Squidoo It Yourself
Squidoo It Yourself
Tricks and Techniques for Higher Lens Rankings and
Profitability on Squidoo
Squidoo It Yourself
Other Books & Publications by
Tricks and Techniques for Higher Lens Rankings and Profitability on Squidoo
these authors include:
By Rajesh Setty
- Beyond Code
Dave Pye
- Lasting Relationships
Richard Banfield
- Drawing Horses
- How To Launch a Website on a
Complied and edited by Dan O’Sullivan
Shoestring Budget
- How To Launch a Website on a
Cover design and layout by Fresh Tilled Soil
Shoestring Budget
- Pye In The Face
© Copyright
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License. To
view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/ or send
a letter to Creative Commons, 543 Howard Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, California,
94105, USA.
First Edition - 2006
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Squidoo It Yourself Tricks and Techniques for Higher Lens Rankings and Profitability on Squidoo
Contents
•
Introduction ......................................................................................
5
•
What is Squidoo? ............................................................................
9
•
Disclaimers and other distractions ...........................................
10
•
Getting Started ................................................................................
11
•
Lens Focus .........................................................................................
12
•
Adding Content ...............................................................................
13
•
Creating incoming and Outgoing Links .................................
13
•
The Roll of Blogs in Your Lenses ................................................
14
•
Other Peoples Lenses and You ...................................................
14
•
Freshness and Frequency .............................................................
15
•
Using RSS Feeds ...............................................................................
16
•
Multiple Lens Strategies ...............................................................
16
•
Graphics and Images .....................................................................
17
•
Biography ..........................................................................................
19
•
Shopping Modules ........................................................................
22
•
Search Engine Optimization ......................................................
26
•
Conclusion ........................................................................................
29
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Squidoo It Yourself Tricks and Techniques for Higher Lens Rankings and Profitability on Squidoo
What is this book about?
Squidoo It Yourself is
Squidoo is quickly turning into one of the most talked about communities on the web.
a collection of traf-
Although Squidoo and SquidU feature a wealth of information on this rapidly evolving
fic-building tips,
tool, the founders of SquidooItYourself wanted to build a site with objective, third-party,
module tricks,
and useful opinions. SIY is a collection of traffic-building tips, module tricks, ebooks and
money making-strategies from Squidoo fans and leading lensmasters will help you build
ebooks and money
a lens that stands out from the pack.
making-strategies
from Squidoo fans
and leading lensmas-
ters will help you
build a lens that
stands out from the
pack.
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Squidoo It Yourself Tricks and Techniques for Higher Lens Rankings and Profitability on Squidoo
Introduction
I look after my more
By Dave Pye
than 50 Squidoo
lenses covering topics
OK, I'll admit it: I'm a Squidoo addict, and I'm considering counseling to get this small sea
such as Dean
creature off my back.
Martin, "Blade
By day I make a living as a search engine marketing consultant. In my free time I look
Runner," Irish pubs
after my more than 50 Squidoo lenses covering topics such as Dean Martin, "Blade
Runner," Irish pubs in Boston, hockey fights, dog sweater patterns and, well, I could go
in Boston, hockey
on. Let's just say I have eclectic tastes.
fights, dog sweater
As of this writing, two of my lenses about TV shows sit comfortably in the Squidoo Top
patterns and, well, I
100 Most Visited: Trailer Park Boys: Welcome to Sunnyvale! and Bada Bing - The Sopranos
could go on. Let's
Central. Each gets roughly 350 hits a week.
just say I have eclec-
Google recently listed the TPB lens at #24 for the term, which is pretty cool. As a result,
tic tastes.
I've worked on it a lot lately — sort of like buying new drapes before your parents come
to visit. Since this lens looks pretty good right now, I'd like to walk you through it and
explain what makes it work. Visit http://www.squidoo.com/trailerparkboys/ open 'er up
and we'll begin.
I'll run down the lens from top to bottom, making a few comments along the way. First,
the introduction. Always put some time into your intro; don't just copy and paste it from
5
Squidoo It Yourself Tricks and Techniques for Higher Lens Rankings and Profitability on Squidoo
somewhere else. Use a photo, and make sure your text is at least as long as the graphic. I
tried to make the TPB intro funny. And, as many folks don't know much about the show, I
Amazon Lenses allow
inserted a few interesting snippets to entice them to keep reading.
you to specify order
I like to use "Write" modules wherever possible, as this is where you can write original
and write blurbs
content and include photos. The next module down (Who in the Frig …) features a
about whatever you
photo of TPB's main characters and a show synopsis. These modules should also include
want to sell. Take the
external links, which seem to boost Lens Rank.
time to pick the
Amazon Lenses (see Watch the TPB on DVD!) allow you to specify order and write blurbs
order; don't just let
about whatever you want to sell. Take the time to pick the order; don't just let Amazon
decide. Also, choose your items with care and write unique summaries, like I did here for
Amazon decide.
each of the TPB DVDs.
Also, choose your
Next we have another Write module containing a photo and links to an external TPB
items with care and
FAQ. I also included a quote, as quotes are great content for lenses. You can have a mod-
write unique sum-
ule devoted to them, or spread them throughout, like I do in my Sopranos lens. Trivia is
maries, like I did
another fun item for lenses, and if you include trivia in a Write module, you can add
another photo, too.
here for each of the
TPB DVDs.
After that is another Amazon lens, this time for TPB Posters. If Amazon has different
types of products devoted to the same subject, split them up into separate modules and
spread them out. Another word on items for sale and descriptions: It will be well worth
your while to customize the revenue-generating modules, as visitors will appreciate the
effort and in turn be more likely to buy.
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Squidoo It Yourself Tricks and Techniques for Higher Lens Rankings and Profitability on Squidoo
Link modules (see TPB Websites) are probably the most popular type around. My best
Get creative with
piece of advice is to (painstakingly) write good, funny and evocative text for everything
Write modules;
you include. Visitors will welcome accurate descriptions of the links you provide, and
that good karma may earn you a sale or at least a good star rating!
quotes, quizzes,
chords, trivia, etc.
The CafePress module (see TPB Apparel) is great because their site has lots of TPB-relat-
are all fair game. The
ed schwag. The images here help liven up the lens and add more skimmable content. As
with the Amazon modules, be sure to customize where you can. One word of caution:
idea is to get your
I've seen these shirt designs go from relevant to completely non-related from day-to-
audience interested
day. To avoid this from happening you need to hardlink to the right products directly
from the module. This can be done in the options settings in each module.
enough o stick
around for a while
Up next is another Write module, with guitar chords to the show's infamous "Liquor and
Whores" song. I even found a photo of two of the characters playing their guitars to add
and get hooked on
to the mix. Get creative with Write modules; quotes, quizzes, chords, trivia, etc. are all fair
the content.
game. The idea is to get your audience interested enough o stick around for a while and
get hooked on the content. This either leads to them giving the lens a good lensrank,
bookmarking it or referring it to a friend.
Keep in mind that RSS feeds are your friend. For TPB News, I pull in any news article from
Yahoo that contains the phrase "Trailer Park Boys." You can customize Yahoo news feeds
for absolutely anything by visiting http://news.yahoo.com/rss . I love this feed and use it
in all my lenses.
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Squidoo It Yourself Tricks and Techniques for Higher Lens Rankings and Profitability on Squidoo
Flickr modules (see TPB Pictures) are great fun, especially if there's an abundance of
related subject matter accurately tagged back at the main site. But as with CafePress
It's best to link to a
modules, relevancy can fluctuate. It's best to link to a specific photo set or one photo at
specific photo set or
a time to ensure you're always displaying the best content for your lens.
one photo at a time
My lens wraps up with another Write module with some trivia thrown in this time (see
to ensure you're
Take the TPB Quiz!).
always displaying the
I hope this little review has been helpful and given you a few ideas to take back to your
best content for your
own lenses. And I encourage you to spend some time with this e-Book to learn more
lens.
about the little hobby that has become my obsession (and perhaps yours, too). Happy
Squidooing!
Yours,
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Squidoo It Yourself Tricks and Techniques for Higher Lens Rankings and Profitability on Squidoo
What is Squidoo?
Wikipedia has the
“If you build it, they will learn.” - A Squidoo mantra.
following descrip-
tion, “Squidoo is a
First things first - what the heck is a Squidoo? It isn’t a snowmobile that can drive on
commercial website
water. At it’s simplest, Squidoo has been called a sort of MySpace (www.myspace.com)
for adults. While that analogy is becoming popular, and it’s oh so clever, it couldn’t be
launched in October
less accurate.
2005. It is a plat-
Wikipedia has the following description,“Squidoo is a commercial website launched in
form designed to
October 2005. It is a platform designed to make it easy for anyone to teach others about
make it easy for any-
topics they care about.”
one to teach others
The official word from the site’s
about topics they
about page is that Squidoo is
care about.”
an “… online platform that
makes it easy for anyone to
build lenses on topics they are
passionate about. These lenses
help you find a unique, human
perspective on things that
interest you… fast. Not only
can Lensmasters spread their
ideas, get recognized for their
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Squidoo It Yourself Tricks and Techniques for Higher Lens Rankings and Profitability on Squidoo
expertise, and send more traffic to their Web sites and blogs—they could also earn roy-
alties.” Former luddites can become instant online authorities and the possibilities are
We do not suggest
astounding. Over 20,000 lenses and 8,000 lens masters currently make up the network,
that Squidoo is a
and there is no end in sight.
soup-to-nuts answer
The private Squidoo beta launched in October, and already some of the earliest lenses
to increasing your
have Google Page Rank and are pulling in significant search keyword referrals from
credibility, web traf-
major engines. Google’s affinity for Squidoo is especially noteworthy, and many search
engine marketers and optimizers are taking notice. And it’s official: In a recent interview
fic or Google rank-
at SXSW, Squidoo’s Senior Director of Community Development - Heath Row - was quick
ings. We see the site
to point out the rate at which new lenses have been getting indexed. Listen to the full
interview here.
as a component to a
larger web marketing
So a lens can be a lot more than a shortcut for searchers to subject matter on a focused
topic. From an SEO standpoint, it can also serve as a shortcut to getting newer websites
strategy.
indexed by search engines who regularly crawl, and give credence to, Squidoo’s growing
network. Make lenses for your clients, your company, or anything you are passionate
about. It’s the next big thing in so many ways.
Disclaimers and other distractions
Squidoo as a marketing device
We do not suggest that Squidoo is a soup-to-nuts answer to increasing your credibility,
web traffic or Google rankings. We see the site as a component to a larger web market-
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Squidoo It Yourself Tricks and Techniques for Higher Lens Rankings and Profitability on Squidoo
ing strategy. In our experience Squidoo has the capabilities of increasing all these things
your performance on search engines will always be a factor of the particular search
Creating a Squidoo
engines algorithm and the inherent credibility behind the lens.
lens is remarkably
Squidoo as the de-facto source of information
easy from a technical
Fortunately for you, most of the really awful lenses will sink to the bottom of the peer
standpoint, but that
reviews so as to be out of sight to most visitors. There will be some lenses that by sheer
doesn't mean you
brute force remain popular and highly ranked.
should avoid putting
Getting Started
some honest thought
into what your sub-
Creating a Squidoo lens is remarkably easy from a technical standpoint, but that doesn't
ject matter will be.
mean you should avoid putting some honest thought into what your subject matter will
be.
The Internet is littered with the bones of half-finished ideas and abandoned projects. So
before you even begin, ask yourself: Is this lens going to be something you're still work-
ing on and maintaining in a month? If you're not positively certain, you should probably
build a lens about something else.
If you decide to move forward, creating a lens is simple — just register for an account
and review the easy-to-follow directions. As you begin working on your lens, keep in
mind these observations on some of the more basic modules and the different ways
they can be used.
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Squidoo It Yourself Tricks and Techniques for Higher Lens Rankings and Profitability on Squidoo
Lens Focus
The more relevant
and useful the infor-
More is more. When it comes to Squidoo lenses, it would appear that more content is
better for your ranking. There is a practical consideration here, but as with all websites
mation in your
and blogs - relevancy is the key. The more relevant and useful the information in your
Squidoo lens, the
Squidoo lens, the more likely it will come up in the lens search and also be indexed by
more likely it will
Google, Yahoo, MSN and other engines.
come up in the lens
search and also be
indexed by Google,
Yahoo, MSN and
other engines.
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Squidoo It Yourself Tricks and Techniques for Higher Lens Rankings and Profitability on Squidoo
If your lens is nothing more than self-promotion, or an Amazon Module farm, then it will
be ignored and discredited with poor star ratings. If your topic is on blogging, for exam-
Unless your lens is
ple, a rapidly changing content-management environment, you will need to ensure the
deliberately archiving
postings are frequent and up-to-date. There is no value in creating a lens that is purely a
placeholder for arcane facts or a shallow affiliate revenue play.
content, you will
want to write origi-
Adding Content
nal material whenev-
er possible.
Unless your lens is deliberately archiving content, you will want to write original material
whenever possible. This content might take several forms. One method is to feed your
own blog postings into the lens via an RSS feed. This provides fresh content on a regular
basis, without any additional effort from you on the Squidoo side.
Other shortcuts to building significant original Squidoo content include posting previ-
ous articles you have written into your lenses. Our only caution here is that you will
probably want to make these postings an introduction to the article, rather than repost-
ing the entire article itself. Although there is no limit to the amount of content you can
add to your lens, it will become difficult to read and cluttered with longer, intact articles.
Our suggestion is to write a short abstract of the article and then link to it elsewhere -
using the text link module - to an instance of the full piece hosted on another site or
blog.
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Squidoo It Yourself Tricks and Techniques for Higher Lens Rankings and Profitability on Squidoo
Creating incoming and Outgoing Links
Interlinking lenses
Community is a key component in the development of the Squidoo site. Many reviewers
provides the advan-
have compared it to established online gathering places like Friendster, Wikipedia and
tage of keeping visi-
MySpace. The more interlinking lenses within Squidoo, the more likely visitors will con-
tor attention focused
tinue to travel within the main domain. This provides the advantage of keeping visitor
attention focused inside of Squidoo while allowing you to create loops and relationships
inside of Squidoo
between your lenses and those of your friends.
while allowing you
And don't forget to "look out for #1," as they say. If you're making a résumé-type lens all
to create loops and
about yourself, your profession, your interests, etc., then make sure to build a link list
relationships
containing all your other lenses. This will help these lenses to get spidered by search
engines and keep people who enjoy your work browsing your Squidoo pages.
between your lenses
and those of your
The Roll of Blogs and Your Lenses
friends.
RSS feed modules from news sites or blogs related to your topic are a great source of
frequently updated content. It's easy to find at least one that is somehow related to your
lens. You can even tailor feeds (e.g., Yahoo! News RSS) to specific keywords of your
choosing.
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Squidoo It Yourself Tricks and Techniques for Higher Lens Rankings and Profitability on Squidoo
Using Other’s Lenses to Build Your
As your lens evolves
Rankings
and the number of
visitors grows, it’s
I have it on good authority, and through a lot of trial and error, that one of the main
important to keep
facets of Squidoo’s lens rank system is based on outgoing links. One of the few places
you can create custom A Tag links is within the text module. The text module is probably
true to the medium
my favorite, because you can also add a graphic and use a few other HTML tags. Links
if you are to contin-
you create yourself, as opposed to outgoing links from Flickr, Amazon or Superstore
ue to attract readers
modules, account for the lion’s share of the ranking algorithm.
and keep them com-
To see this in practice, visit the lens I created for one of my favorite bands, the Happy
ing back.
Mondays, and scroll down to the trivia section at the very bottom. After I gathered the
content, using HTML I manually linked to sites related to the individual questions.
Although this lens is quite good, it was buried in the rankings for weeks. After I added all
the outgoing links it shot up thousands to it’s current rank of #250. The proof is in the
pudding.
How Does Freshness Affect Your Score?
As your lens evolves and the number of visitors grows, it’s important to keep true to the
medium if you are to continue to attract readers and keep them coming back. The diffi-
cult thing with a lens or blog is you are literally as good as your last post – if visitors scan
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Squidoo It Yourself Tricks and Techniques for Higher Lens Rankings and Profitability on Squidoo
the first post and it is of no interest,
they will move on rapidly without real-
Why not divide your
ly exploring the site. If you are using
subject or topic into
your lens like a blog then around 300
words is good for a posting. Not too
more than one lens?
long, something that can be easily
It’s easy enough to
read in 1 minute.
link them to each
other, and the rela-
Using RSS Feeds
tionships will assist
The Yahoo! News RSS feed is the best kept secret so far for Squidoo’s RSS module. The
in drawing visitors,
feed looks amazing when translated, as opposed to Google News which looks absolutely
getting the lenses
terrible. The articles don’t double up, and the 100 word excerpts look like you painstak-
ingly wrote them yourself.
indexed and eventu-
ally even Google
The best part is yet to come - the feeds are completely customizable. You can create an
page rank or link
RSS feed, which is fully compatible with Squidoo, simply by typing in your desired key-
words. Be sure to visit the feed customization page and bookmark it immediately (scroll
proliferation.
down to get to the form). I am currently using it on my Sopranos, Chris Farley and Dave
Chappelle lenses if you’d like to see some examples. Happy RSSing!
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Squidoo It Yourself Tricks and Techniques for Higher Lens Rankings and Profitability on Squidoo
Multiple Lens Strategies
A lens on your
Lenses can get real big - real fast. People tend to consider web pages that scroll down
favorite author is a
forever as being sub-par. It’s been ingrained into negative perception right along with
great idea, but you
frames and anchor tags. So if you find the size of your Squidoo lens spiraling out of con-
could also consider
trol, you may want to consider the possibility you’ve bitten off too much content for a
single lens.
making separate ones
which branch off for
So why not divide your subject or topic into more
than one lens? It’s easy enough to link them to each
each of her books.
other, and the relationships will assist in drawing visi-
It’s OK if you can’t
tors, getting the lenses indexed and eventually even
Google page rank or link proliferation. You can build a
fit all of your ideas
lens on the three Stooges - but there’s more than
into one Squidoo
enough information available out there to warrant a
lens when there’s no
lens on Curly Moe and Larry separately. A lens on your
favorite author is a great idea, but you could also con-
limit to the amount
sider making separate ones which branch off for each
you can make and
of her books. It’s OK if you can’t fit all of your ideas into one Squidoo lens when there’s
no limit to the amount you can make and share!
share!
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Squidoo It Yourself Tricks and Techniques for Higher Lens Rankings and Profitability on Squidoo
Graphics and Images
I have been experi-
White Backgrounds on Your Lens
menting with using
Images
custom borders on
If you’re using a photo for your intro,
several of my lenses,
or in a text module, I’ve found that
editing the graphic so it has a main
using the same
subject on a white background looks
orange color which
really good within the Squidoo
design. Depending on your search, Google images will often return many pre-made
dominates the
examples. So look for images that have white backgrounds, or create them yourself with
Squidoo template.
PS or Fireworks for a cool effect. Here are some examples on lenses I’ve built:
• I think the photo of Angelina Jolie in the trivia section on white looks really cool.
The exact number of
I found that as-is.
the shade is:
• For my Sopranos lens, the group photo graphic I found as-is with the white
#FF9900.
backdrop.
• On my lens dedicated to the TV series The Office, I took the color out of the cari-
cature of Ricky Gervais background near the bottom.
Photoshop’s ‘magic eraser’ tool makes it incredibly easy to drop the color or background
from an image in order to make it white. Click and hold the eraser icon until more selec-
tions pop up. That’s where you’ll find it.
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Squidoo It Yourself Tricks and Techniques for Higher Lens Rankings and Profitability on Squidoo
Stroking Your Images Makes Them
Nothing says "avoid
Happy
me" like a lens with-
out a bio. The entire
Your friendly neighborhood graphic editing
Squidoo site is dedi-
tool will have a border or ‘stroke‘ ability as it is
called in Photoshop. I have been experiment-
cated to experts and
ing with using custom borders on several of
what we can learn
my lenses, using the same orange color which
dominates the Squidoo template. The exact
from them.
number of the shade is: #FF9900.
I think that adding an orange border makes the images appear more seamless with the
overall design, and I really enjoy using the effect. So far, I have implemented it my Happy
Mondays and Beta Band related lenses. See if you agree, and did you know that
absolutely no word in the English language rhymes with Orange? Food for thought - lit-
erally.
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Squidoo It Yourself Tricks and Techniques for Higher Lens Rankings and Profitability on Squidoo
Your Biographies and Profiles
Squidoo is a com-
Nothing says "avoid me" like a lens without a
munity, and the way
bio. The entire Squidoo site is dedicated to
this community
experts and what we can learn from them.
grows is through the
Setting up a lens without a substantive bio is
like submitting a résumé to a headhunter
same human connec-
without your name on top. So make sure to
tions that make
update the placeholder information to which
Squidoo defaults.
other networks come
together - authentic
Keep in mind, however, that your bio is not a
résumé. Copying and pasting your résumé into
communication and
the profile section will come across as imper-
stories.
sonal and stuffy.
Squidoo is a community, and the way this community grows is through the same
human connections that make other networks come together — authentic communica-
tion and stories. Your bio should give readers a reason to trust you and get to know
who's behind the lens. We're not suggesting you share your hygiene habits with your
readers, but let them meet the person beyond the boring details like education and
hobbies.
If your lens is a professional or work-related site, it's always a good idea to discuss the
20
Squidoo It Yourself Tricks and Techniques for Higher Lens Rankings and Profitability on Squidoo
Google, Yahoo and
other search engines
index your bio info,
so someone search-
ing for your name or
company likely will
come across your
Squidoo bio in the
natural search sec-
tion of the results.
things that make you an expert. For example, if your day job involves developing web-
sites, you should mention the number of years you've been in the field and one or two
milestones that justify calling yourself an expert. In addition, listing professional affilia-
tions or memberships will help you connect with others in the Squidoo community
looking for friends or fellow members from affiliations or clubs.
“I love Dave's bio, which he updates frequently with a combination of professional infor-
21
Squidoo It Yourself Tricks and Techniques for Higher Lens Rankings and Profitability on Squidoo
mation and hilarious garbage you'll come back to read again. Here's his latest:
Like most of the
“The one serious conviction that a man should have is that nothing is to be taken too seri-
other money gener-
ously.”
ating lenses, the
- Nicholas Butler
products displayed
Dave’s Squidoo Bio: David James Pye - reasonable blogger, self-important humorist,
are triggered by key-
fledgling lensmaster, damn good Search Engine Marketing consultant and all around
narcissistic pain in the keister. His passion for internet purveyance, hockey, Greek food
words of your
and Boston is eclipsed only by his outstanding warrants for international vagrancy.
choice.
Read on - and Godspeed.
Search and Link Considerations
Google, Yahoo and other search engines index your bio info, so someone searching for
your name or company likely will come across your Squidoo bio in the natural search
section of the results. This might be good news or bad news for you depending on how
"part-time" your lens stewardship is. If you're in a corporate job, you might have to filter
your content through the lens of your position and employee responsibilities. Good luck
with that one.
If you write your bio in HTML, you can highlight certain things you want to bring to the
reader's attention. HTML also lets you give the bio a more formatted look and add links
to other web pages, blogs, resources and email. I've even seen a Google search box
22
Squidoo It Yourself Tricks and Techniques for Higher Lens Rankings and Profitability on Squidoo
included in a lensmaster bio.
CafePress has its
Your Photo
highlights and low-
lights as a market-
Let's be frank: Not all lensmasters need to be seen by the public. If you have a good pic-
place, but paired
ture of your mug and believe it's worth sharing, then please go ahead. If on the other
with the right sub-
hand your identity needs to be kept secret, a nice little piece of stock art will do. Squidoo
does a pretty good job of resizing oversized images, but it's always a good idea to save
ject matter it may
your photo for the web (72 dpi is considered the standard).
just compliment
your Squidoo lens
Shopping Modules
nicely.
eBay
Heath, Seth and the team keep
coming fast and furious with brand
new module additions. The latest
being a live wire right into eBay list-
ings related to your lens. Like most
of the other money generating
lenses, the products displayed are
triggered by keywords of your
choice. I have been testing the eBay
module with many of my lenses over the last few days, and I have some initial observa-
23
Squidoo It Yourself Tricks and Techniques for Higher Lens Rankings and Profitability on Squidoo
tions.
One thing I decided
It can throw your design off with unsuitably large font sizes. This doesn’t always occur,
early on in my
but on several lenses it blew out the right hand margins due to the obese product title
size. I’m sure this has been documented and will be remedied.
Squidooing, was to
be careful about
I couldn’t link to individual
where I place any
auctions without errors. Like
the Amazon module, you can
Amazon lenses and
let the AI pick or enter in spe-
how long I make
cific product numbers and
custom descriptions. So far, I
them. If you feature
haven’t been able to link to
more than say 3
specific auctions properly. I
will undoubtedly keep trying.
products per mod-
ule, it looks like sell-
You have to put a lot of faith into the AI due to the short life spans of most of the auc-
ing stuff is the only
tions. I don’t foresee a lot of people investing the time needed to link to a specific auc-
tion and write a unique description if there are only 12 hours left until bids close. So far,
reason you’ve built
the modules auto-choices leave a lot to be desired. But, of course, it depends on how
the lens in the first
general or specific your keywords are. Also, for some reason the AI tends to choose items
with no photo, leaving an ugly placeholder.
place.
A great addition to Squidoo, which has a little growing up to do yet. Ambitious, and full
of future promise.
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Squidoo It Yourself Tricks and Techniques for Higher Lens Rankings and Profitability on Squidoo
CafePress
Don’t be afraid to
CafePress has its highlights and lowlights as a marketplace, but paired with the right
have more than one
subject matter it may just compliment your Squidoo lens nicely. Seth writes on
Squidooblog:“Not yet announced to the public at large is our hot-off-the-press module
Amazon module. If
with CafePress. It uses CP’s new, powerful TopicAds program so you can feature the lat-
you have a lens
est and greatest CP designs right on your lens.” An exciting prospect, to say the least.
about your favorite
I played with the CP module quite a bit last night, adding it to over ten of my lenses -
with varying degrees of success. Here are a few observations for those of you who
sporting team, for
haven’t kicked the tires on it yet:
example, and lots of
• Pro: Huge inventory of products to potentially feature and sell through your lens.
content - you can
• Con: You can’t target specific products - you’re at the mercy of “TopicAds” - which
have a lens for
isn’t very intuitive at present.
• Pro: The custom made graphic designs and multiple items make for a huge
books, a lens for
selection of hats, shirts, mousepads, coffee mugs, pillows etc. to feature.
DVDs and a lens for
• Con: The custom made designs are also often quite awful.
apparel
• Pros: The wide breadth of subject matter increases the likelihood of relevant
niche products to sell on your lens.
• Cons: Again, the wide breadth of subject matter allows for an awful lot of crap.
I think this module has a lot of potential, but currently it is quite buggy (often only
returning the CP logo) and I won’t be using it on a considerable scale until you can tar-
get specific designs and products. But when it gets to that level of detail, it will be a ter-
rific module.
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Squidoo It Yourself Tricks and Techniques for Higher Lens Rankings and Profitability on Squidoo
Amazon
One thing I decided early on in my Squidooing, was to be careful about where I place
Make sure you have
any Amazon lenses and how long I make them. I’ve sold 2 sets of DVDs in the last week,
content modules
so I must be doing something right. See if you agree:
underneath your
• First of all, keep your Amazon modules short. If you feature more than say 3
Amazon section so
products per module, it looks like selling stuff is the only reason you’ve built the lens in
people will have to
the first place. It detracts from the lenses’ credibility and appears a bit disingenuous in
my opinion.
scroll down in order
• Don’t be afraid to have more than one Amazon module. If you have a lens about
to see all of the text,
your favorite sporting team, for example, and lots of content - you can have a lens for
books, a lens for DVDs and a lens for apparel - but spread them out around the page and
photos, RSS etc. It’s
separate them with good content. This is much better looking and better perceived than
kinda comparable to
one long module with a big load of products.
• Many of the lenses I have browsed have their Amazon or SuperStore modules on
the ‘impulse buy’
the very bottom of their page. People aren’t coming to your lens to look at products. If,
P.O.S. you see in
however, they see something they like while they are there - that’s when a sale will hap-
supermarkets.
pen. Make sure you have content modules underneath your Amazon section so people
will have to scroll down in order to see all of the text, photos, RSS etc. It’s kinda compara-
ble to the ‘impulse buy’ P.O.S. you see in supermarkets.“Well, I wasn’t planning on buying
a copy of the Enquirer, but since I’m stuck here in the checkout line…”You get the pic-
ture.
Amazon modules are quite clever, and often return the perfect results in relation to your
lenses’ subject matter. What it does not do, however, is provide any sort of a product
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Squidoo It Yourself Tricks and Techniques for Higher Lens Rankings and Profitability on Squidoo
description. If you choose to make a custom selection using product ASIN numbers, you
can also write your own blurb about the item.
The private Squidoo
beta launched in
Are you trying to sell books? Provide a syn-
opsis or info on the author or any awards it
October 2005, and
has won. DVDs? How about a plot summary,
already some of the
details on special features or running time.
earliest lenses have
Sell the item via the language that you use.
Actively endorse and convince your visitors
Google PageRank
based on your hand-written kudos and testi-
and are pulling in
monials. It works.
significant search
And obviously, all of these rules can also
keyword referrals
apply to the SuperStore modules.
from major engines.
Search Engine Optimization
The official word from the horse's mouth is that Squidoo is an "online platform that
makes it easy for anyone to build lenses on topics they are passionate about. These lens-
es help you find a unique, human perspective on things that interest you … fast. Not
only can Lensmasters spread their ideas, get recognized for their expertise, and send
more traffic to their Web sites and blogs—they could also earn royalties."
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Squidoo It Yourself Tricks and Techniques for Higher Lens Rankings and Profitability on Squidoo
Squidoo was once heralded as a way for less techni-
cal individuals to get in on, and make a little money
If you have had a
from, affiliate marketing. Eight months into its exis-
lens for a while you
tence, the most that a single lens has ever made in a
30-day period is about $30. So the dreams of riches
will notice that your
are on hold, and some people are losing interest in
rankings are never
the platform. We happen to think this is a good
static. We suspect
thing because it seems to be weeding out those
lensmasters who only create lenses as a misunder-
this is due to several
stood get-rich-quick scheme. But Squidoo's true
factors, the most
benefit to web marketers may still be realized.
important being that
The private Squidoo beta launched in October
Squidoo is still grow-
2005, and already some of the earliest lenses have
Google PageRank and are pulling in significant
ing and thus in a
search keyword referrals from major engines.
dynamic state of
Google's affinity for Squidoo is especially notewor-
flux.
thy, and many search engine marketers and opti-
mizers are taking notice. In fact, at a recent inter-
view at SXSW, Squidoo senior director of communi-
ty development Heath Row was quick to point out
the rate at which new lenses have been getting indexed.
So a lens can be a lot more than a shortcut to subject matter on a focused topic. From
an SEO standpoint, it can also serve as a shortcut to getting newer websites indexed by
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Squidoo It Yourself Tricks and Techniques for Higher Lens Rankings and Profitability on Squidoo
search engines that regularly crawl — and give credence to — Squidoo's growing net-
work. Make lenses for your clients, your company, or anything you are passionate about.
It’s generally con-
At the end of the day, it's another one-way, incoming link from a network Google seems
firmed in SEO
to be playing nice with.
(Search Engine
Having said that you may have
Optimization) circles
noticed that your rankings are all over
that Google and
the place from one day to the next? If
you have had a lens for a while you
other search engines
will notice that your rankings are
are more likely to
never static. We suspect this is due to
several factors, the most important
accurately index a
being that Squidoo is still growing
URL that contains
and thus in a dynamic state of flux.
This roller coaster ride is partly due to
hyphens as opposed
the freshness of the lens content. We
to underscores.
believe that the recent and frequent
update of the content helps preserve a high ranking although we have no hard evi-
dence of this yet. Other factors likely include:
• Lens size, number of modules, etc.
• Traffic - both internal and referral.
• The number of outgoing text links.
• The star ranking (how other lensmasters have voted for you).
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Squidoo It Yourself Tricks and Techniques for Higher Lens Rankings and Profitability on Squidoo
We’re very interested to hear from others what they think reasons for lens rank ups and
downs might be - and what new factors are on the horizon for the algorithm?
It’s generally confirmed in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) circles that Google and
other search engines are more likely to accurately index a URL that contains hyphens as
opposed to underscores. So, if you want to build a lens on say foam rubber yoga mats -
and squidoo.com/foamrubberyogamats is taken - you’re better off using:
• squidoo.com/foam-rubber-yoga-mats
• and NOT squidoo.com/foam_rubber_yoga_mats
According to Google engineer Matt Cutts:“Google doesn’t algorithmically penalize for
dashes in the url.” So if your perfect lens name is already taken, don’t fret. You heard it
straight from the horse’s mouth. The underscore is dead! Long live the hyphen.
Conclusion
It’s unclear just how successful the Squidoo concept will be. There are certainly a lot of
lensmasters and visitors to the lenses but it might be a little too early to bet on the suc-
cess of the idea. As with any revolutionary idea the innovators and early adopters have
arrived in droves. The next step will be for the early adopters to encourage their friends
and colleagues to discover what they already know. This might take a little time but
given the fact that Google indexes the lenses so quickly we believe these pages will be
found by many more. With more traffic comes the possibility of more clicks and
purchases.
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Squidoo It Yourself Tricks and Techniques for Higher Lens Rankings and Profitability on Squidoo
So keep them fresh and tell your friends. We look forward to seeing where this strange
sea creature takes us.
Contacting the Authors
Rajesh Setty - http://blog.lifebeyondcode.com
Dave Pye - http://www.davepye.com
Richard Banfield - http://www.freshtilledsoil.com
Shameless Self Promotion
Fresh Tilled Soil is an experienced team of sales, marketing, and design experts passion-
ate about building high growth and meaningful businesses. We believe that every busi-
ness has the potential to be great. We have discovered that businesses can achieve great
things by getting the basics right. And that's harder than you think!
Why Are We Called Fresh Tilled Soil?
We see every business leader as a farmer approaching his fields in the spring with the
challenge,“how will I get a great crop from this patch of soil.” Each year the farmer has to
extract the best crop from a limited resource. Only the most primitive farmers slash and
31
Squidoo It Yourself Tricks and Techniques for Higher Lens Rankings and Profitability on Squidoo
burn in their pursuit of new growth. Businesses are the same, you’re either extracting
exceptional value out of your existing customers or you’re leaving behind a trail of
ashes. Are you a slash and burn or a long-term farmer? By tilling the soil you already
have, i.e. your existing customers, you can achieve far more than you would by abandon-
ing them in pursuit of the elusive new customer.
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Squidoo It Yourself Tricks and Techniques for Higher Lens Rankings and Profitability on Squidoo
