How To Promote Yourself With Squidoo
Posted on 18 July 2008 by Sharon
A recent gig creating lenses for a client reminded me of how useful Squidoo can be for self promotion. I have to be honest: although I have eight lenses, I don’t promote them very much so I don’t get the full Squidoo promotional juice. In spite of that, at least two clients have come to me as a result of finding one of my lenses. One good reason to use Squidoo is that you can get a web page to promote yourself without the hassle of getting hosting. Although I always advocate buying a domain name and creating a blog or website, Squidoo can be a good starting point for getting the word out about your writing services. The service is based on the premise that everyone is an expert in something and you are sharing your expertise with the world. Promoting yourself with Squidoo can be done in a few simple steps. All you need to start is to get an account and write your bio. This will change depending on whether you are creating a biographical or an informational lens. If you plan to provide information, write an article on a specialist area that you want to promote. Fill it with details that will be useful to readers, because if they like it, they will help with the promotion. This is simple. Once you sign up for an account, you are invited to create a lens. You need to give it a title and add appropriate keywords (you can edit those later) To help you, Squidoo also provides a few templates to get you started or you can go freestyle (which is my favorite option). You can add different sections to your lens for including text and photos, RSS feeds, affiliate products from Amazon, Ebay, Cafepress and more. There are dozens of things you can add to your Squidoo lens. Once you have decided what to add, preview the order of the modules, rearrange them (this will make sense when you’re doing it) and click save. You will have a page with several boxes to add content. The top box allows you to add an introduction and photo, a table of contents and links to related lenses. Once you have more than one lens, you can cross link them in this box. Your next step is to put your article in the boxes. I usually put each paragraph (or couple of paragraphs) in a new box with a subheading. This makes it into a good web article. You can use HTML in the boxes for links and bulleted lists. A good tip is to save each box when you have finished with it and to click ’save this draft’ at the end of the page to keep your changes. Don’t worry; it won’t be live till you publish.
Once you’ve done that, you can add a few more items. I always add some Amazon books and my blog’s feed, but you may have other products to promote. Once you’re done, preview the lens, and publish.
Step 1: Write The Content
Step 2: Create A Lens
Step 3: Add The Content
Step 4: Promote
When you have the lens, promote it in all the usual channels (see my Promotion Is Free series for ideas) as well as within Squidoo itself. Look for active groups on Squidoo and join them. The members will visit your lens and may favorite it, giving the lens more prominence. Email your friends and let them know you have a lens. The more traffic your lens gets, the higher your lens rank and the more prominent it will be. You will also make money from the products you promote in Squidoo - and you won’t even need an affiliate ID.
Step 5: Repeat
The more lenses you have, the more promotional juice you get. People with dozens of lenses make money from them and also attract attention from clients. You can too - and all you need to invest is your time.
Over to you, now. I know a couple of regular readers use Squidoo all the time, so if you have tips to add, please feel free to do so in the comments. I’d love to know how you have used Squidoo for promotion.
(Want me to create a lens for you? Here are several I created for Julie-Ann Amos)
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July 19th, 2008 at 12:21 am
Squidoo is so fun - it’s nice that it also has a purpose.
I get a good amount of traffic from my lenses.
Katherine’s last blog post..How to Increase Your Blog’s Page Rank
July 19th, 2008 at 1:20 am
Fantastic information, Sharon! I have a Squidoo account but have yet to publish my first lens. It seemed daunting to begin with so I truly appreciate your KISS style explaination. I’ll have to make it a priority to get some Squidoo lenses happening over the coming week.
Rebecca Laffar-Smith’s last blog post..Dog Train Your Writing Skills: Heel and Stay
July 19th, 2008 at 8:06 am
How many lenses have you got, Katherine? I know you are a whiz at promoting with Squidoo.
July 19th, 2008 at 8:15 am
I should get some new one started, Becca. Did you know there are Giant Squids who have more than 50 lenses?
July 19th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
I’ve used Squidoo for so long for my ghostwriting services! I have a couple dozen lenses, but like you said, it’s hard to get time to promote them. Katherine is definitely a Squidoo lens. Every time I turn around she’s got another lens up on Twitter!
Courtney’s last blog post..Google Books - Wow!
July 19th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Yes, she’s amazing, Courtney! We should do a Squidoo lens exchange thingy. Are you on Plurk? That would be a great place to do it.
July 24th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
great advice Sharon! I’ve bookmarked it for future reference. My website has fill-in-the-blank templates for various types of professional bios. Your readers might find it helpful.
July 24th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
I will definitely check it out. I created an account, but I haven’t used it yet.
July 26th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
Hmmm…thanks for reminding me about Squidoo. I have one ancient history lens that needs completely refurbished, and could do with a few more…but where does everyone find all the time?!!! It seems I spend most of my time writing, and then I’m just plain old worn out.
pajamadeen’s last blog post..Barack Obama’s Berlin Speech Falls Flat
July 27th, 2008 at 11:42 am
Hmmm…. I thought I commented on this one! Guess not. Anyway, I love Squidoo. I only have two lenses so far, but have several others I’ve started working on. Hopefully I can publish them soon.
Katherine got me hooked on Squidoo. She was so right when she told me I’d love it!
Michele’s last blog post..Juice Fasting Cleanse: Do You Eat Processed Meat?
July 27th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
@ Barbara: I know those will be useful
@ Shevonne: once you get started it’s really easy
@ pajamadeen: I know, it gets difficult to keep track of everything, but it’s so simple, it’s a shame not to use it
@ Michele: Katherine is the Squidoo Diva. I’ve lost track of how many she has.
September 5th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Yeah - I think I have to start looking for active groups on Squidoo. I haven’t gotten nearly as much traffic as I should from there, I use the lenses I have as extended blog entries that are a bit lighter.
ashok’s last blog post..Creating Statesmen, Part 1: Aristotlean Natural Right
September 9th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Some people do really well with Squidoo, Ashok, so that sounds like a good plan.