Squidlog.net

Pot Pie Girl is a folk hero at Squidoo.com. I like to call her a lightening rod. She knows what she is about and tells it like it is. She is an agent of change.

The topic today was how to use Squidoo locally to help businesses get found on Google and very possibly get on the front page of Google.

She creates lenses which have so much more personality than a static webpage,  although she uses web domains, too.

People pay to have a website built for them costing 5 to 10 thousand dollars, and because the webmaster did not do a proper keyword search, no one can find the page.

Joan said that she has a Squidoo account under the name of Granny Geek. She made a lens for a local business whose specialty is solar energy, to back link to the website he already has. The business owner, Craig Ferguson, was also on “Moon, Moo & You: The Collective Wisdom” to talk about how to “get off the grid.” I am not sure how he utilized the audio of that show, but he sure could have gotten much mileage out of that.

The audio can be place on the lens, as well.

Has Craig started a weblog? That, too, would create extra push to Joan’s lens, his website, the audio and the blog all with just the right choice of keywords that will put Craig’s business on the front page of Google.

Ohme of Squidoo is Joan’s sister. She has a series of lenses to showcase her town, Pendleton, South Carolina. Ohme was recently awarded an honor never before awarded to anyone at Squidoo: The Queen Of Squidoo Of Pendleton, South Carolina.

We have  power as Squidoo Lensmasters. We can use the authority that Squidoo has with Google and “go local.” We can take Squidoo to the streets, as Pot Pie Girl recommends.

This is virgin territory.

Is there a potential to make money with this?

Pot Pie girl has a passion for helping her town. She has created a sort of “rent a site” model. She buys a domain, “Boonetown Electrician,”  Google Ranks it, and then she shows the business the results.

She now has fifty sites and soon plans to rent them out.  She then will personalize it for the business owner.

The lens is the site. The business owner will use the power of blogging  and ezine article writing to further rank the business with Google.

Businesses today pay a hefty amount for Yellow Page advertising. No one uses the phone book anymore. Phone numbers and business addresses are readily found with a simple Google search.

One barrier that we will have to hurdle in Small Town America is the idea that a small business does not need a website. We have to sell them that idea, as well.

Pot Pie Girl is still working on the pricing of this service. She currently is waiting for feedback from local businesses. We can charge a monthly fee for taking care of updating the lens, or sell the lens to the business owner.

Chef Keem came on the line and told a story. He has a friend who is internationally known for his chocolate covered coca beans, but once again, his expensive webpage is not pulling traffic, and he rarely makes a sale. No one searches for the keyword he was using: chocolate covered coca beans.

As a result of some of the work Chef Keem has done using the methods we are outlining here, he has been asked to set up a blog and Squidoo lens for a local business owner in Austin, Texas for a fee of $400.00 a month. Several of these jobs could supplement income quite nicely.

With the methods described here, we showcase the people behind the business, their personalities, as well as mentioning the products or services they are known for. The Squidoo lens is a perfect platform for this way of promotion. And it impresses the old fashioned business owner, as well.

Another fun example of Chef Keems was when he was writing about soft shell crabs. As he was doing his Google keyword search, he found “how to eat soft shell crabs” as pulling a fair search term result. He used 9-10 more keyword, too, and within 12 hours, he had six Google front page entries!

How fun is that?

How does Pot Pie Girl balance her business and home life?

She does the best she can. The first few years of business were difficult because no one in her family or support system knew what she was doing. So the support was not necessarily there.

Now she sends out her husbands shirts to be washed and ironed, but is waiting for the day when he can join her in all of her many online business pursuits.

She mentioned Health Insurance as an issue. Health Insurance: The great stifler of entrepreneurial genius in America.

When she realized that her computer can be used to make money, the ideas that keep flowing are endless. The whole family can get involved.

For every niche that Pot Pie Girl creates, she uses a different account. This is controversial on Squidoo because people misuse this by using one identity to lensroll and five star another identity. Many times, these lenses are spammy and lack quality.

Naturally, the question of ethics arises here. Squidoo is probably going to make new rules surrounding the use of multiple identities because of the abuse I mentioned, and much much more.

Pot Pie Girl uses multiple accounts because people steal her content. After all, she is a Squidoo folk hero

But the trick is to make a page for a person, have it represent a niche you are passionate about,  make it rank on the front page of Google, and show your client the results.

I had a flash of inspiration after we did this show. One of my friends is a multi-talented forward thinking person who also happens to be a wonderful Astrologer.

She also was one of my Mother’s best friends, and that ranks much higher than Google, in my book.

I have been thinking that “Moon, Moo & You: The Collective Wisdom,” needs to have a regularly scheduled Astrologer on the show, and my friend kept arising, like cream, to the surface of my mind. This woman has probably never used the internet in her entire life.

So we have gotten together the idea that I will make the lens, will help her create a blog, suggest submitting ezine articles on Astrology, and have this up in time for her debut on “Moon, Moo & You: The Collective Wisdom,” October 13th, my mother’s birthday. The collective wisdom will be parting the waters that day!

Next week on Giant Squid Open Mike, 10/5, we will feature the New Greeters for the upcoming Giant Squid challenge. We are hoping people have received the news about who achieved Giant so we can celebrate.

Next week on Moon, Moo & You: The Collective Wisdom, Karen Kay will be our guest to discuss her strategy for getting herself to Pat O’ Bryan’s Unseminar 7! I hope we can celebrate her new Giant Status at that time, as well!

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