Squidoo Tip #11. Build Sales lenses.

There are two ways to make money on Squidoo. You may choose to build Sales lenses and make money with affiliate programs or you can build lenses around a "hot topic" (topic in demand) and make money by attracting visitors to Squidoo site (get paid for Tier 1, 2, and 3 lenses by Squidoo). If you sell Amazon and Ebay items through Squidoo Amazon and Ebay Modules (vs. Affiliate links to sites), you will most likely get nice Top Tier payouts from Squidoo plus your share of Affiliate commissions.


"Hot Topic Lenses"
 Coloring Pages lenses perform very well on Squidoo. They generate a lot of clickouts, including clickouts to Coloring pages websites and Google Ads. The lenses bring in a lot of Google traffic and get high Squidoo rankings even if affiliate sales are low. "Smurfs coloring pages", "Cars coloring pages", "Tinker Bell coloring pages", etc. are built around "hot topics" in demand.


"Sales Lenses"
On the other hand, there are Sales lenses. They are built for consumers ready to make a purchase who need a little help picking out the right item. The lensmasters who build lenses for the consumers (I will repeat myself here) ready to make a purchase are the lensmasters who make money on Squidoo. Let's take my Zippered Pouch Tutorial lens. Although it's informative, it's not a very good Sales lens. People searching for the tutorial are probably not exactly in the "make a purchase" mood. They may click on the Amazon or Ebay items I suggest, but will most likely leave without making a purchase. On the other hand, my Vintage Buttons Wholesale lens is very much geared towards the buyer looking for a good place to buy vintage buttons wholesale. My lens showcases various types of vintage buttons, and since Ebay is one of the best places to buy vintage buttons, I am likely to sell some Ebay items through my lens. Another example of a Sales lens - Dora Gifts for Toddler Girls that showcases Dora the Explorer products.


Comments? Questions? Do you have good Sales lenses? Would love to hear from you :)

Squidoo Tip #10. Be Social...

Is it possible to make money on Squidoo without being social? Experienced Internet marketers do it all the time. I have seen 1st and 2nd Tier lenses that hadn't been updated in 1-2 years bring in enough Google traffic to keep them at their high-ranking positions. The lensmasters are often busy working on other projects and no longer active in Squidoo community.

But if you are just starting out on Squidoo, I strongly suggest that you do spend some time reading and commenting on other Lensmasters' lenses and participating in Squidoo forum (Squidu). You are guaranteed to meet some great people who will make suggestions on how to improve your lenses, give you advice on how to bring in more traffic, and squidlike some of your Squidoo creations. I believe that traffic and clickouts are the two most important stats when it comes to lens rankings. However, if you are a newbie, Squidoo internal traffic, Squidlikes, and Squidoo Angel blessings can make the difference between Tier 3 and Tier 4 lenses (making a few cents and realising the potential of Squidoo and not making money at all).

There are quite a few Lensmasters that supported me in many ways and gave me advice when I first started out. Tipi, LisaAuch, Darcie, Liz, TeamSTM, AJ, and many other Squidoo Lensmasters supported my lenses by Squidliking, commenting, blessing, bookmarking my lenses, sharing them on Twitter and Facebook, and giving me advice.

If you are a Squidoo newbie and are looking for ways to increase traffic to your lenses, I strongly suggest that you become an active part of Squidoo community. You will get a lot in return.

Daily Squidoo Tips: My First Tier 1 Lens

This is a link to a post at a new blog I follow by Squidoo Lensmaster Tilen Hrovatic Daily Squidoo Tips: My First Tier 1 Lens: "My hard work and a lot of coffee finally took me somewhere on Squidoo. By following tips from some succesful lensmasters and building a netw..."

Also, please check out Lisa Auch's new post: Understanding SEO Free - what a find, Lisa :)

Squidoo Tip # 9. Blog to make more money on Squidoo.

Have you realized that most of the people who make decent monthly incomes on Squidoo usually have blogs? Wordpress blogs, Blogger blogs, TypePad blogs, etc... Blogging is really not that hard to get into. Blogger is one of the easiest blogging platforms to work with, and if you have published a lens or 2 on Squidoo, there's no reason why you should wait any longer to start a blog. Although Wordpress blogs are more SEO friendly, Google loves its Blogging creation, so Blogger makes a great choice for anyone interested in getting into blogging. I personally work with both, Blogger and Wordpress.

So why blog to make more money on Squidoo? Several reasons. First of all, valuable backlinks. My Blogger blogs are  Do Follow and by creating links to my relevant lenses in my posts, I create quality backlinks. I also allow and encourage backlinks to other Squidoo lenses in comments (by the way, if you have any problems posting comments with your Google account - make sure that the "stay signed in" box is not checked when you login - Blogger has been having some minor issues with Google accounts comments). The backlinks give you additional advantage over lenses with no backlinks or backlinks from Squidu forum only, so it helps your lenses rank better. As your blog becomes more popular, the value of your links increases.

Also as you can see, in the left sidebar, I created permanent links to my Squidoo lenses and Associated content articles. That's another way that you can get more views for your Squidoo lenses. When it comes to making more money on Squidoo, every visitor counts! And by promoting your blog, you are also promoting several lenses at once, saving yourself plenty of time for creating new lenses.

Finally, as an additonal benefit, you can add Google Adsense to your blog and learn how to Make Money with Adsense and Blogger. If you do decide to apply for an Adsense publisher ID, make sure you have had your blog for at least a couple weeks and have posted at least 7-10 quality posts. Also, before you start displaying Adsense on your blog, read carefully over all the Dos and Don'ts and add a Privacy policy to your blog!

Hope you had a Happy July payday! Would love to hear how you are doing on Squidoo :) Please feel free to comment!

Squidoo Tip #8 - Publish Seasonal Lenses to make money on Squidoo.

Have you started working on your seasonal SQUIDOO lenses? From last year, I remember how many Tier 1 and Tier 2 lenses dropped down in their rankings to make room for seasonal lenses that were getting high Google traffic. It may seem silly to start thinking about Christmas in July, but if you are really serious about making money on Squidoo, now is the time to invest some effort into building Halloween and Christmas Sales lenses - think costumes, decorations, and gifts. Last week I started seeing some unexpected Google traffic to my Tier 4 Top Christmas Toys for Girls Lens (today the lens is already ranked at 14,804). The Christmas gifts Lens performed really well back in October, November, and December. I got Tier 2 lens Earnings and affiliate commissions for 3 months in a row. It was definitely a great achievement for a newbie :)
Do you have a Seasonal lens you are working on? Please feel free to comment on the post and include a link to your Christmas or Halloween lens. Hope you are doing well on Squidoo. I can't wait for the July 2011 Squidoo Earnings!