Do you Squidoo?

Squidoo.com

If you are an on-line marketer you have most likely heard the buzz about Squidoo Lenses in the past year or so. Squidoo lenses are a relatively new Web 2.0 platform for people to share their expertise in different fields.

A page created in Squidoo is known as a 'lens' in Squidoospeak. The concept of the lens in to 'focus' in on your niche target audience. When you create a lens, or several lenses you become a lensmaster.

Lensmasters are encouraged to produced multiple lenses to maximize profits and exposure. Creating the average lense take appx. 10 minutes. So creating 100 lenses in a few months time is really a piece of cake.

The more lenses you have the more exposure and traffic you get, not to mention the more cash you earn.

There is no reason why should not have a lens for every affiliate link, business venture, marketing ideas, or any topic of interest that you may have.


Squidoo Lenses Are:

• Very easy to build - Similar to a Single Page Blog
  
• A platform for you to speak out to a receptive audience about anything!
  
• A place where you can build a following and recommend your favorite stuff.
  
• A place to find out more info on the web.
  
• A place to earn revenues both for you and for charity groups.
  
• A way to create an instant "Word of Mouth' buzz
  
• If you need to get the word out a Squidoo lens is something you should have whether you are, selling something, sharing info, changing minds, or if you just love to express yourself, create, and play.

There are currently over 180,000 Squidoo lenses.

The Squidoo.com website founded by Seth Godin, launched October 2005. It is currently ranked at 508 with the Alexa ranking system. Squidoo has had an average growth of 40% monthly since the spring of 2007. It is a new up and comer and is also giving a lot of exposure to the average internet marketer.

Seth Godin

Seth Godin created the site on his belief that "Everyone is an Expert in Something".

Has been known as a highly communicative participant in the on-line marketing world. Will take the time to send letters of praise to on-line marketers he feels are "are on the right track".

He currently has 9 well known e-books published. I highly recommend each and every one of them. Seth knows his stuff.

You can visit Seth's blog and download his e-books at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

SEO that never seems to fail.

Not only does Squidoo bring you targeted quality traffic and exposure but Squidoo lenses are get ranked! I am sure you have noticed by now that when you search specific items on the internet that there is at least one Squidoo page listed on the first page if not the top position.

If you would like to try this out. Type in the following search term into the Google search box above..."SaleSpider". Sales Spider is an on-line business social group I belong to. I have created a Squidoo page to get the word out (and also I get $1 per member I sign up). You will see my Squidoo lens currently at position number #5 on the first page. Want to try it again? Type in "the Tubeinator". Look at that! Position #1. Again? "Making a perfect cup of coffee" Again...First Page. Well I think you get my point.


When you create a Squidoo lens, it's like having a team of SEO experts working for you for free. The html code that ranks your page is automatically created. You don't have to worry about Meta tags, Key Words, Key Word Density. All you have to do is fill in the blanks, Squidoo's emedded SEO system takes care of the rest. Pretty cool.

So how do you create a Squidoo lens?

It's just so easy. The best way to learn is to just jump right it!

Go to this address Squidoo.com. This will take you to the home page. You just follow through each page step by step. In 10 minutes you can have your first lens.

My suggestion is to pick appx. 10 niche topics and create a squidoo lens for each one. When you find out which ones are getting rankings and traffic narrow them down. In the end pick your favorite of the most popular and start creating as many pages as you can to do with this topic. If you can create a few pages everyday...less than one hour per day...you can create a nice income just from using Squidoo alone.

Income?

Yes! Not only does Squidoo offer you traffic and ranking to your URLs, build up your reputation but it is an excellent source of income!

When you create and publish your first Squidoo lens you enter the Squidoo co-op. The co-op shares 50% of Squidoo total revenue from Adsense and other sources.

You will notice when you create your lens you are given 'modules' to promote other products from Amazon, Cafe Press, Netflix, and more. Everytime someone clicks on these links and purchases through your lens you earn more revenue!

Want more income? If you have an e-bay store they offer a module to automatically place your current e-bay auctions.

Want more income? Find related products from Affiliate programs and include banners, pictures, and links to your affiliate ads. Personally I use shareasale.com and commision junction to find my affiliate products.

The Secret is in the list.

As professional on-line marketers we hear this "Secret is in the List" over and over again. We know we need an opt-in list. Many of us have everything to set to go, the autoresponder and even the opt-in pages but the list building goes very slowly for most of us.

You will be amazed at how easily and quickly you can establish yourself as an expert in your field using Squidoo. Simply divide up your knowledge of what you already understand into as many categories (or lenses) as you possibly can.

Offer informed, fresh, relevant, interesting and concise information and in return you will see how fast your reputation and ranking will increase (your goal is to make a top 100 lens and ultimately a lens of the day).

To build a list either place a link to your opt-in page or offer your opt-in code right on your lenses. You now have a receptive audience that respects and trusts you at your fingertips. They are there waiting eager to here what you have to say and ready for your recommendations.


Also be sure to fill in your Bio Section. A Bio Section is looked at by most members that read your lens so be sure to take some time in putting this info together. Without sounding pompous be sure to put information together in a way that will help you to establish yourself as an expert in your field therefore gaining trust and reputation with your readers. If you establish that you have something to say then people will listen on the other hand if you leave this field blank you are basically saying you are 'nobody' worth listening to.

Upon Completion of your first lens:

Most likely you will look back on the 10 - 20 minutes it took for you to put together your initial creation and think "How easy was that?" That is the charm of the Squidoo lens. The ease and speed of creation. You will soon be on your way to creating another and then another until you have completely exhausted your niche. The results? Well that is the most addicting part! Traffic to your existing business, recognition in your field, a following, a list, and multiple new streams of income.

Some lenses will catch hold in time, others will be like traffic magnets. The only way to find out is to test and try and try again. Like digging for oil. Some wells are dry while others give moderate results, in the end all it takes is to find the well that spews forth in abundance. If the first well you create does not live up to your expectations keep drilling it is just a matter of time.

Insiders Secret! Strategies to make the most of your Squidoo Lens:

Once you have created a few different lenses go through them all (I personally set up a bookmarks folder containing each of my lenses so I can open them up across my Firefox browser in tabs). Choose which lens you feel the best about.

The goal now is to get your lens ranked. The higher your ranking the more you will be establishing your credibility in your particular field and the more you will be turned to as a reliable resource, thus establishing reputation and trust. If you get the gist of squidoo page ranking you may even break into the coveted top 100.

Using he Web 2.0 Modules in the most strategic and effective ways help you achieve ranking. The Web 2.0 modules are the ones that enable you to interact with your visitors. On a regular website these particular modules can be difficult to set up and employ but with Squidoo it is a piece of cake!

As lensemaster you can utilize Squidoo modules to provide links, feeds, abstracts and lists to users that have come to your lens as a resource. Incorporating different modules a single lens can point to photos on Flickr, Google maps, blogs, ebay auctions, YouTube Videos and other links without one iota of technical know how like everything else it is just a matter of filling in the blanks.

The more interactive your lense the better your results, with SEO, with lens ranking, with your list building efforts, and overall sales and traffic.

How Does the Squidoo Ranking System Work?

Squidoo Ranking System

The ranking system determines how useful and reliable your information is to other Squidoo members. If your rank is in the first couple thousand you will be seen as a better resource than someone that has a lens rank of #37405.

The top 100 ranked lenses are there for a reason. The Squidoo lensemaster in the top 100 have earned their position through credibility. The top 100 is an elite sub group of Squidoo and they have a special showcase on the Squidoo website.

The special showcase will give you an immediate boost in traffic basically putting your Squidoo lenses in high gear for earning potential.

Featured Lens aka "Lens of the Day"

Everyday Squidoo chooses a "Lens of the Day". To get chosen for the lens of the day choose your favorite lens be sure it is not blatant advertising and submit it to the review team.

If you lens is chosen you we be featured and your lens will be mailed out to all Squidoo members. You will get some pretty amazing traffic and exposure if you manage to submit a winning lens.

My suggestion is to go through previous winners. Make notes on what you like about their lens. Examine how they use their modules and display their content.

Everyone is an expert

Everyone is an expert at something. Lensemasters create single page blogs they call lenses. The concept being that if 100 lenses are created on the same subject the cream will naturally rise to the top using squidoos ranking system. This optimally being the freshest, most useful, most popular lenses. On the other hand the junk lenses will set at the bottom.

Resources:
Encyclopedia of Free Online Advertising, (PDF)
Bob the Teacher - How Do You Squidoo (PDF)
Wikipedia
Seth Godin - Everyone is an expert (PDF)
Squidoo.com
SquidooSecrets.com


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