Follow the John 3:16 Network Author Page on Pinterest

Monday, January 31, 2011

Market Your Book on Squidoo

By CHERYL ROGERS

Do you Squidoo?

In case you haven't heard, Squidoo is website that opens up worlds of possibility for online marketers. It's free to use and -- better yet -- it may even make you money.

Sound too good to be true? It really isn't. I've been using Squidoo since 2007 and it's the real game. What Squidoo does is set you up with free one-page websites called lenses, where you can take a close look at a topic of your choosing. To prepare your lens, you use their online tools, making the job easy even for folks without a lot of technological savvy. The tools include modules where you can place short articles like this one, photos, affiliate/personal sales links, a link list, YouTube videos, iTune listings, Amazon and eBay product links, etc. You get the idea.

As a Squidoo lensmaster, you have the freedom to promote your products and your brand, drive traffic and sales on your own website, boost your personal domain search engine ranking, collect a share of Squidoo advertising revenues, and generate affiliate sale commissions. You'll generate interest in your work, but you may not be able to track your sales back to Squidoo.

Squidoo is the brainchild of bestselling author and blogger Seth Godin, who writes books about marketing. Here are some tips to help make Squidoo work for you.

* Avoid spammy content with a strong sales angle, avoid even the smell of it. Squidoo calls it spam or spambait and will lock your lens if you try it. In short, they'll keep you from updating it. They can even close your account.

* Be willing to work at it. Like other things in life, you have to be willing to work hard to reap the rewards. Skimpy websites with little content can only be expected to reap skimpy results. You'll get some boost in lens ranking possibly because of the extra links, but you sure won't do much for your reputation as a expert, or convince anyone you are dedicated to quality.

* Create lots of lens, quality lenses. Remember these are one-page websites. They are focused, leaving you wiggle room to create lots of new lenses expanding upon your initial topic and developing related topics. More lenses make it easier for you to be found online, increase your number of product links, boost traffic potential, and multiply your income potential.

* Don't put more than nine links to your website on any one lens. Only pre-approved websites like CafePress or Zazzle, which sell print on demand products designed with original art, can bust through the nine-link barrier. Your lens can be locked for this also.

* Do update your lenses regularly to ensure optimum lens ranking. Regard the lenses as free advertisements. Maximize their impact by keeping the content fresh, offering useful information such as product reviews, and sharing with fans on Facebook, Twitter, etc.

* Don't limit yourself to Squidoo's established affiliate programs. You are free to maximum your income potential with other affiliate programs like Art.com and Clickbank.

* Check out the Squidoo forum and some of Squidoo's how-to lenses for more advice.

If you decide to join Squidoo, tell them I sent you. Use this code, http://www.squidoo.com/lensmaster/referral/cherylrogers, and they'll give me $5 (when you make your first $15).

No comments:

Post a Comment