Menu
Home Blog Lensmaking Tips Help Me Get My Lenses Out Of WIP

Help Me Get My Lenses Out Of WIP

Some of us have a few works-in-progress lenses hanging around the bottom of our dashboards. Yes, I’m guilty too.

Here’s a couple of ideas to help you, and me, get those lenses out of the red and into the green.

1. If your WIP is there because it’s fallen in lensrank, try editing the lens using the Less is More tips found HERE. You’d be surprised what a little tender loving care can do for a lens.

While you’re editing your lens, make sure that all of its content is focused on your chosen topic. Remove anything that might be confusing the search engines such as unrelated affiliate ads and banners or products that just don’t quite fit in with your theme. Check that your module titles and tags all match your chosen topic as well.

2. If you’re WIP is there because you wanted to save the link for a future date, either get to work on the lens immediately while you still have some passion for it, or delete the link entirely.

I know… when you created that link, you had all kinds of super ideas for making it into a terrific lens but after a while, you lost your enthusiasm. That’s okay. It happens to a lot of us. Let it go. You won’t believe how much better you’ll feel without all of that unfinished-lens-guilt hanging over your head.

Trust me, once you’ve done all that you can to help turn your dashboard green again, your mind will be free to get really creative on a brand new lens.

Try it and feel free to share your progress here.

CC Image Source

Tags:

Robin Svedi aka rms is a Community Organizer and member of the Creative Team at Squidoo.com where her daily mission is to help lensmasters build better and more successful lenses about the things they know and love.

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/seashell2 seashell2

    Great tips Robin! :-)

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/StephenC StephenC

    Do lenses still drop to WIP if they get 400,000 rank or below? If they do, I think squidoo should raise the level to 500,000. More people are joining squidoo and making lenses. If this means only 400,000 lenses at a time are not WIP, then some lenses will always be WIP. Does squidoo shuffle them around?

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/marja79 marja79

    Nice tips. Eh I have loads of un-finished lenses and it haunts me :P

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/LNAngel LNAngel

    Would love to have some sort of limit on how long unclaimed lens URLS can be “held”–I can’t tell you how many times a URL has been taken but I click on their profile and they haven’t had any activity in the last 300+ days! More than likely, those folks aren’t coming back. Nothing crazy, but how about a 1 year time limit?

    • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/Geeve Geeve

      No point. The URL makes no difference to rankings.
      Comments relating to keywords in URLs are out of date.

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/nDee nDee

    Great reminder, Robin . . . I very recently let go of a few WIPs that I was so sure I had to do. Now weeks and weeks (and weeks) later, the thrill is gone ;-) This is allowing me to focus more on the other WIPs that still mean something to me.

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/ladymacbeth ladymacbeth

    Great information, thanks

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/mamabush mamabush

    I have quite a few I’ve been wanting to get to “one day”…just deleted one this morning, will go back right now and see if there are any more I can clear out. Thanks for the inspiration! :)

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/mojo_007 mojo_007

    I’ve deleted lens that were WIP’s before…some I just start because while the idea is fresh in my mind I have to start them. Some I find will require so much work that after awhile I wonder if I will ever finish them.

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/Susan52 Susan52

    Guilty! I’ve been working on mine and recently deleted several that I really wanted to do but lost interest or simply ran out of time. Great tips! It helps to know that I’m not the only one.

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/JuliaHidy JuliaHidy

    I thought there was a 30 day ceiling on WIP lenses? Being in WIP for 300 days seems like a long time. Are those exceptions that the system didn’t catch?

    • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/fullofshoes fullofshoes

      Hmmm.. haven’t seen anything about the 30 day ceiling thing… can’t find it written anywhere but it would be good to know.

    • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/rms rms

      There has never been a ceiling to my knowledge.

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/KitandCaboodle KitandCaboodle

    I too have deleted a few in the past week. It’s like house cleaning, I have to clean out the clutter once in awhile to be able to find the treasures that are hidden.

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/myspace9 myspace9

    I had one and wait for a couple of days to be green, then I deleted it one day and started to feel good. thanks for these tips, because when you see WIP lenses, you don’t feel creative to do more work, so its good idea to delete it and go ahead and write more lenses.

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/grafixart grafixart

    More you learn the easier to tweek under performing lenses

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/Endamac Endamac

    I have been putting this off somehow thinking they would rise from the flames. Some of them were just plain rubbish as well so they received the big AXE. When I had finished that, there were three that warranted special attention so allowed me to focus on those. Thanks for the nudge in that direction.

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/TheCureForYouthMinistry TheCureForYouthMinistry

    Yes! The freedom to delete!

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/knitstricken knitstricken

    Thanks for the pep talk; I recently deleted a handful but have in the interim started even more WIPs. :o( …So with this wee push from you I’ve just made myself the promise that if it’s not green by month’s end, it’s GONE! :o)

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/fullofshoes fullofshoes

    ditto all the way around! I like the term “unfinished-lens-guilt”. That about nails it.

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/chandhamyatra chandhamyatra

    Thanks for Sharing

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/River_Rose River_Rose

    Thanks, great advice.

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/TeachersInsuranceSpecialists TeachersInsuranceSpecialists

    I couldn’t figure out why my lens was in WIP when I thought it was finished. I realized that I had not included a module and now it is finally green. So happy!

    • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/rms rms

      It’s always a good idea to take another look at a lens that isn’t doing as well as you think it should.

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/Lithium77 Lithium77

    Thanks for the info, I’ll lave to apply it to my WIP lenses.

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/kmhrsn kmhrsn

    Great advice!

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/Geeve Geeve

    It is a scandal that high quality, published, and evergreen lenses are ever put into WIP in the first place. Note I say put into WIP, not lose Lensrank, which is another issue.

    Once a lens is published, it is not Work In Progress, and strictly speaking can never be called Work In Progress again. The problem with Squidoo’s policy of labelling lenses with a certain Lensrank, WIP, is that they are automatically treated the same as lenses that have never been published, which includes adding a noindex, nofollow metatag; such action can destroy a lens’ position in Google SERPS.

    • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/patgoltz patgoltz

      Oh, adding that metatag stinks!

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/Alex-45 Alex-45

    One of my new lenses was ‘green’ for only two weeks before it turned ‘red’. I doubt the search engines had time to index and rank it before it was dropped :-(
    I hardly need say, I think the lenses should stay green for longer.

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/Kimbesa Kimbesa

    Ah yes, I have some and know the feeling. I’ve cleaned it out before, and getting to be time to clear out WIP again…thanks for the nudge!

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/tonyplaysthemambo tonyplaysthemambo

    I don’t think Squidoo should put lenses back into WIP just because they fell the haven’t been viewed or have gone “too long” without being edited. Whether or not to edit, refresh or delete a lens should be up to the writer, not the web site.

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/Deborah-Diane Deborah-Diane

    I don’t have any WIP at the moment, but I’ll keep you suggestions in mind for the future. Thanks!

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/gonzalezdenise gonzalezdenise

    Thanks.

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/favored1 favored1

    I’ve been trying to get mine done, but something comes up and it goes unpublished. Thinking about what I can weed out.

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/slyounkin1 slyounkin1

    thanks for the tips!

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/Tammy69 Tammy69

    Yes me too I’m a newbie and one of my first lenses I didn’t even finish now I’m going to delete it and start again. It is nice to know there are more guilty ones out there

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/likestoshop likestoshop

    Thank you robin its a great help for me…

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/Short_n_Sweet Short_n_Sweet

    Yeah..that’s what I’ve got to do now.. Anyway Christmas would be around in 12 months now…..

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/Debs Debs

    great job for january!

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/contentlove contentlove

    Dear Robin, Thanks for this wonderful content on WIP lens!

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/didaelka didaelka

    I am new in squidoo and I had one lense like that- in red.Thank you for tips and inspiration.

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/ChroniclesofaWanderingMind ChroniclesofaWanderingMind

    This is so helpful. I feel so guilty with WIP lenses to. I feel better though with your tips. Thank you. :)

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/ngallahar ngallahar

    Great tips. Thanks for sharing!

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/getmoreinfo getmoreinfo

    Thanks for the reminder, it can happen especially with so many ideas floating around. LOL

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/SummerBreeze SummerBreeze

    Don’t forget to add the Lens Love Widget before you share the link to your WIP lens! It’s frustrating to view a great lens and not be able to give it a SquidLike because the lensrank is over 400K and missing all the social buttons.

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/SpiritualSquid SpiritualSquid

    thanks for the effort

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/daisychainsaw daisychainsaw

    Thanks for the advice!

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/oktoys oktoys

    Great information. Thank you.

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/Teapixie Teapixie

    I have lenses that I created for Christmas. I suspect they will fall into WIP at some point in the near future because, well, it isn’t Christmas for another year. Any recommendations for how to handle the “seasonal” approach to this? I have been working on “retrofitting” lenses, but it’s not appropriate for all of them. Any suggestions will be appreciated. I also have Valentine’s Day lenses and this will become an issue with them.

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/PapillonBreeder PapillonBreeder

    All of those are good ideas. I’ll have to give them a try. My problem is mainly having time. I need a helper, in my life! lol (2) more PUPPIES AVAILABLE! (This bunch is keeping me quite busy. They’re very advanced, for their age!)

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/manlalakbay manlalakbay

    I guess we should ensure that what we have should be enhanced and polished. Anyway, what about when you like a good url but haven’t started writing content and published it? Is it okay to get first the best url that we think and then will start writing in the future? By the way, I love what is being presented here. Keep it up! :)

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/jillian22 jillian22

    This is just what I wanted to hear!

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/Foxtonlady Foxtonlady

    Good tips thanks! I also like to use the lens progress for tips when they are not 100% ‘done’ – that helps, too.

  • blogvkp

    Nice tips. Two of my lens have gone down in rank and their PR were 4 and 3. I think I have to restore them very soon. Thanks for this guide. http://www.squidoo.com/beginner-guide-to-keyword-research

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/PamelaPamela PamelaPamela

    Thank you for the lens!

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/zachary0611 zachary0611

    Make lenses on subjects you enjoy and its a whole lot easier to update them.

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/DoraArtDesignStudio DoraArtDesignStudio

    Ooh, needed that push!

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/webmarketingpro webmarketingpro

    I’m with Teapixie on the seasonal lenses question. What about those snowflake earrings lenses and the Mardi Gras lenses?

    Some of my Christmas lenses will work for other seasons, but quite a few of them won’t. But they’ll be golden come October!

    Of course I’m also guilty of having hoarded lenses that I may have to delete, and get working on the other ones one at a time until they’re all green.

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/patgoltz patgoltz

    I have on occasion started a lens because I thought of something I wanted to write about. It serves as a reminder. But I’m not ready to fill it out yet. That doesn’t mean I don’t have enthusiasm. It means that some lenses just need to be in the crock pot for awhile. ;)

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/cartonpak cartonpak

    imb.spb.ru

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/taylorday taylorday

    half of my lenses seem to turn red every weekend, i spend most of weekend adding to them though a lot don’t seem to turn green again until the middle of the week

  • http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/gadgetbuff gadgetbuff

    Good information. I’m reading ALL the tips since I’m such a newbie.

Official news and updates from the Squidoo Team

Loading

Loading

Contributors