Back in January I mentioned starting a Squidoo lens on InDesign to see if it would help me gain some more traffic. Many of you were interested in seeing how that worked out and I’d also like to participate in the Mega Social Media project sponsored by Inspiration Bit. Pearl, from Interesting Observations, is hosting the Squidoo portion of this awesome project.
Squid Who?
Squidoo is different from any other social media site I have used so far for two reasons: 1) you can make money from it and 2) you build your own webpage(s)—but don’t let that intimidate you, it’s not complicated.
Ooo, Money!
There are several ways to make money from your Squidoo lenses, but don’t expect too much unless you are an extremely active LensMaster (that’s what they call the authors of these lenses); most of the top performers have 50+ active lenses.
You make money via affiliate links to places like Amazon, eBay and CaféPress. The modules—the sections of the page—you can have on your lens for affiliate links can be pretty fun and includes things like voting on the best merchandise from Amazon (see the InDesign book list on my lens for an example).
For the actual commission from the sale of the items, Squidoo donates 5% to their own charity, takes 50% of the remaining amount to help them run the site (only fair!) and then you get to choose what to do with the other 50%—you can donate it to a charity of your choice or take the cash (minimum payouts are $10 and go through PayPal).
So What Exactly is a Lens?
A lens is a single web page you create with information you want to share. It can be about anything. You can promote your website, blog or company, write a Top 10 list of your favorite local restaurants or a how-to guide about getting started in your favorite hobby. It’s a great outlet for sharing on the Web without the commitment to maintaining a whole site.
Building a lens was a lot of fun! I created a list of all my InDesign focused articles so that I could promote that aspect of my blog. I also did a search to see how many lenses there were on InDesign and there were very few. I think that’s a key—to craft a lens on a subject not many other people have written about.
How Squidoo has Helped Me
I have only seen a small amount of traffic coming from my InDesign Squidoo lens, but from what I have seen in Google Analytics, it has been high quality traffic (multiple page visits and long stays, which tells me they are interested in the topic and may have even subscribed to my blog!), so I’m very pleased with that. Squidoo is ranked number 12 (from Jan 5-Feb. 18) on the list of sites that refer traffic here. My InDesign lens is ranked number 3 on a Google search for “InDesign 101.” Looking at the “mini-analytics” data within my Squidoo stats for how people find my lens also helps me with keyword research for my blog; I see what people are searching for to get to my lens and it gives me ideas for topics for this blog and also keywords I can optimize my posts for. Click the graphic below for a larger view.
I have also just started a lens on Photoshop Brushes. I think another key to using Squidoo effectively is to create a very specific lens—don’t just build a Photoshop lens, build a Photoshop Brushes lens or a Photoshop Filters lens. It’s only a single web page, so you can be very specific on the topic and still fill it up with writing and resources.
What I’ve Learned
Over the past month I’ve learned that the lens title, tags and updating the lens regularly are very important to maintaining a good Squidoo search rank. I read in the FAQ that LensRank is determined by the past two weeks’ worth of data from a lens (this can include info like the number of links, star rating, how often the lens is updated, etc), so updating often and including links are important! But who is going to click on a lens title that isn’t interesting?
Treat your lens titles like your blog article titles—make them compelling. Are you more likely to click on a lens called Photoshop Brushes, or a more attention-grabbing, descriptive title like Getting the Most Out of Your Photoshop Brushes?
There are tons of lenses on building lenses and even this lens on lenses that help you build lenses, so check them out if you need help getting started.
Conclusion
The only thing I don’t like about Squidoo so far is that it is a little difficult to get started despite what they say (build a lens in just 5 minutes).
Yes, that can be done, but when I start a lens, I’m so excited about the new topic that I want to experiment with all the features and be added to all the groups related to that topic. The problem? You can’t do many things like show up in search results, add a lensroll or be included in a group until your lens attains a certain LensRank. This usually happens within a day or two, but nowhere do they tell you that!
If you skipped to the bottom to see the conclusion here it is:
Is it worth it to create a lens for my topic? YES!
And use my affiliate link so that when you earn your first $15 from your lens, we both get an extra $5!
My Squidoo Links:
My LensMaster page
Curious About Graphic Design? Take a Look Here! (the Creative Curio Lens)
Getting the Most Out of Your Photoshop Brushes
InDesign 101: A Beginner’s Guide
Hi Lauren
I had one started but never followed through with it, but after reading your article, I feel its worth spending some time on it.. thank you for participating in the project…
You’ve explained it so nicely that many people might start their lenses today
Im not sure if you heard but there is an extension on the project for full one month so if any of your readers want to still participate, they have plenty of time with other social media sites… they can check them out at Inspiration Bit
I’m in the process of putting the announcement about the project’s extension together, it’ll be going live soon.
Thanks so much, Lauren. I really like how you broke it down into several sections and explained everything so nicely.
Hopefully this article will motivate people to try Squidoo out and share their thoughts about it and participate in our social media project.
Pearl,
Thanks for stopping by! Squidoo is really a lot of fun. And who doesn’t like to share all their good tips, tricks and local secrets? I’d say the best way to start a lens is to write about local things to do that visitors to your area might want to try. Everyone can write about their favorite restaurants and why not to go to such-and-such place because the service is horrible, etc.
Vivien (ib),
I’m glad you found this article useful! It was fun to share my experience (hmm… maybe a new lens is in order?? haha). But I really think these can be very useful for topics that we bloggers write about frequently. I am adding to my InDesign lens about once/month, which keeps it fresh and it’s a good place to send people when I’m talking via email or forums when they have questions because everything is collected in a nice little package there.
Really good post. You’ve explained it well and it sounds appealing.
I still have the invitation email that you sent when you first started on Squidoo - I haven’t dismissed the idea! If I sign up I’ll definitely use your affiliate link.
At the moment I’m having enough trouble finding time and motivation to write on my blog, I don’t think I could start another webpage at the moment!
Kristarella,
Aww, I’m feeling a little that way myself, too… I don’t want to quit blogging by any means, but a break would be nice :)
Hi Lauren ,
. Hey by the way , have you looked into my product ? Just check it out, i am sure it will freak you out. regards
nice blog. If you will take a break , i am sure , in your hotel room , you will be updating your blog
I am going to seriously start using squidoo to get traffic to my websites, and rank for keywords. There are many competitive keywords squidoo lenses rank for in Google. Now is the time to take advantage of it.
Hi Lauren, I found your site because I wanted to know how to drive traffic to my site using the Squidoo lenses. From what I can extract from your post it is all about creating extremely specific lenses and preferably as many lenses as possible.
One thing that I do not get is why it is better to create these “long tail keyword” lenses and then drive traffic from them to your site (while having to update the lens regularly) instead of just creating a page on your own blog optimized for that specific topic (long tail keyword) and then get the search engine traffic by that route?
Would you care to explain why Squidoo is a better way to go? Thanks a million
/Mikael
Mikael’s last blog post..Becoming Effective – Touch an Email Once
Mikael,
You can create different keywords on the Squidoo page than perhaps you use on your site. For example, I write a lot about a program called InDesign, but I don’t use the keywords “indesign beginner’s guide” or “indesign 101” a whole lot in those articles. I did create a Squidoo page that points to most of my InDesign articles here on my blog, though. If you search for InDesign 101 or InDesign Beginner’s Guide on Google, my Squidoo page comes up within the first 5 results. I don’t even know where my blog articles place! I actually get a decent amount of trickle in from that Squidoo lens and it’s high quality; people read several articles and spend about 5-10 minutes browsing my site. I suspect that the comments left on those older posts are from people coming in via my Squidoo page, too. Is that the info you were looking for? Any more questions, feel free to ask!
Lauren, so what you’re saying is that you use Squidoo to rank for long tail keywords that you can’t rank for (at this point) yourself?
Mikael,
Keywords that I can’t rank for myself or that are different than would sound natural for me to use in my articles. I suppose I could create my own page for all my InDesign articles, for example, but it seems better to me to use Squidoo. I think because the whole site has a higher PR that the individual lenses tend to rank better for certain keywords, too. Plus, I’ve made some money from my lenses, which is nice! I think AdSense works better there than it would here (most of my target audience would be annoyed or have ads turned off anyway).
Why not do a test, Mikael? Try creating a Squidoo lens and a page on your blog for similar content. In a month or so, search for the keyword(s) and see which ranks better. If you do try this, come back and let me know the results!
Thanks again Lauren,
I’ll let you know if I decide to do a test and the results from it.
Mikael
Mikael’s last blog post..Can Internet Marketers Actually Sell Anything But IM Stuff?
Mikael,
You’re welcome! Hope it helped.
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