Link plexo’s – why aren’t people submitting their lenses?
Link plexo’s are one of the ways squidoo gives lensmasters a chance to get an easy backlink to their lenses. Yet – I’ve found that many people just don’t submit their lenses to link plexo’s.
Three examples of great backlink potential:
I took over the humor and hilarity group recently. It didn’t have a link plexo yet – but since I wanted to feature the group on my great groups lensography (and feel all big groups should have a link plexo) – I added one. I sent out a squidcast to alert all my fans (all 393 of them) of the potential… How many people submitted their link? Not ONE.
Similarly – giant squids have the opportunity of getting a great backlink from the Giant Squid Community Showcase blog. All they need to do is submit their best lenses to the plexo on the giant squid community showcase lens (that was a mouthful, wasn’t it?). I recently got great backlinks from their blog – in part because so few people bother to submit their lenses, or vote.
Lack of attention may make the giant squid community organisers stop giving giants this opportunity – which would be a shame.
Lenses of the Day – especially the ones mentioned on the LOTD blog – have a great backlink. Getting a link on one of the lenses of the day is a very good squidoo backlink to get. It’s actually (nearly) as good as making lens of the day yourself. Two recent LOTD lenses have link plexo’s that don’t seem to be edited. One would expect there to be hundreds of links in each. No such thing… This humor lens has only a few lenses in there. The other is about Christmas shops at squidoo. Alright it has 50+ submissions, but still – why aren’t there a hundred or more? And this lens has several backlinks from the LOTD blog!
And if you hadn’t figured out why I’m bothering with all this… you really need to learn more about SEO for squidoo.
[edit]Inkserotica has made a great lens about lenses that have link plexos. She includes groups as well.[/edit]
10 Comments »
inkserotica said :
January 8, 2009 at 7:14 am
It amazes me, too. I thought by creating my lens on this subject would make it that bit easier
spirituality said :
January 8, 2009 at 7:48 am
Thanks for reminding me. I’ve added it here
poutine said :
January 8, 2009 at 10:06 am
I’m so glad I stumbled upon your blog.
I am going to go and check this Link Plexo thing.
Thanks.
poutine
poddys said :
January 8, 2009 at 10:24 am
I haven’t had a chance to see the humor lens yet. I am interested to see what it’s like, since none of my humor lenses have made anything like LOTD – yet!
Once I do visit, you can guarantee that there will be about 16 Plexo links added. I started my Daily Jokes lenses in February 2008, so when I do create my lens for January 2009 there will be 12, plus of coursemy Religious Jokes, Golf Jokes lenses etc.
Of course I should have taken advantage of the time the lens was LOTD, but you can only fit so many things into a day…
I agree – if someone adds a Plexo, it’s there to be used. Not abused obviously, but if you have a related lens or other link, go for it.
spirituality said :
January 8, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Poddys: I fully expect you to also put all your jokes lenses in the plexo on my hilarity and humor group.
I’m already featuring your jokes lensography there, but hey- the more links the better, right?
inkserotica said :
January 8, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Oh thank you!
It wasn’t meant to be a reminder 
I’ve added a link plexo to all of my own groups, too, following your excellent advice!
aj2008 said :
January 9, 2009 at 8:00 am
I added my Pantomime lens to the plexo!
katinka - spirituality said :
January 9, 2009 at 8:17 am
It’s been accepted too, AJ
Treasures By Brenda said :
January 9, 2009 at 10:02 am
Great post, Katinka. Steps followed. Advice ‘absorbed.’ Just wish I could remember all that I am learning all of the time!
I was pleased to see I had managed to add appropriate links to at least one of those plexos.
I am off to check out Inkserotica’s lens and then to check on the HDTV 2008 top-ranked lens. On the HDTV lens I’ll be looking for a plexo for my blu-ray lenses!
Is having a link plexo on your lens equally beneficial for the lensmaster who wrote the lens???
Brenda
katinka - spirituality said :
January 9, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Plexo’s aren’t just good backlinks – they are also an extra backlink for the lensmaster if they are interesting enough to be copied to someone elses lens.
What’s more: a plexo (like any link list really) is a good way to have relevant keywords on your lens with less chance of google thinking you’re overdoing it.
However – any link out is a pagerank leak. I personally try to balance it: on some lenses I’m generous with link opportunities for others, on other lenses I’m greedy.
I think as long as you’re professional or real about it – what you give will come back to you. It’s about the social in social networking: those who don’t rate, who don’t link out to fellow lensmasters (whether by lensrolling or plexo’s or featuring other peoples lenses doesn’t matter really) will not get the same breaks as those who DO help their fellows out.
But when being social starts taking so much time you don’t create new lenses or haven’t learned how to monetize your high traffic lenses, or you haven’t been building outside of squidoo links, or you haven’t been building an audience for your blog – etc. – then you’re being too social, and not business like enough about this. (That’s assuming you need the money obviously: those who don’t can do whatever the hell they please and just enjoy themselves).
That was quite the digression. The bottom line is: if you are going to have a blueray plexo on your lens: manage it well. Be the editor – like I said in a previous post here.
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