_________________________

Introduction . . .  . . .

Introduction

Squidoo… it is an unusual name for a new and unusual service. If you are reading this

guide, then by now you have at least a passing interest, and some knowledge, of Web

2.0. If not, you will learn all you need to know about Web 2.0 and Squidoo in this short

and easy-to-read guide.

Web 2.0

Before you learn about Squidoo, you need to understand what Web 2.0 is and how it

impacts applications like Squidoo. Web 2.0 is nothing more than a “coined” term used

by many to explain increasing popularity in user controlled sites.

These are websites that promote community building,

collaboration and knowledge sharing among users.

Unlike traditional websites, where information is passed from the webmaster to the

visitor, Web 2.0 sites are more user friendly, encouraging the public or community

members to provide the content or primary information for the site. This type of site is

established to help promote the creation of knowledge rich communities on the Web.

Some common terms associated with Web 2.0 include, “wikis,” “podcasts,” “social

bookmarking,” and “RSS feeds,” to name a few. These sites offer greater functional

ability and control on the end-user end, through a platform that allows users to log in

and share, edit and control much of the information displayed on the sites.

Many, including Tim O’Reilly, a featured reporter, note this new approach to the Web

allows for the use of the Web as a platform, one that supports participation and the

assembly of systems within sites.

Features common to many of these sites include:

 Using the network as a platform, where users can access applications through

their Internet browser.

 Use of user-controlled data, where all end-users have the ability to control, edit

and delete data on the site.

 “Architecture of participation,” referring to the ability of users to add to

applications so there is greater participation among community members

involved with the site. This contrasts sharply with most traditional web platforms,

which utilize an “access-control” type infrastructure.

 Interactive, social-networking capabilities, allowing greater functionality and a

friendlier user interface.

This guidebook will focus primarily on Squidoo. This website, first launched in 2005, is a

network platform that allows individual users to create single web pages on topics they

are passionate about, interested in or have much knowledge about.

In the next section, we will spend some time learning more about Squidoo, and how it is

similar to and different from other Web 2.0 sites.

Squidoo.com

The best way to embrace a new technology is to explore it carefully. Your first

assignment then, is to visit Squidoo.com to find out more about what this site is all

about.

If you visit the home page of the site, you are greeted with the following:

By the sites own admission, Squidoo is, “The World’s Most Popular Site” for people

interested in building pages reflecting their passions, interests, books, videos or any

other material for that matter.

People can use the site to promote their organization, their charity, their favorite book, a

book they wrote, promote a cause or more. Sounds pretty neat, huh?

Users call their pages, “Lenses,” which are single page sites on a topic a user is

passionate about. Some of the reasons individuals may want to build a page as a lens

are:

 To increase knowledge about a given subject. Users that are passionate

about a subject can set up a lens page and send targeted traffic to content sites

or information sites with information on that topic.

 To get to know other people interested in the same subject. One of the

primary reasons for the advent of Web 2.0 is users increasing interest in forming

online communities rather than sites controlled by single webmasters.

 To increase one’s web presence, and to gain credibility as a master of a

certain subject or information. Each day it becomes increasingly difficult to

promote one’s website on the Web. More and more savvy professionals are

turning to new forums and platforms to boost traffic and gain credibility in their

subject matter.

 To help boost traffic to their home pages, as each web page a user builds

can point to the users other web pages or blogs. Most of the web pages built

on Squidoo.com are easily picked up by Google search engines and other

popular engines, so Squidoo.com provides an excellent platform for building

targeted traffic.

 Users can use their “lens” page to earn royalty, for their company or for

charity. Squidoo.com offers a built-in system allowing compensation payment

made directly to owners of lens pages or to charities designated by owners.

 There is no cost to set up a page with Squidoo.com, one of the reason’s this

new technology is so popular. Anything that is “free” on the Web is likely to earn

significant interest quickly and steadily.

Setting up a Lens Page

Setting up a page on Squidoo.com is easy. The site provides an automated wizard that

novice users can use to create a simple web page. For more advanced users, the site

allows you to create your own page using nothing more than a simple framework or

template. Most people are able to set up an information page in about five to ten

minutes.

You don’t have to create all the content for your page at once either. Squidoo.com

makes it easy for you to save your information or basic site, then add more information

as you learn more about your subject or have time to expand your web page.

The entire goal of the site was to create a simple and easy-to-use platform for everyday

Internet users. Despite its ease of use, Squidoo.com provides some brilliant technology

that is powerful for many web-based applications.

More Reasons To Use Squidoo.com

Here are a few extra reasons you may find using Squidoo.com

beneficial:

1. If you have a Web site built, you can use your

Squidoo.com “Lens” page to attract more visitors and

increase your PageRank in Google. Many people find

increasing their PageRank one of the most challenging aspects

of the business. Squidoo.com helps many people overcome

this barrier. As Squidoo.com becomes more popular, so too

will your site.

2. You can use Squidoo.com to highlight your favorite

blog posts, commenting on them and providing more

information about services or other information you offer on

your blog.

3. You can use your Squidoo.com page to help promote or

earn money for your favorite charity or other nonprofit

group.

4. Squidoo.com allows users to post details about their

upcoming podcasts and point links to transcripts of

podcasts the user has available online.

5. For those people that are avid “fans” of people, places,

or things, Squidoo.com provides an ideal platform for

sharing personal insights on the object of your affections.

6. Authors can use Squidoo.com to promote their books,

providing links to all of their works on Amazon.com.

7. Entrepreneurs can make a few extra bucks by affiliate

income when they invest in Squidoo.com.

8. It’s fun, it’s easy and it is a great way to get your feet

“wet” when trying a new technology on the Web.

9. You can easily research other people’s passions and

interests to get an idea of what is “hot” on the Web.

10. Squidoo.com allows users to share many different ideas

often on the same subject, so you have the opportunity to

get an unbiased view by collecting, gathering and sorting the

information provided from other users.

As a Squidoo.com user, you have the ability to monitor and control all the content that

goes on your Web page. This is perhaps one of the biggest benefits of Squidoo.com.

While many people have used personal blogs to promote their material, passions and

interests, they find using Squidoo.com beneficial because it is such a well-known

platform. Squidoo.com instantly draws more traffic to popular and unpopular websites,

so you have a better chance of getting your “voice” heard, seen and visited on the Web.

What We Learned

Squidoo.com is an excellent platform for Web users interested in promoting their

passions and interests on the Web. Now that you know a little bit more about what

Squidoo.com is, it’s time to learn more about “how” the site works, and how you go

about creating dynamic lens pages.

The “How To” Squidoo

Now that you are busting with excitement, it is time to learn “how” Squidoo.com works.

If you are a novice web user, you will find this section especially helpful. Even

experienced webmasters are finding Squidoo has a lot more to offer than they initially

realized.

Not Just Another Content Based Site

There are many Web 2.0 sites encouraging users to place their full content on the site

and share it with others. To understand how Squidoo.com works, you first must

understand it is different from most traditional sites.

Squidoo.com allows users to create lenses, web pages with the intent of pointing users

to information on the Web. What this means is users create portfolios that contain

information or links to tools, links, feedback or other information on the Web. Users can

earn money while doing so, all while sharing information about a topic with others so

people can spend less time searching for the information they need on the Web.

Here are some examples of lens content available on Squidoo.com:

 Lists containing tips for increasing traffic to your site.

 Module tricks, or information about creating modules on the Web.

 Ebook lenses.

Consider Squidoo a shortcut to getting your website or other information on the

Web noticed quickly by search engine crawlers. It is also another tool providing an

excellent platform for increasing your credibility and professionalism on the Web.

Here is how simple it is to start a lens on Squidoo:

1. Register for an account. It’s free, anyone can do it.

2. Follow the step-by-step instructions for creating your lens page.

3. Add relevant content to your page to increase your visits and your page ranking.

When building your lens, you DO want to provide visitors with relevant content and

information about the subject you are promoting. While Squidoo is an excellent tool for

self-promotion, if you just log in and create an “advertisement” lens with no relevant

content or information to share with visitors, your page is not likely to attract many visits.

This contrasts a bit with what we stated earlier. We said Squidoo is not a “content”

oriented site. Understand that it is not a “just” a content-based site in the sense that you

will not create pages and pages of information about a topic you are passionate about.

What you will do is provide basic and interesting information, and links to relevant and

helpful content for users.

What We Learned

You can and should provide relevant and original material on your lens page, content

users will eagerly seek out. You can provide content in many ways. For example, some

users feed their blog posts into their lens page using an RSS feed. This provides

frequent and updated content to your lens page without much effort.

You can also post articles to your lens on a rotating basis. Many times, savvy users will

post the introduction to articles on their lens page, then link to the full article located

somewhere else, like on their website or on their blog.

Key to understanding Squidoo’s utility is the fact that Squidoo prides itself on being an

Internet community. It is a gathering place where visitors travel to so they can build

relationships using their lenses.

Making Money From Squidoo

Critical to most users is their ability to make money using Squidoo.com. You can do this

many ways. Here are a few common ways users make money-using Squidoo:

● You can use Squidoo.com to gain backlinks to your website.

● You can increase your search engine rankings and send more traffic and

hence gain more customers using Squidoo.

● You can use Squidoo.com to build a list you can send promotions to.

● You can promote your affiliate programs using Squidoo.com.

● You can promote your own products and services using Squidoo.

● You can use AdSense and other programs to make money through a simple

lens page at Squidoo.

So how do you DO this? It’s easy.

Squidoo Marketing

Key to making money and using Squidoo.com to promote your sites is simply setting it

up properly. 70,000+ users currently use Squidoo, and this number grows every day.

The simple act of creating a powerful lens on Squidoo can increase your page rank so

that your site is ranked in the top 100 on Google and other major search engines.

Squidoo is easy to use because you can use content and advertisements you already

have to create a simple and effective lens. Now remember, your lens is nothing more

than an informational webpage. Most lens pages provide expertise on the subject they

promote.

You can use lens pages to promote, create top lists of your favorite items or sites if you

affiliate market and more. You can review other sites on your lens page and drive traffic

to them.

When you create pages on Squidoo you become an official “lensmaster” instead of a

“webmaster.” Many people view lensmasters as credible experts in their field. While

some other promotional sites ding people for trying to promote their products or affiliate

products on their pages, Squidoo does just the opposite; in fact, it encourages users to

promote quality products, including their own (or those they affiliate market).

Of course, you cannot simply set up a lens on any topic and hope for the best page

rankings. As with anything you will need to do some research to make sure you are

using popular keywords and marketing in a niche category that is of interest to people.

There are many reasons people do not get sales; their product may not be very popular

for example, or their advertising may be poor. They may not have enough traffic to

promote enough sales.

So, before setting up a lens page to promote your products, make sure you have a hot

niche, one that people are interested in finding more information about, and one people

may have an interest in paying for. (Meaning, they will pay for content provided in this

niche area).

Some of the best niches to promote include:

● Internet marketing, including anything involving niche marketing, building lists

or selling information products on the Web.

● Electronics, including information on MP3 players or other popular music and

audio electronic products.

● Diet and fitness, as people are constantly searching for information about losing

weight and maintaining a healthy diet.

● Baby or parenting, as many women and moms-to-be actively comprise some of

the largest communities on the Web.

If you want ideas about topics that are popular, simply take some time to view the top

100 lenses on Squidoo to find out what people are looking for. After you do this, and

select which of your products or websites are most likely to do well, you have to make

sure you have great keywords to use on your lens page, keywords that will draw people

to your site and link them to your other websites and affiliate sites.

Create Your Lens

Now, when you are confident you have a great niche market to promote, its time you

used Squidoo to create a money pulling lens page. Most people can set up a good lens

page in just 10 minutes or less. Setting up a lens is easy, we’ve already covered many

of the basic steps.

Here is a recap of the key steps required for building a great lens page:

1. First, register and sign up for your membership.

2. Next, use the site wizard to create a lens page.

3. When taken to this page, select the do your own thing option. This option

allows you to put in any information you want using a pre-configured lens layout,

making your job easy.

4. You will need to select a title for your page. Make sure your title is keyword rich.

5. Select the URL you want your Squidoo.com page to point to; this URL

should also contain some of your keywords if possible.

6. Next, you can create keyword rich tags for your lens page that will help visitors

find your lens page faster. You can add additional tags later, for now just put in

your top three or four.

7. You will then be taken to a page that asks you how you want to get paid. This

page sets up your account to pay you for any income you receive from clicks

through Adsense, eBay, Amazon or other commissions you may make if you

incorporate these commission based programs into your lens page. Keep in

mind you can also use any income coming in from these programs to donate to

Squidoo or a charity you select. You can also split the money so you earn half

the cash and donate the rest.

8. Reconfirm your content, your contact information and your email and

screen name. Then you are finished! Simply complete your registration.

Now that you have the basics laid out for your webpage, it is time to design your

personal lens.

Design Tips for Maximizing Visits

The way you layout your lens page will ultimately influence how well your lens pages

rank and how many visitors you send to the sites you promote. When you log into your

lens page, you can edit your lens layout in any way you like.

Some important information to include in your lens include your biography. People like

to learn about the person selling information to them or providing them with “expert”

advice, so don’t skimp on your bio.

Many times, users simply put a backlink into the bio section that links back to their Blog

bio or other personal page, like an “about us” page on a website. Add a picture if you

can, because this simple tactic also creates greater legitimacy in the minds of those

viewing your lens page.

If you aren’t sure what to put, take some time to look at other people’s Squidoo pages

to get an idea of what information and the types of pictures they put in their pages.

Once you create your bio, you will have the choice of making your bio your “default” bio.

Unless you want all your lens pages to share the same bio, you should not check this

box. You may want a different bio especially if you plan to promote blogs or affiliate

pages marketing different types of products. You want to highlight your skills and

expertise in each unique area.

Tip 1

Want to be seen as an expert but lack the “credentials” to do so?

Most people build their credentials by learning as much as they can on a

subject and writing frequently and often on it.

One way you can promote your knowledge is by labeling yourself as a

“critic” or “fan.” As a critic, you can spend time reviewing subjects and

providing subjective opinion on them. You can link your opinions to factual

data, supporting your knowledge of a subject.

You can also limit your liability by proclaiming your status as an “devotee”

rather than an expert.

When creating your bio, be sure to include a brief quip, “For more information, click

here to check out my pages,” which is an easy way to direct people to your home site

or affiliate pages.

One thing you do not want to do is Spam the site. To avoid an accusation of Spam,

most Squidoo.com experts recommend you limit the accounts you have on a subject to

10, and offer more than one product for each account.

The more products you offer, the more you look like an expert, and the less you look

like a self-promoting bully out to promote just one product or site. Remember, most

“experts” are also linked with multiple sites and products, so you want to offer a good

portfolio of information so people perceive you have a wide knowledge base in several

different areas.

Tip 2

One way to lose credibility fast is to promote too many things

through your Squidoo.com lens pages. Think about it. If you are the

“expert” or “devotee” of a certain product or service, then you should

promote one or a handful of products in that field. You are likely to lose

credibility if you claim you are an expert in many different topics, like real

estate, Internet marketing and book promotions for example.

So limit your core areas to one or two subjects. This will help you gain the

credibility you need to excel on Squidoo.

Tags and Traffic

For every item you add to Squidoo.com you can create 20 tags for your lens. A tag is

for all intents, a meta tag. Tags are similar to site descriptions, so you want to create

tags that or “labels” for your lens that are filled with keyword rich terms or phrases to

promote your site and improve your page rank.

You should always use research to identify the best keywords to use as tags for your

lens. For example, use the keyword selector tool at Overture.com to identify popular

keywords or keyword phrases you can use as tags for your site.

Content and Copy

Just like the content on your sales page is important for the success of your Website,

so too is the copy you write for your lens page. Your introduction and the body of your

lens page should include strong and compelling copy that will encourage visitors to click

through the links you have on your page.

The introduction or first paragraph of your page will be most important, because this is

the first part of your page that will attract the visitor’s attention. If you do not have a

dynamic headline and do not provide interesting and compelling information, visitors will

skip on to another page.

Here are some tips for creating great copy for your intro paragraphs and page:

 Keep your information short and concise.

 Provided targeted and helpful information.

 Explain clearly what benefits you plan to provide your visitors.

Some people find the easiest way to keep people interested in simply writing a review

of the site or products they promote as their introductory paragraph. If you have a

succinct and enticing description, you will attract more click-throughs.

If you can, also include an image of your product so people are more likely to clickthrough

and get more information about what it is you offer.

18

Focus on your credibility and the benefits

your product or service provides to others…

Remember, people do not want to see blatant sales copy, even though your copy must

be strong. They want to read between the lines, and confirm you are an expert in the

subject you talk about.

What About Modules?

Squidoo.com also uses modules to promote lens pages. Modules are nothing more

than information boxes with content in them you add to your lens page. Typically you

include modules after your introduction.

There are many customized modules you can add, including those offered by Amazon

and eBay, promoting products listed on these pages. You can use one of these

customized modules to promote your book or other products on Amazon or eBay for

example.

Remember, your lens and your modules should be a subtle advertisement, not a

walking classified ad. You want to keep the copy on your page relevant and valuable.

Provide information your visitors may not find elsewhere, to entice them to click through

to your sites and products.

Most people recommend you use between three to five modules containing relevant

and hard-to-find information on your lens page. This will help improve your ranking and

entice people to click through the links you put on your lens page.

Now, keep in mind you will not earn a lot of money from your modules alone.

19

If for example, you select Adsense, Amazon and eBay modules as your primary source

of income from Squidoo, you will probably make $100 extra dollars a month or around

there. Where you make your real money is by increasing traffic to your WebPages and

selling people on the products and services you offer or affiliate market there.

You can also use pre-made “write” modules on Squidoo.com that will allow you to link

to your opt-in lists, a terrific way to help boost the amount of people you have signing up

for your lists.

Another way to use a “write” module is to provide an intro to an articles page you may

have on ezinearticles.com or another popular article-hosting directory. Once someone

clicks through to your article, they will find your resource box to your webpage at the

bottom of your article.

Promoting Your Lens Pages

Once you have your lens pages set up you’ll want to promote them using external links

as well. One of the easiest ways to achieve this is by using Digg.com. This is a good

site for promoting lens pages and ordinary web pages.

Key here is promoting quality content. Digg.com is a site that is very anti-Spam, so if

your lens page isn’t providing any useful content, or appears to be too self-promoting,

Digg is likely to delete your information and account.

As long as you provide meaningful content related to your subject matter, you won’t

have to worry about this. To list your lens pages on dig, all you have to do is:

● Log onto your lens page. It will have an address like this:

http://www.squidoo.com/yourpagenamehere

● Next, you will see a button to the right side of your personal lens page that offers

you the choice of “digging” your page. Click the “digg” button.

20

● Make sure your tags have keywords related to your topic. If your topic is

information marketing, you can have tags like, “information marketing beginner

guide” or other hot keyword phrases.

● You will see a prompt where you can add a couple of sentences summarizing

the content of your lens. Make sure your sentences are concise and keyword

rich. To avoid Digg from labeling your material as Spam, make sure you do not

submit too many lenses with the same subject or keyword tags to Digg. Try just a

couple to start. You can also avoid trouble by adding your lenses to Digg on

different days, so they do not show up at once, increasing suspicion that you

may be spamming the site.

● Make sure you promote many lenses using different strategies, so if Digg

does delete one or two, you still have other lenses you can promote through your

Digg account.

Other Promotional Strategies

Naturally, there are a dozen other ways you can get your lens pages listed well to

increase your traffic to them, and subsequently to your sites.

One way to do this is to have your lens pages pinged. Simply go to the following

web address:

http://www.pingoat.com/

This site will let you ping your lens site, and distribute your site to multiple ping servers.

This allows web crawlers to pick up your lens site much faster than they would

otherwise.

21

When you log into this site, just enter your site name and the URL of your site. It’s that

easy. You can then check off the boxes you want your site pinged to. Some examples

include many popular social networking sites, including sites like technorati.com and

my.yahoo.com.

By using Pingoat you can submit your lens site to multiple directories with the click of a

single button. Just as with Digg, you will not want to Ping all of your lens sites the same

day. Make sure you space everything out so you aren’t flagged as a spammer.

You can also ping your sites manually, by visiting various social networking sites

including del.icio.us.

What We Learned

There are many ways to use Squidoo.com to promote your sites, products and

services. You can establish yourself as an expert in your industry by following a few

simple steps.

Most people will find it takes between five and fifteen minutes to set up their first lens

page. Go ahead, follow the tips in this section and find out just how helpful a lens page

can be for you. Now that you know what to do, let’s take some time to review some of

the more commonly asked questions about Squidoo.com.

How to Get your Lenses Ranked

in the Search Engines

So we’ve been told and told some more about the miracles of a Squidoo lens. Now

comes the little glitch. Your Squidoo lens is not the only one out there. It’s the marketing

tool these days so you can’t expect others to sit still, right? They’re all there, creating

lens after lens after lens, trying to drive more traffic to their website.

22

However, there are several ways to make your lens rise above the clutter. Heard that

line before? OK, let me tell you more so that you believe me.

The secret code to high ranking lenses…

…does not exist. Secret codes make for good stories but this is business. If you want

your lens to rank high, you have to think and work smart. It’s not very difficult but

requires you to be agile. Let’s begin with a few simple tips.

Choose the right keywords

If you have a lens on music, come up with as many keywords as you can. Make a list of

all the words that a visitor may use to find information pertaining to music. Once you

think you have enough, start eliminating the unnecessary ones. If you get stuck in the

process, look for a popular keyword research tools and dig out popular keywords.

Remember, going for the most popular keywords is not always the solution.

Different but not obscure

So, popular keywords don’t always work. When you go for a very common keyword, say

‘music’, your lens will be relegated right to the bottom of a pile, with only a few hundred

thousand entries lying above you. A better option would be to go for something more

specific like ‘Chicago Underground’.

The-title-is-the-key

Whatever your keyword, it should be in your lens title. Next, add it to your URL. The

search engines will love you for that. Before you rush, think about it. Once you’ve

named your URL, you won’t be able to edit it.

23

Don’t just sit there

Creating a lens is just one part. Once you’re done with that, move around and join a few

groups. When I say join, I don’t mean “barge in”. Much as you hate it, you won’t be

welcome everywhere you go. Every group has its own rules and regulations and before

joining, read through them. If you walk into a teens group with a Clark Gable lens, you

may be shooed away.

Do also make your rounds of SquidU. Participate in the various forum discussions and

interact with people. Having your lens in your signature line could leave a trail for the

visitors.

Lensroll

Bloggers may be aware of a blogroll. A lensroll is similar. You can use it to link your

lenses with each other. This means more links and a better chance of ranking high. Do

not forget to click on the ‘del.icio.us’ and ‘digg this’ links on your page. This will also

contribute to better traffic and search engine rankings.

Spot them coming

Squidoo offers you a tool to find out where your visitors come from. Use it to your

advantage. If most of your customers follow a particular keyword or method, you can

use that to optimize your lens and discard the ones which are ineffective.

How to Get Your Lenses Ranked in a Group on Squidoo

That was about wooing the search engines. Now let me tell you how to make your

presence felt in the various Squidoo groups.

24

Make sense

I know that sounds lame but it’s important. Make your lens informative and interesting.

The most difficult part is to ensure that a user’s first visit does not end up being the last.

The brighter side is that if your lens impresses the visitor, you earn yourself a

spokesperson. Your visitor may refer your lens to another visitor and so on. Make your

content easy-to-read, highlight important content and make your page lively.

Spread the word

That’s easy. You’re on Squidoo, you have a lens and now all you need to do is start

talking about it. Email your friends and let them know about your lens, promote it on the

forum, other lenses and blogs. By promoting, I mean leaving your lens link in your

signature or leaving a polite invite with your comment.

Get out of Squidoo

Starting a blog or a webpage outside of Squidoo could be a great way to boost traffic to

your lens. If you fancy yourself as a blogger, try and link it up with your lens and

encourage your blog visitors to check out your lens as well. You don’t always have to be

the one who blogs about your lens. Get your friends to blog about it, get reciprocal links

and use your lensroll to get as many links for your lens as possible.

Get into the group

Squidoo isn’t exactly an upscale social hangout, but being spotted at the right place

helps. Join as many groups as you can and leave an impression. Here is a little tip –

join as many top 100 groups as possible. Look at the others when you’re done with the

top 100.

25

About angels and masters

Lastly, you can always do with a little divine intervention. If you can’t have it, choose for

the second-best alternative. Enter Squid Angels. Invite SquidAngels to drop by your

lens and take a look. A word of caution though - invite them only when you are

completely confident of your content. While a SquidAngel’s blessings can work wonders

for your ratings, if you fail to impress them, you may fall from grace in their eyes.

Another way is to approach other lensmasters. Not everyone will be kind to you but

what’s the harm in trying? Approach them with good content and request them to

exchange lens rankings. They need you just as much as you need them so hope for the

best.

Lens Frequently Asked Questions

Since the primary focus of Squidoo.com is creating lens pages to promote your

products and services, lets learn more about creating exceptional web pages. In this

section you will review some of the more common questions consumers have about

lens pages.

Q. How many lens pages do I need to effectively promote my sites?

A. Most savvy Squidoo.com users recommend trying to build 25-50 lenses. You can do

this in just a couple of weeks. Having enough lenses is important for increasing your

traffic. Remember, you will not make much money using Squidoo.com alone as your

primary source of income. Each lens page may generate up to $100 in revenue through

Adsense and related advertisements. What you want to do is increase the traffic

clicking through to your links to your affiliate and product sites. This is where you will

make money, provided the copy on your site is good and the product is worthwhile and

of value to visitors.

26

Q. I created a lens page that ranked well but then disappeared from Google. What

happened?

A. Many times lens pages fall out of rank with Google. This may be because you had

backlinks in your lens pages to places like Digg only, and Digg deleted your lens for

some reason. Other times, you may find someone with competitive products took over

your rankings. To fix this, you can log back into Digg and create your lens again using

different tags and information. You can also promote your lens site to OnlyWire.com, a

site like Digg providing multiple backlinks to your product pages.

Also make sure you have backlinks to other services including Craigslist, which will help

maintain your page ranks.

Take some time to provide fresh content or material especially in the introduction

paragraph of your lens page. This will help improve your rankings. You can also try

adding an RSS feed to your lens, which will automatically provide fresh content to your

lens page on a time frame you designate. Last but not least, do not forget to take time

to ping your lens page with multiple sites.

You can also review your keywords consistently and update them as needed to make

sure your lens pages and web pages are SEO. This is one of the simpler ways to

ensure your sites stay at the top of Google’s page ranks.

Q. How can I use Craigslist to promote my lens page?

A. Craigslist is a wonderful tool for promoting lens pages and web pages. Simply visit

Craigslist.com and post your lens page ad in the small biz ads section under products

or services. Just make sure you create an ad that isn’t too over-the-top. As with any

directory, if your ad sounds to self-promoting, you may be tagged as a spammer.

27

Any links you provide in Craigslist should direct people to your Squidoo.com lens page,

where they can find more information and links to your products and services. You will

have to repeat this process many times, as Craigslist advertises for only a week at a

time.

Q. How can I promote my lens pages using on line communities?

A. There are many on line groups, like Yahoo groups, that allow you to post links in

your signature when you respond to forum posts. Join as many groups as you can that

share information about content relevant to your lens page. If you know a group wants

information about products or services you provide, make a point to join the group.

Rather than direct them to your main site, link to your Squidoo.com page. This will give

visitors the opportunity to learn more about you and view you as the “expert” in your

field, so they are more likely to click through and buy from you. Just make sure you take

some time to become an active member of the communities you join before you start

advertising, or people are less likely to see you as a trustworthy member of the group.

The simplest way to do this is as always, by providing helpful information and

answering others questions and posts as often as you can.

Conclusions

Squidoo.com is an excellent resource for any web entrepreneur or marketer interested

in promoting their products and services. Remember, it only takes a few minutes to set

up your lens page on Squidoo. Most people find they do best when they have between

25-50 lens pages.

Here is a quick recap of ways you can make your lens pages stand out from the crowd.

● Make sure you provide relevant, factual and helpful material.

28

● Do not simply self-promote; provide visitors with useful information. Link to

quality articles that contain a resource link to your main web pages.

● Be sure you use keywords in your lens title and when creating tags for your

site, so visitors can more easily find your lens pages.

● Add fresh content as often as you can, by changing your intro paragraphs or

through RSS feeds.

● Promote your lens sites on Digg, Technorati, by Pinging your site and by

proving your trustworthiness to your prospects by presenting the image you

are an expert in your field.

Remember, your copy should be short, informative and helpful. It should tell your

visitors what benefits you have for them, and why they should click through your links. If

you follow these simple steps, you can join the ranks of the thousands of savvy

entrepreneurs using Squidoo.com and other Web 2.0 sites to market their products and

services.

Special Thanks to Jim DeSantis for his information giveaway which contributed to the quality of this information.

© 2010 – Parallax Marketing Group, ltd. All Rights Reserved.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Special Thanks to Jim DeSantis for his 'give-away' in providing this content.