Squidoo Payday Questions & Answers
Squidoo Payday FAQ
It never fails, every month on payday the same questions are being asked in the SquidU forum. Most of them by new lensmasters, but surprisingly, there's also quite a bit of confusion among some who have been around for a while.
Figuring out how the payout works was one of the first things I wanted to learn as a new lensmaster. I asked a lot of questions in the forum, and I asked some to Squidoo HQ directly. I've been around for a while now, and I'm just about certain I have it straight. ;)
I always help answer questions in SquidU, and thought it was time I wrote out everything here in one place. Hopefully you find it helpful.
What is the minimum payout?
Can I change the default?
$1.00 is the minimum amount required to receive a PayPal deposit from Squidoo.
You can select the amount you want to reach before you get paid. Start by going to your dashboard. Select the My Profile tab. Scroll down to your Payment Settings. One of the options there is Cash Payout Threshold:. Click on the Change link next to it. You will be able to choose from $1, $5, $10, $15, $20, or $50.
I always suggest setting your threshold to $1.00. You only see your individual lens pay stats when you reach your threshold and get your PayPal deposit. If you want to wait for a higher sum you can leave it in your PayPal account before transferring it to your bank account.
If you do not reach your Cash Payout Threshold your earnings are held in your "Reserve Hopper" until the next month, or as many months as it takes to reach it.
*** Update: Starting with the July 2014 payout, HQ is changing the cash payout threshold to $25. ***
When will I see my first payout?
How long until I start earning money with Squidoo?
If you have sold an item through your lens right away your first payday will be 2 months after you published your first lens. Squidoo's payout schedule has a two month delay. Money you earn in January, for example, will be paid out to you in March.
If you haven't made any sales yet through a money maker module, your first payday will come the following month (3 months after publish).
After their first month lenses start to earn a portion of Squidoo's AdSense revenue, so even if sales are few and far between you will typically see a payout every month after that.
One reason you wouldn't is if the lens is a WIP lens, a Work In Progress. If your lens has a
symbol on your dashboard it's WIP.
What day of the month do we get paid?
When is pay day?
According to Squidoo, expect it on the 15th of the month, and if it comes before that it's early. They really just say that incase they run into a snag. Payday is usually well before the 15th. Update: It's now usually very close to the 15th.
2014 payout dates:
January 14th
February 14th
March 15th
April 14th
May 16th
June 13th
2013 payout dates:
January 15th
February 14th
March 11th
April 12th
May 14th
June 13th
July 11th
August 8th
September 11th
October 8th
November 11th
December 13th
2012 payout dates:
January 12th
February 13th
March 14th
April 14th
May 10th
June 12th
July 13th
August 9th
September 8th
October 12th
November 15th
December 11th
2011 payout dates:
January 11th
February 15th
March 15th
April 14th
May 13th
June 10th
July 14th
August 11th
September 15th
October 13th
November 15th
December 14th
2010 payout dates:
January 12th
February 10th
March 9th
April 13th
May 6th
June 10th
July 14th
August 13th
September 13th
October 13th
November 16th
December 15th
2009 payout dates:
January 9th
February 10th
March 11th
April 7th
May 14th
June 10th
July 10th
August 13th
September 15th
October 8th
November 5th
December 15th
2008 payout dates:
January 8th
February 7th
March 8th
April 8th
May 7th
June 4th
July 10th
August 7th
September 8th
October 6th
November 10th
December 11th
2007 payout dates:
May 9th
June 8th
July 6th
August 6th
September 7th
October 10th
November 7th
December 12th
How is AdSense paid out to lensmasters?
What are the payout tiers?
AdSense and Glam Ad revenue is not paid out based on clicks from your lens. The amount generated by all of Squidoo's lenses is added together and divvied up based on a Tier system.
There are usually 3 Tiers, I've seen a 4th reported on rare occasions. The "best" (read: worth the most $) is to have a lens in the first tier. The average lensrank, per lens, per month, is used in determining which Tier your lens falls in for payday.
Note:
The lenrsanks posted below are rough guidelines. Lens averages might be off by mere decimals from one another. After your lensranks are averaged they are then reordered based on the calculated ave. of all other lenses.
Tier 1 is for lenses with an overall lensrank of 1 up to 2,000.
Tier 2 is for lenses with an overall LR of 2,001 up to and including 10,000.
Tier 3 is for lenses with a LR of 10,001 up to 85,000.
Each month the amount each Tier receives varies depending on sitewide traffic and Ad click-throughs.
As an example, on the December 2008 payday:
Tier One got 25% of the ad pool
Tier Two got 17% of the ad pool
Tier Three got 8% of the ad pool
These are all of the previous tier payouts since this system was implemented:
2007 Ad Pool
July 6, 2007
$3.80
$0.65
$0.05
August 6, 2007
$5.99
$1.03
$0.06
September 7, 2007
$4.12
$0.73
$0.04
October 10, 2007
$3.32
$0.56
$0.03
November 7, 2007
$4.67
$0.79
$0.06
December 12, 2007
$6.05
$1.03
$0.05
2008 Ad Pool
January 8, 2008
$6.23
$1.06
$0.05
February 7, 2008
$6.91
$1.18
$0.08
March 8, 2008
$8.77
$1.49
$0.08
April 8, 2008
$8.94
$1.53
$0.08
May 7, 2008
$8.32
$1.42
$0.07
June 4, 2008
$7.53
$1.28
$0.07
July 10, 2008
$8.09
$1.38
$0.07
August 7, 2008
$7.78
$1.32
$0.07
September 8, 2008
$11.27
$1.76
$0.08
October 6, 2008
$10.97
$1.85
$0.08
November 10, 2008
$11.75
$1.96
$0.08
December 11, 2008
$12.00
$1.94
$0.08
2009 Ad Pool
January 9, 2009
$11.63
$1.82
$0.08
February 10, 2009
$11.56
$1.82
$0.08
March 11, 2009
$11.43
$1.81
$0.08
April 7, 2009
$11.44
$1.85
$0.08
May 14, 2009
$13.06
$2.10
$0.09
June 10, 2009
$10.15
$1.51
$0.07
July 10, 2009
$10.36
$1.64
$0.08
August 13, 2009
$11.13
$1.79
$0.08
September 15, 2009
$10.22
$1.67
$0.08
October 8, 2009
$10.61
$2.09
$0.08
November 5, 2009
$13.03
$2.12
$0.10
December 15, 2009
$13.20
$2.13
$0.10
2010 Ad Pool
January 12, 2010
$14.63