Can you help me out here? I keep hearing all this buzz about Squidoo. What's the deal? It looks just like any other blog to me. Tell me... is a "lens" like a category of blogs? I created a lens today just for fun (it was really lame), but I am not sure I get the whole squidoo thing. Can anyone explain to me how squidoo differs from other blog sites? Why all the hype?
Squidoo is one of the sites from so-called Social Media World, where people are gathering to communicate with each other. Squidoo is one my favorite social sites, because by comparison with other sites squidoo's lenses have ebay, youtube and other modules, which means that you can still promote your product. But be careful with every word that you put on social sites: you build your reputation there and this is one the things that is irreplaceable. I was never selling directly my products on squidoo, but I got sales through educating people about my product, by giving them tips and my suggestions. So, if you are new to squidoo and other social sites - my congrats to you, you are about to discover absolutely new world!
a lens can be whatever you want - like a Wikipedia style page, affiliate sales page, personal site, movie review, etc.
Squidoo was something that took me a while to get into. First I made a couple of lenses and didn't really see what the big deal was. Now I'm addicted. A lens is less of a blog and more like a micro website. They seem to be called "lenses" because they are meant to focus tightly on one subject, like a magnifying glass. Then you get to pull in all sorts of content that enhances your subject, like YouTube videos, debate sections, Amazon book recommendations, etc. That's not a new concept, but Squidoo gives you tools and utilities that make it easy to find and add this stuff to your micro site. Some people use Squidoo directly to make money, some people use Squidoo like signposts to direct people to their blogs or websites. Some people make a bunch of lenses on a particular subject and link them all together like a Wikipedia resource. I enjoy Squidoo because it's easy to use, it's free, and it has a nice community.
Thanks for the response. OK, so do I add multiple entries to one lens? Or do I create a new lens for every topic? Also, it sound like squidoo doesn't care if you are shamelessly promoting your own product(s), is that the case?
You can create as many lenses as you want - so it's best to create one page for each topic. They don't care if you shamelessly promote your sites...unlike Hubpages, which forces you to crank up the number of ads on the page.
Nah, Squidoo doesn't care about shameless self-promotion. If anything, promoting products and such is encouraged. Squidoo just doesn't want people using their network for spam (http://www.squidoo.com/squidspam) Like Markn26 says, it's best to create one page/lens for each topic. One lens could cover a massive subject like "pets," but that's way too broad for one lens. What's better is having lots of lenses about a particular critter, or even a lot of lenses that focus on just one aspect of the animal. Like different lenses on dog training, or a bunch of lenses on dog illnesses, etc. It's better to think of each lens as a chapter in a book. Although it's a very good idea to update your lenses with new content, hardly anyone uses them like blogs.
Do NOT use Squidoo with the intent on making money. If you use affiliate programs through them, it's all revenue split. If you DO want to use Squidoo to make money, focus that energy into a content site and then use your Squidoo page to direct people to said content site. However, Squidoo's strength isn't revenue generation; Squidoo is good for directing people to your websites and can constitute a backlink for you. Google has penalized Squidoo pages because of their spammish tendencies so you're much better off trying to get a content site (or other website) to rank in SERPs. Squidoo is merely a tool. It shouldn't be the center of you "empire."
Dude, you have missed out the affiliate money making methods... You can write about a niche and put up an affiliate link.
Yeah, Squidoo lenses don't beat having your own blogs and websites that you own 100%. Some people are making a fair amount of money each month with Squidoo, but they worked hard at it. Most will get better results if they use Squidoo as another tool to help their blog or website. To get the most from your Squidoo lenses (since you want the people to enjoy reading them and get curious about your blog), I still recommend making several targeted high-quality lenses. It also doesn't hurt to include affiliate links to products that are related to your lens' topic.
The children in a Bangladeshi sweatshop earn more than the top Squidoo lensmasters. The highest payouts (if you work really hard and promote it) go all the way up into the low 2 figures range. Cha ching!