Wrong answers, now they have limited it to 9 to same domain. If you will add more than 9 than there are chances that your lens will get banned or send under review.
Honestly,i believe that 9 is far better than 1 or 2. Sites like hubpages, gather, knol allows only 1-2 links so squidoo stands out
yeah! you can create hyperlink that redirect to merchant page with this code <a href="yourmechantsite.com">keyword</a>