9 Questions About “Squidoo Still Work for Affiliate Marketing?
The following post is originally from email potpie girl sent to me,I found it’s so helpful for people who are struggling on using squidoo to make money online.
1. Should We Boycott Squidoo?
Boy, apparently I was really mis-understood on my last blog post.To clear things up, I made a new post here:
http://www.potpiegirl.com/2009/08/should-we-boycott-squidoo-part-2/
If you want the short answer – my personal answer is, “No”
2. How Can I Get Links on My Squidoo Lens?
To do this, you need to use a little bit of HTML.Now, don’t freak out on me, it’s really pretty simple. Here are two posts on my blog that will walk you thru it:
http://www.potpiegirl.com/2008/06/how-to-make-live-links-for-squidoo-page/
http://www.potpiegirl.com/2009/03/making-word-links-squidoo-video/
3. How Can I Link My Lenses Together on Squidoo?
Squidoo offers a module called “Featured Lenses” – just do a quick search of the Squidoo modules and you will see it. Add that module to your lens, open it to edit, then add which lenses you would like to feature on that lens. Then click save =)
4. How Can I Make Multiple Lenses on a Small Topic?
For those following One Week Marketing, this can be a tough one when starting out.
It’s great to have many lenses around a certain topic, BUT it is NOT great to have many lenses that say the same thing. I’ve said it many times before, and I’ll keep on saying it…FORUMS are a great place to research and find out what people want to know about a topic or product. Lenses that answer people’s questions do very well.
They also breed trust that the person writing the lens and recommending a product or service knows what they are talking about.
I know trying to come up with things to talk about for a very small market – say a single product – can be a bit daunting at first.So, let’s say you are trying to promote a very specific product….Type the product into Google, click to search…
Now, look at the top left of Google and choose ‘Web Options’ When that opens, isolate your search to ‘forums’.
You can also isolate your search to just ‘reviews’.
Between these two places, I bet you will be able to find a good bit of info and brain-storming ideas for things to write about.
Remember, if ONE person takes the time to ask it in a forum and wait for an answer, there are most likely MANY people who want to know the same thing.
5. If I have lenses that aren’t doing well – or doing anything at all – should I delete them?
To me, this is a personal choice, but if you ask my opinion, I would say no, do not delete them. I have had lenses out there for months that did NOTHING.Then, suddenly, something changed and they started to work for me.
Bottom line is, you never know. If the lens has been online for over a year, you could consider giving it the boot – but not any time before that.
6. Why the heck do I have green underlined links on my lens? I didn’t put them there.
Those are called “info links” and they are another way that Squidoo is testing to monetize the site.You can opt out of using these info links – BUT, you will not be able to share in the revenue these links produce for the Squidoo site.To opt out, open your lens, look down the right side bar for “Lens Settings”, open it and click to “opt out of text link ads”.Click apply and republish.I believe you can also opt out for all your lenses from your main dashboard profile area, too.
7. How Can I Add an Image/Picture To My Lens?
Complete instructions (with pictures) can be found here:
http://www.potpiegirl.com/2009/06/add-clickable-image-to-squidoo-lens/
8. Just a quick question regarding wordpress and it’s plugins:
I see that I get notifications on the admin page, regarding wordpress and wordpress plugin upgrades … now with one or two sites, that’s not a problem, and it’s easy to update/upgrade ….but with 20, 30 or more sites … do you keep all of them updated, or don’t you worry about updates after the site is created?
Oh, I hear ya… it can be quite an over-whelming task when trying to keep everything updated from each individual Wordpress dashboard!
I have a LOT of blogs…. a LOT. It has gotten to be a major task just to stay on top of each blog… and very time-consuming having to log in to each individual blog.
I haven’t talked about this yet publicly, but I have been testing a new blog management/creation/promotion software.
This thing is AWESOME.
Like 2 clicks to create your blog – WITH all the plug ins WITH an optimized theme. A couple more clicks to get content on your blog and keep content posting to your blog. Very cool ways inside the program to promote your blogs…the whole enchilada.
BUT, it also lets you update any plug in on any of your blogs right from the main blog management page.
As in, update all plugins that need updating on all my blogs with one click.
I am really, really happy with this software so far. I have created 4 new blogs that are all indexed and getting traffic in no time.
AND, they are already making me money =)
Sooner or later, I will talk about this software in more depth, but if you are interested in knowing what I am testing and falling in love with, go ahead and take a peek:
http://www.potpiegirl.com/more_about/blog-management-software/
If you’re into making WordPress niche sites, you will think this software is cooler than sliced bread, too.
9. How Can I Get My Lens Indexed By Google?
I get a lot of questions about this…
Here’s the thing – Google WANTS to find your new lens or web page and get it in their index.
That is what Google does and what Google prides itself on.
But sometimes… ok, many times, you can’t just make a web page and hope that Google finds it all by itself.
You need to help Google find your new lens or web page.
Google finds web pages by following links. In order for Google to find YOUR web page or lens, you need to get links TO your lens or web page in places where Google hangs out looking for new links to follow.
Google “hangs out” at RSS directories and blogs and as a general rule, at high Page Rank sites.
Take EzineArticles.com, for example…
Google is just about always hanging out at the EzineArticles home page. When a new article is published, the link to that article is listed on EA’s home page. Google finds and follows that link and then in turn, follows the links on the new article – which, would lead them to YOU.
Go where Google hangs out and get a link to your lens or new page. You may need to do a few… and you may have to do it more than once. It is always possible that your link gets posted right AFTER Google has been and they missed it that round.
Tip: Google loves to find links to new web pages from WITHIN a blog post as a text link (ie, words that click to your web page or lens..not just a web address). If you’re following One Week Marketing, you already know quite a few free blogs that you can use to get your content indexed.
