Squidlog.net

Well I just participated in another great Blog Talk Radio session conducted by Joan Adams, Kate Loving Shenk and Chef Keem.  The focus of this session (10 August) was very much on keywords for Squidoo lenses.

One of the topics I raised, via the simultaneous text discussion, is the fact that Google deep indexes Squidoo lenses (i.e., Google Bots look right through your lens and the comments to index your lens for search term purposes).

I first wrote about this in an article some time ago when I noted that SEO experts were turning cartwheels to get Google to deep index their websites.  I pointed out  that Google automatically deep indexes Squidoo lenses.

I have just done a test to check this deep indexing out again.  Here I have used my Squidoo lens on Digital Storytelling as an example.  I did a search on the term- digital storytelling primary school (no quotations marks) – and my lens came up as No 5 in Google search engine results (out of 2,510,000 results).

The descriptor shown for my lens in the Google results is not my Lens Description nor an excerpt from my Introduction Module, but rather a collection of relevant terms from various parts of my lens – the tags,  the table of contents, a module heading and descriptions of links within a links module:

“Primary school digital stories: Digital stories by primary school children. ….. Primary School Photo Stories. These digital stories are drawn from Focus …”

You can check out how Google has indexed the lens in relation to the entered keyword search term by clicking on the “cached” button below the search term results for my lens.  From this you can see that Google is highlighting words like “stories”, “school”, “digital stories”, “primary school”, etc. as being relevant to the search term.

An interesting observation is that while “primary school digital stories” and “primary school photo stories” are listed in my tags, the searched keyword term – digital storytelling primary school – is not in my Squidoo lens tags…and my lens still ends up on the first page of Google results!

So Google indexes the whole of your lens and is looking for content (words and phrases) that relate to the searched keyword term.   Google does this “in context” – so it’s still guided by your primary keyword and lens description to test relevance.  So irrelevant keyword stuffing will not work.

So I’ll let a true SEO expert, Aaron Wall, enlighten us on this process of Google’s indexing of word and phrase relationships in the context of your lens:

• search engines such as Google do try to figure out phrase relationships when processing queries, improving the rankings of pages with related phrases even if those pages are not focused on the target term
• pages that are too focused on one phrase tend to rank worse than one would expect (sometimes even being filtered out for what some SEOs call being over-optimized)
  
• pages that are focused on a wider net of related keywords tend to have more stable rankings for the core keyword and rank for a wider net of keywords

I could not say this better myself…and I read it three times to try to appreciate the deep meaning and insight in these comments.

A simplistic translation for the Google ranking of Squidoo lenses might read like this:

What will work is to use a variety of terms related to your primary keyword and do so throughout your entire lens…but whatever you do, relevance to the lens focus is of utmost importance.

BTW – I would strongly encourage the reader to participate in the The GiantSquid OpenMike Radio Show.  Here Giant Squids and other Lensmasters freely share their insider information and experience and we all learn together in the Squidoo spirit of collaborative marketing.

Image credit: Digital Storytelling by sridgway on Flickr

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Lensmaster Eurosquid started this interesting blog in January of 2009, and now it has already achieved a Google PR 3! Congratulations, Gene and fellow Squid bloggers!

We all prefer to get our information from folks we know and trust – real people who’ve been there, done that. This is what happens on the “Valley of the Giants”: Top Squidoo lensmasters share their personal insights, tricks, tips and special findings.

Gene (Eurosquid) has a few top shopping lenses, award-winning gems such as -

Footed Pajamas for Adults

C-String: The World’s Smallest Thong

Ugg Boots & Uggs on Sale

and he loves to share his Squidoo tips with us in How to Add Bling to your Lens, Website or Blog and How to Use Free Site Builders to Give Yourself Quality Inbound Links.

However, his lens that is most useful to me, personally, is called Butt Enhancers: Get a Perkier Popo!! (Uhh…shut up!)

Back to the “Valley”…many splendid Giants have contributed to this fine blog, so far. But there are several open spots for more guest authors. So, if you are a Squidoo Giant, and if you think you’ve got something to share (pardon the redundance here), go ahead and give Gene a shout – he’ll set you up with author privileges in no time flat.

Join the ranks of such stellar writers as bdkz, Paula Atwell, Spirituality, Seedplanter, ThomasC, and more…go!

“Valley of the Giants”

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Seasoned Squidoo lensmasters advise us: “Don’t spend any money on ‘How to Squidoo’ e-books (or any SEO/online marketing/work from home tutorials, for that matter) – everything you need to know is available for free!”

Let’s take a closer look at this statement: It’s true! But…

It’s also true that we can learn a lot about being car mechanics, therapists, business consultants, chefs, neurological surgeon astronaut midget tossers and whathaveyou – without spending a single one of our wrinkled greenbacks!

“Wait!” you say, “It would take me years to find and assemble all the necessary materials, separate the need-to-knows from the unimportant stuff, break it all down into digestible chunks – especially in the case of the midget tosser rocket doc!”

Good point! We rely on other folks to do the ground work for us so we don’t have to waste our time with it. We use trade schools, community college classes, car engine manuals, step-by-step patio-building instructions, detailed cook books, relationship courses, etc. – ALL THE TIME! But…(again!)

We’re smart. We’re not fooled easily! We do our homework before we buy.

We know what we want and we research our options. Reviews, reports, ads, books, TV shows or websites tell us who the experts are. Then we spend happily $20, $50, $100 or more, because we know that the time we saved is worth so much more than the purchase price of our shortcut to expertise.

Why do we hesitate – no, make that: why are we suspicious about the value of “How to (make money with) Squidoo” materials for sale? Three reasons…

• So many of them are out there – we don’t know which one is right for our needs
• Some are low quality versions with little content that is easily available with minimal effort
• We don’t know enough about the integrity of the authors and their true expertise

And I think there’s a fourth, very important reason:

• We don’t know exactly what we want.

What to do? Let’s get real clear first on our goal(s).

• Do we want to create brilliant content pages for the sheer pleasure of it?
• Do we need to write in order to get things off of our chests?
• Are we building lenses to introduce ourselves to the world and make new friends?

For these or other non-business-related ambitions we can find tons of free tutorials on Squidoo, SquidLog (of course), blogs and other websites. We’ll see great results within days or weeks.

Or, are we trying to make money online? Here, it gets a little more complicated.

• Are we trying to sell things we make – art, cookies, our own e-books?
• Do we prefer to sell other people’s stuff through affiliate marketing?
• Is article writing our “thing”? Blogging? Niche sites? Product reviews?

My hand is up! I confess…

I’ve been trying to do ALL these things over the first year of my online activities!

Bad idea. Didn’t make much money either. Needed to decide, streamline my activities and focus my studies!

What do I really need to learn to realize my dream of online income?

• SEO, keyword strategies, tagging?
• Copywriting, effective presentations?
• Email lists, pitch pages?
• Niche research, content creation?
• Blog concepts, AdSense, affiliate programs?
• Pay-per-click, pay-per-wink, pay-per-burp?

Don’t get me wrong – I won’t regret a minute of my lensbuilding, forum chats, Squidoo volunteer activities, blog hopping or lens browsing. It all got me to where I am today – I know what I want and how to monetize it. And…

I will use all the help I can get – as far as I can afford it!

So, yes – there are monster packages available for $1,000 – $2,000, or more. Not for me, though. $100 or less is my range, and I buy only from folks I completely trust! I need to have a personal relationship (pure platonic, of course!) with my online teachers. Ideally, I’ve seen them interact with others (and me) in a helpful way and with no monetary gains at stake. And, I need to have prove that their system worked for them!

Here are some recommendations:

For income creation through affiliate marketing using Squidoo and other free resources, I’m happy to pitch with utter confidence: “One Week Marketing Course” by PotPieGirl. This 5-book tutorial (my review here!) is underpriced at the regular cost of $47. (I’ve made my investment back, many times over.) From now until 12:01 AM, April 1, 2009, OWM is offered at HALF PRICE, for only $23.50! But only through THIS LINK! If you want to benefit from Jennifer’s 2-year experience in making affiliate marketing money on Squidoo – ACT NOW! Make sure you use this special link for the 50% OFF deal!

(Full disclosure: I’m an affiliate partner of PotPieGirl’s course, so I make a few bucks through your purchase. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your purchase through this page! However, my recommendation is based on my great experience with OWM. That’s why I like to spread the word.)

More non-affiliate recommendations:

For e-book creation and marketing, check out “Desperate Buyers Only” by Alexis Dawes, $77

Naomi at IttyBiz is a highly-respected small business consultant and her “SEO School” has become a classic among online entrepreneurs ($39). Get to know this lady and look at her fabulous blog.

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LM MrLewisSmile has achieved Squidoo heights like no one else – he knows Squidoo. He knows what we have to do to get the most out of our efforts to make a buck on our site. Here are some important points to consider for you – the latest from Squidoo Cool…

“Are you using every opportunity to earn money from your lenses and make every sale you can? Don’t beat yourself up about it. I wrote this post as a guide for me to begin with…”

Read the full post…

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