What's Up In Top 100 One Month After The Last Algorithm Tweak

It's time to report on interesting developments in the most important Squidoo ranking - Top 100 by LensRank (LR). Here is the summary of those developments and the trends I noticed when comparing the rankings of Jan. 23, 2007 - when the last algorithm tweak took place and of Feb. 22 - a month later.

- 38 lenses from Jan. 23 were still in Top 100. Of those 38 lenses, 14 belonged to illuminati, 3 to the videosense group and 3 to the affiliate marketing group, which is 53% in total. It shows strength of those groups. However, on Feb. 22 illuminati delivered 24 lenses, the videosense group - 6 lenses and the "affiliates" - 4 lenses; therefore the current share of those 3 groups is 34% - a lot less than 53%! It will be very interesting to see if they can get again over 50% a month from now...

- Top 2 lenses from Jan. 23 were still on the Top 100 by LR - Funky Laptop Bags and Handbags.

- 13 lenses that were in Top 20 appear again among twenty best lenses. New lenses on the top by LR were: #6 Disney Pins!, #7 ASG, #8 Law Of Attraction, #11 Balenciaga Handbags, #14 My Dog Indigo, #16 Affiliate Marketing Guide and #17 SquidooSecrets.com

- only one lens from Top 100 by LR was listed on three other Top 100 rankings - Most Profitable (MP), Most Blogged (MB) and Most Visited (MV). It was at #5 Great Disney World Photos. Interestingly, this lens was the winner of the January People's Choice Award in the Content Lenses category.

- the highest ranked lens that didn't appear on neither of those three rankings (MP, MB, MV) was at #14 My Dog Indigo.

- still the best way to get into Top 100 by LR is to have a profitable lens(es). 40 lenses from Top 100 MP made it to the Top 100 by LR. It's even better - much better! - when we look at Top 20, because 18 lenses from Top 100 MP made it to the Top 100 by LR. The only two that didn't were: Squid Lens and The 3" Dunny Page.

- moreover, having top position on MP list gives you an excellent chance to be also among the best of the best - on Feb. 22, 12 lenses from Top 20 MP were on the Top 20 by LR.

- it's strange to me in the times when blogging is such a big thing that being most blogged is not that important in the current LR algorithm. Only 6 lenses from Top 100 MB were among Top 100 by LR.

- being most visited gets rewarded more than being most blogged. Most visited lenses don't get top spots on Top 100 by LR, but they appear there quite often. 29 lenses from Top 100 MV were on Top 100 by LR. Some of the lenses that appear to be rewarded most for having a lot of visits are: Funky Laptop Bags, The Law of Attraction, Japanese Tattoos, Make Money Online - all in Top 100 by LR.

Ilona Zuzalek
Squidoo Lensranking - How Important It Is And How To Make It Better
The Beatles Songs - My Favorite Kind Of Music

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My 7th lens - Squidoo Lensranking - How Important It Is And How To Make It Better

My 7th lens - "Squidoo Lensranking" - How Important It Is And How To Make It Better is doing very well. Today it was at #196 and I expect it to break the #100 barrier tomorrow!

Yesterday I announced its publishing in the Squidoo lounge and bookmarked it on a number of social bookmarking sites. It seems people are very interested in the subject of this lens. It's also encouraging to see the surfers answering the questions about Squidoo I asked in the plexo modules. I hope that the HQ will consider the results...

According to the sitemeter stats, "Squidoo Lensranking" - How Important It Is And How To Make It Better had today almost 50 visits. That's very good!

Ilona Zuzalek
Getting Married In Las Vegas - Romantic, Extravagant, Or Just Convenient...
The Beatles Songs - My Favorite Kind Of Music

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Chan Do Internet Success System Blog

Another interesting post by one of the biggest online marketing masters - Patric Chan:

Chan Do Internet Success System Blog

He's really good...

Ilona Zuzalek
Getting Married In Las Vegas - Romantic, Extravagant, Or Just Convenient...
The Beatles Songs - My Favorite Kind Of Music

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Another LensRank Tweak? Not exactly...

No, we didn't have a new moon yet... In February the new moon is on 18th, we have to (?) wait two more weeks or so.

There was some action, though, and all of my lenses were around 25,000 - 28,000 early in the morning, but later that bug was fixed and the current results don't differ much from what we've been seeing since Jan. 23, 2007.

In general, it looks that eveything returned to "norm", however, there are a few new and returning lenses that were not present in Top 100 lately. It may mean that there was indeed a minor algorithm adjustment after all...

So what are those interesting lenses? Well, imagine "Michelangelo's David's" return - at #50 or much, much higher - at #4 "SquidLens: The Official Lens on Squidoo", at #47 - "National Parks and Monuments", or at #97 - "A DAY FOR HEARTS - Congenital Heart Defects Awareness Day". We'll have to wait and see if it means a higher weight in the algorithm for the content. That would be very positive...

We also had today a very unusual case - at #63 "Valentin Elizalde (Hoy en lugar 64)" - a lens in Spanish. It has some "videosense" content, but I don't think the author has very close ties to the party that I call here "the videosense group".

So the count today is: "illuminati" - 26, "videosenses" - 7, "affiliates" - 6; 39 in total. Nice gain for independent lenses - from 54 on Jan. 23, 2007 to 61 today!

Ilona Zuzalek
Getting Married In Las Vegas - Romantic, Extravagant, Or Just Convenient...
The Beatles Songs - My Favorite Kind Of Music

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Dealing With The Super Bowl Hangover

According to a popular Super Bowl Indicator legend, the result of yesterday's Superbowl will have impact on stocks...

Whose stocks will go down? I have few candidates...

This article is not fresh (from the last year), but it has a lot of interesting information about the Superbowl Monday phenomenon. Just look at the resources at the bottom of that article from Snopes.com. Even such heavy hitters like The New York Times or The Washington Post were writing about it! Go to:

The Super Bowl Indicator

Happy reading!

Ilona Zuzalek
Getting Married In Las Vegas - Romantic, Extravagant, Or Just Convenient...
The Beatles Songs - My Favorite Kind Of Music

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What's new in Squidoo's Top 100?

Not a big change, but there are some interesting developments - as always...

Although it looked that Gil was only joking when he said after the last tweak (it happend on Jan. 22/23, 2007): "Every third sunday we keep the lensrank algorithm on 'random' just to screw everyone up :-)" it seems that the current LensRank algorithm is here to stay... At least until next third Sunday, most probably.

So, what do we have now?

Independent lenses made some progress - at the expense of "illuminati", whose share decreased from 30 lenses to 26.

Also the "affiliate marketing group" got some advantage over the "videosense group". While both had 8 lenses each on Jan. 23, today videosenses have 6 lenses in Top 100 and the affiliates - 9.

In other words, the independent lenses presence in Top 100 increased from 54 to 59.

Among the "illuminati", relache has huge lead - 14 lenses, jeffryv has 5. He beat MrLewisSmile who has now 3 lenses in Top 100. The other Citizens in Top 100 are: KimberlyDawnWells - 2, boredofeducation - 1 and oniyagi - 1 lens.

I don't count here Alumni Citizens, but something tells me that I should... Maybe soon I'll change that.

There are interesting developments lately among the "affiliates". That group has a few new rising stars - Barkely even made it today to Top 100 as a newcomer.

Today's Top Rookie - the highest new lens in Top 100 by LensRank is at #71 Toe Socks. It is surprising to me, because the lens itself and its numbers don't fit Megan's recipe for success: she said, a good lens should have great content, be handmade, well promoted and well talked about... So what is this lens missing? It:

• has absolutely no content - only CafePress and ebay modules, amazon plexo, empty(!) Guestbook and empty Netflix module;
• was updated more than one week ago (!);
• has only 4 ratings (5 stars, OK)
• is not on Top 100 Most Blogged and not on Top 100 Most Visited (found following jeffryv's links on his blog; not available anywhere else)

Its only"achievement" is #34 on Top 100 Most Profitable! Yesterday and 2 days ago, it had the same position on Top 100 Most Profitable, but wasn't in Top 100 by LensRank yet... In fact, it started from #37 among Profitable on Jan. 30, 2007 and is going up since then.

So it's a nice proof that it "pays" to have a profitable lens! Sure, it's always good to earn money and having a profitable lens will help you to be high on Top 100 by LensRank. It helps a lot, it seems... 39 lenses from Most Profitables are in Top 100 by LensRank and extra 10 lenses are not, but their owners have lenses that are. In total there are such 49 lenses (39+10).

I'd like to mention two lenses from Top 100 that I found very interesting - although for different reasons. Barbro at #4 is an excellent example of a lens that is very, very well done and it tells about a current news - death of a Thoroughbred colt, named Barbaro, his incredible career and tragic end after an accident. The lens is fresh and has 26 ratings - all of them 5 stars! Well done, Ghost_Moth...

The other lens that attracted my attention is at #8 - Homemaking & Housekeeping - Get Yourself Organized. It was already higher before. What is really strange, are its tags - almost all of them are art-related and none has anything to do with homemaking and housekeeping and getting yourself organized! But it must work, if the lens is so high (I have to give the lens credit, though, for its content - from this point of view, it's one of the best!)...

Another strange thing is that this lens doesn't have an Adsense ad in the sidebar - like all others lenses have (except for two more lenses in Top 100) and its two Adsense ads have background while other lens don't have. And it is not as wide as other lenses. Fascinating... Will other lenses get also get such fix? But why one of the Adsense ads is gone?

Ilona Zuzalek
Getting Married In Las Vegas - Romantic, Extravagant, Or Just Convenient...
The Beatles Songs - My Favorite Kind Of Music

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What illuminati know and we don't...

It pays to read blogs...

I've just found this interesting post by jeffryv on his post of Jan. 28, 2007 at "Lensmastering" blog:

Lensmastering: Other Top 100 Lists

That post shows that even though the Most Visited and Most Blogged disappeared from the rankings presented to the public (since Jan. 22 or 21, 2007), they are still being prepared and Jeff has access to them. Other Citizen Squids possibly too (see the "shhh"). Other - regular - lensmasters don't...

Top 100 by Rating (star system) was officially gone long ago. Top 100 Lensmasters (by Average LensRank) - which has - in my opinion - very negative impact - was discredited ages ago...

So why does jeffryv blogs about those categories? Is it an indication they they are still included in the current LensRank algorithm? No wonder Gil jokingly calls it a "screwed up" version...

Ah, talking about Gil and his famous sense of humor - if you go to Jeff's blog, you'll see "Staff Favorites". The only lens listed there is "All About Gil" by giltotherescue!

Ilona Zuzalek
Getting Married In Las Vegas - Romantic, Extravagant, Or Just Convenient...
The Beatles Songs - My Favorite Kind Of Music

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