Home > Lensmaking Tips > Module Maintenance For Fun and Profit

A good, healthy lens is maintained regularly. An easy way to do this is to open your lens in the Workshop and give each module a quick scan. You’re looking for any information that might be out of date, Amazon items that are no longer available and anything that’s not fresh or relevant.

As I scan the site looking for low-quality lenses, there are a few types of modules that come up time and again looking worse for the wear. eBay, Amazon, Google News, Twitter and some types of Flickr modules rely on the information that you put in to pull their content. These types of modules can easily go “out of date”. It could be a product that’s discontinued or a new item that starts to appear in the searches. Often, eBay modules contain several products that are wildly inappropriate for the lens and I’ve seen many a Google News module that had nothing of value to report.

It’s worth your time to double check all of your modules for quality. If they’re not full of interesting, relevant information, it’s a good idea to modify your search terms or even scrap them altogether. Here’s what you can do to prevent your lens from slipping out of touch:

1. Check your search terms for irrelevant results

This applies to nearly all of these modules. If you’ve chosen to use search terms, or the “Let Squidoo Pick” option. Sometimes a new item or product will begin to appear in your eBay/Amazon modules that’s not related to your lens. Try changing your search terms to see if you can get the right kinds of results. If not, scrap the module.

2. Replace Amazon searches with Spotlight Personal Reviews

These modules use a larger picture and offer you a larger text box to talk about the item you’ve chosen. They can have a bigger  and more impressive effect than a jumble of random items picked by search terms.

3. Check to make sure that Twitter user still exists/is active

Similarly, Twitter modules sometimes go “out of date”. A good example is a Twitter module pointed to a specific account. People leave Twitter all the time and sometimes a new user will get their old name. I’ve seen many a lens with irrelevant tweets from an account that’s under new ownership or a Twitter Storm module that’s pulling non-sense tweets. It’s a good idea to look at what tweets are showing up and ask yourself if it’s contributing anything.

4. Scan your Flickr pictures

When you use a Flickr module to search for certain terms, sometimes the results start out great but get boring or even downright ugly later on. Often, the tag you searched for pulls a batch of photos that aren’t related to your topic at all. You can substitute the Polaroid module, Flickr Voting or your own photos to illustrate a lens.

5. Make sure your headlines are News-worthy

The Google News module is great for clickouts but due to the continually updating nature of the news industry, the articles can sometimes be irrelevant. This happens a lot with search terms that use names or places. Sometimes search terms can be too specific and might not pull anything at all. Try new search terms until you get relevant articles. You’ll be more likely to make a clickout and your lens will look better.

6. Check on those YouTube Videos

YouTube videos aren’t always reliable – they might be taken down by the user or removed by Youtube. Additionally, some videos don’t allow embedding on other sites and won’t be playable on your lens. You may wish to remove the video, or choose a different video from another service.

The most important point here is that you should keep abreast of the information that’s on your lenses. Bigger is not always better when it comes to lenses and you don’t need one of everything to make a lens complete. If you do decide to scrap a module all together, I’d recommend that you replace it with something else – it doesn’t have to be the same type of module either.

A Google News module could be replaced with a Blackbox containing a quote and a boring eBay module could make way for a Quiz or a Dual Debate. There are no rules that say you must have the same types of modules in all your lenses – the only thing we ask is that you keep all your content unique, fresh and taken care of.

Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/skylar_comet/2804561934/