| Everyone, by now, has heard of Seth Godin's Squidoo | | | | 2. Choosing a domain name for your lens |
| and many of you may have a lens or two in place | | | | When choosing your page name, remember you |
| already. But as a marketer are you maximising the | | | | should treat this in exactly the same way as you |
| potential of your lens? This series of articles discusses | | | | would select a relevant domain or sub-domain name. |
| how to use Squidoo effectively as a marketing tool. | | | | So taking the example above you would select |
| The idea behind Squidoo was that each person's lens | | | | how-to-make-english-sausages (This can not be |
| would present a view of any topic that interested | | | | changed later.) |
| them. That it would then contain that person's links to | | | | Now, you may not have to go to that level of |
| related websites, blogs, RSS feeds, eBay, etc. Anyone | | | | targeting...but remember lenses are being put up all the |
| looking for similar information would then use such a | | | | time and the more common keywords are |
| lens as a starting point for their own searches. | | | | disappearing fast. |
| As Squiddo is indexed constantly by the major search | | | | Anyway, by choosing your title and domain name |
| engines, and is possibly considered an authority site by | | | | carefully it is relatively easy to get a good natural |
| Google, it is a good place to put a link to your site or | | | | SERPS ranking. |
| blog. Many marketers are indeed using Squidoo for this | | | | 3. Selecting the right content for your lens |
| purpose and this purpose alone. Nothing wrong with | | | | When choosing content for your lens, think of it as you |
| that, of course. | | | | would a landing page. You can add three keywords |
| However, just because Google appears to favour | | | | when you first set up your lens but you can also add |
| Squidoo at the moment, this does not mean this will | | | | more later...do so. |
| always be the case. As more lenses are put up, some | | | | Squidoo encourages you to add a whole range of |
| of which may be of dubious quality, Google may | | | | modules, such as Amazon, eBay, etc because that's |
| eventually lower it's importance. | | | | how they can best monetise your lens. But remember |
| So in the future we may have to come up with more | | | | this is a whole bunch of exit routes away from your |
| imaginative ways of using Squidoo effectively. | | | | lens. So I would not use them. However there is one I |
| Squidoo lens are very easy to set up and I won't go | | | | would use... |
| into the mechanics now...just head on over to and | | | | If you have a related blog that you update regularly, |
| have a go at it...but before you do remember these | | | | then add an RSS feed from it to your lens. In that way |
| three key points:- | | | | your lens gets refreshed regularly. |
| 1. Choosing a name for your lens | | | | So, to sum up...Squidoo lenses are a good source for |
| When choosing a name for your lens, this becomes | | | | back links to your site or blog, but if used effectively |
| your page title (you can change it later). So if your lens | | | | they can become valuable marketing tools in their own |
| is about 'making english sausages'...name your lens | | | | right. In the next article I discuss how you can use |
| 'How to Make English Sausages'. If your lens is about a | | | | Squidoo lenses to create your own mini traffic |
| product, then pick that. | | | | network, so look out for that. |