Well, I made a vague illusion to loving polls in last week's post and I can't not explain myself can I? Essentially, it strikes me that polls can be used the same way that, for instance, Amazon use customer reviews.
Most people that visit a page about a product are already pre-sold on the idea of the product. So what we do is insert a poll into our lens that is a dressed up 'Is Product X excellent?'. Of course, most people visiting the page think it is, and tell you so on the poll.
Potential purchaser arrives at the page thinking that this product sounds not too bad. Then 'hey', not too far down the page, they find something that shows them that plenty of real people agree. Buying it sounds like an even better idea now, doesn't it? All those people can't be wrong. And 'hey #2', the person that wrote this page has left me a convenient way to go to Amazon (or eBay, etc) to buy it right now. That's helpful isn't it :)
Friday, 25 February 2011
Tuesday, 22 February 2011
A Couple of Things to Think About
I tend to steer clear of the heated forum debates, but a couple of fairly length threads have caught my eye over the last few days.
The first one was about monsters, the professional image of Squidoo and all sorts of other stuff that got dragged into the conversation too. In my rare appearances in the more debate-y type of threads, I've said publicly that I like the monsters, as a self-motivational tool - it encourages me to participate in the community, increase the interactivity of what I write and above all else, build more lenses.
I don't mind that other lensmasters see them too - other peoples achievements motivate me to work harder and maybe someone viewing my lensmaster page will take similiar motivation from it. Do the monster badges look professional to an outsider looking in? I think we probably give ourselves too much credit for how much the average visitor notices. Visitors/readers are there to find the information they're looking for quickly and conveniently - I don't believe many even see the stuff that goes on round about.
Which kind of brings me on to the second thread worth a comment - all about how less is more on lenses. Agree entirely with the sentiments on that one. When I read lenses - which I do a lot - it takes a really good 'long' lens to get me to read all of it. BUT, and this is the important point, I regularly read every word on the page on short lenses.
If I was more diligent in keeping stats, I'm sure I could prove to you that my short lenses, about single products sell more - or at the very least that time invested in them yields a greater return. The lenses of mine that tend to sell are - here's some brief information on a SPECIFIC product, a few videos, a few more details, some interaction (usually polls), and here's where to buy it. (I might talk about why I think polls work so well for selling stuff another time). Anyway - I'm nowadays firmly in the 'short and sweet' camp.
Happy Lensmaking, and it wouldn't be a blog post without mention of at least one new lens, so off you pop and try an Iconic Toys and Games Quiz ;)
The first one was about monsters, the professional image of Squidoo and all sorts of other stuff that got dragged into the conversation too. In my rare appearances in the more debate-y type of threads, I've said publicly that I like the monsters, as a self-motivational tool - it encourages me to participate in the community, increase the interactivity of what I write and above all else, build more lenses.
I don't mind that other lensmasters see them too - other peoples achievements motivate me to work harder and maybe someone viewing my lensmaster page will take similiar motivation from it. Do the monster badges look professional to an outsider looking in? I think we probably give ourselves too much credit for how much the average visitor notices. Visitors/readers are there to find the information they're looking for quickly and conveniently - I don't believe many even see the stuff that goes on round about.
Which kind of brings me on to the second thread worth a comment - all about how less is more on lenses. Agree entirely with the sentiments on that one. When I read lenses - which I do a lot - it takes a really good 'long' lens to get me to read all of it. BUT, and this is the important point, I regularly read every word on the page on short lenses.
If I was more diligent in keeping stats, I'm sure I could prove to you that my short lenses, about single products sell more - or at the very least that time invested in them yields a greater return. The lenses of mine that tend to sell are - here's some brief information on a SPECIFIC product, a few videos, a few more details, some interaction (usually polls), and here's where to buy it. (I might talk about why I think polls work so well for selling stuff another time). Anyway - I'm nowadays firmly in the 'short and sweet' camp.
Happy Lensmaking, and it wouldn't be a blog post without mention of at least one new lens, so off you pop and try an Iconic Toys and Games Quiz ;)
Wednesday, 9 February 2011
A Trading-Cards Week on Squidoo
This past week's been a little hampered in my Squidoo life by other stuff that's needed a catch up, but I'm getting back on track and starting to get the new lenses rolling again.
Most of you will know that my main niche on Squidoo is the YuGiOh! Trading Card Game. With the latest release for the game making its first appearance this weekend, it was a busy old time, both in the shop - there's always a special launch tournament for a new product - and on Squidoo keeping all the lenses up to date.
To explain a little of the challenge. New YuGiOh! stuff always comes out in Japan several months before the rest of the world. A couple of prominent bloggers translate all the card names and fans then, by convention, stick to these when they write. Of course, there's always different ways to translate the same words and invariably the official translations differ in many instances. The same is even more true of the card text of course, so it's a race to get the official information out fast.
I did it though - I finally scooped the world of YuGiOh! Because I get the event organiser's card checklist, I was the first person to publish the official English-language card list online, right on Squidoo. There's still plenty of work to do though, changing over from unofficial translations to official ones on all the single card lenses that lead from the main lens. The expression 'rod for my own back' does spring to mind.
Meanwhile, I'm also plugging away at new Pokemon from the forthcoming Black & White DS game. Whether I can touch the handful of very long established Pokemon sites in Google though remains to be seen. Anyway here's Janovy as an example. Happy lens building.
Most of you will know that my main niche on Squidoo is the YuGiOh! Trading Card Game. With the latest release for the game making its first appearance this weekend, it was a busy old time, both in the shop - there's always a special launch tournament for a new product - and on Squidoo keeping all the lenses up to date.
To explain a little of the challenge. New YuGiOh! stuff always comes out in Japan several months before the rest of the world. A couple of prominent bloggers translate all the card names and fans then, by convention, stick to these when they write. Of course, there's always different ways to translate the same words and invariably the official translations differ in many instances. The same is even more true of the card text of course, so it's a race to get the official information out fast.
I did it though - I finally scooped the world of YuGiOh! Because I get the event organiser's card checklist, I was the first person to publish the official English-language card list online, right on Squidoo. There's still plenty of work to do though, changing over from unofficial translations to official ones on all the single card lenses that lead from the main lens. The expression 'rod for my own back' does spring to mind.
Meanwhile, I'm also plugging away at new Pokemon from the forthcoming Black & White DS game. Whether I can touch the handful of very long established Pokemon sites in Google though remains to be seen. Anyway here's Janovy as an example. Happy lens building.
Thursday, 3 February 2011
It's Even More From Toy Fair
Working through the Toy Fair notes always takes a heap of time, and it'll probably be a month or so before I write all the lenses I'd like to from them - expect posts here to be called 'Even More From Toy Fair Volume 3' and 'I Can't Believe It's More Toy Fair'.
Two more potential big crazes to mention this week are Androidz - a series of 2 inch high battling, rolling robots and Pinypon - a lovely series of Spanish dolls with an anime look and interchangeable parts.
There's also a couple of noteable boardgames I've given some coverage to on Squidoo this week. Firstly, there's a return for Khet in 2011, reboxed and looking good, but still the 'chess with lasers' game we know and love. In very exciting news too, there's a new Discworld Boardgame in town, called (what else could it be?) Ankh-Morpork. Looks great.
Two more potential big crazes to mention this week are Androidz - a series of 2 inch high battling, rolling robots and Pinypon - a lovely series of Spanish dolls with an anime look and interchangeable parts.
There's also a couple of noteable boardgames I've given some coverage to on Squidoo this week. Firstly, there's a return for Khet in 2011, reboxed and looking good, but still the 'chess with lasers' game we know and love. In very exciting news too, there's a new Discworld Boardgame in town, called (what else could it be?) Ankh-Morpork. Looks great.
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