Easy Wins: Ending Soon!

The cool thing about blog giveaways is you can usually tell now many people are entered. The less entered, the better your chances to win. Here's some I found with low entries ending soon.

March 30

3 Issues of National Geographic Kids Magazine (26 entries)


March 31

7th Generation + Lorax Giveaway (37 entries)


April 1

4x4, 4x6 or Set Of 3 Buttons (30 entries)

If you have a giveaway with less than 60 entries per prize ending in the next 5 days, please click here to submit it.

March Showers, April Flowers - A Treasury to Benifit Animals

I love this treasury made by The Wingless Bird for a Team EFA challenge--a mix of products that remind me of a stormy March day--grey, yet with hints of springtime.  All featured artists donate a percentage of profits to an animal charity of choice.

Premade Kitten Banner S... TheWinglessDes... $10.00	Paris France Bookends -... TwoStrayCats $24.00	Bird Art Original Paint... ThimbleSparrow $28.00
1/2 Pound, Fragrant Dri... layla $7.00	Raw Pyrite Nugget Neckl... amaniworks $22.00	Marching Birds Ring - C... dillondesigns $5.99
Robot Family Nesting Do... licoricewits $47.00	vintage metal buttons S... brizelsupplies $6.95	Seabird ... Matte Frost... walkonthemoon $22.50
Metal Rimmed Round Tags... EllaQuaint $8.95	5 Feet Quality Bright S... beadznstonezsu... $6.95	BEAUTIFUL Taxco Alfredo... NecktieParty $185.00
Cornflower Blue Gingko ... sdunderkoffler $16.00	Paw prints bag set for ... thedoghouse $12.00	Natural Lavender Spritz... Purplecorner $5.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio. 

Easy Wins: Low Entry Giveaways

The cool thing about blog giveaways is you can usually tell now many people are entered. The less entered, the better your chances to win. Here's some I found with low entries ending soon.

Ends March 27

6 Mia Bella Gourmet Candles (54 entries)

March 28

Finlandia Cheeze (11 entries)
Scrapbooking Software (15 entries)

March 30

4x4, 4x6 or Set Of 3 Buttons (30 entries)

March 31

7th Generation + Lorax Giveaway (18 entries)

If you have a giveaway with less than 60 entries per prize ending in the next 5 days, please click here to submit it.

Squidoo Hop: Lensrank

Hello, and welcome fellow Squido Lensmasters! For those who aren't travelling here by blog hop and don't know what Squidoo is, it's just a place where you can make nifty little web pages about any topic you choose, and maybe earn a little money for yourself or a charity in the process.

Last week Marsha asked about how our payday was going, and that gave me and idea for a topic.

I thought maybe I'd break down my earnings and look at them. 

They stayed at around $1-5 a month (jumping to up to $20 during Nov-Dec, the holiday months) for the longest time.  But since I joined this hop, it's started to improve...and I think I know why:

1. Other hoppers have motivated me to make more lenses and improve the ones I have.  Thanks hoppers!  
2. Hoppers also taught me things about Squidoo which made me care about my lens-rank a lot more and get serious about improving it.

Before joining up with this hop I thought

• Lens-rank only affected your rankings in the Squidoo lens directory
• Lenses earned ad revenue based on how many hits they got

But thanks to fellow hoppers I now know that...

• Lensrank DOES affect your earnings!  Squidoo takes 45% off all Ad revenue and puts it in an Ad Pool.   Ad Pool earnings are divided among lensmasters through a four-tiered system based on lensrank. The higher tier you're lens is in, the more money you get from the ad pool.  The fourth tier, the lowest one, gets nothing.   
• Your lensrank is affected by numerous factors (including traffic, click-outs, etc.). 

So, with the four tiers in mind, lets look at my last three month's Squidoo earnings (remembering I don't have any Tier 1 Lenses).  Remember, Nov - Dec are holiday earnings, which are unusually high due to commissions from sales.  (Really unusually high...I never made over $100 before this Nov!)

JANUARY 
TOTAL:  $12.01
FROM SALES COMMISSIONS:  $0.48

• Rock Walls for Theater - $0.48 

FROM AD POOL:  $11.49

• TIER 2 LENSES:  $6.22  (Top Blog Giveaway Linkies)
• TIER 3 LENSES:  $5.27 (17 lenses)
  

DECEMBER
TOTAL:  $111.09
FROM SALES COMMISSIONS:  $97.53

• Texas T-Shirts - $87.83 
• Texas Christmas Ornaments and More - $6.25
• Rock Walls for Theater - $3.45

FROM AD POOL:  $13.57

• TIER 2 LENSES:  $7.72  (Top Blog Giveaway Linkies)
• TIER 3 LENSES:  $5.85 (15 lenses)

NOVEMBER
TOTAL: $122.17
FROM SALES COMMISSIONS:  $109.95

• Texas T-Shirts - $48.35
• California T-Shirts -  $34.25
• Texas Christmas Ornaments and More - $27.35

FROM AD POOL:  $12:22

• TIER 2 LENSES:  $6.97  (Top Blog Giveaway Linkies)
• TIER 3 LENSES:  $5.25 (15 lenses) 

 _____

A note about Tier 1 lenses - since I don't have any I did a little research and found out that for  these months, Tier 1 lenses were making the following (according to Squidoo Payday Questions and Answers):

JANUARY - $40.64

DECEMBER - $45.42

NOVEMBER - $36.58

Wouldn't it be nice to be in THAT tier? Looking January results, Tier 1 got $40.64, Tier 1 got $6.22, Tier 3 got $0.31 cents, and Tier 4 got nothing (as always).  So, having one Tier 2 lens is worth about the same as having 20 tier three lenses.  Having one Tier I lens is worth about 6.5 Tier 2 lenses, or 132 tier three lenses.  And of course, having any lenses in the top three tiers is worth more than having an infinate number of Tier 4 lenses (unless those lenses made you a commission).

Considering that, I'm going to work on improving the lensrank on lenses that are close to the next level up.

How do you know what Tier your lens is in?  It's based on lensrank

Lenses 1 - 2,000 = tier 1
Lenses 2.001 - 10,000 = tier 2
Lenses 10,001 - 85,000 = tier 3


But THAT isn't on an EXACT basis, I've heard.  According to this forum post, when people in the higher tiers opt out of advertising, it makes more room in those tiers.  So, for example, in Feb 2010 lenses ranking 2,256 got into Tier 1, and lenses ranking 10,983 got bumped to Tier 2. 

While we're talking about tiers, I want to mention a concern I have about them.  Tiers are based on hard ranking, not on percentage ranking.  Since only the top 85,000 lenses get a piece of the ad pool, that means that as more and more authors contribute to Squidoo, more and more lenses will not make that cut.  I'm not the only one concerned about this.  If you're concerned about this too I hope you'll write Squidoo about this, and also vote up this suggestion on the Squidoo Wishlish lens.

Great Lenses on Lensrank

Squidoo Lensrank Factors

How to Improve Lensrank

My Appologies - A Correction

Last month, as part of the Hearts Should Be Free event to spread awareness of modern slavery, one of the articles that people could read to enter to win an iPhone case was Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory.  It was the only article I included in this event which didn't deal directly with slavery (though it did deal with worker conditions).

Turns out that Mr. Daisey fabricated a lot of the "findings" from his trip to China, and NPR and This American Life are retracting the story.   While many of the details were actual things that have happened in Chinese factories,  they didn't happen to him in the way he said.  You can read about this here.  I appologize that I passed something on that has errors.

Easy Wins: Low Entry Giveaways

The cool thing about blog giveaways is you can usually tell now many people are entered. The less entered, the better your chances to win. Here's some I found with low entries ending soon.

Ends March 15

Martimus at Midnight Picture Book + Other Items (6 entries)

Woombie Swaddler (68 entries)

Ends March 16

Handmade Hat (14 entries)

The Woodcarver DVD (37 entries)

Ends March 17

The Woodcarver DVD (6 entries)



March 19

$5 GC to Coupons66.com (1 entries)

If you have a giveaway with less than 60 entries per prize ending in the next 5 days, please click here to submit it.

Tuesday Treasury: 100% Charity

This treasury by Katie914 is made up of only items whose ENTIRE proceeds go to charity!  Enjoy and lets help bring joy to others!!

Blue Butterfly Anklet KatiesBeadsOfH... $7.50	With Love - Pillow Cove... OliveHandmade $26.00	For Charity - Rescue Do... MusicTeachah $12.00
ANGELS - Helping Orphan... cindythornton $20.00	Andrew's Print Phil... HarperJubilee $12.00	Women's V-neck Tige... ArasMenagerie $27.00
Original Pug painting ... SharonFosterAr... $20.00	STOP KONY 2012 - Charit... jessmurphy5 $5.00	Cute Adopted Rescue Cha... CutePetGear $16.00
Pink Valentine Love Hea... LatreiaDesigns $15.00	love you necklace - 100... saltcitydesign $17.00	Upcycled Block Art 100%... AbstractBedoui... $10.00
Pink quartz & leather d... LemonMaggie $40.00	HOPE, oil painting, 100... PaintingWell $28.00	Girl Hat with Flower - ... amberneecroche... $24.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio. 

Easy Wins: Low Entry Giveaways

The cool thing about blog giveaways is you can usually tell now many people are entered. The less entered, the better your chances to win. Here's some I found with low entries ending soon.

Ends March 10

 

SnapSac Tote (56 entries)

Printrunner Postcards (14 entries)

Printrunner Postcards (36 entries)

Ends March 11

Printrunner Postcards (4 entries)

Ends March 13

The Snow Child - Book (40 entries)

Ends March 14

The Woodcarver (34 entries)

Ends March 15

Martimus at Midnight Picture Book + Other Items (2 entries)

Woombie Swaddler (16 entries)

Ends March 16

Handmade Hat (6 entries)

If you have a giveaway with less than 60 entries per prize ending in the next 5 days, please click here to submit it.

Irish Blessings - For Charity

These beautiful gifts all earn money for charity. To find out how much is donated and to where, please click on the listing (in some cases this info is on the main site in stead of the listing, so try there next).

Celtic Embroidered Purs... ourspecialange... $15.00	SALE Handpainted Celtic... teresasart $14.95	Free Standing Lace Celt... ourspecialange... $7.00
St. Patrick's Day b... TiggysHouse $15.00	Black leather bracelet ... TiggysHouse $10.00	Celtic knot bracelet wi... TiggysHouse $15.00
Bee Sweet Honey Necklac... hm3o5 $20.00	Irish Cemetary Photogra... Vamperstein $20.00	CHARITY: Fantasy, in Tr... Free2BeCreativ... $28.00
Midnight Black Moss Sti... ResurrectionKn... $75.00	Leather kumihimo bracel... TiggysHouse $10.00	Sale - Fingerless Mitts... GlenEchoDesign... $18.00
Butter Yellow Argyle La... ResurrectionKn... $80.00	Still growing bracelet,... greygirldesign... $46.00	LARGE Cotton Washcloths... KitchenSinkSus... $14.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.