There are concerns I have with the way most marketers are telling and selling people on how to use Squidoo. A lot of hype exists that Squidoo is the answer to every marketer’s needs. As a long time user of Squidoo and a full time internet marketer I am here to speak out about all of the excessive hype; the truth is a lot less glamorous then most Squidoo Guru’s would have you believe.
This report was finally written because Squidoo has begun to up their game and follow in the footsteps of Google and what used to work on Squidoo, and currently is working on Squidoo, will likely begin to slow down and falter, at least that is what I see based on my research and experiences.
Squidoo Marketing Tips That All Marketers Must Know!
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Crash Course For Squidoo
Contents:
The Real Truth Introduction ................................................................................... 4
Why This Report Is Critical For You To Read If You Use Squidoo .............................. 5
So What Is A Marketer To Do? .................................................................................................. 6
The GOOD News ............................................................................................................................. 8
What This Report Will Show You .............................................................................................. 9
The Two Tools You Need Before You Build Lenses ........................................................ 10
1. USE Google Analytics .......................................................................................................... 10
2. Google Webmaster Tools ................................................................................................... 10
Pre – Squidoo Information You Need ...................................................... 11
Rule 1: Take The Fake Stuff Out ............................................................................................ 11
Rule 2: X -Rated Content .......................................................................................................... 12
Rule 4: Plagiarism & Copyright Infringement ................................................................... 12
Rule 5: Pushy Affiliate Sales .................................................................................................... 13
Rule 6: Duplicated, Aggressive Or Poor Content ............................................................. 15
Rule #7 Written Content Should Be The Core .................................................................. 16
So How Do You Really Earn Money On Squidoo? ........................................................... 17
Squidoo LOVES Amazon ............................................................................................. 17
First You Need A PayPal Account ........................................................................................... 17
What Is The Payout Structure? ............................................................................................... 17
So How Do I Know Where My Levels Are? ......................................................................... 18
Squidoo Royalties And / Or Associate Payouts For Amazon .............................................. 19
One Way Around This Dilemma .............................................................................................. 20
Apply To Amazon Here ............................................................................................................... 20
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Amazon On Squidoo? .................................................................................................................. 20
Squidoo and Amazon Commissions ...................................................................................... 21
Starting A Squidoo Account ............................................................................................................. 22
Managing Your Squidoo Settings ........................................................................................... 23
Squidoo Dashboard ............................................................................................................................. 25
Squidoo Side Bars ........................................................................................................................ 27
Modules For Lens Building ........................................................................................................ 30
Building A Master Lens ....................................................................... 31
Set Your Lens URL - Important ............................................................................................... 32
Great Lens Building ..................................................................................................................... 34
Step 2 – Second Text Box ........................................................................................................ 39
Step 4 – Visual Add Ons ............................................................................................................ 41
Step 5 – Expert Follow Up ................................................................................................................... 43
Step 6 – Add Your Products To Create More Interest .................................................... 44
Step 7 – Comments Module For Social Proof .................................................................... 45
Additional Tips On Lens Building ............................................................................................ 45
Marketing Tips On A Lens ................................................................................................................. 46
Reasons Your Lens Can Be Locked: ...................................................................................... 47
Linked Lenses The Squidoo Way ............................................................................................ 48
Final Checklist ................................................................................................................................ 48
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 50
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The Real Truth Introduction
When Marketers hear the name Squidoo, their minds are filled
with preconceived notions like free traffic, constant sales,
royalties, and a platform that is an affiliate marketer’s dream.
There has been a rash of products sold recently about Squidoo;
like guides, ebooks and even WSO’s (a term used to describe
special products sold on the Warrior Forum, a top internet
marketing site) on how easy it is to make money using different
specialized marketing strategies.
Many of these well meaning products all seem to have a new
flaw; Squidoo is changing how they do business and if you don’t
want to adapt, you can expect to start to see your pages (called
lenses) begin to be “frozen” or even unpublished.
This comes as no surprise to the more cautious individuals that
have seen Squidoo as nothing more than a series of cookie-cutter
sites that are difficult to master and very possible to get months
of work “banned”.
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Why This Report Is Critical
For You To Read If You Use Squidoo
There are concerns I have with the way most marketers are
telling and selling people on how to use Squidoo. A lot of
hype exists that Squidoo is the answer to every marketer’s
needs. As a long time user of Squidoo and a full time internet
marketer I am here to speak out about all of the excessive hype;
the truth is a lot less glamorous then most Squidoo Guru’s
would have you believe.
This report was finally written because Squidoo has begun to up
their game and follow in the footsteps of Google and what used
to work on Squidoo, and currently is working on Squidoo, will
likely begin to slow down and falter, at least that is what I see
based on my research and experiences.
While Squidoo will allow you to earn commissions and royalties
from companies like Amazon, Zazzle, Etsy, Cafepress, Ebay etc.,
the money you make isn’t a lot. Even the top players do not
make the money that even 1 good affiliate site can pull.
Squidoo has quietly begun to filter out and remove affiliate
marketing that does not comply with the strict standards they
want to see this trend continue.
Many a marketer have found their lenses under review and
frozen for rather questionable reasons; only to find the same
information being published hours later by another lensmaster
who seems to be immune to the same rules.
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Now Squidoo is limiting the number of lenses that will be
pointed to any one domain. Their recent changes to the terms
of service are beginning to show the cracks in the honey pot.
Not all is well in the land of OZ anymore . . . gone are the days of
simply pumping out dozens of lenses that are keyword stuffed
and slapping affiliate links on them.
Squidoo says this is for the better.
Squidoo maintains they want to see highly unique content that
genuinely informs, instructs, teaches, enlightens or otherwise
entertains in a fashion that is non-spammy; with non spammy
meaning any affiliate site that does not use their affiliate
modules.
So What Is A Marketer To Do?
That is what this report is all about. The TRUTH About Squidoo.
We spent many months analyzing Squidoo, investigating some of
the top “Giant Squids,” looking at their lenses, purchasing top
Guru marketing reports on Squidoo and analyzing whether or not
what they are doing is something that will work for the long run.
Most marketing techniques we discovered that are working right
now in just a few short months will begin to go the way of the
dodo. Regardless of what other reports and WSO’s might say,
earning money on Squidoo by cookie cutter affiliate lenses, or
anything similar is difficult at best.
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You're not going to make a fortune using Squidoo unless you
invest significant time and energy; HOW to do this is changing.
The real truth is, affiliate marketing is taking a nose dive all over
the Internet. We see the effects of this on Google, with exact
match domains loosing relevance, update after update slapping
sites and banning affiliate style mini sites.
So what is the future of all of this? The only pattern that seems to
be emerging is, unique highly focused quality content is
once again your best bet. In fact it always has been.
More so if you wish to pursue marketing with Squidoo. Certainly
there are very valid reasons to want to be on Squidoo today even
if you are just motivated by the traffic bump.
The bad news is if you think you're going to make thousands of
dollars in affiliate commissions on Squidoo you're simply wasting
your time. . . unless you really play by the rules.
Is there a way to actually use Squidoo effectively, without all the
hype, all the B.S. and all the half-baked truths and quick scams?
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The GOOD News
What we have done is find the top ranking marketers in Squidoo
and study exactly what they're doing and then show you how to
replicate the same success.
Get this; 99% of success on Squidoo is HOW you set up your
lenses! I am not talking about some mini site model, rather
exactly what the big squids are doing which in some cases
is 100% opposite of what recent reports and WSO’s have
been teaching.
Okay I'm sorry if I'm offending anyone here, especially if you're
one of those people that sell information on how wonderful
Squidoo is. Yes it can be if you follow the leader(s).
To those people I like to say, the truth is the truth. Most people
who use Squidoo make very little money even using some of the
top reports and WSO’s claiming to the contrary.
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What This Report Will Show You
The purpose of this Report on Squidoo is:
1. Give you exact steps on how to use Squidoo to launch your
current business realistically
2. Get your lenses published in a way that Squidoo will
approve and reward handsomely
3. Show you where Squidoo is headed - and many
marketers are in for a big surprise Just the way Google is
going after affiliate marketers, exact match domains etc.
Squidoo is getting on the bandwagon as well
4. Best Practices That Squidoo Will Reward – you have to
follow this advice. If you do you will get trophies, rewards,
accolades from the community, eventual top contributor
status; THEN the real money starts
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The Two Tools You Need
Before You Build Lenses
There are two tools that work like clockwork with Squidoo and
you simply must have if you want to become an effective and
informed Lensmaster.
Sign up for these two; of course they are not mandatory but just
a damn good idea if you want to make actual money; which I
assume is the reason why you purchased this report:
1.USE Google Analytics
Squidoo will ask you for your Google Analytics ID number. It’s
a helpful tool to track what people are actually doing on your
lenses. This tool seamlessly works with your Squidoo account.
http://www.google.com/analytics/
2.Google Webmaster Tools
The good news is if you have an Adwords account you also have
access to the Google keyword tool. Also if you have a Gmail
account you can access this tool. What most warriors don't know
about is a complete selection of webmaster tools which can be
found here that will help in all kinds of future marketing with
Squidoo: http://www.googlekeywordtool.com/
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Pre – Squidoo Information You Need
Before you start your account I felt it was critical that you should
have a heads-up on the recent policy changes on Squidoo.
Squidoo lives, eats, breathes and sleeps at policies! You need to
thoroughly read them because NOT understanding exactly
what Squidoo wants is most of the reason why people get banned
or have their lenses frozen.
The latest updates of TOS / living addendums can be found here:
http://www.squidoo.com/squidoo-policy-update
http://hq.squidoo.com/tips/lens-locked-now-what/
Next I want to prepare you by explaining a series of rules that
you should always follow when using Squidoo. Unlike some
platforms where on occasion you can bend the rules, the most
effective use of Squidoo comes when you actually follow the
rules. Have a look at these:
Rule 1: Take The Fake Stuff Out
Don’t be a fake on Squidoo, period. The community wants to deal
with real people and nothing else. There is a committee made up
of long time Squidoo users who basically run the show and set
the standards, and they have become very good at discovering
fake, phony, fraud accounts and are constantly banning and un
publishing lenses related to these kinds of deceptive promotions.
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Rule 2: X -Rated Content
Squidoo has had problems with X Rated content in the past. Many
of the Giant Squids and top lensmasters have insisted that, to
prevent these issues from reoccurring, this content will now be
permanently removed, as soon as it is discovered. Some of the
pages on Squidoo may seem to indicate you can have x rated
materials, but no longer.
If you are considering placing content like that on your lenses,
then know that deletion of your account is the end result.
Rule3: Spam Is A Big No-No
Spam is annoying to everyone. Squidoo forums are full of
watchdogs and they take a ban first attitude and even rejoice
when they get someone’s lens locked or unpublished. If you are
curious what Squidoo thinks is spam, again have a look here:
http://www.squidoo.com/squidoo-policy-update
Rule 4: Plagiarism & Copyright Infringement
Squidoo will not tolerate plagiarism and this is made very clear in
their TOS. In addition copyright infringement is a big deal as well.
It is certain that your lenses will be unpublished if there are any
questions concerning any of this, at least locked until it can be
proven that you are not in violation.
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Rule 5: Pushy Affiliate Sales
This is the one area that gets marketers in the most trouble.
There've been a recent rash of reports, ebooks and WSO’s
promoting all kinds of tactics to use on Squidoo; from multiple
linked lenses, keyword stuffing, mini site builds using lenses and
just about any other variation you can imagine. While some
people have gotten away with this, many others are being
banned or lens locked simply for following this advice.
Squidoo is quite clear on their feelings about affiliate programs
that they do not directly sponsor, and pushy related affiliate sales
tactics:
http://www.squidoo.com/squiddont
Some affiliate programs are simply not allowed on Squidoo. Of
course this does not mean that you will be unable to make
money; it's just that you will have to be highly creative in the
way that you go about promoting anything that could be
considered an affiliate program.
Squidoo's main interest is in unique high-quality content that is
different than the traditional dribble that you see everywhere
else.
http://www.squidoo.com/originalitypact
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Rule 6: Overly Promotional Lenses
Squidoo have recently looked into lenses that have very little
or no quality material on them and concluded that people are
using their lenses in an inappropriate manner. Linking lenses
together to push the sales along is something they have become
aware of. While Squidoo encourages a maximum of six lenses
that you can interlink together using the discovery tool, linking
all of your lenses together and pointing to one specific product or
service is becoming problematic.
They are calling these overly promoted lenses and if they see
this, you will more than likely have your lenses locked for review.
Squidoo's main concern is that there should not be dozens,
possibly hundreds of lenses pointing to one domain.
This goes against their desire to see unique content on each
specific lens; and that each lens develops its own unique topic,
even though they can be inter-related with other lenses.
Recently, there have been WSO’s and guides about lens building,
too. They suggest a “mini-site” model with lots of links, targeting
low density keywords and then link products and services where
you can get a commission.
We believe this type of marketing will become ineffective over
time with the new Squidoo TOS updates limiting cross-linking to a
maximum of nine lenses to one domain. While you will still be
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Crash Course For Squidoo
able to promote your products and services, Squidoo wants this
limited.
You could end up having to explain to the review department why
they should unlock your lenses if you continue to use multiple
lenses pointed back to the same URL’s. Squidoo are categorizing
their lenses in two ways now; Whitelisted or Blacklisted.
There will soon be no in between. What makes all of this difficult
is that Squidoo seems to be randomly enforcing this; based on
our interviews with Giant Squids (Squidoo’s elite contributors)
this is because the enforcement is being done gradually and they
are making examples of the lenses they uncover based on a pre
agreed on set of stipulations that will grow over time.
Rule 6: Duplicated, Aggressive Or Poor Content
Squidoo has recently been banning lenses that are opinion based,
like page where politicians, professionals or anyone else in the
spotlight is then “badmouthed”. Even if these individuals deserve
this, and what is being reported is 100% accurate, this is not the
kind of content that Squidoo will tolerate.
Attack lenses, political hack, rumors, gossip, all of this has seen
the frozen lens and unpublished tool that Squidoo wields.
If you are going to start lenses then write something that people
want to read about AND is informative and avoids the above. A
few lines of dribble and useless information is a sure way to get a
negative response. Squidoo believes that very poor / attack
content is simply wasting your reader’s time.
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Rule #7 Written Content Should Be The Core
I've actually read guides, ebooks and WSO’s that have said to
limit your written content on Squidoo and just stuff your lenses
with lots of affiliate modules.
This is the exact opposite advice that Giant Squids give.
You should always lead with a hot topic with flowing articles that
answers a problem, illustrates something interesting or teaches
and informs. Squidoo encourage everyone to keep working their
lenses until the content, modules, products and interest is there
for people to get excited about and that your lenses have a
balance.
A lot of these rules are common sense, yet many people still try
to post a few lines of rehashed content and excessive product
links all over their lenses.
I provided this information to ensure that your head is on
correctly before you jump into producing dozens of lenses
only to have them unpublished in a few days weeks or months
down the road.
I am going to show you how to master Squidoo and how to
earn money doing so. Like anything in life you must play by the
rules and learn to master the game with these fundamentals.
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So How Do You Really Earn
Money On Squidoo?
How can you use Squidoo to promote your business, your
services and earn some extra affiliate cash without getting into
trouble? Let's start with the biggest affiliate on the planet.
Squidoo LOVES Amazon
Before you build any lens the biggest question is, how do Squidoo
and Amazon pay you and what’s it worth to you?
What do you need in order to get started?
First You Need A PayPal Account
Get a PayPal account. You may not like it but
that’s the way Squidoo pays out on their
royalties. In the Squidoo account settings
this is the only option they have for payment.
What Is The Payout Structure?
The royalties pay out like this on Squidoo:
5% goes to the selected charities off the top
50% goes to the Lensmasters
45% goes back to Squidoo
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The Lensmasters - 50% pay is further divided like this:
The top level lenses receive about 20% of the total payouts
The second level lenses about 17%
The third level lenses approximately 8%.
This may not seem like a huge payout - Keep reading it
gets better . . .
So How Do I Know Where My Levels Are?
Squidoo ranks the lenses.
1. The top 2000 lenses are at level 1
2. The next best 8000 lenses go into level 2
3. The last 75,000 lenses with rankings go into level 3
These can be approximate figures and the rankings can be
somewhat off. A lens that reached level 2015, could also be
receiving the 20% royalties for the month. This is where your
Google Analytics tool will help you figuring it out.
Of course it is just plain nice getting checks for doing almost
nothing. Royalties are paid out regardless of whether you have
an Amazon or other affiliate accounts or not.
We'll talk more about that in a moment.
Squidoo usually pay their lenses about the 15th of each month.
However if someone has an E-Bay account and it has a 45 day
money back guarantee on it, then it can take up to 8 weeks for
Squidoo to receive their money and then pay you.
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Squidoo Royalties And / Or
Associate Payouts For Amazon
Depending on the state you reside in will also be the deciding
factor whether you can have an Amazon Associates account in
addition to getting royalties from Squidoo for Amazon sales you
have.
Yes you can get your Amazon commissions AND get royalty
payments for Amazon at the same time as long as you are not in
a blacklisted state.
In Texas, Colorado, Connecticut, Arkansas, Illinois, Hawaii,
Rhode Island, North Carolina and California, it is no longer
possible to be a direct affiliate for Amazon due to taxation conflict
issues Amazon has with each of these states.
Amazon's reasoning here is, why should they have to follow and
pay complicated taxes from states that are becoming overly
aggressive when trying to collect Internet taxes, that other states
are not requiring.
Regardless of how you feel about this, Amazon has made it clear
that it will continue to remove states that try to invoke aggressive
taxation.
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One Way Around This Dilemma
People who want an (additional) Amazon affiliate account have
found creative ways to do so by registering their business
checking account in another state close to the nearest state
border, or registering their entire business in Nevada. Obviously
we are NOT advising you to do this as this can be construed as
tax evasion but we thought you might like to know what some
people are doing who want a direct Amazon account.
Apply To Amazon Here
If you do NOT live in any of the states mentioned and want an
affiliate account you can apply here: https://affiliate-program.
amazon.com/gp/flex/associates/apply-login.html
Amazon updated their policies and Procedures for affiliates in
October 2012:
https://affiliateprogram.amazon.com/gp/associates/help/operating
Amazon On Squidoo?
You don’t need to have an Amazon account with Squidoo.
However if you already have an associate account you can
potentially earn more income by using your affiliate links in the
lenses you create. The flat rate commission from Amazon is 4%
going up to 15%. Here’s a link to a guide to show you exactly
what Amazon pays: http://websguides.com/content.php?142-
Amazon-Affiliate-Commission-Rates-Amazon-Associates
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Squidoo and Amazon Commissions
Squidoo is one of Amazon’s biggest and most successful affiliates.
You will share in their commissions if you use their modules on
your lenses that generate sales even if you do NOT have an
Amazon affiliate account.
Squidoo receives approximately 9% payout Amazon
commissions every month. If you use their modules to
promote Amazon products on your lenses, Squidoo will
split the commissions with you 50%.
By the way, if you need the extra ranking on your lenses, use
Squidoo’s affiliate Amazon modules because this can actually
improve your ranks with Squidoo every time you make a sale.
Squidoo does this because it is to their benefit to rank your site
higher as you are making them money.
http://www.squidoo.com/amazon-links
There are six different Amazon modules that can be used inside
of each lens. If you just want the higher commission rates then
use your OWN Amazon associate ID for promoting any and all
products within your lenses, but it is not necessary.
You can use this Amazon product link generator tool to help save
you time: http://squidutils.com/amazon-links.php
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Links - Put in as many other Social Media links that you have. If
you have a website URL there is room for that as well. If you
have Etsy, E-Bay, Zazzle you can also add those sites here too.
Comments Tab: Do you want comments? Select it here.
Payouts Tab: is where you will be paid from Squidoo so enter
your PayPal Email to receive your royalities
Default Payout Settings - If you want to give your royalities
away to charity you can select which one in this section. If you
want the cash then check off I Want Cash!
Ad Settings Tab: This setting enables Google Adwords and text
links. Select thes feature if you want it.
Cash Payout Threshold - The minimum cash you will receive
for your lenses is $1.00 from PayPal but you can choose the
paypal threshold here
Individual Lens Settings - Nominate a payout figure for each
separate lens here.
Payout History - Track your payout history month to month
Points and Trophies Tab: Check off whether or not you want
alerts or show off your trophies on your lenses.
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27. Power Text
Crash Course For Squidoo
Squidoo Side Bars
There are a more links attached to the
right side of the lensmaster page.
The Headings in the side bar consists of
Lens List, Lens Labels and Extra
Tools. Each of these headings has other
links underneath them. Each link directs
you to another function to build up
lenses. Other information in this section
relates to charity, favorites and editing.
Extra Tools
We mention this section because here is
where you can connect to the community
within Squidoo including gifting and
transferring a lens; some people make a
lot of money selling lenses. Here is where
you can access this feature.
Squidoo HQ & Learning Center Link:
There is plenty of great info here. Get tips
and advice from the giant squid
community. There are all kinds of articles and links on money
making, affiliate programs and advice from the veteran
community.
27 Power Crash Course For Squidoo
28. P
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31. Power Text
Crash Course For Squidoo
gone over some of the basics on Squidoo, we are ready to begin
building a lens.
Building A Master Lens
I am going to show you how to build a lens that Squidoo
will really love.
Click on create a lens on your lensmaster page.
Squidoo will ask the question: “My Page Is About.” What you
put here will become the Title Of Your Lens.
You can change the title later if you wish.
Now click continueÆ.
When you do you will move on to the next step.
31 Power Crash Course For Squidoo
32. P
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34. Power Text
Crash Course For Squidoo
Great Lens Building
The lens example I will use has been created and built recently
and is already ranking well because of the Squidoo requirements
have been followed. The lens has a good layout and the correct
modules have been worked into the creation of it.
We created this lens to demonstrate you can make a lens on
virtually any topic and in a short time begin to see traffic as well
as sales.
The lens example can be found here:
http://www.squidoo.com/aquaponicssurvivalcommunities
The idea of following the template is to take the guess work
out of what Squidoo requires.
34 Power Crash Course For Squidoo
35. Power Text
Crash Course For Squidoo
Great Lenses take time to build up and it may take you a few
days to be completely happy with the lens. Think of your lenses
as works in progress.
Step 1 Intro Content Crafted
This is the first box (intro text box) that Squidoo will ask you to
write in after you initially set up the lens.
35 Power Crash Course For Squidoo
36. Power Text
Crash Course For Squidoo
Squidoo encourage you to write about what you know and
love. Write your intro here. When you are finished creating the
intro text box, save it. You can edit it at a later date.
Select the lens you are working on, click on edit and go back into
the intro text box. There are other options that show up in
Squidoo.
You can now work on your table of contents. It (the table) will
appear right in under the intro text box on your lens when you
are finished. If you want the TOC somewhere else you can embed
a TOC module somewhere else.
36 Power Crash Course For Squidoo
37. Power Text
Crash Course For Squidoo
Now decide from this point how your table will appear. Once your
lens is published the main intro text will show the table at the
bottom of the article. It will show as “Contents At A Glance.”
The related lenses tab will be an excellent tool to use as well.
37 Power Crash Course For Squidoo
38. P
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39. Power Text
Crash Course For Squidoo
About Me
Squidoo strongly encourages the lensmasters to put in “About
Me” module either before or after the 2nd text box you build. You
can either use your current profile information or say something
new.
Again keep it to one paragraph of great content.
The reason why the About Me is suggested is because people
don’t always look at the creator of the lens in the upper right
hand corner of the page; nor do they always visit the main
lensmasters page.
If you are relaying valuable information to people, they will
remember your profile more by the information on the lens.
They are more likely to return and keep an eye on your updates.
Step 2 – Second Text Box
Squidoo will set up a basic format to the construction of the
lenses. You will probably notice another text box module ready to
go as you complete the intro text. You have the option to use this
and write another article or go back later and work on it. This
new text box will allow you to add a picture with a URL link
If you have an affiliate link and want to promote a few of your
own products underneath the 2nd text box, this is the place to do
it. There are modules for companies like Café Press, Amazon,
Etsy, ArtByUs, E-Bay, Craigslist and so many more. You can
pretty much promote anything you want using these.
39 Power Crash Course For Squidoo
40. P
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41. Power Text
Crash Course For Squidoo
Step 4 – Visual Add Ons
At this point you want to create some real visual presentation.
Either add some colorful pictures or insert a video to promote
your product.
Picture Modules: These a few types of modules you can use in
your lens. Flickr, Polaroid, text with big picture and slideshare.
Any one of these can bring life into your lens.
Video Modules: Sites such as You Tube, Revver, Vimeo and
Howcast URL’s can be embedded into the video module. This
module will allow you to title and sub title everything with a
description. Only add enough info to give people the general idea,
most of them want to look at the video anyway.
41 Power Crash Course For Squidoo
42. P
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45. Power Text
Crash Course For Squidoo
Step 7 – Comments Module For Social Proof
Another strong recommendation that Squidoo have is adding in a
comment module. They say this is one of the most important
modules. Not only does the lens get more traffic, but if people
really like the presentation they will comment and ask more
questions regarding your products.
You may not always like the comments made on your lens and
the option is there to delete comments. However this may not be
good marketing practices for your lens traffic in the long run.
Additional Tips On Lens Building
Your lens can be published at any time. There is always enough
room for other modules like bookmarks and social linking which
can be added.
The more variety you add to your lenses
the more interest you create
The great thing about Squidoo is they encourage people to be
creative and learn how to present a lens properly. One of the
biggest suggestions they have for the community is to keep
working on your lenses until you love them!
There is also another end goal to creating great lenses. Not only
can it drive traffic to your website and earn passive income but
Squidoo rewards their lensmasters for their hard efforts.
45 Power Crash Course For Squidoo
46. P
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47. Power Text
Crash Course For Squidoo
Reasons Your Lens Can Be Locked:
Most people give Squidoo a try at some point. What usually
happens is they don't take the time to familiarize themselves with
some of the most common reasons why Squidoo may decide to
lock their lenses. Squidoo is very specific on its policies have
provided a list of exactly why a marketer may get their lenses
locked or even unpublished.
Here are the most common reasons Squidoo says the majority of
lenses get un-published for:
1. The lens is about a SquidDon’t topic that we can’t allow on
the site.
2. The lens exists solely as an affiliate program lens, or engages
in some sort of article spinning, rather than being original opinion
content.
3. The lens has plagiarized content.
4. The lens breaks any other elements of our content policies and
TOS, ranging from keyword stuffing, content spamming,
redirects, low quality, cloned lenses, hate lenses, lenses that
violate our partner’s TOS and more.
5. The lens has aggressively duplicated content, and very little
original, unique content written by you.
6. The lens is not in English and we cannot support complaints or
spam suspicions about it. So, after reading through this material,
you still believe that your lens was locked in error, here’s what
you can do.
Source: http://hq.squidoo.com/tips/lens-locked-now-what/
47 Power Crash Course For Squidoo
48. Power Text
Crash Course For Squidoo
Linked Lenses The Squidoo Way
Recent TOS changes now have Squidoo wanting you to keep your
linked lenses to a maximum of nine per single domain. I wouldn’t
suggest any more than 6 linking to any one external (your)
domain. You can safely use the Discovery Tool to embed up to 6
of your related lenses.
Lenses full of useless content and dozens of links pointing to
affiliate pages are a NO NO.
Final Checklist
Use this checklist to ensure that you are ready for complete
buildout.
† Does your lens have a strong title?
† Does your table of contents have appeal?
† Have you researched tags and keywords?
† Do you have 100% original content to promote?
† Have you selected Affiliate products related to your
content?
† Have you interesting videos, pictures and images?
† Have you some related and unique products to sell that are
not affiliate products?
If the answer is no then go back and redo your steps until the
answer is yes.
48 Power Crash Course For Squidoo
49. P
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Conclusion
Squidoo is not just about making money. It is also about creating
more of what you enjoy doing. If you are passionate about a
particular subject you should write about it and then create a
business around it.
Remember that with Squidoo the more you follow exactly the
kind of layout that they want the higher the likelihood that
you will gain ranks quickly and be promoted by Squidoo.
Cooperation is the key and giving the Giant Squids and
lensmasters exactly what they want will make all the difference.
People who enjoy creating more of what they love also have more
successes. Squidoo is also about joining a community where
real people learn from each other.
Follow the Squidoo lens building techniques and keep perfecting
your lenses. We wish you every success on Squidoo.
50 Power Crash Course For Squidoo