I’m inspired. I wasn’t paying attention to the deadline for Giant Squid status. It would have been almost impossible to make it anyway. But now I know when the next one is and I started yesterday. My lenses are pretty detailed. I can’t seem to make a quick one that has quality. My quickest lens took four hours, and then it still needed tweaking and promoting. Most of them take one work day. My goal is to be done in advance of the deadline and on my way to 100 at the first of the new year.
July 5th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Go, Nancy! You’d be surprised how quickly it can go once you get on a roll. My thought? There’s nothing wrong with publishing something that will need more tweaking. I’ve taken to publishing once it becomes something I won’t be embarrassed by (and I have fairly high standards) even though I know there are holes I want to fill. But that gives me lots of excuses to go back and constantly work it, particularly in response to what I see is bringing people to the lens. The constant tweaking helps keep the lens fresh and Google sees that it’s something under active management that gets updated a lot.
July 5th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Thank you, Susan. This can be a lonely business, and I really appreciate the encouragement. I love the Squidoo community. So supportive and friendly.
July 5th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Just keep at it. Making lenses ’slowly’ really just means making them well, in my opinion. Making it to giant squid is great (I just did
), but it’s not that important. Just keep learning from your stats, keep promoting your lenses, and when you have an idea - check out the competition and GO.
July 5th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Go for it Nancy! One a day is good! Even my simple ones take me that long - but I soon run out of steam at night… And the long ones take a week - or more…
The secret is to have some really good detailed lenses - sounds like you are good at that, but you will take forever to get to 50 that way. I was up to less than 20. But add to that some shorted lenses that take less research, and you can churn them out a bit quicker.
If they are less than perfect, there is always plenty of scope for going back and adding to them later. But you need 50 to qualify as a Giant Squid.
I have seen a lot of really bad lenses lately - a paragraph at the top, then just module after module of links and very little more. That just turns me off - I frequently can’t even leave a comment, since it would only be a criticism. It’s ok if a lensmaster makes one of these, but I saw some that had nothing else, and people still commented and said “Great Lens”.
I think you and I are seeking better than that! So you go for the 50, but go for quality above all, and you will go far
July 5th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Your rate of lens development sounds pretty on target to me. When I had a span of 3 weeks with lots of time, I did two a day and they were long days. I’ve never made one in less than four hours. If you spend some time blogging, writing articles, doing the social networking kinds of things as well as any “real world” work it takes time to hit 50. Nothing wrong with that.
July 9th, 2008 at 8:17 am
Hi, I have never actually figured out how much time I spend creating a lens, I think most of mine are pretty detailed and I am still learning the ways of Squidoo. Once I do publish a lens they just keep growing and growing anyway. There is so much great information out there! I can definitely see the merit of publishing one once you are not going to be embarrassed by it! Yes, continuing to work on a lens is a great way to keep updating it…