You may be aware of what Squidoo is an even made use of the site in the past, but did you know that along with being a sort of blogging platform, it can be used as a promotional tool as well?
Squidoo is an easy-to-use online webpage creation site. It is a service on which you can create as many sites as you like on just about any topic you can imagine. You can also use it to promote yourself, your product, or improve your search engine ranking. You can use it as a showcase for almost anything you are offering and to drive traffic to whatever site or blog you are involved in.
Squidoo enjoys a relatively good reputation on Google and other search engines and so getting placement there for your major keywords could be an important source of backlinks and exposure. Used effectively, Squidoo can be just as powerful a tool as traditional search engine optimization. Maybe more so.
The greater number of “hooks” in the water, the better your chances of catching visitors. Think of Squidoo as being another source of those “hooks.” Additionally, if you can get your Squidoo lens listed on Blinklist, Technorati, Del.icio.us, Furl, StumbleUpon, Craigslist and so on, so much the better.
All you need to create a Squidoo lens is to have a certain amount of knowledge on the topic, or to be able to effectively research that topic.
Keep in mind that Squidoo has become very popular with overenthusiastic “bum” marketers in recent years, and so it has had to crack down on certain topics that are a magnet for spammers. The site frowns on such topics as gambling, pharmaceuticals, ringtones, weight loss pills, movie downloading, cash gifting, credit card debt, mortgages, envelope stuffing, currency trading, Regenesis, Forex, get rich quick schemes and affiliate programs that have earned bad reputations. You can see a complete list on Squidoo’s TOS page. Yes, it’s a lot, but it still leaves an awful lot to write about.
Squidoo also greatly favors all-original content. Create a successful lens or set of lenses, however, and it can greatly improve your search engine ranking and positioning.
Squidoo has a revenue-sharing system, in which you get a percentage of any earnings your lenses generate through the use of AdSense, Amazon and other links. In addition, it is not against the rules to place your own affiliate links on your lenses.
The most successful lenses, however, will be those that provide great information that convinces visitors that you know what you are talking about and are not simply some kind of fly-by-night operation. Your lenses shouldn’t appear to exist for the sole purpose of getting people to click your affiliate links, or they could get deleted.
You should keep in mind that neither Squidoo nor visitors to the site are looking for bald-faced advertisements. You will have the best results if you create lenses on subjects that you are interested in and have some knowledge about. In fact, this is what Squidoo advises. If those subjects happen to mesh with the topics of your other marketing efforts, so much the better!
The normal marketing process applies with Squidoo. You can use it to drive visitors to your website where they read about your offers, and hopefully purchase. Of course, your normal money-back guarantee applies. Properly done, it’s a win-win proposition for everyone.
What also applies to Squidoo is the normal search engine optimization methods. This means the proper use of keywords in creating your lens and the addition of plenty of good, unique content.
To get started with Squidoo, you simply sign up for an account and then get started on your first lens. Creating a lens is a fairly easy, step-by-step process, but creating it in the most optimal way for SEO is a bit harder.
Your first couple of lenses will probably be a learning experience. Also remember that Squidoo favors lenses that are regularly updated. Squidoo is not a “set it and forget it” proposition if you wish to get the best results.
If you create enough lenses and become knowledgeable enough about the process, you could succeed in creating a lens that shows up on the first page of Google for your search terms. Do this often enough and you could get a steady stream of traffic to your website or offers.