Next lens overhaul project: Philly BYOB Guide

Note to self: Next time I begin a lens overhaul project, I'm going to take a before screencap so I can really show the changes I've made to (hopefully) improve the lens.

The last two days I've been working on re-doing my lens on BYOB Dining in Philadelphia. This was another one of my early lenses, kind of revamping some info I'd put in a previous article at Associated Content. Knowing Squidoo like I do now, there's not really much chance this is ever going to be a blockbuster lens - Tier 1 or even likely Tier 2. However, if I could get it to stay in Tier 3 I'd be happy, honestly, as that's still a little $$'s in the pocket at the end of the year. But it's been floundering in the 100,000s and 200,000s since I created it in March, so time to do something about it.

Besides revamping the intro text, I added a more thorough link-list of BYOB restaurants in Philadelphia, broken down by cuisine. Sometimes it's hard to find timely information on that subject, as I've found in Google searching a lot of other indexes were out of date with closed restaurants, or made it difficult to find the website URL for the restaurant.

I checked my traffic stats to see what search phrases were leading to the lens and tweaked some module titles - also added a bullet list to address the top questions that seem to come up about Philly BYOBs. I added a Twitter search module on Philadelphia BYOBs, so people could see which places are currently being talked about. I added a new sales module on current wine guides, especially small pocket-books that people could take with them while shopping for wine. I also worked on the sidebar, adding my related lenses and two Philly-area food blog rss feeds (including my own). I realized I only had 5 tags on the lens as well - oops! A couple more photos added and it's done. Well, for now. I know I have more BYOBs to add to the list, and I want to spruce up the photos once I get the chance to find or take some more related to the subject.

Maximize eBay modules for better sales...or so I hope.

Well, after enduring a dental appointment to get my first crown today (ugh), about all I felt like doing when I got home was working on some lenses. I don't know why it was so draining but it actually was more painful/uncomfortable than when I got the root canal on this tooth. I like this dentist but he only gave me one small shot for the pain this time...I think when I have to get one other tooth done up for a crown in January I'm going to say I need more numbing. Plus all the yucky taste of the glue and crap in my mouth...ugh! Not fun! And tedious too, spending about 2 hours in the chair either clenching my teeth shut or having to keep them open while waiting for this or that step.

Anyway. So I got home and decided to do a little more lens work. I'm really keen on maximizing the potential of eBay modules at the moment. I kind of ignored them in the past or just threw them on without a whole lot of thought of how to really utilize their potential. Then I read a really great lens this morning on Ebay commissions and how to maximize them and I learned a lot. Especially about trying to get those sales quickly instead of "whenever", so I went thru some lenses to see where I could switch from "list auctions ending any time" to those ending either within 6 hours or the next day. Not every search term has that many auctions running right now, but for instance, my Fontanini Nativity lens does as there are lots of listings for their nativity figurines right now. So I souped up that lens with more ebay modules and switching what I could to soon-ending auctions. We'll see if it makes a difference.

I'm on a mission next to see where I can add relevant eBay modules to other lenses or how to better tune the ones I have for maximum performance. Yesterday I apparently had three eBay sales from my da Vinci gift lens - for Italian perfumes of all things, each about $50-60. I'm not complaining, though I think it may just have been Dr. D buying them as I know he's just an addict for that stuff and probably surfed over to ebay after browsing the lens at work :-P I'll have to ask him tonight when he gets home...