Squidoo is a new social site with a twist. The benefit of creating a Squidoo lens is monetary in nature as they share the advertising revenue with you based on the traffic that your page and site generates. This is an added bonus to anyone who knows how to get some real traffic to their Squidoo Lens.
Before you can begin to build your Squidoo lens you will have to have an account with Squidoo. You can easily sign up for a free membership with a username and password associated with an email account. You are allowed to have 10 lens/pages per email account. You will receive a confirmation email and once confirmed your account will be activated and you will be able to create your own lens.
Before you start creating your own lens it would be a good idea to do some research on the topic that you would like to create. There are many different niches out there that you can target but not all niches are created equal. Some have much higher values for Pay Per Click and some have better values for affiliate programs or digital products. You will have to identify the niche that you would like to create your lens prior to its creation. This will help optimize the process as well as give you the maximum results.
Now that you have signed up for Squidoo you will want to log-in and go to make a lens. You will want to optimize it to your niche. You will have to find some of the top keyword search terms that are searched for by using a keyword tool. Use those terms in your lens title for example if you have chosen dog training as your niche you will want to include the phrase dog-training as the name of your lens.
Once you have created your URL you will need to select the category that best suits your niche. Next you will have to select the rating for your lens. Unless you have something that is x-rated or very adult you will most likely have G rated content. Next you will have to add your keywords to the lens. This will help the search engines identify what your page is about and possibly help you get ranked for that term. That is not a give in but it is a possibility. You should pick your best 3 terms and input them at this stage.
You should now be given the option to edit your Squidoo lens. Take a look at the content that you want to add. A good idea would be to take a look at other sites that are related to your niche to get some ideas as to the layout and the content. Another smart idea would be to add links to other related sites as well as to your sites as well. Make sure that they are related links though. Do not add a sports link to a dog training site. It would not be related and most likely you will not receive any good traffic from it.
Change the lens to reflect your own personality. After all this should reflect you and give it that personal touch. Don’t expect to become a millionaire off of one lens but if you create enough lens’s you can expect to receive a decent residual return over time.
I’ve been learning about web 2.0 and playing around with it for about 2 years now. It is a really effective tool for building relationships, attracting clients, and driving traffic to your blogs and websites. My business is booming and i have a steady stream of leads coming in daily. The downside, it can be a full time job being "social". If I spend 40 hours a week building relationships online, when do I have time to do the work for my clients? When do I have time for myself? I’m working at least 6 days a week right now and spending at least 12 hours each day in front of my computer. Although I love playing with technology and new sites on the internet, this isn’t the perfect lifestyle I wanted to create.
I found a great blog post today Chris Garrett’s blog at http://www.chrisg.com/need-digg-power-account/ that discusses the obsession with trying to dominate the social media pages. It’s very difficult and time consuming to get a post on the first page of Digg or del.icio.us. It’s even harder to stay at the top over time. Chris reitterates the fact the you shouldn’t worry about dominating the social media sites. Just focus on creating high quality content that helps your prospects and customers and the social media gurus will find you.
Sphere: Related ContentI just returned from a fantastic 10 day vacation in Arizona. After a bit of car trouble (expensive transmission problems – OUCH) in Central California, we made it to our first stop, beautiful Barstow, California (near Hinkley, the toxic town featured in the movie Erin Brockovich). We didn’t get to bed until 2 AM the first night and had to be back on the road at 6 AM to get to the Grand Canyon in time to complete our 8 mile hike into the canyon before it got dark. We finished our 3 hour hike down into the canyon just as the sun was setting. Our destination was the Havasupai Indian Reservation deep in the Grand Canyon. Check out the beautiful pictures at www.havasupaitribe.com
After two longs days of travel and a beautiful but exhausting hike into the canyon, we literally stumbled into the village on the Havasupai Reservation. The Grand Canyon is one of the most beautiful places on earth but the Havasupai Reservation is a very depressing place. The homes are very run down, the locals dump their garbage in their yards, horses leave their fragrant trail everywhere, packs of wild dogs scavenge for food and water, and the locals are very lazy and unmotivated.
Everything is brought in via horses and pack mules so there’s very little fresh food. We watched them unload the packages of Cup of
Noodles, Rice A Roni, tons of soda and Gatorade, and coolers full of pre-packed food straight from your local 7 Eleven. Everything they eat in the valley is microwaveable food with tons of preservatives and sodium. The result is that every local is obese and extremely lazy.
There’s one cafe in town that’s supposed to be open from 8 AM until 6 PM which was our only place to eat. Other than that there was a grocery store and a convenience store that sold the wonderful microwave meals. The locals open and close their businesses at will. Sometimes they’re open all day other days they close when they feel like it. If you ask anyone for directions or help, they look at you and say "I don’t know". They grow peaches but no fresh vegetables or other fruits. They don’t make any jewelry or souvenirs to sell to the thousands of tourists that visit every year. They make no effort at all to earn money to improve their life and living conditions. It’s really sad to see a tribe of people lose their traditions and their desire. They’re content to receive their government stipend and just barely survive.
If they were motivated, they could clean up their village and provide more services to the tourists. The tourists would love to spend money on authentic Indian jewelry and souvenirs. They would love to eat authentic Indian food instead of the microwave meals now
served at the cafe. The locals could make a fortune from the tourists by providing basic services and goods that the tourists are expecting. Look at the Indian tribes that have gaming on their reservations. They’re improving their lives and providing opportunity for
their children. The Havasupai have no interest in improving their situation and helping their children thrive instead of just surviving.
They’re leaving a lot of money on the table.
How much money are you leaving on the table in your business? What other goods and services could you provide to your customers so you can earn more money? Have you asked your customers what else you could provide that they would like to buy from you? What are you waiting for?
Until next time,
Ted
P.S. If you enjoyed this blog post please take a moment to bookmark it using the bookmarking icons below. Click here for a video that shows you how to use the social bookmarking icons.
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We’re down to the final webinar of The 12 Days of Christmas in January. Webinar 12 is on Thursday February 14th at Noon Pacific, 1 PM Mountain, 2 PM Central, and 3 PM Eastern. Happy Valentine’s Day!
Click here to register for this webinar
Turning [tag-tec]Social Media[/tag-tec] Into A Competitive Advantage
Special guest John Todor, Managing Partner of The Whetstone Edge,LLC will teach us how how to turn social media into a competitive asset. The Whetstone Edge, LLC is a consulting firm that applies research on human behavior to buyer-seller dynamics. John’s forte is
evaluating how changes in technology, society and the marketplace impact the way customers make decisions and what they value. He
advises and mentors clients on how to create strategies and practices to effectively engage today’s customers and how to build
customer equity. An increasingly important component is providing clients with a systematic approach to using online social media
strategies to produce real-world benefits for both customers and the company.
John is the author of two books: Addicted Customers: How to Get Them Hooked on Your Company and Winning Mindshare. He is also a frequent keynote speaker.
Here are some of the topics John will be discussing in Thursday’s
webinar.
To register for this webinar simply click on the link below.
See you tomorrow!
Ted
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Web 2.0 websites
www.blogrush.com
Social Bookmarking sites
del.icio.us
ma.gnolia.com
Social networking sites
News/Article submission sites
www.bloglines.com
Video/slide submission sites
Podcasting sites
www.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/On_the_Web/Podcasts/Directories
podcasts.yahoo.com
Miscellaneous sites
Blogging has been around for some time now but most people still think blogs are just personal diaries written by lonely people that ramble aimlessly. Blogs have come of age and today there are many really cool blogs that contain very useful and entertaining information. In fact, many businesses now use blogs to carry on extended conversations with their customers.
If you’re in business for yourself and you’re not blogging then you need to read this article I found in the New York Times. Read this article to see how you can make a huge impact with a very small investment of time and money. Check out the article at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/27/business/smallbusiness/27sbiz.html
Feel free to comment on this post to let me know if you’re blogging and if it’s working for you. If you’re not blogging leave a comment and tell me why you’re not blogging.
Until next time.
Ted
Sphere: Related ContentI just stumbled upon an interesting blog by [tag-tec]Mitch Joel[/tag-tec] that really caught my attention. Mitch is comparing [tag-ice]Social Media[/tag-ice] to Punk Rock and he has some interesting points in his latest post. Punk Rock is raw, unharnessed energy that either turns you into a raving fan of the music or you completely hate it with a passion.
Great marketing campaigns have the same impact on us. You either love or hate the most memorable marketing campaigns. Remember those annoying jingles that get stuck in your head and drive you crazy? You hate them but you’ll remember them forever and you’ll never forget the product they promote. How about Apple ads? I bet you remember almost all of them and they’ll stick in the back of your mind forever. To leave a lasting impact, you have to be on the edge so you create a polarizing effect on everyone. They’ll either love you or hate you but they’ll all remember you.
How do you feel about [tag-tec]Howard Stern[/tag-tec], or [tag-tec]Paris Hilton[/tag-tec], or [tag-tec]Britney Spears[/tag-tec]? Have you seen the recent video on youtube.com where the guy is crying and pleading for the press to leave Britney alone? You either love or hate these people but they’re all making a fortune being controversial.
Check out Mitch’s post at http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/marketing-needs-to-understand-that-social-media-is-like-punk-music/index.html?success=1#c2695
Don’t forget to sign up for my 12 free webinars, [tag-tec]The 12 Days of Christmas in January[/tag-tec], where you’ll learn all about Social Media and [tag-tec]Web 2.0 marketing[/tag-tec].
Until next time.
Ted
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