Squidoo-ing!

So far, I have talked about how Google Analytics and Feedburner can be used to inform you of about user demographics and enhance the visitor experience. But I still haven't talked about how you're going to get visitors to your webspace. Now, there are several ways to do that - and I'll talk about each of them as time goes on - but what I'd really like to talk about today is Squidoo.

Squidoo is relatively new on the web-scene and unfortunately not too many people know about it(Thats the good part). But, it's catching on like a house on fire (Even better!). Squidoo is an online community of people who can set up single pages about anything they wish to write about. The community grows as users keep adding single pages (called lenses) about different topics they want to write about. The topics could relate to just about anything under the sun. The creator of the lenses, called a lensmaster, can make use of a variety of tools to add eBay banners, Google Maps, YouTube videos, and many other links.

The purpose of having a Squidoo lens is two-pronged. One purpose of an effective Squidoo lens is to 'Spread the Love' as I call it. Thats when people write about stuff to benefit others, with no self interest, other than some psychological comfort. The other purpose is to make money. You'll be doing both.

Here is exactly what you want to do:
Create an account on Squidoo. Then create a lens about a topic that relates to your blog. Ideally, this lens should promote your blog. Its better to point to your blog and rake in affiliate commissions through that channel rather than relying on Squidoos affiliate programs. The reason is that Squidoo keeps 45% of your earnings as its own commission. That just sucks. So, its better to bring in 100% through other channels instead.

Its really important to create a strong online presence by going through other lenses regularly and commenting on them. Don't leave rubbish comments on other lenses. Make sure that they are honest and genuine. After each comment, you could either ask the other lensmasters to check your lens out or just place a link to your lens. Your lenses aren't going to promote themselves, you'll have to do some solid work. But once you do, things will keep on rolling.

Also, make sure that you create other unrelated lenses too. They should be interesting and should be able pull in a wide audience. Having strong support lenses in your portfolio ensures that other lensmasters check out all of at least some of your lenses.

Happy Squidoo-ing!