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Squidoo Lens VS Wordpress Website - CTR Difference?

by Maddmula
19 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hello,

I'm planning on ranking for some new highly competitive keywords for an affiliate offer and I wanted to get your opinion on ranking a Squidoo Lens VS a standard Wordpress website.

From my experience it's much easier to rank a lens then a normal Wordpress site, but what I'm concerned about is how much my CTR from a Squidoo lens to an affiliate offer will go down compared to my own website. I usually seem to get around 15-20% CTR on my affiliate links on Wordpress affiliate sites, but what kind of rates have you been seeing on your Squidoo lens's for affiliate products?

Thanks!
#ctr #difference #lens #squidoo #website #wordpress
  • Profile picture of the author matt78
    Squidoo is easier to rank based on my experience too. But there are lots of links and ads pointing out from Squidoo lens that could hurt your CTR.

    I would suggest you to try to rank both Squidoo and your website on Google, though. The more website/page you had on 1st page of Google..the better your traffic and CTR. Hopefully sales too.

    Hope that helps.
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    • Profile picture of the author Maddmula
      Originally Posted by matt78 View Post

      Squidoo is easier to rank based on my experience too. But there are lots of links and ads pointing out from Squidoo lens that could hurt your CTR.

      I would suggest you to try to rank both Squidoo and your website on Google, though. The more website/page you had on 1st page of Google..the better your traffic and CTR. Hopefully sales too.

      Hope that helps.
      That would be an ideal option, and yes the external links to other lenses and adsense ads are what I'm afraid will greatly lower my CTR to the sales page.

      What I'm more looking for, for anyone else has experience with ranking high traffic Squidoo lens's for affiliate products, is what is your typical CTR from a lens to a sales page?
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      • Profile picture of the author Spectresoft
        I just did a quick check for you based on my squid lenses.

        As a disclaimer, my wordpress sites are adsense sites and while I include amazon links here and there, the ctr is abysmal and not worth measuring so I can't offer a comparasion.

        For my lenses, a further disclaimer. This is all my lenses, and some are more for backlinks than anything so some get traffic but no click throughs.

        My CTR to amazon for all my lenses averages 28.95%
        However due to not really having lots of buyers keywords my actual conversion is only 3.41%

        Hope that helps. Good luck!

        Edit: I suppose I could say my average CTR for adsense sites is about 12%. And also worth mentioning that quite frankly my CTR to anything other than Amazon on the squidoo lenses is maybe 1-2%.
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        • Profile picture of the author Maddmula
          Originally Posted by Spectresoft View Post

          I just did a quick check for you based on my squid lenses.

          As a disclaimer, my wordpress sites are adsense sites and while I include amazon links here and there, the ctr is abysmal and not worth measuring so I can't offer a comparasion.

          For my lenses, a further disclaimer. This is all my lenses, and some are more for backlinks than anything so some get traffic but no click throughs.

          My CTR to amazon for all my lenses averages 28.95%
          However due to not really having lots of buyers keywords my actual conversion is only 3.41%

          Hope that helps. Good luck!

          Edit: I suppose I could say my average CTR for adsense sites is about 12%. And also worth mentioning that quite frankly my CTR to anything other than Amazon on the squidoo lenses is maybe 1-2%.
          Thanks for that information, but an Amazon CTR on a lens is a lot different then a normal affiliate link to a sales page. First of all because Squidoo makes commission thus allowing more affiliate links, and people trust Amazon a lot more then some random website.

          My prediction is around a 15% CTR to my sales page, but it would be great to hear if anyone else has a lens that promoted only an affiliate product and what it's CTR is.
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          • Profile picture of the author paulgl
            Originally Posted by Maddmula View Post

            Thanks for that information, but an Amazon CTR on a lens is a lot different then a normal affiliate link to a sales page. First of all because Squidoo makes commission thus allowing more affiliate links, and people trust Amazon a lot more then some random website.
            Actually, squidoo has limited the number of their own amazon links
            that can be added. And, they give you virtually all the commission
            on amazon sales.

            My bests squidoo lenses are using the max number of amazon links
            from squidoo, and they do quite well. Of course, I have no
            idea what the CTR is, but make make sales daily. CTR has
            always been a moot point for me. I care about the bottom line.

            My advice always is to use squidoo's amazon links, not your own.
            They have built-in optimization.

            Paul
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            If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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            • Profile picture of the author Maddmula
              Originally Posted by paulgl View Post

              Actually, squidoo has limited the number of their own amazon links
              that can be added. And, they give you virtually all the commission
              on amazon sales.

              My bests squidoo lenses are using the max number of amazon links
              from squidoo, and they do quite well. Of course, I have no
              idea what the CTR is, but make make sales daily. CTR has
              always been a moot point for me. I care about the bottom line.

              My advice always is to use squidoo's amazon links, not your own.
              They have built-in optimization.

              Paul

              Thanks for providing all of that. Truthfully I'm not a big Amazon affiliate fan, and am just looking to promote a normal non Amazon affiliate product.

              It looks like everybody seems to agree that they're great to promote with amazon, but I'm still looking to see the effectiveness on promoting a regular affiliate product outside of Amazon on a Squidoo lens.
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  • Profile picture of the author Maddmula
    If anyone has any other stats of their own they can share, that would be great.
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    • Profile picture of the author daisy172
      I would go with the Squidoo lens.

      Not only is the CTR higher, but it's easier to rank lenses in Google in the first place because you can leverage internal linking to take account of the built-in strength of the site.

      The best article I've seen explaining how to take advantage of the internal linking on squidoo is the following article (you need to scroll down a bit to get to the best bits):

      Making money with Squidoo
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      • Profile picture of the author teachingking
        Originally Posted by daisy172 View Post

        I would go with the Squidoo lens.

        Not only is the CTR higher, but it's easier to rank lenses in Google in the first place because you can leverage internal linking to take account of the built-in strength of the site.

        The best article I've seen explaining how to take advantage of the internal linking on squidoo is the following article (you need to scroll down a bit to get to the best bits):

        Making money with Squidoo
        Thanks for that. Is there any way to add more than one Site URL to your Squidoo profile?
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      • Profile picture of the author Maddmula
        Originally Posted by daisy172 View Post

        I would go with the Squidoo lens.

        Not only is the CTR higher, but it's easier to rank lenses in Google in the first place because you can leverage internal linking to take account of the built-in strength of the site.

        The best article I've seen explaining how to take advantage of the internal linking on squidoo is the following article (you need to scroll down a bit to get to the best bits):

        Making money with Squidoo
        Thank you for sharing that as it had some great tips at the end for internal linking. I also never though about the benefits of being in the top 100 or 5.
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  • Profile picture of the author Builder154
    I would use Squidoo a lot more if not for the fact that they seem to randomly make pages inactive. Has anyone else experienced this? I have lenses that I've made that have great content, several modules, etc. Yet for some reason they are not active. Even when I go in and change things, add things, etc. it's a crapshoot. Am I just doing something wrong or is this the nature of Squidoo?
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    • Profile picture of the author Maddmula
      Originally Posted by Builder154 View Post

      I would use Squidoo a lot more if not for the fact that they seem to randomly make pages inactive. Has anyone else experienced this? I have lenses that I've made that have great content, several modules, etc. Yet for some reason they are not active. Even when I go in and change things, add things, etc. it's a crapshoot. Am I just doing something wrong or is this the nature of Squidoo?
      I noticed that when building lens's for Web 2.0's they're very picky on some subjects even if it's not close to adult, gambling, ect. kind of sites.
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      • Profile picture of the author Builder154
        Originally Posted by Maddmula View Post

        I noticed that when building lens's for Web 2.0's they're very picky on some subjects even if it's not close to adult, gambling, ect. kind of sites.
        No it's not inactive due to being some illicit material in any way. These pages are straight as can be. No way it's due to being adult or gambling.

        It just seems that if you aren't getting enough hits or some random thing, they will say it's still a page in progress and not really done. I really don't understand it.
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  • Profile picture of the author lisakleinweber
    I generally have a 31% click out rate at squidoo.
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    • Profile picture of the author Maddmula
      Originally Posted by lisakleinweber View Post

      I generally have a 31% click out rate at squidoo.
      Are they clicking out on Amazon affiliate links, or your own affiliate product that you're promoting?
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      • Profile picture of the author Spectresoft
        Well to clear up a few things here...

        1.) I totally respect the posts made by Paulgl, however lets be honest...to say "they give you virtually all the commission on amazon sales." when they in fact give you 50% (which is 4.25% of sale price) is a bit misleading. Add to that anyone can get 6% (you just need 7 or whatever items shipped per month)! No offense but that doesn't make me want to use squidoos link unless I live in a state that won't allow me to be an amazon affiliate.

        2.) Now I am not an authority, and in fact would normally defer to Paulgl on pretty much any point, but from what I can find out Squidoo Amazon links don't count towards any on-page optimization... in fact I can cite sources that emphatically state that Google does not even crawl squidoos amazon links nor the "Related Lenses" portion of lenses. Who is right? I don't know, but I for sure do not use Squidoos amazon links and don't suffer for that.

        3.) Obviously it really depends on the niche and layout as far as CTR goes. Still, you could set up some decent contextual links, pictures etc just as if it were amazon in a lot of cases right? For those lenses I get an average of 17% CTR. So yes you are correct it is quite lower than the 28 or so I get for amazon.

        4.) @Builder154: If you get very little traffic, very little squidlikes etc, very little clickthroughs...and then your lens rank "drops" above 300000, ya they say your lens is a work in progress. And why shouldn't they? If you can't even get a few hits a day, then why do they want your lens active? To provide you a backlink? I have backlink lenses that have ZERO monetization on them but because I get a few longtail hits a day, never had a problem. You just need to make sure you can get some traffic (and even better a clickthrough here and there!)
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        • Profile picture of the author Builder154
          Originally Posted by Spectresoft View Post

          @Builder154: If you get very little traffic, very little squidlikes etc, very little clickthroughs...and then your lens rank "drops" above 300000, ya they say your lens is a work in progress. And why shouldn't they? If you can't even get a few hits a day, then why do they want your lens active? To provide you a backlink? I have backlink lenses that have ZERO monetization on them but because I get a few longtail hits a day, never had a problem. You just need to make sure you can get some traffic (and even better a clickthrough here and there!)
          Well this is a catch-22. If they don't let my page even be live, how am I supposed to drive traffic to it? I also don't see any other sites do that. Does Wordpress.com or Ezinearticles or Tumblr or any other site say you have to have a certain amount of traffic or we take down your page?

          And even if that is what Squidoo wants, how does changing my page to inactive with no notice help. Shouldn't they leave it up and tell me "Hi, you need to do X, Y and Z by this date or it will go inactive." If their goal is to motivate me to publicize the page more (which I don't think it necessarily is) then this doesn't seem a very sensible way to do it.
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        • Profile picture of the author Maddmula
          Originally Posted by Spectresoft View Post

          Well to clear up a few things here...

          1.) I totally respect the posts made by Paulgl, however lets be honest...to say "they give you virtually all the commission on amazon sales." when they in fact give you 50% (which is 4.25% of sale price) is a bit misleading. Add to that anyone can get 6% (you just need 7 or whatever items shipped per month)! No offense but that doesn't make me want to use squidoos link unless I live in a state that won't allow me to be an amazon affiliate.

          2.) Now I am not an authority, and in fact would normally defer to Paulgl on pretty much any point, but from what I can find out Squidoo Amazon links don't count towards any on-page optimization... in fact I can cite sources that emphatically state that Google does not even crawl squidoos amazon links nor the "Related Lenses" portion of lenses. Who is right? I don't know, but I for sure do not use Squidoos amazon links and don't suffer for that.

          3.) Obviously it really depends on the niche and layout as far as CTR goes. Still, you could set up some decent contextual links, pictures etc just as if it were amazon in a lot of cases right? For those lenses I get an average of 17% CTR. So yes you are correct it is quite lower than the 28 or so I get for amazon.

          4.) @Builder154: If you get very little traffic, very little squidlikes etc, very little clickthroughs...and then your lens rank "drops" above 300000, ya they say your lens is a work in progress. And why shouldn't they? If you can't even get a few hits a day, then why do they want your lens active? To provide you a backlink? I have backlink lenses that have ZERO monetization on them but because I get a few longtail hits a day, never had a problem. You just need to make sure you can get some traffic (and even better a clickthrough here and there!)
          Thanks for clearing some of that up. With 17% I'd be willing to promote a lens. I think I'm just going to do my own test run, and see what I can find.
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  • Profile picture of the author lsargent
    I market exclusively on Squidoo and advise others to try and utilize external affiliate networks and disuise the url with your own domain. "Generally speaking", in most cases you're not going to make a lens that pulls $100's to even $1,000's per month of AdPool and low payout Amazon commissions.

    I usually get somehwere around a 25% CTR on my affiliate links, sometimes higher. But you have to do a good job presenting those links. If the default link color on your lens theme is anything but blue, you should change the inline html styling of the link to make it blue. I also bold those links and send style them to show up as being underlined by default, even if someone idn't hovering over them.

    I will also break up a long body of text with a different colored bordered box, light a light gray or something, increase the font size, and include links there within a point I'm trying to drill in to a reader.

    Also, if you are going to use Amazon links, I'm not a huge fan of using Squidoo's modules/widgets, I typically will do my own text links for a couple of reasons. One, if Squidoo's Amazon link is a text link, oftne times it will have the product name or keyword in it I'm trying to rank for. So why would you want to point a link at Amazon withe anchor you're competing for. That's just going to push Amazon higher up the ladder in the serps.

    Also, I pay close attention to global search volumes, and check Google Insights to see where that traffic is coming from. Since i live in the US, and let's say half of the traffic is coming from the UK, I can't push that traffic through a US-based Amazon widget, and even my direct links aren't likely to generate commissions unless the buyer is willing to have a product shipped overseas.

    Amazon let's you setup Associate affiliate accounts in all 6 of their worl territories they operate in. So if you wan tto capitalize on more of the traffic you're getting, you should sign up with an Associate acct in a region the traffic is coming from.

    For instance, if a term is getting search for a lot in the UK or Canada, and I live in the US, you can sign up for Amazon associate accts with Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.ca, and then create geo-specific affiliate urls to drive that traffic back to an Amazon platform that is in their region, so they are having products sshipped to them within their own country.

    Also, someone had mentioned above that Squidoo has a lot of ad options that can distract readers and worsen your CTR. This is true, so if you're serious about making the big bucks with a lens, you should be disabling ALL ad/banner options you can with the exception of the required adsense stuff you have to leave on there.

    Most people never do this because they don't know how too monetize their lens properly. If you want to improve CTR and pull heavier profits from a single lens that can potentially top $1K/mo (which i have several), toss the puny adpool stuff to the side, disable ad options, and promote offers from external networks that have much higher payouts than Amazon or anything else. Sometimes Squidoo can be finicky about what sites they let you link out to, so I always link out to my own domain, or pages on my own "product name" related domain, and do a php redirect to the offer.

    Food for thought.
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