Squidlog.net

Looking over Crabbys Beach

It’s been a while since I have posted here, because I have been tied up with some new projects. But today I wanted to talk about two things, backlinks and a new multi-user blogging platform called Crabbysbeach. I smile as I type the word Crabbysbeach as I do often when I read the work of the person behind the name, Drifter.

Crabbysbeach is a new place for Squidoo lensmasters to play, write, and just have fun while promoting their Squidoo lenses by blogging. It is meant to be an interactive Squidoo community, to allow lensmasters to get to know each other, and promote Squidoo as a whole, which can only help all of us.

First of all, a big thank you to Drifter, for creating this community. It is a great idea, and there cannot be too many sites for promoting Squidoo lenses the correct way. I have decided to start a blog there called Green Weddings, which will be a very tightly focused green weddings site, and should not in any way overlap AJ’s new AJ on going green on Squidoo. I have only gotten as far as registering the name so far, so you will have to look for my blog sometime next week.

Finding ways to promote our excellent Squidoo lenses is as big of a priority as writing them in the first place. Proper promotion takes time, but backlinks created by blogging, are better than just creating a backlink by social bookmarking. The blog page will index as a separate article, so the backlink from the blog become part and parcel of the blog itself which is much harder to spam then adding your lens to a social bookmarking site. And the blog has the added value of attracting traffic on its own, which can lead to a new visitor stream to your lens, and if you wish a new revenue stream from your blog itself. This is in a sense, a “double whammy” or a way to gain more revenue from the same article.

Additionally, people like to read blog posts, because they show the human side of the author, they are generally written casually, and they can build an audience for you which will eventually spread to other ventures that you have.

So you will find me spending some time at Crabbysbeach, lounging on the beach chairs, and writing about my green wedding lenses. Which brings me to my newest venture that I invite you to participate in by commenting and making suggestions, and that is Eco-Chic Green Fashion which is another site/blog that has evolved from a Squidoo lens by the same name Eco-Chic Green Fashion.

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Recently reading the Captain’s latest post, I was then directed to this post by mac33.

The discussion in hand is how lensrank decays over time, and how traffic affects lensrank decay. While we all know that there is a mysterious algorithm in place that affects lensrank on Squidoo, we also know what some of the factors affecting lensrank are, and to no surprise, traffic is one of them.

Traffic is an important factor on any site because the more focused or quality traffic you get, the more clicks you get on ads, products or any other income producing item. (See Seth’s newest post Everyone gets paid on commission for more on this.) Empty traffic is worthless because it doesn’t produce income which is why the algorithm doesn’t rely on traffic alone.

I believe it makes sense that a lens needs to dynamically increase in traffic for the traffic to have a continued upwards affect on lensrank, because again, it is the traffic that produces income for the page that is the key factor, not just any traffic.

Mac’s analysis of his particular lens just points that out, and that it pays to update your lens periodically for changes and broken links. For those of you who haven’t found it yet, there is a “Need to be edited” link on the left side of your Squidoo dashboard, that shows you any lens that hasn’t been updated in two months or more.

I think that all of us realize that if we get traffic from people already searching on our focused topic (that is what making a lens is all about) that those people are much more likely to buy now or return and buy items from our page or click links on our page. This is the behavior that will pay you or Squidoo or both.

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Buy at AllPosters.com

Life has been quite hectic for many of us lately, and we are all looking for information to help us thrive in a difficult economy. Sometimes I think with all we do, we overlook some of the simplest ways to make money with the work we are already doing.

After reading this post by Seth Godin, I thought I would share some of my thoughts on how to Squidoo successfully.

One of the great things about Squidoo is that it pushes all to the edge our creativity levels, and drags us kicking and screaming into an interactive synergistic creative atmosphere. For some people, it is too much to handle, while others take off and become wildly successful. Many people, however, do not know where to turn first and get confused.

This post is to help take the confusion away for newer lensmasters, and help focus those of you like myself that get drawn in many different directions.

Step 1: Decide what your passion is.

It is clear from the lenses that become and stay successful that lensmasters who continue to write in their own words about their passions do the best on any article writing site for long term. Because you begin to have a voice, and other people will be interested in what you have to say. (Yes, they will.)

Step 2: Forget what everyone around you is saying and believe in yourself.

Every endeavor is taken alone, no matter how much support you have. Believe that you can do it, and be prepared to work hard for your goals. If you do both of these things, you will succeed, but it won’t be easy.

Step 3: Decide realistically how much time you have to devote to this project.

If you work full time, have 5 kids, and volunteer on the side, you may only have 20 minutes a day that you can work on your online income. That is okay, and just be realistic about it. I have written a lens on this topic that you may want to look at, WAHM or WAHD? Create Multiple Streams of Income From Home With Squidoo which outlines a schedule of how someone with very little time can start on Squidoo.

Step 4: Learn how to use the Adwords Keyword Tool to find keywords that people are already searching for on your chosen topic.

This is a link to a video made by Ryan Hupfer from Hubpages about how to use the Adwords Keyword Tool. It is a good introduction. If you are looking to make money on Squidoo or any other online forum, in my opinion you should learn how to find keywords on your topic. I did not for well over 6 months, and because of that I didn’t earn as much as I could at first.

Step 5: Write your first lens.

Don’t worry too much about if your lens is perfect. Make sure your keywords are in your lens title, and introduction title, then just write. The rest of the lens can be updated at any time to make it better. Put the lens in your own words, and add Amazon, Ebay or Cafe Press modules of saleable items if they are appropriate. If not, don’t.

Step 5: Start a blog about your topic that you are passionate about. You can start a blog for free on several blogging platforms. There is a great platform on Squidtop that is just for Squidoo lensmasters. Link to your lens in your blog post. People love to read blogs. Depending on where you write your blog, you can earn money on your blog from Adsense or other ads. This will increase your earning potential.

Jaguar Julie just finished a lens Blog Roll — A Reader List of Blogs I Follow with a blogroll of some of the blogs she follows that you can look at for an idea of how to blog, but I really think that just speaking in your own words about a topic that you are passionate about is enough to find blog followers. There is also a list of Squidoo related blogs on Squidlog that you can take a look at.

Step 6: Introduce yourself in the SquidU forum.

Put your first lens in your forum signature as a link.

Step 7: Join the Fresh Squid Group on Squidoo.

Post your first lens there. This is a very dynamic group for new lensmasters.

Step 8: Join Redgage.

Post a link to your first lens there. You can earn income from your same lens on Redgage while it is also earning on Squidoo and your blog.

So now what do you have? You have one great lens, that has begun to earn attention and money for you, with four backlinks, one which is also earning you money (Redgage).

This is a great start. It is important to remember to write and promote each lens.

Now you can start all over with another lens on another aspect of this same topic. Eventually, you will have several lenses one one main topic which will begin to establish yourself as an authority on that topic.

This is the system that will make you successful on Squidoo. Steady forward movement along a path.

Don’t get caught up with joining too many different websites, and trying to do too much to promote your lenses. Just use a few promotional platforms like blogging and Redgage to start out. Create a system that works for you.

Once you have ten lenses, you can take all ten and promote the group of lenses through a SquidUtils RSS feed to all the sites that will except RSS feeds. You can read more about how to use RSS feeds in this lens How To Get Deep Links with RSS Feeds.

You can find all the Squidoo promotional sites like Squoogle, Isle of Squid, Lensroll to post your 10 lenses. Once you get started, you will find there is an endless number of places to post your articles. This will give you more backlinks, and more places for people to find your lenses.

However, it is your steady forward progress that will earn you money, and build your authority onlline. You cannot let yourself get caught up in the promotion, and forget about making new lenses. It is the continued creation of new lenses, and the efficient placement of backlinks to other money making sites, that will start to change your trickle of earnings to a steady flow.

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Lewister is a person who “gets things done” and she is finding out that being that person can be a dilemma. Here is what she says in her post, Who says I have to do that?

“Here’s the crux of it. Two actually. (Is that cruxes or cruxi or cruxae?) When you’re the boss of you, you have to be the boss of you. That means holding your own feet to the fire (or finding an accountability partner) to get things done in the time you’ve allotted yourself. The second is a need to develop reasonable expectations of yourself. I seem to think I not only can make things happen, but do them all in one afternoon. Silly Susan.”

So what is Susan finding out?

Being your own boss is very difficult, even for people who “get things done.” Why?

Because:

• No one can get everything in the world done in one day.
• You are a finite person.
• Some things take time to complete.
• One person can only accomplish so much even if they are Superman.

But, here is the main issue. As long as you are progressing towards your goals, and taking the steps towards completion of whatever projects you are working on, you are accomplishing what you need to do. It is okay to be human.

Human beings need rest, relaxation, fuel, and sleep to perform at their best. We can accomplish many wonderful, awesome, and amazing things. But we cannot do it all at once. Success takes time, and long-term determined effort. Success takes persistance, and sometimes success takes help from others.

It is okay to be limited in what you can do today. You will keep working on your project tomorrow, and the day after, and after that. As long as you keep succeeding in the short term, you will succeed bigtime in the long term.

[ratings]

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For those of us who were around a year ago, we were all bummed when we found out that the tag pages were no longer searchable by search engines. Well that has changed.

In his latest post, thefluffanutta explains “Recently, Squidoo updated their tag pages to be more useful to visitors and search engines.” thefluffanutta’s post goes on to describe all of the changes that Squidoo has made to improve. Fluff explains them very well, so go to his post to read them, and even references his post last year.

“Finally, in stark contrast to my sensational post this time last year, tag pages are once again indexable by search engines. As a result, your lenses will get a share of the PageRank and search traffic that these pages get. With any luck, this will also boost the overall authority and traffic to Squidoo.”

All of this is good information for everyone, except it begs the question–Do all of your lenses have a good primary tag?

To help you pick the best primary tag, follow the instructions in this post How to Pick Your Primary Tags written by thefluffanutta. What would we do without him?

I know that my tags could use some improvement and tweaking. How about yours?

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