Squidoo is a waste of time...

Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Today I ran into an article about Squidoo being a waste of time. That's exactly how I felt after my first couple months on Squidoo. $0.25 for hours of work seemed unfair and seeing little to no lens traffic was simply depressing. I can totally see how some people can feel that Squidoo is a waste of time. But I also know of several lensmasters that have 15-30 Tier 1 lenses, along with 25-50 Tier 2 lenses, and hundreds of Tier 3 Squidoo lenses. They get $500-$1000+ from Squidoo per month along with affiliate commissions from Ebay, Amazon, Zazzle, LinkShare, ShareASale, Commission Junction, and Clickbank. Squidoo can certainly be a waste of time, but for the lensmasters who have figured  out the "magic formula", Squidoo is a nice source of income.

As of today, I have three lenses in Tier 1, two lenses in Tier 2, two lenses that keep on jumping between Tiers 2 and 3, and ten Tier 3 lenses. If I was to get a paycheck from Squidoo today, I could probably count on around $100 plus a couple dollars in affiliate commissions for my Amazon and Ebay Sales. $100 per month in Squidoo Earnings is certainly better than 25 cents. Would I say it's a good compensation for the time I spend on Squidoo? It will be, if I manage to keep the traffic to my top lenses steady for several months while also building new lenses. Squidoo lenses are also a valuable tool in promoting my Etsy store, so I always remember about the money I save on blog advertising by publishing my own articles.

How do you feel about Squidoo? Are you wasting your time? or do you think that your hard work will pay off in the future? As always, comments are welcome!

Squidoo Tip #5 - The easiest ways to build backlinks to your Squidoo lenses.

Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Backlinks are very important in optimizing your Squidoo lenses for the Search Engines. What is a backlink? Basically, it's a clickable phrase that points to a webpage. For example, if I wanted to point to this blog, I would want to select something like "Squidoo Tips" or "Squidoo SEO" and place href attribute with the links' destination (my blog).   In HTML, the backlink would look like this:

<a href="http://squidtips.blogspot.com/">Squidoo Tips</a> ,

 and it would look like this to my readers: Squidoo Tips. By the way, if you do decide to comment on this blog and backlink to your Squidoo lens, <a href... > format is what you would need to use.

So what is the easiest way to build backlinks to your Squidoo lenses? How about another Squidoo lens? For example, let's take my Google Adwords Tips and Tricks Lens. In this lens, I mention that it would be smart to use a Google Adwords Coupon when experimenting with Google Adwords campaigns. I also have a Google Adwords Coupons lens. So why not create a backlink to the lens and make the "Google Adwords Coupons" lens more attractive to Google?

This backlinking strategy works really well if you have several lenses covering related topics. By building links between your Squidoo lenses, you will not only create more content views, but will also make Google think that your content is popular, since other webpages are pointing to it. I recommend using your key words for the anchor text of the backlink.

Also, I recommend that you checkout this Squidoo lens by Squidoo Lensmaster Emonanam: Best Do Follow Forums and this Squidoo lens by LisaAuch: How to get my lens found

Hope you are making some money on Squidoo! As always, comments are very welcome. How do you build backlinks to your lenses?

What do you do when Google stops sending traffic to your Squidoo lens?

Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Well, I wasn't going to post to this blog today, but this morning I noticed that the traffic to my most popular lens suddenly dropped. Apparently, I have lost the VIP placement on Google, and Google moved me way down in the Search Results...
 I would say I am a little disappointed seeing the drop in traffic to my Squidoo lens, right as it was getting close to moving to 1st Tier. What kind of drop in traffic are we talking about? I had 190+ visitors per day for several days in a row. Then Google gave me a little warning yesterday that I somehow ignored - only 90 visitors yesterday and 1 visitor today..., and when I do a search for my keywords, my Squidoo lens is nowhere to be found. I think my Wedding Songs First Dance 2011 lens is unique and very helpful to brides trying to pick the best song for their First Dance, and I believe it deserves the VIP placement on Google. But I was so worried that if I make any changes to my lens, the traffic is going to drop, that I didn't update the lens for a couple weeks. Well, I should have known better. Google is always after the most up-to-date content, so if you want your lens to rank high on the Search Engines, update your Lens on a regular basis. It doesn't have to be every day, but once or twice a week is good. My Wedding lens is competing with well-known sites like "The Knot" and "Get Married" - very recognized sites in the Wedding industry, so if I want my lens to beat the kind of competition, I certainly have to work hard. So I added content to my lens, added new tags, and I will be looking for ways to add some backlinks to it as well. I am sure I will get the traffic back! I would love to hear from you. What do you do if you see a sudden drop in Google traffic?

Update on 5/24/11 Google is sending traffic my way again :) Super Excited!

Squidoo Tip #4 - Do include YouTube modules in your lenses



Image: Idea go / FreeDigitalPhotos.net  

Why would you want to include YouTube Video Module in a Squidoo lens? Not only will you add great relevant content to your lens and bring more value to your readers, you will also optimize your content for Google. One of the things that Google takes in consideration when figuring out where your lens should be in the Google rankings is how much time your readers spend on your site and whether they click back to Google Search results. By displaying the right YouTube Videos on your lens, you answer the readers questions, keep the reader on your Squidoo page for a couple extra minutes, prove to Google that your content is relevant to the key words, and therefore, your Squidoo lens gets a better ranking in the Search Engine Results. Squidoo is a big authority on Google. So if you use the right key words throughout your content, display YouTube Videos, engage your reader, and provide the information the reader is searching for, you will have good chances of landing on Google's 1st page. As always, please feel free to leave your comments and link to your Squidoo lenses.

Squidoo Tip # 2. Do key word research to make more money on Squidoo.

Do you do Key Word Research before you publish your Squidoo lenses? The other day someone suggested to build a lens per day to make a good income on Squidoo.

Image: renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I agree that having a 100 Squidoo lenses will probably push 5-10-15 of your lenses to Tier 1 and 2 - that is if you stick with related topics and interlink your lenses. But I personally think that if you optimize your Squidoo lens content and try to push every lens you build into the higher Tiers, you will make more money on Squidoo. One Tier 2 lens is worth more than 15 Tier 3 lenses, and one Tier 1 lens pays better than almost a hundred Tier 3 lenses.
I have had several lens make it to Tier 1, but keeping them there may be a little complicated. The only way to keep a lens in Tier 1 is a steady high traffic from Google. How do you get Squidoo lens traffic from Google? By doing key word research and optimizing your Squidoo lens content for search engine crawlers. I use Google Adwords Keyword Tool to find less competitive keywords and analyze competition. For example, if I am writing about dog training, I know it would be hard to get lens traffic to Squidoo lens "dog training", but "dog training tips for kids" or "German Shepherd puppy training" may be a little less complicated. I don't look for key words that get the most searches, but I do pick key words that get a steady traffic with less competition.
Once I pick a key word, I try to get a lens name with the key words in it, then I use key words in the introduction modules and throughout the lens.
As always, I would love some comments. Do you do key word research for your Squidoo lenses?

Squdoo Tips. Tip # 1 - Pick a niche for your Squidoo lenses.

What is a marketing niche? Why would you want to pick a niche for your Squidoo lenses?
I love writing on a variety of topics. And that's what I initially started out doing on Squidoo - I had a lens about my dog, a lens about Christmas gifts, a lens about a steam mop I use, and so on. My lenses weren't supporting each other and the few views I was accidentally getting here and there didn't result in any additional traffic to the other lenses.

Image: Naito8 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

When compared to mass marketing, niche marketing can be described as "targeted to a certain group of people". The best way to make money on Squidoo is to build a lens around a product or one very specific topic that people are searching for. Then build more lenses in the same niche. What would be a good niche? Recipes lenses do really well on Squidoo. Let's take "Casserole Recipes" - you can build lenses "Beef Casserole Recipes", "Chicken Casserole Recipes", "Potato Casserole Recipes", and so on. You can feature your other casserole recipes in Squidoo lens' Sidebar or at the bottom of each lens. You can make one lens that includes links to all the recipes. With recipe lenses, picking a product to promote is not very difficult. But like Seth Godin suggests in one of his books, make sure you have a banana you are selling, and that banana is very obvious. When given too many options, consumers get lost  and end up leaving without making a purchase - and that's the one thing you want to avoid.
So if you are interested in making money on Squidoo, my tip today is to pick a niche for your Squidoo lenses and write, write, and write some more. Connect your lenses to each other and get several lens' views out of every visitor that comes to your Squidoo lens. Looking forward to hearing about your Squidoo experiences. Please feel free to leave me a comment and a backlink to one of your lenses :)

Squidoo Tips Blog from Katiecolette on Squidoo


 Hi there! I am KatieColette from Squidoo, and I am starting this blog to share my Internet marketing tips, tips for increasing Squidoo lens traffic and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in general.

Image: renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I have been a member of Squidoo for about 9 months, but I didn't realize the potential of Squidoo until about December of 2010 when I read a Squidoo lens about Squidoo Tiers - I am pretty sure that this Squidconomy Lens was the turning point in my Online Marketing career. I will have to admit that I got on the opportunity to publish online content on Squidoo without learning much about the site and the community. I took advantage of publishing a lens without waiting for an Admin approval, added some more content to the lens over the next few days, and, after not seeing much traffic to my lens, left Squidoo for several months. After seeing first Tier 3 lens earnings in my Squidoo account, I did a Squidoo Search on "Squidoo Tiers" and found all the motivation I needed to continue my Squidoo Journey. I started a Squidoo Earnings Diary lens where I have been keeping track of my Squidoo Earnings and my experiments with Squidoo modules, key words, building backlinks, etc. I also joined Wealthy Affiliate University to learn more about Internet marketing and making money online. If you are interested in exploring Blogging, Article Writing, and Web Content Writing as a part-time and full-time career, follow my blog! All Squidoo members are welcome to share Squidoo Experiences. Please feel free to leave a comment related to my post and leave a link to a relevant Squidoo lens. This blog will be a do follow, so once I build up some traffic to this blog, you will have an opportunity to build backlinks to your lenses :)