What are Squidoo Points?

Squidoo Points Monster

The Squidoo point system is a side activity within the Squidoo writing platform.  It’s mainly seen as a fun game for most, and a good motivation to get involved with and learn from other writers in the community. 

What Do You Mean “A Game”?

Let’s face it.  It’s fun to “level up”!  

You don’t have to be a writer to win points.  You can join Squidoo to read interesting articles.  Sign up, by pass the writing area, and read.  Readers can earn points too, and it’s fun for readers to tally up points too. 

But writers, while gaining points will unlock certain Squidoo privileges, it’s important to understand that they won’t help you earn money.  If earning money is your main concern, you’ll want to concentrate on writing and learning, not on the Squidoo point system.  You’ll still earn points, but you may not want to “chase” them.

The Squidoo points game tempts writers to visit more articles (or lenses) and participate on those pages, and this is a good thing.  You will learn much from visiting, and you’ll find authors you’ll love.  So, yes, I encourage you to put in some time and enjoy Squidoo points for the fun of it.

You can track the points you get by checking your activity log every time you sign in.  The activity log will tell you who’s come by your account,  what they’ve done such as comment or “like” your lens, and how many points you received from their actions.   Be kind—go back to each Lensmaster on the list and visit some of their work.  There is no rule of reciprocation, of course.  And don’t expect folks to do this.  But by engaging in this simple nicety certainly helps to make the world a friendlier place, don’t you think? 

How Do You Earn Points on Squidoo?

There are many ways to earn points on Squidoo and the ways are constantly changing.  But let me try and list a few of the ways for you:

You start a new lens.  You earn points every time you write a new article on Squidoo.

“Like” an article on Squidoo – but not your own!   You can “like” 20 articles every day.

Leave a comment on someone else’s article or lens.  Don’t just read others’ works, get involved!

Share through various methods of social media.  Share your work or another’s and Squidoo will give you points.

Put images in your own work.

Use an Amazon module on your lens.

Visit 5 articles in a row.  Since you receive extra points for visiting 5 works during a single sitting, you will want to try and meet this benchmark every time you set aside time to read other lensmaster’s articles.

Visit 10 articles in a row.

You get points for each Quiz question you answer.  Don’t worry—you don’t have to get the question right to get points!  This isn’t school.  You get points for every question you answer, so just jump in and have fun.

You get points for each Poll question you answer—not as many points as you get for answering Quiz questions, but you do get points.  Some Poll questions will let you comment, and remember, you often get points for commenting!

You get points for voicing your opinion on another’s lens.

Squidoo issues Quests – participate and you’ll get points.

Meet Squidoo benchmarks and get points.   Keep “liking” and “commenting” and your efforts will be rewarded.  They’re just 2 of the activities that offer additional points when benchmarks are met.

If your article gets featured on the front page, you’ll get points.

Sign on to the site every day for a month (for the first month after you sign up) and get points.

Write another article on Squidoo – each and every one earns you more points.

How to Tell if You’re Earning Points

If you’re aiming for points, it’s important to see that you’re fully engaged on Squidoo.  Each time you earn points, a Squidoo “monster” will pop up on the top right of your screen and show you the points you’re accumulating. 

If you’re not seeing the “monster”, you might want to reload the page. 

Quizzes often offer a lot of valuable points, so if you’ve answered a few quiz questions and the monster doesn’t pop up, reload. 

(Side note:  Quizzes often take longer to load, so give them plenty of time!)

What Do Points Get You?

As you gain more points, more Squidoo themes are made available to you for future lenses.

You’ll have a few additional modules or widgets made available to you.

At certain points you’ll get to choose a one-time lens rank boost or even an ad run for one of your articles.

As you rank up, you may choose to be more active in the Squidoo community and help mentor and reward others.

You gain understanding about the Squidoo writing platform.

  

What Points Do Not Do on Squidoo

The amount of points you gather has no bearing on the lens rank of your article, thus the number of points you have has no bearing on your earnings.

 

 Final Note on Squidoo Points

Each and every person comes to Squidoo with their own reason for becoming part of the community.  Some folks are fabulous artists or writers, some have something to sell.  Some folks are working to see their name online for the first time, some folks join Squidoo purely for their own entertainment. 

It is important to realize that you can’t tell anything about a Squidoo community member by the number of points that they’ve accumulated. 

Squidoo points are a game; a game with a purpose.  The Squidoo points program promotes lots of activity between members on the site, plenty of clicks to other pages around the site, and helps earn the firm the advertising revenue which it needs to exist. 

Whether you’re contributing articles with wonderful content, or zipping around the site simply gaining as many points as you can, your activities make you a valuable asset to Squidoo, and by extension, to the members of the Squidoo community at large. 

So, go online and have fun!

 

Care to Try Squidoo Yourself Now?

You don't have to be a professional writer to join Squidoo.  Just write about what you know.  Tell us about what makes your pet special, write a tribute to your grandparents, or just what's cool about your hometown.  

Then get in there and read others' work, and you'll be surprised how often they'll return and read yours.  

Click on the link below and start writing - and tell them Sanne sent you!

 

  

You Too Can Write on Squidoo - It's Free to Join! 

Learn Something New

Squidoo offers something for everyone.  You don't have to write to enjoy the Squidoo site.  

Jump in there and learn about people, places, activities, projects, cultures, world recipes, how-to-do's, and many other things all at  one website.


Whether you want to read or write, you're sure to spend a wonderful time at Squidoo learning something new.

Enjoy!

@SanneCollins

How to Market Your First Article on Squidoo – Go Out and Meet the Squidoo Community

You’ve written your first Squidoo article and published a lens.   

It's now time to introduce yourself to the community, and to make your work known! 

Meet the Neighbors

It can be lonely out there in the Internet world.  So let’s go find some friends.  The best way to do this is to read Squidoo articles produced by other Squidoo writers and get to know our new community.

How Do You Find Folks You’ll Like 

But how do you find friends?  Come along, I'll show you.

Let’s say you wrote an article called Cocker Spaniels are My Favorite Dogs.  Go to the search bar, search for other Squidoo lenses that are about dogs, and read them.

As you read other people’s work, participate in polls and quizzes.  Leave nice comments where you can.  Go to the very bottom of the page and “like” the article or “lens”. 

When you do these things, Squidoo lets the writer know you’ve come by and participated in their article.  They get points when you participate.  You get points when you participate.  It’s a win/win opportunity for everyone concerned.

Many writers will begin their day reviewing their logs to see who came by to read their work, and many will return the favor and come by to read your articles.   

You can’t ask others to do this, but many, many writers will be kind enough to help a stranger by reading, commenting on, participating while reading, and liking the articles they come across.

These are the people you cultivate because they’re kind and helpful and generous folks.   Mimic their behavior and you too will be readily received as a good soul.

Read the Work of People who are Actively Engaged on the Site

Always choose to read the work of people who are currently active on Squidoo. 

When you’ve finished reading and have “liked” the article, go back up to the comment section.  Has anyone commented this week?  Click on that lensmaster’s name and visit their work.  Pick an article and get involved in their work. 

You can like up to 20 articles each day*.  This is a new restriction just put into effect.  

While you can read more than 20 articles, try and find 20 articles by different writers to “like”.   If each of these writers comes to your page and reads your single article, that would be wonderful, wouldn’t it?

One last mention on choosing articles to “like”.   

Since you’re limited in the number of lenses you can “like”, try to choose articles that do not have large numbers of “likes” already.   

By this I mean, if the writer is a long time member of Squidoo and has large numbers of likes, they don’t always participate in reviewing others' works.  They don’t need to.  They already have plenty of traffic.   

If you only can "like" 20 articles, you have to make each one count.  So use your "like" on writers who participate with others.  Make each "like" count.

One way to see if the writer participates on others’ pages is to go to their profile.  Have writers left messages thanking the author for coming by their articles?  If so, you know the writer is active.

Don’t waste your time on inactive writers.  While they’re work may be interesting, you need to get eyes to your work, so stay focused and choose from community members who are currently interacting right now, this week.

That’s not to say you can’t learn from reading other Squidoo writers that are less active.  You can, and you should.  But keep your “likes” to those you hope will return the gesture and come to your page and read your work as well.

*Note:  Before this Squidoo change, I would have never told you to withhold "likes".  I would have told you to "like" everything you enjoy.  Why not?  Share the bounty and tell the writer you enjoyed the lens.  But now that Squidoo is rationing "likes", you will need to ration them yourself and use them to your best advantage.  Law of the jungle, I'm afraid!

Profile Pages

Profile Pages are a great way to find writers to read.  Check the comment section on the Profile Page.  Visit recent commenters for additional reading.  You can easily see who’s busy in the community from visiting others Profile Pages.

Be Nice

There are over 3 million writers on Squidoo, representing countries from all over the world.   This offers writers the opportunity to enjoy interesting friendships and learn new things.  So develop these friendships. 

Be nice!  Keep your words warm and uplifting.  Share common interests. 

Don’t point out mistakes or problems publicly in the comment section of an article. If you see something that needs the author’s attention, send the writer a private email.  They’ll appreciate your help when handled this way.

 Keep a Lensmaster Journal

One of the most valuable things you can do for yourself is to keep a journal of the lensmasters you visit.  It doesn’t have to be lengthy, but you’ll at least need their Squidoo pen name and date.

By keeping a journal, you can remember to follow those writers you’d like to emulate and which writers are wonderful about participating on your lenses. 

And when you write your second, third and fourth articles, you’ll know who to go back and visit and who might just come back and read your work too.

Sounds Like a Lot of Work!

Don’t let the amount of work scare you.  It’ll be fun.  Put aside some time a little time each day and you’ll get a lot done. 

Go Forward and Meet other Writers on Squidoo

Now go forth and read!   

You’ll learn a good deal, earn points for yourself, and have a lot of fun!