Now I have the huge task of responding to all those comments. I’m not complaining, as the visits, angel blessings, LIKES, and voting in the polls propelled the lens right up to a rank of 10 on the following day. The sad part is the lens is less than a month old, so it could be ranked number 1 on Squidoo and it still won’t receive tier one payout for January.

Now if the ranking stays between 1 and 2000 for February, then LOTD will pay off around $50. That would be lovely.

Getting all the comments on that special day is a gift. There were questions and suggestions and tips. These will end up in a module soon on the page so they won’t be buried in the guestbook. Lots to do, so I’d better get to work on it.

Alas, it was not to be. Many product lenses zoom to the top during the Christmas shopping frenzy and squeeze other lenses into the lower ranks. Traffic dropped quickly once my lens was no longer featured. It ended up at 31,000 for the month of December which puts it solidly in tier three. Maybe it will earn $5 for December and again in January if it can remain in tier three.

Well, that certainly is an improvement over the $1.86 it earned for the first 14 months of its existence. The chart below shows the date/rank/number of visits.

One of the questions on the page was What Were You Doing When Pearl Harbor Was Attacked? As expected, many people said that was before they were born. My aunt visited the page and did answer the Pearl Harbor question. She was seven years old at the time. The event frightened her and fearing that the “Japs” might come to Kansas, she took her cat and hid under the bed.

The other questions on the page drew out people’s memories of 9/11 and of the day JFK was killed. There are a variety of other momentous occasions, but I did get one complaint that these should not be called “great events” as most of them were horrifying moments or else great disasters. I see the point the reader was making, but probably won’t change the title at this point. Doing so could mess up any backlinks that might be sending traffic to the page.

For those who like statistics, the page had 525 visitors and received 16 angel blessings on the day it was featured. This shows the lensrank before being Lens of the Day (101,292) and visitors (4). As the surge of visits boosted the lensrank and the angel blessings took effect, the lensrank improved to 550. I’d be thrilled if the average lensrank would stay in tier one for the month of December, but I’m doubtful that it will.

The results have been awesome. These writers already know how to research topics, use keywords and put together a great article. Now with Squidoo’s tools, they’re turning out first-class web pages on all sorts of topics.

The latest Lens of the Day showcasing a former eHow writer’s work is by Wordstock, better known to her eHow pals as Ann Hinds. Here’s the link to the page:

A 10-yr-old Christmas List

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The Civil War and My Great-Great Grandfather
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Officers of Company G – 93rd Indiana Infantry
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Abraham Tower After the Civil War
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The American Civil War 365 Days- 150 years ago the United States erupted in a civil war. There is much to learn about that time and this is just the book for anyone fascinated by Civil War…

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Andersonville Time Line – This time line covers the last six months of 1864 for Andersonville. The events listed on the time line are gleaned from diaries kept by prisoners. My reaso…

Interpreting Civil War Diaries – If you’re puzzled by handwriting, obsolete phrases and other issue while reading a Civil War diary, here are some solutions…