New Squidoo Giants Program

If you have the Giant Squid status on Squidoo, you probably received an e-mail announcing some major changes to the program. Existing Giants will actually have to re-apply to the program, and I assume our lenses will be checked as thoroughly as if we were applying for the first time.

The first change is the fact that there are now 5 levels of Giants. The lowest one requires just 25 "excellent" lenses and gives the most perks (greenlighting for the automatic filter, no daily lens limits, custom lens template - all the stuff we get now). The other levels are available at 50, 100, 250, and 500 lenses and provide smaller perks - mostly trophies, purple star submissions and bragging rights.

The second modification to the Squidoo Giants program is the ability to apply using the new application form whenever you think you're ready. No more waiting for 3 months for the next deadline.

You might want to note that the new form asks you for your best lens, as well as an "about me" lens you've written. If you don't have an "about me" lens (I don't) it might be a good idea to make one if you plan on applying - or reapplying - to be a Giant.

You will find more information about the Giants program on the updated Giant Squid Club lens and Squidoo HQ.

June 2011 Squidoo Payout

This month Squidoo payday came on the 10th, which is earlier than it has in a long while. I've received $453 to my PayPal, so slightly less than last month, but still a pretty nice amount. I "blame" Amazon which only made me 4% of this payout (or more precisely, I blame my inability to make awesome sales lenses).

Let's take a look at those Squidoo payment tiers for June 2011 payout now:

Ad pool

Tier 1: $25.31
Tier 2: $4.30
Tier 3: $0.22

Infolinks

Tier 1: $5.74
Tier 2: $0.98
Tier 3: $0.05

Chitika

Tier 1: $1.24
Tier 2: $0.21
Tier 3: $0.01

Squidoo has undergone lots of big changes in the past few weeks. Lens redesign, removal of SquidCasts, favorites and fanclubs, the addition of Google +1 button for Giants and all that stuff. I do like the direction things seem to be going, however - optimizing the site and making it more streamlined and faster.

Two other recent changes might also deserve your attention. First of all, SquidU is now moderated by lensmasters only, and although the staff might drop in from time to time, it's now a playground of Squidoo community only. Hopefully this will give the staff more time to work on important things instead of cleaning up Rolex, Nike, credit repair and other spam posts on the forums.

If you wish to make yourself heard by Squidoo staff without sending a bug report, you can post a comment on SquidooHQ.com (now with your Squidoo login as well), or perhaps even submit a question to the new Q&A Panel. This way your concerns will get more attention than they could have on SquidU before.

Another change that was just added is the option to enter your own Google Analytics ID in your profile. Doing this allows you to track stats across all your lenses, and see clickouts not only to external websites (which Squidoo provides already), but to lenses in the Discovery Tool, and tags as well. This lens by thefluffanutta provides all the information you need to set GA up for your lenses.