I am working on an idea to put a new spin on an existing brick-and-mortar business that involves putting up an authority blog/site. I began some research and found no one out there offering quite what I have in mind. I began organizing my thoughts, writing website copy and collecting ideas for blog posts.

I really thought I was coming up with some great, original, copy and ideas and have not yet put anything online. I guess my thinking was that I need things more developed and ready to go before I go public with it.

In the meantime, I am also putting up Squidoo lenses that have nothing to do with this idea.

Here is where the WEIRD part comes in –

Yesterday I got an email from Squidoo saying that I had a comment on one of my lenses which is great but when I visited the lens to reply to the comment I was shocked to see and ad at the top of MY lens that was offering something that is scary-close to my new idea.

Things get even stranger. Turns out this guy not only lives in my town but he is also only a few blocks away from the business I am working on my idea with.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not afraid of completion and I see this as a great opportunity to analyze his site on what keywords he is ranking for. What I don’t understand is just how this wound up on my lens.

Was it just by chance? I don’t know enough about how Squidoo pairs ads with lenses to answer that.

This raises some questions maybe someone here can answer – “How do you balance keeping a new idea protected while still being able to share information to get feedback and valuable suggestions either here in the WA community or just with family and friends”?

and

“Does anyone know how Squidoo decides just what ads to place on which lenses”?