What is Squidoo?

Squidoo is the best of blogs, content sites, video sites and networking communities rolled
into one website.

Each page (subpage) on the main Squidoo website is called a “lens.” For example,

Squidoo.com/Foodforeveryonefoundation.

Squidoo is considered an authority site by the search engines. That means that it is a “high
ranking” site. Higher ranking lenses are trusted. As with all websites on which people
can create subpages, the evil spammer and “black hats” have tried to monopolize using
Squidoo for their own monetary benefit.

The good news is that Seth Godin and the Squidoo team have taken countermeasures to keep the
spammers out by shutting down lenses, and even entire accounts, of people who have exhibited
ongoing spam activity.
Now that we have discussed the bad possibilities, let’s move onto all the great things you
can and should do with Squidoo.

For the first lens you create you should use your company or organization as the name of the
lens. As you can see by the above example, I used the organization name Food for Everyone
Foundation as my lens name. You should use this same technique for every tool on Change the
World U. By doing this you are building your brand and also helping to assure that you
dominate the first page of the Search Engines.

Ok - now on to the fun part. What are the different things you can with Squidoo?
Each section that you can add to your lens is called a “module” and there are OVER one
hundred modules you can choose from. Just to give you an idea, here are the three favorite
modules that I include in every lens. Note that in order to become “live” on Squidoo you
must have at least five modules for your lens. So add these three and pick four or five more
that sound interesting to you.

1. The text module.

This is the module you use to add your core written content to the lens. You can add up to
ten thousand characters per text module. One of the very powerful features of the text
module is that you can certain HTML code and it is super easy to link from your lens to your
websites using your anchor text of choice. This is called a “back link.” A back link is
simply a link from another website page to your website page. The actual text used is called
an “anchor text.” Why is this important? Because the Search Engines strongly factor in
their rankings how many back links you have in YOUR WEBSITES and what anchor text you use.

For a quick example, go to Google and type in Sustainable Gardening Non-Profit and you will
see that our Squidoo lens comes up number one.

2. The video module
This module is great because you can add your Youtube videos along with the following video
sites:
Youtube, Vimeo, Revver, Howcast, Aniboom, Godtube, Metacafe, MySpace TV, and Veoh.
The really cool thing is that if you do not have any of your own videos you can search
within your topic area and find videos to insert. This is a great way to learn about your
topic/niche area. You can also follow up with the people who created the videos. This is a
great networking technique and a wonderful way to meet new people with your similar

interests.
3. Guestbook module.
This is a MUST HAVE module. The guest book allows you to communicate with people who visit
your lens. You can allow people to add HTML to their message. Just be sure to watch out
for spammers. The other great thing about this module is that you can use it as a

Networking tool by visiting the lenses or websites of people who leave messages.
This is just a sample of the many things you can do with Squidoo. Squidoo will help you
build your brand and also get more visitors to your website. Above all, think “quality over
quantity.” It is better to have five high quality lenses than one hundred lenses which you
do not have time to update.

Using Squidoo to Promote Your Business or Non-Profit (Part 2)
Using Squidoo to Promote Your Business or Non-Profit (Part 2)

We have covered the basics of Squidoo and my favorite first three modules.
But there are so many more features and modules, so let’s jump right back into Squidoo.

Squidoo requires that you have five or more modules on your lens in order to be listed in the Squidoo search feature. Remember, in all your marketing efforts think “quality over quantity.” Remember also that for your first lens name you should use your company name.

We have made progress by adding our first three modules. Now, what other modules should we add?

Module 4
The Poll Module
This Module allows you to set up a Poll. This is valuable because it is another way to interact and gain feedback from your visitors. For example, in the Food for Everyone Foundation lens we have a poll about different types of gardening.

Module 5
The Zazzle Module
Zazzle is a fun and cool way to help promote your business or Non-Profit. Imagine if you could get your logo and website URL printed: tee shirts, mugs, pens, posters, etc. An amazing website and module! Your entire goal is to get eyeballs on your website. Don’t forget that traditional marketing items such as tee shirts and calendars still work and should still be part of your marketing strategy.

Module 6
Link List module
The link list module allows you to link directly to each of the sub pages of your website with your desired anchor text. This is powerful from both a search engine and a lens viewer standpoint. We suggest that you link to your website and the sub pages directly. For example, you have created a video about your organization and uploaded it to Youtube. You want to them “embed” the video on your website. After that is done you can link to YOUR website page with the video on it.

Quality over Quantity

Again, always think “quality over quantity” in all of your online and offline marketing efforts.

I went a bit overboard and created over one hundred lenses in a short time frame. What I should have done is to create my three to five core foundation lenses and then focused on them for the first month, adding one or two more per week after that.

One of the beauties of Squidoo is that you can create lenses about the sub areas of your niche. For example, the Food for Everyone Foundation is a Gardening Non-Profit so we have lenses about Organic gardening, Sustainable gardening and Container gardening. Create lenses based on your company name and then create lenses around the sub topics of your Niche.

In part three we will discuss how to Network on Squidoo.

How to setup a Squidoo account and Lens

By @Mrken777 (Twitter)

How to edit a Squidoo lens by @Mrken777

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