Home > Q&A > Q: Looking back, can you name one thing you wish you’d known about when making your first few lenses?

Q: Lensmaster johnlfa wants to know: Looking back, can you name one thing you wish you’d known about when making your first few lenses?

Answered by Susan52: John, when I started on Squidoo I wish someone would have told me, “Adjust, but don’t compromise.” Let me explain.

When I came to Squidoo, I saw it as an outlet for my writing and I place where I might be able to make a little bit of money.  I started making lenses, writing from my heart about topics I enjoyed. I was having a blast!

It wasn’t long before I realized there were ways I could change my lenses in order to make more money.  As I observed other lenses and other lensmasters, occasionally I came across practices that I wasn’t totally comfortable with.  In time, though, I adjusted my lenscrafting methods to include some of those practices.  Making money became the focus; writing became secondary.  I was beginning to compromise when I made lenses, and some of the fun went out of the process.

I did adjust to some positive new things I was learning along the way, things such as good SEO practices, how to use new lens modules, and the fact that on Squidoo contributing to the community really does matter.  Too often, though, I was compromising on quality.  My heart just wasn’t in it and the passion had gone out of my work.  Squidoo wasn’t as much fun anymore.

Then I read what is called the UUU book.  It’s a book that Seth Godin wrote many years ago, but the message remains fresh.  Here’s a quote: “There are plenty of tactics about how to get more traffic to your pages online. Dozens of blog posts and great advice, easy to find. WARNING: None of these tactics work without the three U’s that are covered in this book.” The three U’s?  Useful, Updated, and Unique. Turns out, those are the three characteristics that cause search engines to like your lenses.  It isn’t the tricks or the tactics that other people use or espouse, it’s getting down to the nitty-gritty and focusing on making your lenses useful, keeping them updated, and making sure that they’re unique.

Turns out I was doing things right, or at least close to right, when I started.  Where I had really lost focus was on the uniqueness, and thus the quality, of my lenses.

Quoting from the book once again, “The most successful Squidoo lenses, like the most successful blogs and the best stores, are all filled with unique stuff. Remarkable stuff, even. Stuff worth talking about. Links you can’t find anywhere else. Collections of information that actually make a point. Hand-built organization that teaches. Copy that’s worth reading.”

So, to any newbie on Squidoo, in fact to anyone on Squidoo, I’d say adjust as you learn new things, jump on a choice bandwagon now and then, but don’t compromise by neglecting to create useful, updated, and unique content.  It takes a lot of effort and it takes a lot of heart to do that.  If you choose to skimp on the effort you might find some short-term success, but in the long run you’re not going to have much fun and you’re probably not going to be very successful on Squidoo.

-Susan, Susan52 on Squidoo

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