Facebook and Twitter are two very popular social media platforms, where the focus is on networking and the constant exchange of information. These websites are great for keeping people 'in the know' about things; feeding bits and pieces of information now and again.
Squidoo, however, works differently. It is a community website where people contribute to pools of knowledge or 'lenses. The Squidoo lenses are collections of information about a very specific topic, where people write down what they know about that topic. Squidoo thus functions very much like a depository of information. People search for this information by typing keywords in search engines and retrieving the results.
This is a very, very useful tool for marketers. People can find themselves looking at a squidoo page for answers to a query they might have. Impress them enough and they may even wind up going to your website. They may even sign up to your Facebook and Twitter profiles to get a continuous flow of information and updates on your end.
In short, Squidoo functions like a gateway between people, your website and your other social media platforms.
The Big Picture With Squidoo
Squidoo lenses do three things at once: connet you to people that use search engines, gain their trust and then connect these people to your website and other social media platforms. The best part is that Squidoo lenses need very little maintaining, unlike other social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Once you finish typing up your Squidoo lens and polishing them up, you can practically leave them alone. You can then concentrate on your other marketing and entrepreneurial activitties as Squidoo passively generates traffic to your website for you. You do, however, have to really know your stuff - especially if you are in a business niche that is highly competitive. If you are operating a business wherein you have stiff competition, chances are that the said competition will have a presence on Squidoo.
So the big picture with Squidoo is to create your own repository of imformation to prove your knowledge and expertise on a topic - all the while optmizing the said information to make it easy for people to find your lenses.
How To Maximise Your Squidoo Lenses
You can be pretty creative with how you write your Squidoo articles, especially when you become comfortable with the tools and features of Squidoo. In the meantine, though, these tips will help you with the bsics of constructing a Squidoo lens:
know Your stuff
The first thing you need to do even before you think of writing a Squidoo lens is to learn everything you can about your particular niche. If you have a very general and obscure knnowledge of your particular niche, then you have to spend much more time reading and familiarizing yourself with its finer and more technical aspects. While you are not necessarily compelled to produce thesis or doctorate-level pieces on Squidoo, it does help if you are at least familiar with the more advanced concepts that you will talk about.
It also helps if you can refine your lenses to talk about a very specific topic instead of duking it out with the competition in the general concepts of your niche. You would be surprised at how much room there is even in the most crowded niches if you know where to look.
Read the Squidoo FAQ
If you are new to Squidoo, then you will definitely want to take a peek at their FAQ section. There is a lot of extremely useful information there, especially when it comes to the more complicated issues like empty lenses and spamming. Even if you are already familiar with the concept of writing articles and press releases for marketing purposes, give it a once-over read. you may find extra resources to help you along, like SquidU and earning a commission from your Squidoo lenses should they contribute to a product sale. If you have any questions or clarifications, you can head over to the SquidU forums and ask for some help from the community. You can even learn how to become a "Giant Squid" to get more attention to your lenses.
Answer a Question with your Lenses
This is the part where you start building your lenses, and the first thing you need to do is come up with a question to answer.People use search engines and browse Squidoo to learn more about soemthing. It is your job to match this 'something' to your Squidoo lens, which is why you have to put yourself in the shoes of a potential reader. Think from his or her point of view and ask yourself a queston that is related to your niche. This is a good place to start when it comes to constructing your lens as it will give you a specific theme for your lenses to revolve around.
Don't be afraid to ask yourself hard questions
While these harder, longer questions may not gather as many views as you would like, it would at least put you away from the head-on ranking battles for lenses that talk about the more general topics. such lenses gather a lot of traffic, but it will take a lot of time and effort for you to climb up the rankings - especially if the competition is keen on keeping their top positions for themselves. You can even tweak these more difficult questions around to accommodate the keywords and you already have a unique but solid title to work with.
Work with a set of keywords in mind
Most people find information on Squidoo primarily by search engines, which is why you have to make sure your own lenses are easy to spot by search engines. The easiset, least technical and least risky way to do this is to simply 'seed' your lens with keywords. These keywords are the most likely phrases that people will type into search engines in order to find results related to what you have to say or sell. For example, a Squidoo lens that talks about designer scarves could have 'silk designer scarves', 'designer cashmere scarf' or 'eco friendly designer scarf' as keywords for their lenses.
Choosing the right keyword, however, can be a bit tricky. Make them too short and broad and you could end up competing with more folks than you want. Make them too long and you may not get enough people that use those particular set of keywords. This is why three, four or five words in a keyword phrase are good balances between breadth and specificity.
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