Squidoo
Squidoo was born in 2005, and became fully functional in the state we recognise today in around 2006. Similar to Knol and Wikipedia, Squidoo combines the functions of users writing about in-depth subjects they are experts in, for other users to access and comment upon.
Each article you create is called a lens, it is very easy to get involved! Unlike Facebook, Twitter and the other social networking sites, you don’t have to regularly maintain your lenses, and each one you create you can link to on your other profiles and status updates too.
Signup is the usual routine; use an email account and set yourself with a username and password for the site, and then Squidoo will guide you through the pages until your lens is created. It’s very simple, even for the technophobes and computer novices, and for those of you that have been paying attention at the back and are aware of the value and importance of choosing keywords, embedding links and suchlike, then ten points to you! Squidoo is a fantastic place to do this in.
Each article you create is called a lens, it is very easy to get involved! Unlike Facebook, Twitter and the other social networking sites, you don’t have to regularly maintain your lenses, and each one you create you can link to on your other profiles and status updates too.
Signup is the usual routine; use an email account and set yourself with a username and password for the site, and then Squidoo will guide you through the pages until your lens is created. It’s very simple, even for the technophobes and computer novices, and for those of you that have been paying attention at the back and are aware of the value and importance of choosing keywords, embedding links and suchlike, then ten points to you! Squidoo is a fantastic place to do this in.
Write a lens about your company
Firstly, Squidoo will ask you to provide a title for your lens- make it as relevant and as keyword rich as you can- before you are asked what the goal for your finished lens is. There are four options here; the easiest is marked as such and is titled ‘spread the word’, the second option is ‘sell the article’, which allows you to earn money from your lens, the third is to ‘make a list’ of things related to your chosen topic (for example, many people have created their own bucket lists and posted them online) and finally you can ‘just do your own thing’ and build the page to suit your needs.
The next steps to create your lens involve you choosing the url for the lens (again, check your keywords!), a Squidoo category that the lens will be displayed within, and an age rating relevant to the content on the page. Then add text, and again, it’s all very simple, step-by-step stuff. Squidoo lenses have modules within them, where you can add such features as YouTube for a link to a relevant video, and modules dedicated to such sites as CafePress, Ebay, Orbitz, Netflicks as well as standard modules for features like a guestbook for visitors to your lens. You can also search Squidoo for more modules to put on your lens, there’s a lot of choice, and done properly you could link up to all of your other profiles across various sites too.
The next steps to create your lens involve you choosing the url for the lens (again, check your keywords!), a Squidoo category that the lens will be displayed within, and an age rating relevant to the content on the page. Then add text, and again, it’s all very simple, step-by-step stuff. Squidoo lenses have modules within them, where you can add such features as YouTube for a link to a relevant video, and modules dedicated to such sites as CafePress, Ebay, Orbitz, Netflicks as well as standard modules for features like a guestbook for visitors to your lens. You can also search Squidoo for more modules to put on your lens, there’s a lot of choice, and done properly you could link up to all of your other profiles across various sites too.
Statistics tell you how well your lens is doing
Once your lens has been published, you can view it’s stats from the very easy to use dashboard- including the page ranking on Squidoo, the rating (it’s a five star system, like YouTube), dollars earned from your lens and when it was last edited. There’s a lot more in-depth information to be found too, so if you’re a budding SEO enthusiast, this is a good place to test your talents and monitor your progress.
Squidoo is not only brilliant for testing your SEO skills out, but also as a cheaper option to using standard press and article release site if you and your business are on a tight budget, and if that’s the case, there’s no better price than free! Squidoo will also guide you through selling your products online via lenses- again, it’s all very easy to get started, especially if your own business website is up and running and your product catalogue is all ready to be linked up to.
The final thing to bear in mind is that if your website is relatively new, then the chances are that you lens will gain more traffic than your actual business site, which means that Squidoo provides not only a reliable portal to you whilst allowing you to advertise yourself as an expert in your relevant industry, but it brings in more potential customers to your main site.
Squidoo is not only brilliant for testing your SEO skills out, but also as a cheaper option to using standard press and article release site if you and your business are on a tight budget, and if that’s the case, there’s no better price than free! Squidoo will also guide you through selling your products online via lenses- again, it’s all very easy to get started, especially if your own business website is up and running and your product catalogue is all ready to be linked up to.
The final thing to bear in mind is that if your website is relatively new, then the chances are that you lens will gain more traffic than your actual business site, which means that Squidoo provides not only a reliable portal to you whilst allowing you to advertise yourself as an expert in your relevant industry, but it brings in more potential customers to your main site.