Squidoo Revenue – How Much Can You Earn from a Squidoo Lens Each Month?

How much can you make from a Squidoo lens each month? That seems to be the main question that is asked of me lately. Many ask if it is realistic to expect to make a certain amount each month or if it is possible to make x amount of dollars from one lens, etc, etc. I think you get the drift.

Today, I sat down with all my squid stats and really took a long look at how much each lens was making me.

When it comes to revenue earned from a Squidoo lens, we could be talking about affiliate revenue from your own personal affiliate links, or traffic you drive to another site from which you make money, and other ways you can profit from the use of Squidoo.

Today, in this post, I want to focus entirely on direct income that is actually paid to me by Squidoo.

To date, I have been paid by Squidoo three times. In a few days, I will receive my 4th payment for Squidoo earnings for the month of July.

(Just a quick reminder: Squidoo pays within 45 days after a month closes out. For example; earnings from May are paid out the first part of July, June earnings are paid in August, and now this payment in September will be for July earnings)

JUNE SQUIDOO PAYMENT

In June, I was paid for Squidoo co-op revenue I earned in April. I had a whopping grand total of four lenses in April. Honestly, not a single one of those lenses were any good, either 😉

Each lens earned me .20 in shared adsense revenue.

June Squidoo Payment – April Earnings – 4 Lenses = .80

Each lens averaged a monthly “worth” to me of twenty cents each.

JULY SQUIDOO PAYMENT

The Squidoo payment in July was for May earnings. Now in May I really kicked it in gear. I read Squidoo Blueprint and finally learned how to create lenses. By the end of May I had a total of 34 lenses on my dashboard – four from the previous month and created 30 more (yup, thats like creating a lens a day!)

Squidoo has a three-tiered payment structure for calculating how much each individual lens makes each month. In a nutshell, the top 33.3% of lenses according to lensrank will make the top payout, the middle 33.3% by lensrank will make the mid-tiered payout amount, and the bottom 33.3% will make the bottom tier payout.

For May Squidoo payouts, the payout amounts per tier were:

1st tier: $3.80
2nd tier: $0.65
3rd tier: $0.05

I had 4 lenses make the top-tier payout (mainly the ones that were created early in May), 19 lenses that received the mid-tier payout, and the rest got the lowest payout (mainly ones that were created the last week of May). I also had a few small amazon co-op sales from the Amazon module that Squidoo gives lensmasters to use.

July Squidoo Payment – May Earnings – 34 lenses = $39.47

Each lens now had a monthly “worth” to me of $1.16.

AUGUST SQUIDOO PAYMENT

The Squidoo payment in August was from my June earnings. In June, I created 20 more lenses bringing my total lens count to 54. However, this same month Squidoo also implemented the “Work in Progress” lens classification. Lenses had to meet certain criteria in order to earn Squidoo shared revenue (and to also be available thru Squidoo search). Basically, if a lens on your dashboard has a green check next to it, you get paid for it. No green check? No pay.

The tiered-payout for this month on Squidoo was as follows:

1st Tier: $5.99
2nd Tier: $1.03
3rd Tier: $0.06

As you can see, the payouts went up dramatically which shows that Squidoo was doing well. I had 5 lenses make the top payout, 27 lenses earn the mid payout, 19 lenses make the bottom payout, and 2 lenses got paid na-da for being “WIP” lenses (not completed). I also made a few bucks from Squidoo Amazon shared profits for sales made on my lenses.

August Squidoo Payment – Earnings from June – 54 Lenses = $61.64

If I knew then what I know now, I would ALWAYS make sure my lenses ranked in the top 60%. A rough guess-timate would be above an over-all lensrank of 45,000 to get at least the 2nd tier payout. If I had done that, I could have earned an easy extra $19. Oh well, live and learn, right? Instead of the $1.14 each lens was “worth” to me that month, they would each be worth close to $2.00 each – just from Squidoo shared revenue. Remember, I am not taking any other income earned from my lenses into account here. These amounts are ONLY what SQUIDOO pays me.

So now here we all are – anxiously awaiting our September Squidoo payouts for July earnings. In July, I only created 8 more lenses. I also still have 2 lenses on my dashboard that are “Work In Progress” lenses (no green checks). This means I will be paid for 60 lenses (62 less 2 WIP lenses).

This payout will also show to what extent this so-called “Squidoo Slap” actually had on the entire Squidoo site. From personal experience, I can say this “slap” didn’t really effect my lenses too badly. Yes, I saw a drop in traffic on some lenses, and on other lenses I never would have noticed anything different.

However, these Squidoo payments we receive each month are based on how the entire Squidoo site did – not just MY lenses. So, we’ll see how that goes. Even if the payment tiers are down some, I have no doubt that earnings for August (to be paid in October) will be back on track.

How Do I Compare to Other Lensmasters?

The next thing I did after calculating my own stats was to take a look around and see what others were earning. I gathered this info from the SquidU forum, a few various blogs, and from a poll that is being done on this lens. Granted, I could only gather info from those that have actually posted anything – and we all know people can say just about anything…so take this as I did – a great resource for a basic idea, but not cold-hard facts.

In the Big Squid scope of things, I seem to be doing better than most, but not as well as some.

I would guess I am maybe in the top third of all lensmasters. Thats a guess.

There are some lensmasters who make three digits a month from Squidoo. Not many – but they are out there. These lensmasters are not only getting paid for Adsense shares per lens, but also they have MANY Amazon and other shared affiliate modules ( and they also have many lenses)

My personal opinion about Squidoo/Amazon modules – and take this for the two cents it might be worth –

I use my own personal Amazon affiliate id on my lenses.

Why? Simple. I would rather have 4% of a sale than half of that commission after sharing it with Squidoo. Actually, it would be less than half, so about 45% of that 4% commission would be more accurate. Amazon only pays 4% for the basic earnings off affiliate sales…so, let’s just say, “Nothing personal, Squidoo, I love ya! BUT…this is a business decision.”

That said, there are many lensmaster who only monetize their lenses with Squidoo co-op links…. and they do quite well.

I had an email thru the “contact me” link on one of my lenses the other day from someone who was wondering if it was realistic to count on each lens being “worth” $200 a month.

My official answer-

From straight Squidoo/Adsense shared revenue? Heck NO. Wait, let me re-phrase that … Helllllllll NO! (that was said in my southern “twang”…lol)

BUT, can you make it so that each lens is worth $200 a month to YOU and brings in that much to YOU each month? Sure. Why not?

I have lenses that are worth more than that each month to me. I also have lenses that are worth exactly 6 cents a month to me.

Ok, so now we all want to know how to do this, right? Right.

First off, learn to make GOOD Squidoo lenses. You cannot just throw random content or banners on a lens and expect hundreds upon hundreds of dollars to flood your accounts.

Squidoo calls these free web pages a “lens” for a reason. A lens on a camera will focus in on a subject. So should these free web pages. Further, each lens should not just give info, it should also point readers to MORE info. Your lens should tell quality information and then send readers on their way to what the reader is looking for. All of this is started with proper keyword research and by learning how to put it all together into an effective lens. Quality wins this game. Squidoo is FAR from a Get Rich Quick scheme or concept, sorry. However, Squidoo IS a free way to get online presence for whatever you want to share with the world.

Focus, Tell, Send

Think of a layover at an airport. You get off the first plane and go straight to the info you need to find where you want to go next. You find what you need, then go on your way. Sometimes, you are sent to a flight on the same airline…sometimes you are sent to a different airline. Get my drift?

Where you send your readers to find the info they are looking for can be to another one of your own sites, or totally off somewhere else on the internet. This is totally up to you – and this is where your monetization of a Squidoo lens REALLY happens.

I hope this LONG post has helped someone get an idea of how much you can earn from Squidoo. I know it has really helped me.

I now know that if I get back on my create-a-lens-a-day track, I can have a nice additional income stream from Squidoo. A free web site that will pay ME to use it. All I have to do is continue to follow my own advice in my Squidoo Profit System over and over. I can just about create lenses in my sleep now! =)

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