up on the front page when people search for that phrase! ("Optimize" by using that key phrase in your lens title, URL, the filename of the graphic for your lens, a few links, and a module title or two. That establishes your page's "relevance" for the phrase.) Front page of Google for a reasonably common search phrase can give you steady traffic, and thus, support lensrank. Front page of Google for an unpopular search like "mucus-flavored vodka" won't work unless the Harry Potter Jelly Bean people come out with a grown-up line of drinks.

And now, the shameless plug time: See the first link in my signature for many ways to improve your lens and get traffic. Traffic is only one part of lensrank, mind you -- others concentrate on making sales through merchant lenses (more profitable) or clickthroughs. Getting visitors to your page doesn't necessarily help with clickthroughs, if you've somehow managed to target a lot of folks who aren't actually interested in your topic but came looking for something else. However, your first job is to get people to your lens!

Wait, no, that's the second job. Your first job is making fascinating, unique, readable, well-organized, visually attractive, useful, and/or interesting lenses!

And that itself is a learning process that never ends.

Last edited by Greekgeek (03/31/2009 5:49 pm)

Although you probably need drifter's ever-longed-for cup of coffee to get through it at one sitting!

Maura,

I just looked up your lens on Squidaholic.com and see it's only had 3 visits in the past week. That's most likely the main reason the lensrank has gone down, although it's still around 30,000, which isn't bad when you consider there are around a million lenses on Squidoo. Without more visitors, you can expect the lensrank to decline more, unfortunately.

But it looks like you've read Greekgeek's post - which is spectacular - so perhaps you can turn things around.

Woo, thanks! I'm flattered!

And I'm obsessive compulsive. A few typos fixed. *blush*