Burnout bulbs

1998 Chevy Camaro, mileage 60,000
I had a cracked turn signal lens on the front passenger side, and replaced it with a fresh one (which was a job, pulling off the nose and everything just to get to it). I put it all back together, and the bulb burned out a week or two later. Since then, I keep replacing the bulb and it burns out after two weeks or so. Someone told me there is a ground wire that I must have forgotten to reconnect. Is this true? What else could cause this? The new turn signal lens brought a whole new housing for the bulb with it - is it something in this that makes it burn out? Also, the bulb is usually smashed when I pull it out. This is really annoying, and I don't want to pay big bucks for a garage to start checking wires and stuff for weak spots.